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book_n	call_v	prophet_n	write_v	2,679	5	6.0117	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78030	The sounding of the two last trumpets, the sixt and seventh or Meditations by way of paraphrase upon the 9th. 10th. and 11th. Chapters of the Revelation, as containing a prophecie of these last times. / Digested by Henry Burton during his banishment, and close imprisonment in the isle of Guernsey.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1641 (1641)	Wing B6172; Thomason E174_1; ESTC R6165	58,961	100

interpreted by the voice of the seventh Angell when these thunders shall have their effect upon the Beast in his destruction For thus also that which followeth as before is touched of the Angels Swearing that time should be no more is to be fulfilled under the Seventh Trumpet when also the Mystery of God shall be finished when all Prophecies shall be accomplished and in the end of the World all time shall be swallowed up of Eternity as before Which by the way noteth unto us that the Seventh Trumpet shall continue sounding and the seventh Viall powring forth untill the end of time Shall time then have an end certainly Here then a question may bee moved what shall become of the Sun and Moone and Starrs whose motion is measured out by time and which distinguisheth the y Gen. 1.14 times and seasons days months and yeeres of this inferiour world For answere whereunto in brief because the question is full of curiositie whether those glorious creatures shall cease to be or their motion shall cease as whereof there seemes to be no more use I find not clearly revealed but this I find There shall be a new z 2 Pet. 3.10 12. heaven and a new earth when the heavens being on fire shall bee dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heate and the earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up But how this shall be or in what particular State or forme it is not revealed Only this resolution is the best which Peter gives * Verse 17. Seeing saith he all these things shal be dissolved what manner of persons ought yee to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning unto the comming of the day of God c. a Verse 13. Neverthelesse saith he we according to his promise looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse It followeth Verse 8 c. Here John is commanded to take the little Book which was open in the Angels hand who takes it and eats it up which becomes sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly and thereupon he is bid to prophecie before many people and Nations and Tongues and Kings And this is the summe of the foure last Verses of this Chapter It is cleer that this little Book signifieth or containeth those prophecies which John and in him Christs Ministers under this Trumpet called his witnesses in the eleventh Chapter were to publish to the World For upon the receiving of the Book hee is bid to prophecie This place alludes to that in Ezechiel Chap. 2.9 10. and Chap. 3.1 2 3. where the Prophet beholds an hand sent unto him and a rowle of a book therein which was spread before him within and without and there was written therein Lamentations and mourning and wo and hee was bid to eate this rowle and to go and speake unto the house of Israel which hee eating found it in his mouth sweet as honey A just parallell to this little booke here all circumstances compared together So as this little booke containeth for the matter of it those judgements of God which Iohn was to denounce in his prophesying to fall upon the Beast and his Kingdome The sweetnesse of it in his mouth argues the b Esay 39.8 goodnesse of Gods Word even when it denounceth judgements for sinne whereupon if men bee brought to repent it is sweet as honey in the mouth but if they heare and doe not repent it goes downe into the belly and the effects thereof prove bitternesse in the end The Apostle saith that Gods Word is the c 2 Cor. 2.15 sweet savour of God in them that are saved and in them that perish Againe this sweetnesse in the mouth of John and bitternesse in his belly shewes that Gods message should be sweete to his Mininisters in receiving it and delivering it with their mouth although in the issue it prove bitter unto them as being the cause and occasion of much trouble and persecution which they suffer of the World such as befell the Prophets and Apostles and Ministers of Christ in all succeding ages and as we shall see more particularly in the next Chapter to which we now come Chap. 11.1 c. