Voices had now prepar'd for the Vials and the Thunders then were unseal'd for the Vials pouring out Rev. 22. 10. And this agrees with the sealing Vision and Prophecy at the very cutting off of Messiah altho there was a Time of farther Tryal of the Jews the last Half-week yet it was then indeed seal'd the Jews having rejected and crucified their King who yet even by Pilate's Inscription in Hebrew Greek and Latin This is the King of the Jews by his Resurrection Ascension and sending down the Spirit was Anointed But till the End of the Indignation The Prophecy of his Kingdom was seal'd from its Glorious Appearance altho this Sealing had several new Sealings after some partial and momentary Discoveries of the Kingdom which are most necessary to be here understood and carried all along It is most evident It was here seal'd and answerably in the Revelation c. 5. It was a Book seal'd with seven Seals when Christ took it at his very Resurrection and though the opening the first Seal was a Publication of his Kingdom to the Jews and Gentiles and he went out conquering and to conquer c 6. 1 2. after the opening the first Seal yet it could not then appear for there were six Seals still upon it Now these Seals carry most evidently as we shall see a Course of 400 years from the last half week when the sealing was complete in the final rejection of the Jews For the first Seal opened and the Gospel not received by the Jews the rest had greater Force of Sealing which Sealing yet was determinately made at the very Death of Christ and the Indignation upon that Parricide And though these Seals carry a Course of Time yet condecent to the Type of the great secrecy of the seven Seals There is no express Line of Time drawn till the Kingdom of Our God is celebrated as come after the sixth of the Seals opened and the Rev. 12. 10. compar'd with c. 6. 12. c. 8. 3. 4. seventh also opened as compleating that whole Vision of the manly Birth Caught up to the Throne and the Dragon cast down Revel 12. in Theodosius the Great 's last Victory over Heathenism as we shall see in those Visions But then immediately at the sixth Seal as it were by way of prevention of the Kingdom of Christ breaking out at the seventh The 144000 were first sealed and this was such an c. 7. obscuring Christs Kingdom under the Apostasie That the Lines of Time were according to the Decency of the Type concealed till the Thunders uttering their Voices and the Book opened Apoc. c. 10. c. 11. without which Apocalyptick Lines these Numbers of Daniel could not be understood So till the End viz. the seventh Trumpet finishing all and the Kingdom of Christ proclaim'd there is a continuance of this sealing in some Degrees even till the Thunders unseal'd Chap. 14. But yet there are convenient Notations of Time along the Seals For every Event upon their opening leads us demonstratively enough from Time to Time and that general Character of this First space of Time of the Seals after Christs Resurrection is most significantly imprinted by that Motto Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased Dan. 12. 4. which was so notably fulfill'd in the Apocalyptical Ministry it self and after that especially during the Three following Seals in those Gospel Voices of a yet continuing Apostolical Ministry though inferior to the Apostles and daily growing flatter but still saying Come and see All labouring to have then proclaim'd Christs Kingdom For so Come and see imports all along c. 6. till the Fifth Seal Christ having now commanded the sealing of the Book with that Latitude not to the End but to the Time or whole Current of Time to the End The Two Angels on either Bank attending Christ the Man in Linnen upon the Waters of the great River Hiddekel as in the Preface c. 10. v. 4. These two by divine Ordination from that very word The End start this Question Vnto how long the End of these Wonders viz. That End until the Time of which Christ had just now signifyed The Book was seal'd To this Christ is pleas'd intending to reveal this Course of Time to his Church by Daniel to return an answer in the very sight of Daniel by lifting up both his Hands to Heaven and swearing by the Eternal Being living for ever to whom all Time is but as the Drop of the Bucket That there should be Time Times half a Time for the scattering of the holy People or the Revel 12. Womans being in the Wilderness which is the Apocalyptick Comment on it and when that was accomplished According to the Correspondent Oath in the Revel c. 10. All these things should be finished in the Days of the seventh Trumpet Now it is most observable Christ gives an answer by this Oath not of the Time from the End of the Weeks or at his Resurrection but from the Time of the Seals opened confirming that sealing the Book to make a Line of Time in its unsealing For who can think Time Times c. were together with the Seals seeing those three Times and Half are so plainly given after the Seals But because the Divine Spirit knew that neither could the Cypher of Time Times half a Time be truly discypher'd but by it self and that the Half Time would open in some appearance of the Kingdom and that this very Oath that now Lett out this Time would be revers'd upon it at that very prophetical Juncture Daniel is mov'd by the same Spirit as not enough intelligenc'd by this Oracle to desire a further Divine Responsal I heard saith he but I understood not and therefore I said Lord what the End of these things Upon which Christ declares first a second sealing and discharges Daniel from farther Attendance in this matter after this last Oracle given him v. 9. which is again repeated v. 13. Go thy way Daniel saith Christ that is the way of all Flesh or Dye at thy Time till Thou stand in thy Lot at the end of the Days Not the Book now but the Words referring to the Thunders Vtterances and the Words within the open Book are seal'd or stay'd from an immediate coming to pass till the very Time of the End much farther promoted viz. to the Vials And then Christ is pleas'd to give first this Emblem of the Time of the Vnsealing in these Words Many shall be purified and made white and tryed or refin'd viz. by the Voices and by the Efficacy of Divine Truth then breaking out but as is discover'd in the Vials The wicked will do wickedly and will not understand by so great a Thunder of Truth and therefore it is so eminently noted of them in the Vials They Repented not but blasphem'd and in proper Application to the same Time it is said He that is Vnrighteous and Vnjust let him be so still and He that is Righteous let
