the just and honourable Revenues of it to shrink into the poor arbitrarious Pittances of either the appointment of the State or uncertain benevolence of the fickle People That Scene of things I say cannot but harden their hearts against listening to never so just a Reformation for the further enlargement of Christ's Kingdom and hazard the very Being of the Reformed Churches Whenas this way I wish may obtain would silence Atheism and Fanaticism at once and be the readiest means of bringing on those happy Times of the Church which God has promised and predicted by the mouth of his holy Prophets But this is the gross iniquity and madness of the Sectaries that they think so goodly and choicely every one of their own Party that they think it worth the while to hazard the safety of Reformed Christendom to support any how and keep up for the present the small freaks and conceits of their own self-chosen Way and Sect. Than which nothing can be conceived more enormous and outragious amongst the dealings of the Sons of men to bring into imminent danger so solemn and sacrosanct a Constitution as the Reformation for the Dreams and Opinions of private Spirits which no sober Christian would hazard for small indifferent dispensable things though they had the stamp of publick allowance upon them which it is and ought to be in the hand of the Sovereign Power to alter for the common good And verily this Fanatical distemper is so heinous and abominable that they that are on the right side ought to take heed how in the least shew they imitate it For a man may be factiously affected in a right Cause and bear an over-proportionated zeal for things of smaller concern out of an over-heightned Animosity against the present Sects to the hazarding the quiet settlement of the whole And if any one be so affected I appeal to the sober if he may not justly be reputed to play the Sectarian himself though it be against the Sectaries No such Cure for our Breaches and Wounds as the most profound Humility in all Parties and unfeigned mutual Love and Charity Of which Vertues or Graces whosoever is found destitute let him call himself of whatever denomination Christian as loud as he please be has really in him not one spark of saving Christianity This or to this sense at least and most what in the very same words I wrote and published about two or three years ago to fence Peoples minds from Popery and reclaim them from Schism and perswade them to adhere to the ancient Primitive Church according to which our English Church is reformed and whose Principles she professes and hath ever practised as to the point of the Primitive Christians their not resisting the Sovereign Power though with undaunted Courage they professed the Truth of Christianity against the Vanities and Idolatries of Paganism and now for its present seasonableness and usefulness I have here transcribed it if the sincere vehemence wherewith I writ it may but have a suitable effect for the perswading the Sectaries to leave off their Schism and reconcile themselves to the Church of England Whereby besides the Purity and Decency of Divine Worship and soundness in the Faith Loyalty and Monarchy may be secured and they become good Christians and good Subjects at once Thus much I thought fit to write by way of Preface to intimate the more particular Usefulness of this present Treatise Other things are taken notice of in the Introduction in which then I was not aware that I should have so much to do with those affected Rationalists who pretend that Prophecies especially those of Daniel and the Apocalypse are utterly unintelligible In which conceit though they may applaud themselves as more special Admirers of dry Reason yet I cannot see how their Opinion can well comport with serious Piety and a sound Mind For in their thus oddly adhering to their imagined Reason in this thing they point-blank contradict the Scripture which declares Dan. 12. That the wicked indeed shall not understand but the wise shall understand And that is but a sorry Triumph of Reason that is pretended to be over true Wisdom And then for the Apocalypse let us but consider what Pomp and Applause the Communication of the Visions of the Book-Prophecy to our Saviour from his Father is set out by Apoc. Chap. V. and then judge of the unreasonableness of this Imputation of Unintelligibleness And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the Throne a Book written within and on the back-side sealed with seven Seals And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice Who is worthy to open the Book and to loose the Seals thereof And no man in Heaven nor in Earth nor under the Earth was able to open the Book neither to look thereon And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the Book neither to look thereon But at last the slain Lamb v. 7. came and took the Book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the Throne and thereupon the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fall down before the Lamb and to their Harps chant out this new Song v. 9. Thou art worthy to take the Book and open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God c. And immediately upon this v. 11. there is heard the voice of many Angels about the Throne even of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain c. Let us therefore in the fear of God consider not only how ridiculous but how blasphemous a thing it is to think that this pompous Introduction than which nothing can be contrived more highly solemn and pompous should be to a Book of Prophecies that are utterly unintelligible As if the incarnate Wisdom did not only sport with the Children of men but delude and mock them What can be conceived more horrid and impious Wherefore without doubt the Visions of the Book-Prophecy are clearly intelligible And for the Epistolar Prophecy the Epistles to the seven Churches that they are also clearly intelligible may appear from the Introductory Vision there also For Christ in his Pontifical Habit there dictates them And therefore they are as so many Oracles given out from the Urim and Thummim of our High-Priest Christ Jesus which the Seventy interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is clear declaration and certain Truth in counterdistinction to the obscure and ambiguous Answers of the Heathen Oracles and the Uncertainty of their Event And this is an Argument for the Intelligibleness and Truth of the whole Book of the Apocalypse it being all the Revelation of Jesus Christ the true High-Priest with his Urim and Thummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clear Declaration to them that understand the Prophetick Stile Synchronism and History and such as will be accompanied with Truth and certainty of Event
Synchronal thereto reacheth to the end of the World and consequently the Sealed Book-Prophecy reacheth thither also which is the thing that was to be demonstrated And it suits mighty well with the last Thunder reaching to the end of the World which falls in with the Conflagration or Lake of Fire and with the Exit of the Laodicean interval so called in allusion to Ptolemy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laodicea combusta Wherefore the distribution of the main of the Apocalypse into those three Prophecies which from the beginning of the Church reach unto the end of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy the Sealed Book-Prophecy and the Opened Book-Prophecy and the Introductory Visions belonging to each of them being thus demonstrably true I do again pronounce as at first whoever goes about to interpret the Apocalypse repugnantly to this grand Principle he must necessarily run himself into the Briars and fall into such Labyrinths as he will never be able handsomly to get out of CHAP. XXII A Mechanical frame of the Seven-sealed Book so contrived as is requisite for no more Writing than what belongs to the present Seal to be seen at once The different Opinions of Interpreters what this Book signifies The mistake of the Ancients in conceiving it to be the Bible What this Book really is the Symbol of That this Book its being said to be written within and without denotes a twofold sense that of the Symbolical Letter and that of the inward Prophetical meaning of those Symbols Arguments to prove this to be the right sense of being writ within and without Ezekiel 's Roll writ within and without compared with this Seven-sealed Book of