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod and the Angel stood Saying Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given unto the Gentiles and the holy Citie shall they tread underfoot fortie and two moneths And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thowsand two hundred and threescore days clothed in Sackcloth c. Still we are to rememb r as before is noted that wee are yet within the compasse of the sixt Trumpet So as what is here laid downe untill we come to the Seventh Trumpet Verse 15. must bee interpreted as appertaining to the sixt Trumpet Within this Sixt Trumpet then all this is done John here represents as I said those faithfull Ministers or witnesses of Christ here mentioned who living under this sixt Trumpet must rise and take the reed and measure the Temple and the Altar but must not measure the Court without the Temple but leave it out First they m●st rise that is begin to bestir themselves in their Ministery And wherein must they exercise themselves In measuring the Temple and the Altar with the reed in the Angells hand This alludes to that measuring Reede which Ezechiell saw in a vision wherewith he measured the Temple c. as Chapter 40. and 41. c. Now by the Temple here is meant the true Church of Christ as is cleer by many places as 1 Cor. 3.16.17 2. Cor. 6.16 Eph. 2.21 And in many places of this booke of the Revelation Temple is taken for the Church of Christ as Chap. 15.5.6 and in the 19 verse of this Chapter and elsewhere And by the reede in the Angells hand to measure withall is meant the straight rule of Gods word by which alone the true Church of Christ being measured is thereby known and distinguished from all false and pretended Churches And that John Christs Minister is bid to rise and thus to measure Gods Temple his Church doth plainly argue that in the time of this Trumpet the Ministers of Antichrist shall arise and make a loud claim to the title of the Temple as pertaining properly to them and to none other Among many other take one famous instance What a notorious booke is published of late by the Prelate of Canterbury wherein he sweats and labours to prove that the only true Catholike Church of Christ over the world is made up of the many Prelaticall Churches as the proper members of the body so as he makes the Church of England and of Rome to be all one Church and finally shuts out all reformed Protestant Churches that have no Prelates

thus crucified O England blush and be abashed yea confounded in thy self at these things return at length to a sober minde repent and reforme thy selfe lest thou perish with the Beast and his Kingdom whose wofull ruine hasteneth on a pace as Verse 14. But now what becomes of these thus dead bodies Surely they lie in the Street of the great Citie unburied How long Three dayes and an half How so The people kindreds tongues and nations seeing them wil not suffer them to be put in graves Just so did the barbarous heathen with the Martyrs not permitting their bodies to be buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euseb Eccl. H ist l. 5. c. 1. Eusebius reports Thus our Antichristian heathen or Gentiles here so called Verse 2. as before Now for dead bodies to lie in the open street unburied three dayes and a halfe is enough to make their smell odious and abominable in the nosthrils of all men So as this appeares to be the meaning these Witnesses being slaine or so as is before said they are kept above ground to become an object of abomination to all that behold them and by their long keeping they are made so to stink as men pass by them stopping their Noses and will not or doe not or dare not come neere them And who doth or dare visit the dead bodies of those Witnesses aforesaid But they are not in the Street True they are dragged or drawn out of the Street they doe so stinke in the nosthrils of the Beast and his kindred and people But yet they are above ground they are not yet buried under the earth though they lie buried within strong walled vaults that none can come any more at them then at the dead bodies of those that lie in their graves But not lying in the street and having lyen now above three dayes and a halfe yea some of them three yeeres and a halfe and the least and last is now going upon the last halfe yeere how come they to bee reckoned here in the account and numbred with the dead bodies of these two witnesses lying three dayes and a halfe in the street of the great Citie For this we must take the sense and not the strict Letter The lying of dead bodies three days and a halfe in the open street where all passengers are to passe is to note unto us that as is before noted they lie so long till none can endure their smell but of force they must bee removed out of the way And is it not so done with these Their smell grew so strong that they were faine to remove them Whither Into their Graves No they are above ground still For it is added here The people and kindreds and nations and tongues will not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves Who are these people and kindreds and tongues and nations Surely all those of this great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt such as are the members of the Beast For though sometimes these termes as people kindreds c. are taken in the good part for those of Christs