the whole Series of Visions concerning the Beast deriv'd from the Dragon will be best understood and most fully believ'd even as at the Reformation there was most necessarily an Acknowledgment of a long Apostacy of the cruel Tyranny of the Beast over true Christians and a visible Pledge The Ten Kings on the Head of the Beast that carries the Woman would at length fall from it but the End of that Half-Time will make a farther both Notoriety and Assurance of these things This allowed the Prophecy takes no Freedome but what is due to the gravest History to place by way sometimes of Anticipation sometimes of Recollection the Parts of the History so as may best serve the Purposes of the History And yet we cannot deferr so little to the Majesty of Divine Prophecy as is even challengeable by Humane History For that is justly entitled to a Right of secret and insensible Transitions Connexions Transpositions from one part to another which require leisurely Meditation and thoughtful Pauses to find them and yet are so plac'd as when found they give Light one to another with Vsury Altho therefore I rise up with greatest Reverence and Honour to those great Names who have thought otherwise I can allow no Beginning of Apocalyptical Time anew either at the open Book ch 11. or at ch 12. but only a Recollection of those things after their redundant Swellings out of their Channels one to the first Trumpet the latter to the fifth Seal Only The two Systemes have each one and the same Epoch given particularly to each The Churches are close and evenly cemented and souldered one to another and so the Seals Trumpets c. and their Connexion even hermetically seal'd And Both from the same Epoch the Resurrection of Christ derive themselves And as to the Interpretation of the whole even as it is a Rule of great use in the Interpreting General Scripture that the literal Sense is to be preferr'd where no Analogy of Faith or Scripture-Reason is destroy'd by it so here the mystical sense is rather to be chosen where no such Injury is committed upon the Analogy of Scripture Truth and yet as in the one case a subordinate mystical sense may be allowed so in this a subordinate literal sense may be allowed To give only two or three Instances Hearing and Reading this Prophecy hath first the mystical sense of a close Conformity to the Rules of Faith Worship and Practice according to it which makes All Blessed who so read and so hear tho' they do not interpret nor concern themselves in the Interpretation of this Prophecy and yet there is in the literal sense an Accumulative Honour and Happiness on those who joyn both these Senses in themselves together As on the other side They who add and take away by Antichristianism from the Words of it by breaking its Holy Measures in Faith Worship and Practice shall lose their part in its Promises and have their part in its Plagues altho they neither added nor took away in the litteral sense and yet They shall receive accumulative Plagues who have done the first and then by false and distorted Interpretations added the latter also Thus Opening the Book of this Prophecy and its Seals are principally the several Effects of the Kingdom of Christ and that principal one at the Reformation and not the Exposition of the Book or a new course of Prophecy and yet it is subordinately true There was then a greater Clearness and Illustration of the whole Doctrine of the Christian Religion and a new order as it were of Holy Prophecy and Instruction And this Prophecy did then Recall its own Discovery of Things at that Time after the Apostacy so long darkning it and the Gospel and enlarge its former brief Notes And so Coming quickly to pass hath the literal sense That then immediately began Apocalyptical Events each in their own order to come speedily and immediately to pass altho' so many hundred years run out ' ere all come to pass As an Army may be said to come presently when the Avaunt Corriers first appear altho' the Rere may be long in coming because of the numerous Body coming on orderly and in just Files Thus every Apocalyptical Event was on the Wing and darted it self into Existence without the least of slumbring or lingring when its Time was to come But the mystical sense is that whereas that sublime Event of the Death and Resurrection of Christ rose up as a Mountain dividing and parting the former World and Time from the latter Time or the last Days and All beyond the Resurrection was as a Book clos'd and seal'd up so as that it could not till the Resurrection make an offer of Appearance Then it did and therefore then properly seal'd down with seven Seals and yet by their opening it was in a daily motion to its Appearance But those two Worlds were of such different Lines of Communications that nothing pass'd in prophetical Account into Existence or Being out of one into the other even as the World on the one and the other side of the Equinoctial Line are remarkably taken notice of as two distinct Parts of the World how near soever they joyn who are on each side next to it Thus nothing on the other side the Line before the Resurrection was so much as coming to pass that was to be after the Resurrection or to have any motion accounted to it But after that Resurrection every thing pertaining to the latter days is describ'd as coming quickly to pass each in its own Order and Time and knowing its Place and marching in its own Distances none as that Army Joel 2. 7 8. thrusting another or breaking rank but all duely plac'd in their Climes as on this side the Line And now having given this general view of the Apocalyptical Prophecy and its Order of Times I will discourse briefly first on the Systeme of the Church-Prophecy or of the seven Churches and observe their Concert with those Lines of Time that rule the Evenings and Mornings or Nights and Days of Apocalyptical Time SECT IX Wherein a Proof is given The seven Churches carry with them a Line of Time contemporizing with whole Apocalyptick Time Apoc. c. 2. c. 3. THat these seven Churches are intended to bear by their Symbolismes a Line of Time equal to the whole Apocalyptick Time I shall at present use no other Argument but these general ones reserving the more particular Treaty upon these Churches to another part of this Discourse These Churches are as the whole Prophecy of a Mystical Argu. 1 Sense and Importance Christ therefore prefixes I will shew you the Mystery of the seven Candlesticks the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches where the meaning is not that the expounding the Stars into Angels of the Churches and the Candlesticks into Churches is all the Mystery opened For even Angels of the Churches must be acknowledged to be still Mystery or a mystical Expression except