the Apocalypse Three useful Consectaries deduced therefrom IT is a matter of no slight moment to understand clearly and assuredly what is the right meaning of the Book in the right hand of him that sits upon the Throne Apoc. 5. its being said to be writ within and without to be Liber Opisthographus In order to which we are first to take notice what was the fashion of the Books of the Ancients viz. that they were one Membrane some longer some shorter rolled upon a round stick or some stiff thing as we sometimes do Maps Which makes me conceive that this Book with seven Seals consisted of at least twice seven such Membranes Parchments or Papers fastned together so at one end that it might be stiff enough to have all those leaves of paper rolled about it And I say there must be at least twice seven that no more Writing may be seen than what belongs to each Seal in their order by opening Therefore there is to be a leaf of paper with a Label at it to cover the leaf that has the Vision of the first Seal and then another leaf with a Label at it to cover the leaf of the Vision of the second Seal and so a Label-leaf before the Vision-leaf till you come to the Number of seven in each that no more of the Writing may be seen at a time than what belongs to each present Seal saving in the last where you breaking open the Seal that belongs to the seventh Label not only the Vision of the seventh Seal is discoverable which are the seven Trumpets and the seven Thunders but all the Visions of the Opened Book-Prophecy So that there must be as many leaves without Labels placed after the seventh Label-leaf as will serve to contain all the Visions of the seven Trumpets and also all the Opened Book-Prophecy Which must be some number of leaves though writ within and without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within and on the back-side as the foregoing Vision-leaves are conceived to be that is written on the concave and convex side of this Roll of leaves And thus in the breaking open the Seals the convex side of the Vision-leaf will occur first in every unsealing This I conceive is the most probable Mechanical frame of this Book written within and without and sealed with seven Seals But what this Book is a Symbol of there is a wide difference amongst Expositors The generality of the Ancients as A Lapide has noted take it to be the Bible and that which is writ without to be the Old Testament and that within the New the Old Testament being as it were the Velamentum or Covering of the New Or that which is writ without to be the literal sense that within the Spiritual or Mystical But this general Conceit of the Ancients is but a general Mistake because this Book was sealed up till the Apocalypse was communicated to S. John which was at the end of Domitian's Reign and therefore would imply that the Old and New Testament or Gospel were a sealed Book not to be understood till then Which yet certainly the Apostles understood and taught the people rightly to understand it so that it was no sealed Book to them But that this sealed Book is a Book that contains all the Prophetick Visions set down after the opening of it in the Apocalypse is so exceeding plain that it would amaze a man how it should come into the thoughts of so many of the Ancients that this Book with seven Seals should be the entire Bible whenas it is not so much as the entire Apocalypse but contains only the sealed Book and the Opened Book-Prophecies but that the being written within and without intimates a literal and mystical sense of the Book how near they come to the Truth therein we shall observe in the main Point we drive at In the mean time I cannot but approve of Cornelius A Lapide's Verdict in the Case who says Liber hic non est aliud quà m Divinae Providentiae consilium praefinitio c. This Book is nothing else but the Counsel and Determination of Divine Providence whereby God has purposed with himself either to permit or effect things in the World wherein his Church is concerned in such a way as is prefigured in this Book of Prophecies Which is to the same sense that the Answerer to S. E. has declared touching the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth that it is what is decreed and recorded in the Divine Mind The standing Intellect of God in which are described all the Laws and Decrees of his Providence is that Writing or Book of God which is so often mentioned in the Bible as Exod. 32. Psal 56. and 139. And this Book represented to John sealed and unsealed is but a Symbol of part of this Book or Writing as I may so speak And to the Scripture of Truth in Daniel as well as to the Roll in Ezekiel in all likelihood may this Apocalyptick sealed and unsealed Book allude And now to come more near to the main Point in hand though I have given such a Mechanical account of this sealed Book written within and without yet I am still utterly of the mind of the Answerer to S. E. his Remarks Apoc. Chap. 5. that it is a childish thing to think that
the Book seen by John was written with all those words contained in that part of the Apocalypse but it was a Symbol of the Compages of those Prophetical Representations and of the inward meaning of them contained in the Mind of Christ and the holy Angel sent to John And that as the Book in general was a Symbol of the figurative Representations and the inward meaning of them in the mind of the Angel or of the inward Prophetical sense of them so the being writ within and without distinctly signifies the latter the external Representations or Symbols of the Prophecies and the being writ within the real Prophetick sense of those Figures That this is the necessary sense of this Book 's being writ within and without may appear from hence because there is no evasion from it but supposing the Visions and Prophecies so large that the inside or concave side of this Roll of papers would not contain them to denote the exuberancy or fulness of this Spirit of Prophecy as that of Poetry Scriptus in tergo necdum finitus Orestes This is the general account of Interpreters which is a very lank empty and an useless account But this intimation of those two senses I have noted is useful and weighty the wildness and vanity of those Interpreters being discovered thereby that confound the Symbolical sense with the real or Prophetical as R. H. has done See my Epilogue to my Exposition of the Apocalypse Sect. 10. And there are those so weak as to give credit to his Expositions Whence we see how needful it was to give this intimation for this twofold sense of this Book and worthy the Spirit of Prophecy so to do But that this being writ within and without is not said in regard of the exuberancy of the matter or scantness in the concave sides of the Vision-papers to contain it all may appear from that necessary Mechanical account I have given of this seven-sealed Roll if any Mechanical account is to be lookt after For the largest of the Visions of the first six Seals are so little that they cannot well be conceived to fill so much as one side viz. the Concave of each Vision-paper Wherefore how can the exuberancy of the matter cause them to be writ as well on the convex side as concave or what account can there be of making use of both sides so needlesly but that it may be said to be writ within and without as a Symbol of a twofold sense belonging to these Prophecies that of the Cortex or Letter and that of the things prefigured And as the Cortical or literal sense is first and most obvious so according to our Mechanical frame of this Seven-sealed Book the Convex or outward side of the Vision-leaf upon opening each Seal offers it self first to the eye of the Beholder the Concave is underneath not to be seen but by the turning up of the Vision-leaf and so reading downwards But if John's declaring the Book sealed with seven Seals was written within and without before any of the Seals were opened insinuate that there was really no such Mechanical frame of this seven-sealed Roll within as we have described then it is a plain indication to any one of an ordinary sagacity that this is said merely to intimate those two senses of the Visions the external Cortical sense which is so contrived as if it were a complete thing of it self and the real Prophetical sense that lies hid under this Symbolical Cortex Nor does it seem likely that John at the opening each Seal saw in the Book those Visions mentioned at each Seal opening but