Kingdome as Chap. 7.9 10.11 yet here they are taken as Chap. 17.15 for those of Antichrists Kingdome And for proofe hereof they will not suffer the dead bodies of the two witnesses to be buried As wee read of the Pope as I remember Hildebrand who after hee had by his Thunderbolt of Excommunication blasted the Emperour Henrie the Fourth and driven him out of his Kingdome by his own Son and he dying in that his exile his Holinesse would not suffer him to be buried so as his dead body continued unburied for five yeers space So here with the same spirit of Charity doe these his people and kindreds and tongues and Nations the whole body of that Beast not suffer the dead bodies of these two witnesses to enjoy the ordinary honour of Christian buriall which even the Law of Nature and common humanity commands The summe of it is they will not allow them any benefit nor any right which by the Law of God and the Law of Nature and Nations is due unto them in that case So as being banished in a remote Country in a close imprisonment living indeed but as dead men as before they may there rot above ground before either Wife or children or friend or acquaintance shall be suffered to come at them to performe that last duty which all are bound unto the buriall of their dead Thus if any shall deny this also concerning these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dead bodies to be a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Symptome of this Trumpets sounding which wee ought not to thinke gives an uncertain sound he may with as good reason deny the fulfilling of all Prophecies even then when their proper effects being seene of all men become to every mans reason and understanding cleere demonstrations thereof Except wee are yet to looke for more monstrous beastly cruelties under this Trumpet which can hardly be imagined by any Creature It followeth And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth These Earth-dwellers are the same with those people and kindreds and tongues and nations those of the Beasts Kingdome in the former Verse These are said to dwell on the earth because their Kingdome and happinesse is altogether earthly They minde earthly things and place their felicitie in them contrary to Gods children who living on earth yet have their conversation in heaven and their treasure in heaven and their Country Heaven So as to be said to dwell on the earth is opposed to those who are y Heb. 11.13 1 Pet. 2.11 Gen. 47 9. Exod. 6.4 Psal 119.54 every where in Scripture called pilgrims and strangers in the earth and the earth it selfe called not their habitation but the land or house of their pilgrimage Whereas on the contrary to be said to dwell on the earth is usually put in Scripture for all the wicked of the earth as els-where in this Booke Chap. 8.13 13.12 14. 17.8 Where we see that these earth-dwellers are all those people over whom the Beast reigneth And so on these all the plagues are powred as Chap. 8.13 12.12 16.1 Luke 21.35 and in many other places And in this Verse it is twice repeated Thus we see who they be Now what doe they further First These earth-dwellers rejoyce over the dead bodies of the witnesses Secondly they make merry Thirdly they send gifts one to another by way of congratulation And the cause is added because these two witnesses tormented them that dwelt upon the earth First they rejoice over their dead bodies as the Philistins did over Sampson when they had put out his eyes they made sport with him as with a Fool in a Play Hee whom they durst not looke upon when he had his eyes and liberty

that despise mee shall be lightly esteemed Now blessed bee our God for evermore for this his great and glorious worke and hee ever blesse his King that as hee hath made him a mighty instrument thereof so hee would strengthen him to the finishing of that work which yet remaynes to be done in the purgation and reformation of his other Kingdomes that so hee may prove the most glorious Prince that ever raigned in the Christian World And it is said here And great feare fell upon them which saw them That is when they on the Beasts side saw those witnesses whom the Beast had cruelly slaine and whose dead bodies they had barbarously used not suffering them to have common buriall but insulted and triumphed over them now to be as it were revived and raised from the dead againe when they behold such a wonderfull increase to come of their bloud so cruelly shed such a spirit of life from God so to possesse many other witnesses as those slain seem 1 1 Here let the Reader still remember that this Treatise was written before his returne from banishment and so towards London on that Saturday the solemnitie whereof was so conspicuous and glorious as it doth without any other application even naturally apply it self as if it were the most proper fulfilling of this Prophecie if either wee consider the manner of that return or the effect it wrought in the