by which they are all kept in a close successional Connexion one with another and the seventh Seal hath its Hold upon the whole even to the last Day of Judgment when the whole Book of the Kingdom is resign'd back into the Hand of God out of whose Hand it was received by Christ seal'd 1 Cor. 15. 24. c. I am therefore now and in the first place to speak of the first part of this second giving of the Line of Time and that as in the Seals before it came to the Trumpets 1. And because there is one general Preface to this whole Repetition of the Line of Time I shall first consider how adequate it is to the whole Line and to the great Administrations of it in a brief or summary Survey of it For to assure us The Preface was to the whole Apocalyptical Book or Time adorn'd with new Figures and Sculptures John heard the first Voice that spake to him and it was as it were of a Trumpet saying to him I will shew thee Things that must be hereafter Rev. 4. v. 1 2. and immediately he was the second time in the Spirit where the Distinction of things hereafter from the things that are as Rev. 1. 19. was made only as the Types of the Churches had a real Existence at that Time as Types in the then begun Christian Church but the following were deriv'd from things to come And after this there was no more any such Voice of a Trumpet speaking to John no more being in the Spirit except a being carried in the Spirit into the Wilderness to see the Apostate Church and then to a Mountain to behold the Holy City The Voice speaking again c. 10. v. 8. evidently relates to the first Voice in that chap. saying seal and write not v. 4. and then take the Book and eat c. and c. 1. 10. c. 4. 1 2. not to these Trumpet-Voices 2. At this second Apocalyptical Volume we have the great Theatre of the Throne and the whole Grandeur of it and adorn'd every way suitable to the Doctrine of the Gospel and as it were in the first Apostolical Church settled first in God as the Doctrine of the One God made known in the Father the Son and the Spirit is the Foundation of Christianity For the Father the Word and the Spirit bear Record of it in Heaven and these three are one in that Record as they are in themselves ONE 3. About this Throne at each Angle or at each of the four Points of it are four Living Creatures so I choose to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Beasts properly and distinguishingly in this Prophecy call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these four Living Creatures represent the Apostolical Church of the New Testament as in four Ternaries or Threes of the twelve Apostles in perpetual Action and therein as it were encircling the twenty four Elders of the pure Israelitish Church The Elders are upon Seats round about the Throne and with Crowns on their Heads as being of old a Kingdom of Priests and they are in this Prophecy introduc'd in Service to the Kingdom of Christ that shall be at the New Jerusalem together with and as by the Apostolick Church who shall be Kings and Priests together with them represented by these four and twenty Elders Heads of the priestly Courses who are first plac'd as leading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom by Prophecy but yet in the very first Action the Order is revers'd and the living Creatures are first in giving Glory First there is the particular Song to the Divine Nature on the Throne as the absolute Creator and Lord of all ending in this For thy Pleasure all things are and were created and so are absolutely under his Dominion and Dispose before whom they cast their Crowns 4. The grand Symbol of the whole Apocalyptical Time and its Events and of the supreme Conduct and Government till they issue into the Kingdom of Christ is the seal'd Book in the Hand of Him that sat on the Throne seal d with the seven Seals which Seals have under them the whole Course of preparatory Events to this Kingdom and the Kingdom it self till it be resign'd back to God Thus Daniel saw Prophecy and Vision seal'd up Dan. 9. and the Book seal'd Chap. 12. 5. There is Proclamation made by the loud Voice of a strong Angel for the finding out a worthy Person to open the Book and loose its Seals And none in Heaven or Earth was found worthy to open the Seals or so much as look thereon All which is certainly as Divine a Symbol to set out the supream and sole Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ as far above all Principalities and Powers and every Name in Heaven or Earth as could be found out and surpassing all Understanding or Invention finite and is in surprize of any Admissions of Angels or Saints into any parts of his Mediatory Office the very least so much as an Ability to look thereon as also to foreclose that grand Antichristian Assumption of the man of Sin for his very Supremacy is hereby plainly declar'd to be Antichristianism who undertakes not only to look upon this Book but to open the Seals and herein he shews himself in the Temple of God as God 6. The much weeping of John that none was found worthy to open the Book does most exactly and critically point to the time of the Death of Christ or his lying in the Grave when there seem'd a Despair upon all the Creation in that dark Interval and a suspension of the Consolation of Israel and when all the Apostles had given up as it were the hopes of it of which the Apostle John was here a Symbol and represented all the Apostles 7. The same Article of Time is farther assur'd and confirm'd by the one of the Elders as a Representative of the whole Israelitish Church who lead to Christ Thus Christ open'd the Scriptures of the Old Testament especially of Daniel That Christ was thus to suffer and to enter into his Glory viz. of sitting first at the Right-hand of God till his Foes should be made his Footstool He sate down on his Fathers Throne in his Father's Kingdom He shall have a Throne and Kingdom properly his own 8. Christ hereupon exactly as in the Time according to the History of the Gospel appears as on the sudden and unexpectedly in the midst of the Throne of the Elders and the living Creatures a Lamb as it had been newly slain and now risen and ascended and so the Epoch of the Apocalyptical Time is most strictly defin'd and fully assur'd And at this Point of Time he receives the Book which is the very same with sitting on God's Right-hand till his Foes shall be made his Footstool for when the Book is unseal'd and the thousand Years begin Then there is a putting down all Rule and Authority At the End of the thousand Year and the Day of