they were represented to him as other Visions were and that he saw them no more in the Book at the opening of the Seals than he read the Opened Book when it was given him before he ate it but the opening of the Seals by the Lamb and the Angel giving him the Book unsealed to eat are only to signifie that both those Prophecies of the Sealed Book and Opened Book are the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Servant John as you heard in the foregoing Chapter But if it may be thought that when John received the Opened Book he might then observe that there were things written on the convex sides and concave sides of what I called the Vision-leaves and from hence pronounce in the beginning that this Seven-sealed Book was writ within and without according to some such Mechanick way as I have described then our former reasoning will take place and so every way we may be assured that this is the right meaning of the Book in the hand of him that sate on the Throne its being said to be writ within and without that thereby is intimated an external Literal sense and internal Mystical sense of which the other is but an Hieroglyphick Type or Figure And this being so plain and assured in this Apocalyptick Seven-sealed Book or Roll that to be writ within and without signifies an external or literal sense and a sense internal and mystical And we finding in Ezekiel a Roll so described Chap. 2.9 And when I looked behold an hand was sent unto me and lo a Roll of a Book therein And he spread it before me and it was written within and without which answers with strange exactness to this of the Apocalypse and still more full if you read the following Chapter where he is bid to eat this Roll and does so accordingly and declares it was in his mouth as sweet as Honey As if what we find Apoc. Chap. 10. v. 9 10. were transcribed out of Ezekiel And as this happened to John after the sight of the Angel with a Rainbow viz. Christ or the God of Israel so this happened to Ezekiel immediately after he had seen the appearance of the glory of the Lord which was as the appearance of the Bow which is in the Cloud in the Day of Rain which is a further confirmation that it is the God of Israel that is signified by this Note of the Rainbow in both places Wherefore I say this being so plain that to be writ within and without bears such a sense in this place of the Apocalypse viz. an exteriour and interiour meaning of the Visions or Prophecies and this of the Roll in Ezekiel being so exactly parallel thereto and set at the beginning of his Prophecies after the Introductory Vision how can we avoid concluding that the Prophecies of Ezekiel the main of them are parts of the Roll written within and without and have an interiour sense as well as an exteriour And so those Visions or Prophecies that in their first or exteriour sense may seem only to concern Jerusalem suppose and Samaria Edom and Mount Seir the Prince of Tyre and Pharaoh King of Egypt the Army of Gog the Jewish City and Temple and the like may in their interiour sense concern the state of the Christian Church or of its Enemies and prove Types of their condition
would have it by this very Vision But the mistake of this Opinion I shall manifestly discover in the following Chapter The next thing I will consider here is this Whether the Vial-Angels received their Vials before or after the Song of Moses and the Lamb Chap. 15. That they received them after any one may be well assured that observes First That one continued Vision is divided sometimes into several Chapters As the Introductory Vision to the Sealed Book-Prophecy Chap. 4 and 5. as also that one Vision comprized in the 12.13 and 14. Chapters Which answers to that contained in the eleventh Secondly That in like manner the Vision of the Vial-Angels is contained in the 15. and 16. Chapters Thirdly That to so large a Vision the first verse of Chap. 15. And I saw another sign in Heaven great and wonderful seven Angels having the seven last Plagues c. is but the general Title thereof and the Vials are not so much as mentioned in this Title Fourthly That before he falls upon the Vision it self there is an Introduction thereto a kind of Dramatical Interlude which is not as in ordinary Plays merely for delight but for some weighty instruction else there can be no sense of clapping it immediately after the summary Title of this Vision What then can it be but to intimate that the Order of the Vials is to be after this Song of Moses and the Lamb. Wherefore it being said v. 5. After that that is after the singing of this Song I looked and behold c. viz. After this the seven Vial-Angels came out of the Temple having the seven Plagues but not yet said to have the Vials but immediately to receive them of one of the four Beasts and in the beginning of the next Chapter bid to pour them on the Earth If the sense of this express order of things be not that the Angels received their Vials after the Song of Moses and the Lamb we cannot be assured of the certain sense of any passage of the Apocalypse nor of the whole Bible no nor of any Writing whatsoever Insomuch that I have been amazed that it ever came into any mans mind to think otherwise A third thing is What the adequate Visum is of the sixth Trumpet i. e. what affairs in the World or Church are noted to fall out during the sounding of that Trumpet To which I answer That it is that which is set down Chap. 9. from v. 13. to the end of the Chapter Whereby is signified the Over-running of the Eastern Empire and the Church by the Turks with the possessing themselves of Constantinople and the general Impenitency of the Western Church and Empire notwithstanding this notorious Judgment of God upon the Eastern Which latter part is fully exprest v. 20 21. And the rest of the men that were not killed with these Plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Daemons and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone c. Neither repented they of their Murders nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornication nor of their Thefts That this is the adequate object of the Vision of the sixth Trumpet I conceive is plain from hence First That immediately after this instead of the Angel of the sixth Trumpet that sounded steps in a mighty Angel to roar out the next Interval the last of the seven divided also into seven Thunders as the seventh Seal into seven Trumpets Secondly Because if this be not the precise Visum or Object of the Vision of the sixth Trumpet there will be no stop till you come to the 14. verse of Chap. 11. The second we is past c. Which is the most outragious wild thing to be conceived as can be the Vision of the Witnesses in sackcloth running up as high as the first Trumpet to say nothing of the measuring the Court of the Temple and Altar And thirdly and lastly which nicks the business methinks marvellously well The Rising of the Witnesses and Fall of the City is a Prophecy of a considerable Reformation that is of the Repentance of a considerable part of the Western Church and Empire or of their ceasing to be impenitent which was the latter part of the Visum of the sixth Trumpet Wherefore immediately upon this Rising of the Witnesses and Fall of the City that is upon the ceasing of that general Impenitency it being said the second Wo is past it is manifest that the Turks over-running the Eastern Empire and the general Impenitency of the Western thereupon was the adequate Visum of the sixth Trumpet And these three Points respect the foregoing Chapter There are three Points behind that have no such reference The first is what may be the full meaning of the Lamb 's being found worthy to open the Seals of the Seven-sealed Book For the fulness of this meaning being rightly understood we shall therewithal better discern how well the Doxologies of the four Beasts and twenty four Elders and after of those numerous Quires of Angels and indeed of the whole Creation in this Dramatical Theatre in Heaven are made to prefigure the Joy and Rejoycing which will be in the blessed Millennium on Earth when the Power given to the Lamb of opening the Seals shall have that glorious effect in introducing those times of the New Jerusalem which these Angelical Actors on an Heavenly Stage are made to prefigure in the sight and hearing of S. John after his being caught up into Heaven in his Divine Rapture mentioned Chap. 4. v. 2. Wherefore in brief I conceive that the Lamb 's