adversaries thereof which caused in them extreame indignation and rage even unto gnawing of their tongues and gnashing of their teeth And yet feare so possessed them that all ●heir power and policie could not help now to live againe in them they are struck with terrour they are surprized with feare For whereas they fondly imagined that the slaying or cruell handling of two or three prime witnesses making them sure as dead men would so have queld all the rest that not one durst ever after peepe contrary to their expectation they see a generation of witnesses to rise up after them and so to affright their enemies as if they saw an apparition of the Ghosts of the former witnesses returned from the dead And if a man did now but feele the pulse of those Prelates in England who have seene their brethren Prelates late of Scotland to b● cast out of Church and Countrey and utterly cashiered without all hope of restitution should he not trow you find the spirit of trepidation leaping and panting as it were for life as if their owne turne should be next But it followeth Verse 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them They that is the two witnesses thus raised and restored to life as before heard a great voice from heaven Here Christ either by an extraordinary voice inwardly calling or by the ordinary voice of his word outwardly cals his servants to take Sanctuary as in heaven Now heaven here may bee taken for the Church of God hereupon earth So it 〈◊〉 often taken in this Booke As in this Chapter Verse 19. So Chap. 12.1 the woman there in heaven is the Church Militant here on earth as appeareth plainly in the whole Chapter as Verse 3. 7. 8. Chap. 13.6 and in other places Now the Church of God here on earth is compared unto and called Heaven as in many other respects so specially in this because it is holy and pure being purged both for Doctrine and Discipline from all damnable Heresies and errours in faith and from the vain Inventions and Traditions of men in the worship of God m Revel 14.4 following the Lambe whithersoever he goeth that is in all things obeying Christ and observing his Ordinances and subjecting their souls and consciences to none other King but only Christ They from this Heaven heare a great voice this is Christs voice in his word calling his witnesses from having any more to doe with the Beast and his brood having sealed this their testimony with their bloud which the Beast hath sucked and drunk up So as hee now being found to be incorrigible and incurable so as hee grows worse and worse is to be utterly abandoned As the Lord saith in Jeremy n Ier. 51.6.45 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule be not cut off in her iniquitie for this is the time of the Lords vengeance he will render unto her a recompence And the reason of Gods peoples thus abandoning of Babylon is rendred Verse 9. Verse 9. We would have healed Babylon but shee is not healed forsake her and let us goe every one into his owne Countrey for her judgement reacheth up to heaven and is lifted up even to the skies And the like warning God gives to his people Revel 18.4 concerning the spirituall Babylon where Iohn saith I heard another voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities So here the witnesses heare a great voice from heaven saying Come up hither as much to say as Have no more to doe with Babylon nor with the Beast and his members who will heare no reason but have now filled up the measure of their cruelty not only to you but to all my witnesses that went before you so as now there is no more hope of them o 2 Kings 17. See also 2 Chron 36.16 no remedie for them being like those incorrigible and obstinate revolted Tribes of Israel or like the Jews that persecuted my Apostles and p Acts 13.46 drove them away to the Gentiles therefore come out from among them admonish them no more but come up hither keepe you close to my Church which I have altogether purged and purified from the dregs of Babylon and there only hold your communion Come up hither And as it followeth they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them Wee read that Elias was carried up to heaven in a fiery Chariot And Christ ascended up to Heaven in a cloud Here these witnesses ascend up to heaven in a cloud But to Heaven as before is shewed namely from their enemies to take Sanctuary as in the Church of God here on earth it being compared to a high and holy Mountain to which we must ascend So as this ascending in a cloud and that in the enemies view sets forth the admirable providence of God who will miraculously make his Church a sure and safe Sanctuary as Heaven to his persecuted ones under this Trumpet from the power and fury of their enemies who may behold them afarre off but are not able any more to touch them for they are now out of their reach as being in Heaven For in this Trumpet God is preparing a way to the seventh and last Trumpet wherein hee will