to 1697. We have found the order in which it hath come on very clear brought down by Prophecy in Symbols so justly proportionate to matters of Fact and Events all along History first to the Apostacy and from thence by as unquestionable a Chain of Events during that Apostacy as hath been before describ'd till the Reformation and now we shall find the Reformation as admirably set out and no other things in the whole course of Time answering to each Representation as those Cardinal Points of History do What greater Demonstration then can we have that we are upon the right sense and scope of Prophecy Since such admirable Correspondencies as if we our selves by our own Judgments had been to contrive the one for the other we could not under Veils have desired so much and therefore they can no more be suspected of chance then that the Letters Sillables and Words of the Apocaliptick Prophecy should come out by chance into that exact System wherein we now find them I pray therefore which of these grand Events can by History be contested or what fitter prophetical Symbols could be found out for them or in such a Succession And so we shall find in this particular of the Reformation so recent and fresh in History and all most in Memory at this day and at this day running on so that the Instances of it are most notorious confess'd and even to be admired in the Wonders of Providence that brought it to pass and yet sustain it When therefore the Bestian or Antichristian Kingdom was coming so near its number as that the Image of Supremacy had been made to the Beast at the 606 confirmed to it and Life given to it to speak and to cause c. by the Lateran Councel at 649. come to its very number at 725. The War was between the Beast and the Witnesses represented by the Jeconoclastick Emperours and their Constantinopolitan Councel damning Image Worship 754 but then the Witnesses were overcome by the Cessation of those Emperours and by that Councel of Nice 787 and so they lying dead till their first motion to a rising 1517. While all these things were the Judgment of God in just Degrees and Measures pursued with Vengeance this Antichristian Kindom First by Mahomets setting up his false Prophetism as near the Supremacy given by Phocas as 622 to 606 by the Locusts or Mahometan Saracens ready to enter their first five Months and to strike as a Serpion about the Time of the War with the Witnesses especially at their Death 787 And together with the Apostacy strengthning it self they advanc'd into their second five Months of hurting with the stings of their Tails and when a winterly torpidness seiz'd them then by the Turks as a far greater and more severe as also more continuing Scourge God Executed his Judgments on this Antichristian Empire But the Impenitency still continuing Christ Appears as it were from Heaven in the Reformation and how evident is it that the Reformation followed on such a state of the Latine or strictly Roman World for can any pretend there was after the taking of Constantinople any shew of Repentance Repentance of their worshiping Demons departed Spirits or Images and Pictures of Gold or Silver Wood or Stone which neither hear see or walk nor did they repent of their Murthers those cruel Butcheries of the Saints and Servants of God nor of their Sorceries those bewitchings of Men with a false sensual Religion their lying or magical and Necromantick Miracles ascrib'd to Relicks Images and the Idolized Host nor of their Fornications allowed Concubinacies and Stews nor of their Thefts their pious Frauds and wiping men of their Goods and Estates by Cheats and to false and impious Ends and that this high and avowed impenitency was not only then but hath continued ever since appears too much by the Councel of Trent and the whole Tract of time after the Reformation 1. Let us then consider the Appearance as it were of Christ from Heaven against this Impenitency He the mighty supream Angel of the divine Presence comes down from Heaven though sitting in Heaven in his mighty Administrations 2. He is cloathed with a Cloud his Face as the Sun breaking out of the Cloud and creating a Bow as in the day of Rain These Appearances are as after a Flood not yet removed the Clouds were yet hovering and flying the Rain not yet gon the Brightness watery and yet with significations of Mercy and the Grace of the Covenant That the Flood should be drawn off and return no more to cover the Earth 3. His Feet as Pillars of Fire signifying both the refining and purification of his Servants as also their Vivi Comburin their Death in the midst of Flames as we know how frequent they were at that Time 4. He had in his Hand an open Book the Book of his Kingdom as if he were now ready to publish the Decree of his universal Psal 2. 7. Reign which had been so often stay'd by sealing and now after the Seals opened and the six Trumpets sounding ready to reveal it self 5. As a signal of his unbounded Dominion He sets his Dan. 12. 6. right Foot on the Sea and his left Foot on the Earth as from the Sea to the end of the Earth 6. He cried with a Loud Voice as when a Lion roars when he received the Book He is call'd the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Then he prevail'd to open the seven Seals now as the same Revel 5. 5. Lyon he holds the Book open shewing his just right to the Throne of David the Throne and Empire of the new Jerusalem and roars from his Holy Habitation 7. When he had thus roared seven thunders utter their Voices as in an Eccho or resound of Heaven above to his just 2 Sam. 2. 10. claim and as Hannah prophecyed of old The Lord shall thunder from Heaven on his Adversaries so he on the Adversaries of his Kingdom when he comes to judge the end of the Earth when God gives strength to this his King and exalts the Horn of his Anointed Now all these things were that powerful sound of the Gospel and divine Truth by Luther and the first Reformers like the Angels coming down from Heaven and rouling away the Stone in Preparation of the Lords Resurrection This arous'd Matt. 28. 1. and amaz'd the World then even as the Keepers of the Grave were as dead Men when Christ arose and this was more a dreadful stroke upon the Bestian Kingdom then Mahometanism it self For this was an Arrow levell'd at the Heart of his Kingdom and declared it to be Antichristian an Usurpation upon the Glory of Christ This was a dawn of the most terrifying Appearance of Christ and shaked the very Foundations of his State This accompanied with the Separation of so many Princes and States from that Antichristian Empire was more formidable then all the Assaults of a false and barbarous Religion however