receiving the Book and therewith a power of opening the Seals implies these two things The first is the representing to John by way of Prophetical Vision the state of the Church and of the World so far forth as the Church is concerned in the affairs thereof through a long Series of time to the end of all even to the very Conflagration That this is one meaning of this power of opening the Seals is plain from Chap. 6. v. 1 3 5 7 9 12. and Chap. 8.1 in which seven places the Lamb is said orderly to open the Seals one after another and upon the opening each Seal a Prophetick Vision follows Whence it is manifest that his Power of opening the seven Seals is the Power of imparting this whole Book of Visions to his Servant John For at the Opening of the seventh Seal all the whole Book of the Prophetick Visions was opened as is to be understood from the frame of the Book above described But now forasmuch as the truly opening of the Seals would not be absolutely put into the hand of Christ unless he had also Power given from him that sits on the Throne to guide the affairs of this sublunary World so as that he might bring to pass by permission or impulsion and positive motion the things that are prefigured For the Effect brought to pass both argues the truth and
I shall first set down the Opinion of those Papers orderly one after another and then give my own Judgment 1. I affirm says the Author of those Papers that by opening this Book of Prophecies is meant explaining it and making it intelligible to those that read it For the truth of this Proposition I appeal to the constant and unquestionable use of that Phrase of opening a sealed Prophecy where-ever it is used throughout the Scripture there being no one instance that I know of to the contrary But where sealing signifies concealing the sense of a Mystery and opening signifies explaining it there are many As Dan. 9.24 Seal up the Vision and 12.4 Seal the Book even to the time of the end Where also the Phrase is made parallel to shutting up the words of it viz. that they might not be understood till the time of the end Also Isai 29.11 mention is made of a sealed Book viz. a Book which no man could understand Also that Opening signifies Explaining is manifest from Luke 24 32. where Christ is said to have opened the Scriptures And Acts 17.3 S. Paul is said to have opened and alledged viz. out of the Prophecies of the Scripture that Christ must needs have suffered Whence it cannot be doubted as to me it seems but that by opening the sealed Book or Mystery is meant explaining it Answ This makes a pretty confident show and may impose upon the heedless But the wary will easily perceive that unless he could prove that the word Opening simply in it self signified Explaining and sealing hiding the sense of a Writing by mystical Aenigms the Argument proves nothing That obvious Phrase of opening a Bible and opening a Text shows plainly the word Opening has its determinate sense from the thing it is spoken of To open the Bible is to unclaspe it and so open the Book that we may come at the Text. To open the Text is to explain the sense of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to explain Mysteries or to open Mysteries sometimes but Luke 4.17 it signifies only to open the Book where the Mysteries lye viz. the Book of Esay the Prophet which past into the hand of Christ he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to open the Book and to find the place c. It is one thing therefore to open a sealed Book where the Prophecy is and another to open a sealed Prophecy The Book may be first opened to come at the Prophecy Which is plainly the case here of the seven-sealed Book But to make the opening the Book and loosing the Seals to be the explaining the Prophecies of this Book Chap. 5.2 is a plain contradiction to the very Text Chap. 6. where the opening the first six Seals is the exhibiting to John so many particular Prophetical Visions of things to come not the explaining those Visions And so the opening the seventh Seal is the exhibiting the Visions of the seven Trumpets c. Chap. 8. and not the explaining of them So that I wonder it should ever against so palpable an intimation to the contrary enter into any mans mind that the opening the Book and loosing the Seals should be understood of explaining the Prophecies and not of a power of coming at the Prophecies themselves set out in Aenigmatical Visions and to be afterwards explained by the Servants of Christ and the meaning of the Aenigmata discovered But to make this latter to be understood as a Completion of this Vision of the opening of the Seals is a plain repugnancy to the Visions Interpretation of it self The Completion of this part of the Vision of opening the Seals is our having these Apocalyptick Visions in our hands and under our eyes no other Completion is to be dreamt of 2. Touching the second Question the abovesaid Papers declare thus That by him that sitteth on the Throne with the Book in his right hand is not meant God himself but rather some Man of highest Authority sitting in the Throne of God and representing him there A reverend and learned Doctor phansies him to be the Bishop of Jerusalem the Author of the Papers to be some earthly King Answ But this to me seems point-blank against the Text nor has Grotius himself the confidence to interpret it of any other than of God Almighty by reason of that Hymn I suppose or Doxology v. 8. Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come This Hymn is sung to him that sits on the Throne the Eternal who is said to live for ever and ever v. 9. Now as this is but one single visionary Hymn so no man can have any just ground to imagine any more than one visionary Person on the Throne there is not the least show or shadow in the Vision of any more Whence comparing this Hymn with that single Person it must of necessity be God Almighty himself no earthly Potentate Representative of Him Nor is the Hymn fit to be sung to a Representative though of God sitting on the Throne For if to Him he is the Object of this Doxology and the Text says expresly it is to him that sits on the Throne And therefore it must be to God himself that sits on the Throne unless we will make this a visionary Scene of palpable Idolatry which I take to be a gross absurdity Besides that as for earthly Potentates Kings or Monarchs they are most lively described in the twenty four crowned Elders like so many Millennial Davids playing on their Harps before God The Rain-bow also plainly intimates it as in Ezekiel to be the Representation of the glory of the God of Israel So that I find no congruity or probability in this Opinion 3. Now for the third Question the words of the Paper are these I affirm saith he that the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Revelation are a description of a Church or a Company of faithful people on Earth adding This is so evident that I know of no man that denies it This therefore he takes for granted without any further proof Answ Here I refer the Reader to what I have wrote in the twenty first Chapter of this Book touching this Introductory Vision to the sealed Book-Prophecy Where though it be an Introductory Vision and a Symbol of the spiritual Kingdom of God in Heaven yet I acknowledge that it is in some things so attemperated that it is significative also of the State of the Church on Earth as that suppose of the Millennium And that the Church on Earth is some way and in some things concerned in this Vision is plainly intimated Chap. 5. v. 10. And hast made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth But this will not serve the end of these Papers 4. And lastly for the fourth Question By the Lamb slain according to those Papers some good King or other some mystical Christ as Mr. Mede calls Constantine upon Rev. 12.5 is to be understood who after his
the seven Seals which take in also the seven Trumpets must be after the Reformation when no less than a dozen Visions the first six Seals and the first six Trumpets are before Which plainly shows that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot signifie so as the Objector would have it but that it denotes only the Order of Time in seeing these Visions not the Order of Events 4. Fourthly Whenas that Vision of the seven Churches which commences from the beginning of the Church is ushered in with a great voice as of a Trumpet and a like voice here as of a Trumpet speaks to S. John again would not this alarm or awaken any heedful Reader 's animadversion and invite him to conceive that surely here begins or is beginning a new Prophecy ab ovo or from the same Epocha as before especially considering what is noted in the second place that there is here in this following Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the passing out of an Epistolar Prophecy to another of an huge different contexture 5. But fifthly and lastly Considering that general Preface to this whole Book of Prophecies set down stilo tenui in a simple plain stile Chap. 1.1 That it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him of things to come to pass and imparted by an Angel to John And that the things to come to pass are most magnificently set out in Prophetick Figures and Symbols as also Jesus Christ the Revealer of them in this first Vision of the seven Churches Which glorious Representation of him in his Sacerdotal Habit amidst the seven golden Candlesticks is a Vision introductory to the Epistolar Prophecy and Christ made to dictate those Epistles to John thereby to insinuate what is said in more meagre terms that this Epistolar Prophecy is the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Servant John I say he that considers this and after the finishing the Prophecy lights upon another glorious Vision Chap. 4. and 5. which is most easily and naturally expounded to the same sense that the Introductory Vision of the Epistolar Prophecy is and something more full viz. That the slain Lamb Jesus Christ receives from the Sitter on the Throne God the Father the sealed Book of Prophecies with power of opening the Seals and exhibiting orderly the Prophetick Visions to his Servant John for it is the Lamb that opens the Seals all along what is this but a more magnificent expression of what is Chap. 1.1 said in more exile phrase The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him of things to come to pass imparted by these Angelical impressions to his Servant John and what can be concluded therefrom but that this Vision Chap. 4. and 5. is as well as that before the Epistolar Prophecy an Introductory Vision viz. to the Prophecy of the sealed Book and therefore can be no continuation to the Epistolar Prophecy notwithstanding those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This any unprejudiced Eye may easily discern to be the Truth But that the glory of the Spiritual or Angelical Kingdom of the God of Israel there represented is also prefigurative of the blessed Millennial state which it was when it was first seen on the Mount this does not at all clash with its Introductory usefulness and the signification it has even now specified So that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie so as the Objector would have it in all other places of the Apocalypse yet there are most manifest and weighty Reasons why it should not so signifie here And thus I hope the first Argument is fully satisfied I shall be briefer in those that follow 2. To the second I answer Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not serve to shew the order of the Events of the Visions as well as of the Visions themselves whose order of being seen is sufficiently indicated by their order of place in the Narration yet it may serve instead of a form of Transition such as is used by Historians Orators and Philosophers and indeed all Writers though the order of the things they speak of would be discerned without these Transitions by their mere speaking of them one after another as they first propounded them to be spoken of And why should the stile of the Apocalypse be more pinching and hide-bound than any other that it cannot afford so much as two words that make but up four Syllables for a brief Transition from one Prophetick Vision of large extent to another of equal extent and of quite different kind For the full sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is this Thus far for the Epistolar Vision after this I looked up and behold c. Which therefore is a very brief Transition from the Epistolar Prophecy to the Prophecy of the sealed Book and its Introductory Vision And therefore though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not here serve to show the order of Events yet it is not true that it serves to no use at all it serving so manifestly for a Transition 3. To the third I say In these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is merely an Adverb of Time and signifies as Beza and our English Translation has it Posthac and Hereafter Things that must be in time to come which is the general sense of Expositors not things that are to succeed the Event of the Vision of Laodicea or the Time of the beginning of the Reformation as the Objector would have it For here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being set in the front or proposed in general it implies that all the Visions that follow must be of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which words if it were after the Event of the Vision of Laodicea that is after the beginning of the Reformation according to the Objector's surmise the Assertion would be grosly and repeatedly false For there are above twenty Visions that follow this general proposed Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose fulfilling was before the Reformation So evident is it from hence that Beza and our English Translation is in the right and that the general sense of Expositors is sound in this matter But indeed viewing slightly the outward Cortex of the Visions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying as well after these things as hereafter and there being the Vision of Laodicea immediately precedent which they seem to respect one may if he be not heedful phansie unawares that the affairs of the Vision of Laodicea are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after which the affairs of the succeeding Prophecy are to be But this show in the Cortex is but an artificial Blind that which I call Lemmatosynechia intended as several other Artifices for the Concealment of the sense of the Apocalypse which is as seriously aimed at in the frame thereof as the certainty of Revealment And the Objector's mind seems to be caught and entangled in this snare 4. To the fourth I answer That Christ tells Philadelphia in his
Rising of the Witnesses For all the Vials are after their Rising And if any one will be so freakish as notwithstanding to pitch upon some one of the Vials to be a Prediction of the late Reformation I demand what Event before the Reformation is the fulfilling of that illustrious Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses for the Event that answers to it must be so notorious that it cannot be passed by in History It necessarily therefore follows that the aforesaid Reformation only can be the Event that answers to the Vision of the partial Fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses and consequently be that which the Song of Moses and the Lamb gives thanks for Which was the thing to be demonstrated CHAP. XXIV Whether the Witnesses wear sackcloth for any time after their being risen Whether the Vial-Angels received their Vials before or after the Song of Moses and the Lamb sung by the Victors over the Beast What is the adequate Visum of the sixth Trumpet What the full meaning of the Lamb 's being found worthy to open the Seals of the Seven-sealed Book Whether a year in the Apocalypse any where signifies a Year of years Whether there be any mystical meaning in noting Prophetick Time sometimes by Days sometimes by Months IT is demonstrated in the foregoing Chapter with Evidence plainly Mathematical that the Reformation begun by Luther is the Rising of the Witnesses but there being some ingenious and diligent Studiers of the Apocalypse who though they are convinced that the abovesaid Reformation is the fulfilling of the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses yet think their wearing of sackcloth may be extended to a longer time I shall endeavour here to clear that Point And in order thereto we are first to consider that the wearing of sackcloth is not literally to be expounded but is only a Symbol of a mean and squalid condition and of a grieved and pensive heart which are things inconsistent with the Witnesses being risen from the death they were in viz. a Political Death whose Resurrection implies the contrary prosperity