accompanied with the Mahometan Force and yet even that remains a scourge upon it since the Reformation until now and cannot cease to be so while Antichristianism it self shall survive But if things had thus gone on The Kingdom of Christ had long ' ere now appear'd Let us then consider the Agreement of the Symbols of Prophecy with the stay of this Glory of Christ that it did not proceed to the utmost in the Ruine of Antichrist and the Revelation of his supream Dominion The first Estopple on the Kingdom of Christ is the sealing of the Thunders the constant Symbol of some breaking out of Christ's Kingdom for they were such powerful Voices of Highest and most Excellent Truth that if they had been written as John in Zeal to the Glory of Christ was about speedily to write them and not seal'd They had rent the Heavens and the Kingdom of Christ had been proclaim'd as by the Voices of the seventh Trumpet The clear shrill and exalted Voice of Divine Truth is Luc. 17. 24. as the Lightning that with the Thunder shineth from one end of the Heaven and that shineth to the other end of Heaven and brings forth the Day of the Son of Man which the Antichristian Kingdom trembles at and is shiver'd by as by the stroke of Thunder But written and seal'd are oppos'd in this Prophecy as immediate coming to pass and reserv'd to come to pass hereafter are oppos'd one to the other There is a Recognition and Renewal of the Oath of Christ concerning Time Times Half-Time Dan. 12. 9. Indeed the Front and Aspect of the Oath there is turn'd another way for then it was directed upon these Times as to come and the Oath is They shall be here it points upon them as past and Christ swears Time shall be no more but till the seventh Trumpet and then all should be finish'd spoken by the Prophets of his Kingdom which is such a Mystery the World will not believe however told them They are angry whenever Christ takes his Power to him and reigns and much more angry at Rev. 11. 18. any mention of it before hand at any unlocking or reading viz. interpreting Prophecy concerning it But Christ swears There shall be no more Time Or no Kalendar of any Kingdom but his own at the seventh Trumpet it shall then immediately succeed and be proclaim'd Till then Time is allowed for the thunders to remain seal'd Then they shall be opened And if the Thunders had not been sealed before the Oath the Oath had cut off that Time also but because the half Time cannot be less then it self The Thunders remain seal'd neither more nor less than the half Time So it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Time but only a half Time and a whole Time could be no more 4. The eating the Book It s being sweet in the Mouth and bitter in the Belly and prophecying again signifie altogether the retirement of Christs Kingdom anew into Prophecy in place of present Accomplishment and of that Kingdom then appearing For therefore was Its sweet in the Mouth because the Discourse of that Kingdom as in the Voice of Thunder was exceeding sweet as importing its present Appearance But the Discourse of it as matter of Prophecy and the Re-absconding it to that purpose into the Belly was exceeding bitter as signifying its Delay and Secrecy for longer time yet as Belly imports secretly Whereas therefore the Book in regard of the half-season ended was opened as if then to be accomplish'd and the things written in it to be finished It s remanding into the Belly of the Prophet concludes its delay and this was bitter The Book therefore was sweet in any presence bitter in any Delays of the Kingdom The Kingdom is not to be yet while the half day lasts It must be when that ends in the seventh Trumpet therefore it remains in Prophecy And of the Servants of God continuing to Prophecy in Sack cloth because of the delay of Christs Kingdom and to prophecy again before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings whom this Kingdom concerns John is here the Representative the prophetical Scheme or Symbol For this Prophecy is unto and so before many who will not vouchsafe to hearken or attend to it yet it is unto them before them and will take hold of them But while the Book is in Prophecy in the Belly It is Bitter and the Witnesses prophecy in Sackcloth So John Personates or Proxies for them The sealing then of the Thunders as also the Voice of the Roar of the Lion by implication retiring the Eating of the open Book or returning it into Prophecy Argue It must remain in Prophecy as it had done the whole Time of the Trumpets after the Seals opened because of the 144000 seal'd and that the Kingdom did not appear when it had in the Christian Emperours made so loud a claim And now by the Thunders utterances a so publick challenge of its Right yet it must return again into Prophecy and be Bitter in the Belly All these are the clear and evident Importance of these Symbols in a due compare of the Parts of this Prophecy between themselves And if we look not only into History but Knowledge it cannot be denyed but that the Kingdom of Christ hath not yet appear'd in Glory The blessed Effects of Christian Religion The great Prophecies concerning those Effects that even swell the Womb of Prophecy have not yet been brought forth The Antichristianism the Bestianism the Apostle Paul the Apostle Pet. Epist 2. c. 2. c. 3. Peter the Apostle John especially in his Apocal. describes hath yet a too sad Interest in the Christian World Mahometanism covers a great part of the habitable Earth and till very lately as in signification of the Time of Christ's Kingdom to be proclaim'd near at hand hath been the Scourge and Terror of Christianity but more particularly as according to this Prophecy of the Antichristianity of East and West and holds a very considerable part of the Profession of it under Slavery Pagaism we know possesses except obstinately blind interspers'd Judanism the rest of the World All which must remove at Christ's Kingdom And if we consider the State of Christianity more Reformed to it self to speak in the Language and Symbols of this Prophecy There are very great Parts of the Reformation that are within the Bowels of the yet Antichristian Princes and so within the Dition and Kingdom of the Beast when ever it pleases God to give scope to that Power They are all manner of ways persecuted and harrass'd even as the Succession or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church of Thyatyra were to be and their last Works and Sufferings thereby became more than their First Rev. 2. 19. c. and are so far from being perfectly risen and out of Sack-cloth that they make an appearance of the Witnesses again Hungary France slain as in Neighbour Countries of