and respect according to their different degrees of Quality Wherefore the nature of the thing it self may teach us that the risen Witnesses in their being risen did ipso facto put off their sackcloth and were clad with garments of Joy Besides the Text does assure us thereof Chap. 11. v. 15 16 17. For what were those Acclamations in Heaven there and the four and twenty Elders Doxology but an intimation what a time of Joy and Triumph it would be on Earth upon the Rising of the Witnesses and could they themselves then be in such a squalid and forlorn condition as to wear sackcloth Again Chap. 15. the Song of Moses and the Lamb is said to be sung by them that had got the Victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the Number of his Name Which Victors over the Beast most assuredly are the very Witnesses against whom he warred this Song being Synchronal to the Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders What then shall we think that these Triumphant Witnesses while they had the Harps of God in their hands and sung this joyful Epinikion to them wore sackcloth on their backs what can be more incongruous But I will yet add a third place Chap. 7. there is mention of the 144000 sealed ones which synchronize and indeed are the same with the 144000 Chap. 14. which are the Souldiers of the Lamb the Saints or Witnesses and who are warred against by the Beast during the time of the first six Trumpets For though in the Cortex of the Prophecy this Sealing seems to be done at once immediately before the first Trumpet sounds yet undoubtedly it is a continued thing all along the time of the first six Trumpets which is for about twelve hundred years for such a space the sealed Souldiers of the Lamb as conflicting with the Beast are conceived to continue but at the end of the sixth Trumpet the Victory is obtained Babylon falls viz. the tenth part thereof and the Witnesses rise and as I noted before sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb and as that is the sign of their Victory there so their being cloathed in white Robes and having Palms in their hands Chap. 7.9 denotes the same here And v. 14. in that they are said to be those that came out of great Tribulation it implies their fresh emergency out of the calamities they suffered under the entire Reign and Tyranny of the Beast After which Victory of the Saints or Witnesses you see they forthwith appear cloathed in white Robes which is a plain Argument they had put off their sackcloth which is the thing I aimed at Nor can the Argument be eluded by pretending that these here cloathed in white Robes with Palms in their hands are those mentioned Chap. 6. to whom white Robes are given viz. the Primitive Martyrs who obtain a blessed Resurrection at this time for suffering under the Dragon as those do at the beginning of the Millennium for suffering under the Beast the description also of their condition implying it to be their assumption into Heaven not a state on Earth For to this I answer besides the absurdity of making more Resurrections than two the correspondency of the 144000 sealed ones to the 144000 with the Lamb on Mount Sion shows plainly that instating of these Palm-bearing Victors in their white Robes into that State here described is not till after the sixth Trumpet at the Rising of the Witnesses There begins the joyful condition of the Palm-bearers and reaches to the end of all including the New Jerusalem-state and blessed Millennium Which New Jerusalem-state being so described as to be also a fit Type of the Church Triumphant in Heaven it is very congruous that this Vision also may be so framed as to be Typical of that state likewise though in the mean time it is a Prophecy of the state of the Church on Earth But that those in white Robes Chap. 6. v. 11. answers so handsomly to the Palm-bearing Victors in white Robes Chap. 7.9 this is but a pleasant Lemmatosynechia in the Cortex which occurs oft and which entraps many heedless Readers of the Apocalypse before they be aware Wherefore I think it is a plain case that these Palm-bearing Victors in white Robes are the same with the Victors over the Beast Chap. 15. and they with the Risen Witnesses Chap. 11. who being upon their Victory and fresh emergency out of great tribulation cloathed in white Robes did not continue any time after their Conquest cloathed in Sackcloth Something akin to this protracting the time of the Witnesses wearing sackcloth beyond their Rising is that opinion of some who although they acknowledge the Reformation to be the Rising of the Witnesses yet will not have the fulfilling of the Vision of their Rising completed therein but expect a further Rising of them signified as they
discovers the right sense of the Prophetick Vision at once this Power of administring all things and ordering them so that they shall certainly answer to the Prophetick Prefigurations of them is necessarily the other thing that is included in this power of opening the Seals given to the Lamb. And hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ascribed to him as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Might Power and Strength as well as Wisdom in those Doxologies of the four Beasts and twenty four Elders of the numerous Quires of Angels and of the whole Creation glancing in this Prophetical Rapture at those times wherein the effect of this power of opening the Seals will appear to all the world most resplendent and glorious So that those Arehetypal Millennial Kings viz. the twenty four Elders are made to sing the Song of those Ectypal Kings in the Millennium who will experimentally find what is prophetically set down here in the Song of the twenty four crowned Elders Thou art worthy to receive the Book and open the Seals thereof c. and hast made us Kings and Priests to our God and we shall reign upon Earth viz. in this blessed Millennium which thou hast as well effected as predicted through that Power given thee of thy Father The second Point is Whether a Year in the Apocalypse any where may signifie a Year of years The meaning of which Question is Whether that express word Year whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Time and in the literal meaning a Year denotes a year of years in those places where a Time and Times and half a Time do occur is without question whether these I say any where signifie a Year of years or in correspondence to other places of the Apocalypse are to signifie so That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred a Year signifies a Year of years Apoc. 9.15 where the four Angels on the great River Euphrates are said to be prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year seems very probable Because interpreting a day month and year a year a month of years and a year of years it makes up three hundred ninety six years which is exactly the time from Togrulbec Prince of the Turks his Inauguration by the Caliph Chaiim Biamrilla after the taking of Bagdad to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second Which is not probable to be a fortuitous hit and therefore plain that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a year in this place signifies a year of years and it is the only Example in all the Apocalypse But there is not so much as one Example of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a year of years but an assurance rather of the contrary that it signifies a common year consisting of three hundred sixty five days Otherwise if this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie a year of years the Millennium would last 365000 years which seems a thing utterly incredible though I will not deny but this Millenary Number signifying symbolically it need not be pent up to just a thousand years but may extend it self further And lastly if any one will contend that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one and signifie both a year this is the only truth that can be asserted touching the meaning of a year in the Apocalypse that 't is but a single year though numbred with other names of Time of less quantity as days and months that signifies a year of years but that a year in Connumeration with other years which are Times of like quantity with it self it then signifies a common Year and no more This is all touching this thing that can be made out of the Apocalypse so far as I know The third and last Point is Whether there be any Mystery in setting down Prophetick Time one while by Days another while by Months To which the Answer is brief and easie viz. That in those places of the Apocalypse where the Apostolical and Apostatical Church are compared and opposed one to the other there the time of their conditions is also differenced the time of the Evangelical Church being reckoned by days of the Apostatical or Antichristian by months This is constant in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where days and months are named But where these Antistaechal Parties are unconcerned in reference to one another neither month nor day has any such Mystery in it as in that passage Chap. 9. where the four Angels at Euphrates are said to be prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year CHAP. XXV Nine Queries with Notes thereon to a Friend leading to undeniable assurance that not a Prophetical Day nor Month but a Semi-time is the Unite for the computing the Time of the Event in the Medial Visions Query 1. WHether the Reformation begun by Luther and propagated into so many parts of Christendom within the space of the seventh Semi-time be not the fulfilling of the Vision of the partial Fall of Babylon or the great City and of the then Rising of the Witnesses Query 2. Whether the first six Trumpets and the forty two months prosperous War of the Beast and the other Medial Visions do not all synchronize one with another Query 3. Whether the War of the Beast with the Witnesses Chap. 11. and with the Saints Chap. 13. be not one and the same War Query 4. Whether the three days and an half wherein the Witnesses are said to lye slain be not the same with the forty two months of the prosperous or victorious War of the Beast against the Saints Chap. 13. Query 5. Whether the issue of this slaughtering and victorious War of the Beast against the Witnesses and Saints for three days and an half or forty two months wherein their Faith and Patience was so much tried was not the Rising of the Witnesses or the partial Fall of Babylon or great City Query 6. Whether the Rising of the Witnesses and partial Fall of Babylon be not the final issue of the three days and an half or forty two months slaughtering War of the Beast against the Saints or Witnesses Query 7. Whether the three days and an half 's slaughtering War or forty two months victorious War against the Saints or Witnesses can be produced any further than to the final issue of the said War Query 8. Whether the above-mentioned Reformation it being the fulfilling of the Vision of the partial Fall of Babylon and of the then Rising of the Witnesses be not the final issue of the once prosperous War of the Beast against the Saints and Witnesses Query 9. And lastly Forasmuch as the above-mentioned Reformation began but a little after the commencement of the last Semi-time and had its full growth before the expiring of the same the partial Fall of
Cruciform or Cross-like nor would have been toward each of the four quarters of the World five hundred Cubits but two hundred only measurable in one and the same Line Wherefore the House of God it self or holy Edifice in account of its Binian or Porticus's that it was extended into a Square is clear from hence and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relating to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner House intimate a Perimetral dimension thereof namely of the House not of a mere Wall as Castellio is fain to make a Wall about square five hundred Cubits each side thereof though he makes no Porticus's go along with it But it 's plain the exterior House it self is here a measuring And the Septuagint say expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he measured the Platform of the House round about in order and so finds each side five hundred Cubits to each quarter of the World Five hundred Cubits in the measuring Reed so Ludovicus Capellus Castellio and others not five hundred Reeds And whereas it is said v. 17. He measured the North side five hundred Cubits c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round about how can one single side be round about Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as if he should say in Perimetro in the Perimeter Doubtless that is the genuine meaning of that word in these places here For the sides single do not encompass the House but all put together But every single side is part of the Perimeter which does really environ this square House or Building SW Africus NW Caurus SE Eurus NE Aquilo And yet there is still a pretty odd confirmation of the matter behind which I conceive is worth the noting It is indeed a Paganick Oracle and such as implies the Pagan Daemon to have supposed or rather known the proportion of the outer Court to the inner according to these Dimensions of Villalpandus The thing is recorded in S. Augustine De Civitate Dei lib. 18. cap. penult ult In the year of our Lord 313. the Gentiles were informed by the Oracles of their Daemons that Peter forsooth had so bewitched the World that the Name of Christ should be worshipped for three hundred sixty five years but after the said number of years being completed forthwith there would be an end viz. of this Worship of Christ And to this Oracle says the Father the Gentiles gave such great credit that they were called back from the Christian Profession nor would embrace it till the end of the said years after they had found the Oracle to be false Now that the Oracles of the Daemons should circumscribe the continuance of the Worship of Christ within three hundred sixty five years verily it is hugely difficult to divine whence they drew that Conjecture unless from that Apocalyptick Vision Chap. 11. where John is commanded to measure the Temple and Altar but for the outer Court to cast it out to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles for forty two months compared with the Courts of Solomon's Temple whose dimensions by reason of their great Longevity they very well knew and discerned the outer Court to have to the inner Rationem triplam sesquialteram the proportion of three and an half to one From whence they easily collected the outer Court being to the inner as the Conculcation of the Gentiles for forty two months to the Worship of the Name of Christ that the Worship of Christ was to continue but twelve Prophetick months or three hundred and sixty years For as seven is to two so forty two to twelve But for greater Caution they added five years which might answer to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the five adjectitious days in the Aegyptian year So careful forsooth was the Devil in framing the Prophecy lest his Clients might over-hastily expect the Event and so himself seem to have been deceived And being he was so careful of not seeming to be deceived it 's a sign he would not have given out this Oracular Compute unless he had been sure of the proportion of the outer Court to the inner which is a notable confirmation of Villalpandus's dimensions of the said Courts of the Temple But as cunning as he was the Devil was egregiously deceived in this that he thought the Worship of Christ would cease at the end of those years whenas the Vision only intimates that his Worship after three hundred and sixty years would be contaminated with the Idolatrous Rites and Superstitions of the Gentiles but not that pure Paganism should ever return again Some haply may be ready to laugh at this Mathematical skill in the Devils of measuring the Courts of the Temple whereas in the mean time they themselves are more to be laught at for their own unskilfulness or ignorance in History which informs us that the Oracle told the Inhabitants of Delos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their present Evils and of the rest of the Greeks would cease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they doubled the Altar in Delos as Plutarch relates in his De Socratis Genio Which Answer of the Oracle Plato interpreted of the study of Mathematical Sciences as if those studies were recommended to the people by Apollo whose Oracle was at Delos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is not the work of a bad or dull-sighted Wit but of one extremely well exercised in the skill of Lines to find or take two middle Proportionals And yet this is the only way of doubling suppose the Cubick Altar at Delos But it was much more easie to find the proportion of the outer Court to the inner that