sort of Idolatrous Worship of Christ ecclips'd and drowned And all this was fulfill'd especially from that War concerning the Worship of Saints and Images 725 or 26 at the famous 666 as is after to be shewn Now the Pourtray of these Things is admirable in this prophetical Table and the Travers from the God who is superiour that is Christ to the whole Gentry of Saints in such a confused manner as the Text gives it The Maozzim and the strange God whom he shall acknowledge and encrease with Glory and shall cause them to rule over many so passing out of one into another that the very Frame of the Context does above all Expression by the Elegancy of the Scheme exquisitely present it and it hath been with wonderful Fidelity expounded by that ever to be acknowledg'd Duumvirate of Prophetical Interpreters Dr. More and Mr. Mede 5. It is very extraordinary in this Prophecy that upon this very Idolatry and at the very Time when it was contested by the Iconoclastick Emperours so profess'd Enemies to Images and Worship of Saints and yet sanction'd by the second Council of Nice however palliated by that of Frankford Cabbasut Notitia Eccles p. 314. which Palliation is yet abhorr'd and the Truth of the History of that Council decried at this Day At that very Time the Mahometan King of the South by the Saracens or Locusts and after the King of the North the Turkish Horsemen according to the Military Language of Daniel's Time with his Chariots and Horsemen like a Whirlwind and with his Gallies or Ships pass'd and overflow'd And this in the same order the Apocalyps after describes and at the same Degrees of Elevation The King of the South first does but push he torments and hurts but does not kill or swallow up in Conquest The King of the North comes after and does overflow and pass over and inherit a great part of the Antichristian Territory as the Beast would have it that is the Grecian Empire and yet leaves to the Beast his proper Bestian Demesne still for the sake of which Mahometan Kings of the South and the North as well as to draw a Line of prophetick History upon the sixty two Weeks from the Wall built to Messiah There is so much said of the King of the North and the South the Seleucidean and Lagidean Potentacies in the Prophecy 6. It is very observable after a Description of the very great Conquests and vast Tracts of the Turkish Empire v. 42. c. given His End is foretold upon the Mountains of Tzebi or the pleasant Holy Land and from thence the last end of Things and the glorious state of the Kingdom of Christ in the Lustre of his Saints and the Shame and Contempt of his Enemies seems to be given and not from the breaking the Image in the Bestian State of it which both here and in the Revelation is the most definite Thing that can be that the End should be so plac'd on the Beast These two Considerations yet will make a perfect Reconciliation of that Objection 1. That indeed The End of Things is not given from the Turkish End but from the Day of great Trouble such as never Dan. 12. 1. was since there was a Nation Now that Day of Trouble is the same with the Battel of Armageddon under the seventh Rev. 16. 16. c. v. 12. Vial. The Turkish Power therefore coming to its End and none helping it is under the sixth Vial poured out upon the River Euphrates that the way of the Kings of the East the Jews upon the Mountains of Tzebi might be prepar'd where the Turk receives his final Overthrow except the last Remainders of him rallied from this Fatal Blow on the Mountains of Tzebi may be congregated by the Spirit like a Frog that shall immediately after it go out of the mouth of the Dragon to the Battel of Armageddon upon which immediately follows that Resurrection describ'd in the Glory of the Saints the Ministers of Divine Truth who have turn'd many to Righteousness in an Excellency and the Enemies of Christ rising to everlasting Shame and Contempt according to Dan. 12. 1 2. c. and Revel 20. 4. c. to v. 7. Where we may observe the use of the Word Many to shew there is another Determination of the Future State of Mankind at the end of the 1000 Years both of them written in the Book and whose Names are not found in the Book of Life compare this with Apoc. 20. 15. From hence therefore compar'd with the Turkish Woe going off at the end of the sixth Trumpet Rev. 11. 14. It seems most probable but I dare not in Particulars be too definitive There is a reducing of the Turkish Power at that Trumpets end sending it to Euphrates from whence it came at the Beginning of it and a DE-PORTING it from Constantinople At the sixth Vial there is a drying it up in his proper Euphrates in some Encounter on the Mountains of Tzebi or Judea and what Mahometan Tail may remain shall be wholly cut off at Armageddon when neither Head nor Tail Tyranny nor False Prophetism to hurt with shall be left in the World 2. After the End had been thus given leading from the sixth Vial to the seventh Then the true orderly native course of that End is drawn within its proper Channels and Successions of Prophetick Time as is now in the next place to be demonstrated upon this Danielian Prophecy SECT VII Of the whole Line of Time from the Resurrection of Messiah unto the Time of Blessedness in the Lotts of the New Jerusalem and its Royal Priesthood On Dan. 12. v. 4. c. to the End AFter the full and ample Discovery according to the Allowance of Prophecy of the State of the Honourable Resurrection of the Servants of Christ and the despicable Resuscitation of the Wicked inclusive of all Misery follows the Delineation of Time Immediately upon this Declaration of this Resurrection Christ commands Daniel to shut the Book and seal it to the time of the End which End must be that End When many of them that sleep shall so awake But in regard of the Laxitude of the Expression The Time of the End we must understand The whole Time from Christ's Resurrection to this Resurrection is call'd The last Time The End The End of the World The last Days frequently in Scripture All Progresses in which Time are still yet nearer the End and so more the Time of the End and the last Days than the former Parts are This then being first conceiv'd Under some sealing more or less The Book must continue till Christ says Seal not the Sayings of this Book for the Time is at hand relating just to the Time of the Vials when the Kingdom of Christ was not only entred and proclaim'd and all Things were in finishing in the seventh Trumpet but the Time of the Dead that they should be judged was nigh when the
him be farther justified that is clear'd from the Imputations laid upon him by the Apostacy and let him farther also vindicate and justifie himself from it by a Ministration of the Vials on the Beast and doubling to the infamous Woman the Cup she had given and thereby making Preparation to the Kingdom of Christ Thus is that great Time in its curious Emblematism in Prophecy c. 22. 11. compar'd with Rev. c. 15. c. 18. v. 6. And because all this should by the Will of Christ be yet drawn out more definitively He is pleas'd to add From the Time of the Daily or Continual in the very same only word Tammith no where applied alone to Sacrifice from that taken away by the Apostacy I say are given exactly till the seven Thunders unseal'd thirty additional Days to the 1260 Days viz. 1290 Days and to that very End so often mention'd of the Lots of Blessedness by the Addition of 45 more are given 1335 and all cast into Indictions or eighty nine Fifteens a way of accounting Time so notoriously known to have come into use after Constantine as elsewhere shall be farther urg'd and most evidently characterizing this Time And it is much to be observ'd This so clear Line is given here as in the Revelat. after a Supposition of the Book open'd at the Half-time and not before except in this Cypher of Daniel's Time Times Half-Time not to be understood but by the 1260 Days and other Apocalyptical Lines Now from all this may be collected by compare with the Apocalyptick Prophecy a Line of Time as exact as from the very Ages of the Patriarks allowing the Hebrew Copies there and the prophetical Days for Years here For first the 2300 Ev. Mor. are so exact undoubted an entire Number as to leave no Dispute if granted to be a Line of Time The Weeks ending at the Resurrection is so very full and compleat a Vision before this Vision not only in the Order of Prophecy but of the express Dates of Darius's First and Cyrus's Third The sealing of Prophecy in that Vision just at the End of that Vision of the Weeks and the Book shut and seal'd in this Vision joyn those two Visions close together The sealed Time and of the Book shut by the Apocalyptick Prophecy in so orderly a Progress as by compare with History it is found cannot but be acknowledg'd to be 400 Years from the last half-week ending Then the 1335 are so close joyn'd that they cannot be forc'd asunder and so riveted into the End both by being a farther Resolution to Daniel in his Complaint of not understanding for his Knowledge of the End of Wonders as also by the Blessedness and Daniel's standing in his Lot Besides the Evidence from the Indictions so open and industrious is not small But what could Daniel's Lot in the End of the Days be of or in but of and in the New Jerusalem and its holy Priesthood It is impossible then the days should fly back from the End these therefore being the whole of the 2300 except 75 the 75 must be plac'd in the Forefront of all the Number as we have seen what Reason from the Vision of the Words going forth hath been found so to place just so many And if we allow that Number to be 75 there is as great a certainty the sealed Time must be just four hundred for one adjusts the other necessarily if 75 before the Weeks there must be 400 between the Weeks or 490 Years and the 1335 if 400 there then 75 here for so the 2300 require Now how each of these Spaces of Time the 400 of the Seals the Time Times Half-time or twelve hundred sixty days of the Trumpets the Thirty of the Voices the forty five of the Vials how these I say are all replenish'd with their proper Furniture we must be instructed by the Prophecy of the Revelation What great Reason have we now to adore the Spirit of Remark Jesus Christ in this Prophecy of Daniel and to search what or what manner of Time it signifies in this sure Word of Prophecy giving in prophetick Schemes the very same Thing that the Transfiguration in so glorious a majestick Appearance represented viz. Christ the Sun of Righteousness with his Stars of the first Magnitude Prophets and Apostles those wise turning many to Righteousness and then the lesser ministerial Stars and the sporadick Fellowship of Saints included appear therein as those who are so turn'd to Righteousness And this Prophecy having been so long in the World and traversing such spaces of Time like a vast Tract of Earth with Charts Maps and Sculptures fitted to them and that came with such Certainty and Assurance into every hand is inlighten'd and enlivened with new and fresh Delineatories of the New Testament Prophecy or the Revelation Certainly had not God in Justice upon the Apostacy diverted the Thoughts and Labours of his Servants from the Illustration and Demonstration of them so that they have not travell'd herein as in other parts of Christian Verity nor by such a Concert of Minds and Judgments herein the Evidences both against Atheism and the Apostacy had much exceeded what they arise to now No Miracles except in constant and present Motion before our Eyes nor hardly then being so intellectually sensible Arguments of the Divine Being of Christianity and against Antichristianism as these Prophecies from Time to Time fulfill'd And this very Prophecy of Daniel is a most certain Ground to expect such a Prophecy as that of the Revelation for one cannot be understood without the other and how admirably do they conspire For just at that sealing at the end of the last half Week begins the unsealing also or the Events coming to pass in their just order and the Apostolical Ministry running to and fro to increase Knowledge and just Scals 400. Rev. c. 6. then 1260 in the six first Trumpets c. 8. c. 9 Then 30 45 in the Voices c. 14. and Vials of the 7th Trumpet c. 15. c. 16. as they have hitherto proceeded exactly according to their Time and Place so far as within ten years end of the sixth Trumpet so shall they proceed in the seventh Trumpet in the Voices and the Vials till the last end of Wonders be produced and perfected Blessed therefore is He that waiteth and cometh thereunto he shall tho out of this Body certainly then stand in his Lot of that New Jerusalem State and Priesthood in a Body of the First Resurrection SECT VIII Wherein is given a Prefatory Survey of the whole Apocalyptical Prophecy I Am now brought down by the course of prophetick Time to that very Point of Time where the Series of Apocalyptical Visions begins so that although the Line of Time was by Daniel stretch'd over whole Apocalyptick Time in the Number given to him and in a general way some Umbrages of those Visions had been presented by Ezekiel and even by all the Prophets since the World began
seven Churches that is proper and particular to the Church wherein the Churches as Symbols sustain the whole Prophecy which is worthy the Spirituality and Clearness of a New Testament Prophecy so to Order and of great Grace Elegancy and Condecency to God's great Regard to his Church The Second is that which embraces the whole State of the Church but propp'd and supported with such Imperial Events as most nearly related to the Church adorn'd with such Symbols such Notes of Time such Events as agree to those Times whereby History both Common and Ecclesiastick may be adjusted to and concerted with both and the Truth of the Prophecy and its true Interpretation justisted before and by all the World And this is that Systeme or Complex of Prophecies that first by the Seals runs through the Roman Empire till the sixth Seal Pagan and Christian in the sixth and seventh Seals in those things wherein the Kingdom and Church of Christ are most interessed until the Empire was blasted in the first Trumpet and true publick Worship also by the 1260 Days of the Daily taken away entring The Imperial City was thrown like a Mountain into the Sea in the second and in the third Trumpet when the Roman Empire expiring in the West was surrogated or new founded in the Beast succeeding in his forty two Months and so the Prophecy goes on in the other Trumpets till it comes to the Kingdom of Christ in the seventh Trumpet in its just Succession to the last State of the Roman fourth Monarchy according to all Prophecy And this till the thousand Years runs through the Voices of Preparation into the Vials and the Vials prepare to the thousand Years glorious Reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then this is the only true proper Division of this Prophecy into its two Systemes of the Churches and then rise the Seals Trumpets Voices Vials in another Systeme supporting all things relating to the Church by Imperial Motions Mutations and Times And in the latter Systeme all these Tubes of Time are each Sett of them and each of each Sett so united one to another that they can neither be disjoyn'd from their immediate sequence one upon another nor mov'd out of their order so that the Trumpets follow the Seals the Voices the Trumpets the Vials the Voices and each Seal Trumpet Voice and Vial follows immediately upon its foregoing Seal Trumpet Voice and Vial and every seventh comprehends the following Sevens the seventh Seal the seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet the seven Voices the seventh Voice the seven Vials and each precedent Seventh hath some grasp on all the following Sevens So the seventh Seal comprehends the Trumpets the Voices the Vials the seventh Trumpet the Voices and Vials the seventh Voice the seven Vials so admirably is this Prophecy united and interwoven And to other Division than this of the second Systeme of Prophecies I can by no means subscribe as of the Prophecy divided into the sealed and open Book-prophecy or the Prophecy of the Empire first and then of the Church For that remarkable part of the sealed Book-prophecy viz. the palm-bearing Company by peculiar Right pertains to the open Book or that must be so if there were such an open Book-prophecy and much of the open Book-prophecy allowing such a one must needs pertain to the sealed but indeed there is no such Thing as an open Book-prophecy in that place where it is said to be open'd for the Book was no sooner open'd but it was eaten and so absconded assoon as open'd till open'd by the Voices c. 14. as shall be farther clear'd nor is there any Prophecy of the second Systeme but pertains properly to the Church as within first the Pagan then the Christian then the Bestian State of the one Roman Empire and lastly of the Vniversal Empire and Kingdom of Christ. Now in this Order apocalyptical Both Visions and Times in the first Systeme run through the six Churches In the second through those four Sets of prophetical Tubes Seals c. 6. c. 7. c. 8. to v. of Trumpets c. 8. v. 8. to the end of c. 11. of Voices c. 14. of the Vials c. 15. c. 16. and so laying these Chapters together the order is most exact except that in c. 7. There is an Anticipation of the Triumph of the New Jerusalem from v. 9. to the end In c. 11. there is a Collection of the whole State of the Apostasie during the six Trumpets into one Body together as it consists of the Sufferings of the Witnesses and the Tyranny of the Bestian Apostasie excepting some close Intimations in the very Composure of the Symbolisms of those Trumpets for the great Reasons hereafter to be given that refer to the same Apostacy and begin at the first Trumpet And then in the twelfth and thirteenth Chapters the extravasated Account of the Dragon watching the Woman and her manly Birth the Dragon cast down and the manly Birth caught up is to be reduc'd within its most proper Channel viz. the fifth and sixth Seals And this prepares for the right understanding of the Beast mention'd ch 11. as deriv'd from the Dragon c. 13. arriving his Number 666 which belongs to the six first Trumpets and it is there fitly set to prepare for the Vision of the Lambs Number c. 14. And as to the Chapters 17. 18. and 19. they are most evidently the Progress of the History of the seventh Vial and the full Relation of its Effects To prepare for which an extraordinary Description of the Woman or Great City reigning over the Kings of the Earth opposite to the Woman in the Wilderness is prefix'd and on her occasion a more perfect Portraicture of the Beast and of his ten Horns or Kings is given in preparation to the Judgment executed on all c. 19. And then the Milennial State being drawn up c. 20. it is carried on to the end of Apocalyptical Time as it reaches into the complemental State of Eternity which the Prophecy briefly absolves and then returns upon its more proper Subject or the 1000 Years of the New Jerusalem c. 21. c. 22. Now this Order began with the Preface to the Churches Vision of the first Systeme c. 1. and then the Preface of the second Systeme and lastly a Postscript returning especially c. 4. c. 5. c. 22. 16. to the Vials as given by the first Angel of the Vials This Order is I say the whole entire natural Order of this Apocalyptical Prophecy which is contriv'd indeed suitable to the Secrecy and Mysticness of the Prophecy so as often symbolically to declare when these Prophecies would have the clearest and most efficacious Discoveries in the Church viz. after the Half Time when the Thunders had utter'd their Voices and the Book open was shewn in the hand of Christ. That was the just Season for the Discovery of the Apostacy in the suffering of the Witnesses and the Tenthly Fall of the City and then after the seventh Trumpet