no man distrust but the Devil might accurately effect that whenas it is plain their skill is much greater But in the mean time this does notably confirm the truth of Villalpandus's dimensions of the Courts of the Temple when both their Computations conclude the same proportion betwixt the outer and inner Court and the same years of the Church as yet not lapsed into her Apostasie And the Daemons could not be ignorant of the true Symmetry of Solomon's Temple they being so longaevous and many of them in all likelihood having lookt down upon it and contemplated it CHAP. XXXIII Four Questions touching some Particulars in the Vision contained in the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Apocalypse with Answers thereto As what meant by Opening the Seals Who the Sitter on the Throne Who the Assistents about the Throne And who the slain Lamb. THESE four Questions upon occasion of some Papers from one not unversed in Apocalyptick Speculations I think fit to consider and to answer touching the Vision contained in the fourth and fifth Chapter of the Apocalypse 1. What is meant by opening the Seals of the seven-sealed Book 2. Who is he that sits on the Throne with that Book in his right hand 3. Who are that Company that are assistent or about the Throne 4. Who is that Lamb slain to whom the Book is given
saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever no Interpreter shews this to have been done after Christ's taking of the Book more than before From whence it is plain to me saith he that they go upon a wrong Hypothesis For if there had been any such things done on Earth no doubt some footsteps of it would have been found in History These few things as he calls them being thought by him pressing and weighty I am concerned to answer that the truth of my Exposition may not seem to be obscured thereby 1. To the first then I answer That this Proclamation was made only in this Dramatical Vision and is no more than a visionary Proclamation and brought in in this Dramatical manner to signifie the singular Prerogative of Christ given to him by his Father that he should have the ability of predicting and effecting such things as no Creature besides in the World had the like general Proclamation being made to find them out if there were any such And the Angel is said to be strong and his Voice loud that it might pierce as it were through the Universe to summon any one that would pretend to such a Prerogative as has been described 2. To the second I say There is neither any unlikeliness nor trifling in this Proclamation because it sets off the peculiarness of Christ's Prerogative in that it was given to him to open the sealed Book And it being not yet opened but being known in general to be a Book of Secrets as yet only in the Mind of God what unlikeliness or Indecorum is it that Proclamation be made who he is that shall be vouchsafed this power of opening the Book and distinctly knowing those Secrets which were only in the Mind of God before 3. To the third I answer as to the first That the Proclamation is only visionary and of what it is significative I have already said nor need again repeat 4. To the fourth I say it seems a kind of capricious Query as if it implied from that account of the Proclamation made that no man in Heaven on Earth or under the Earth was found able to open the Book that Christ was no where then else he would have been found able But as S. Paul says 1 Cor. 15.27 But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest he is excepted which did put all things under him so say I whenas this Proclamation was made to remonstrate to the World that no man in Heaven nor Earth nor under the Earth was found able saving Christ himself to open the Book it is manifest he is to be excepted out of that Negative Catalogue as being the only Creature that was able 5. To the fifth Incogitancy I think suggested this Query to the Objector For it implies S. John wept after he understood that Christ had obtained the power of opening the sealed Book whenas his weeping was before He says so plainly himself v. 4. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read the Book neither to look thereon Which is also a Dramatical passage on this Theatre intended to signifie nothing else but the great Needfulness and Desirableness of such a Book of Prophecies for the use of God's Church and their guidance in all the Tossings Changes and Revolutions in this transitory World Such a Book was so necessary and requisite that it would grieve any good Christian at the very heart who is solicitous for the Church to want such a Load-star or Cynosura 6. To the sixth I answer That these crowned Elders though they be prefigurative also of the Millennial Kings or Monarchs they are here some principal Angels of the spiritual Kingdom of the God of Israel in Heaven And why may not such an Angel be thought to be wiser than John and able to instruct him There is nothing incongruous or indecorous in this Dramatical passage and John was called up into Heaven to be instructed by his Betters This celestial Actor may well be conceived to know how the Scene would go though John in the mean time was as yet ignorant thereof 7. To the seventh Truly this is a very curious Question if it imply that one should declare who this crowned Elder was by Name It is sufficient to say it was one of the Elders that was next him and so most conveniently placed to instruct John and comfort him upon his weeping and so take that kue to carry on this Divine Scene from v. 4. to v. 8. till the slain Lamb had taken the Book out of the hand of him that sate on the Throne and had obtained power to open it By which no Event is prefigured that was to come to pass some Ages after John's receiving the Apocalypse but it is only signified in this pompous Dramatical way That this Book-Prophecy is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him and which he imparted to his Servant John So that the curiosity of naming the Party whom this Elder may prefigure vanisheth 8. To the eighth I say Those that are set so near the Throne of God are Members of his spiritual or Angelical Kingdom in Heaven but prefigurative withal of his Millennial Kingdom on Earth which is the main scope of his Providence over his Church that it shall at last come to pass that the Heavenly Jerusalem in Image and Resemblance shall descend from God on this Earth and his Tabernacle be with men And therefore the glory of the God of Israel is here so represented that it may also prefigure the State of the Church under the New Jerusalem as the other Introductory Visions have some glances or more general strokes at Prophetick Events in some passages And now for the new Song sung by the four Beasts and twenty four Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dignus es qui acciperes Thou wert worthy to receive the Book for so the Original is interpretable and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God and made us Kings and Priests to reign upon Earth This new Song is prefigurative of the Joy and Happiness of that State of the Church of which it is said Apoc. 21.5 Behold I make all things new which is the New Jerusalem state In which there will be such triumphant Praises sung unto the Lamb when it will be so evident he has carried his Church safe for whom he gave his Life and Blood through all the predicted conditions thereof and at last has placed them in that happy and glorious Millennial State by his faithful Conduct Wisdom and Power Which are included in the Faculty granted him by his Father of opening the Seals of the Book as I have noted elsewhere And whenas presently afterwards the whole Universe is made to ring with a loud Doxology from numerous Quires of Angels and of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth and under
words seem naturally to imply such a seeing of him as S. Paul had by Vision from Heaven whereby he was converted and forced to say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord to recant his Judaism and sing Hosanna to Christ the Son of David and profess himself a Christian And accordingly which is the third place pointed at by Mr. Mede S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But for this very reason says he I who out of ignorance had been a Blasphemer a Persecuter and Injurer of Christ obtained mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in me first as the Primitiae of the Jewish Nation that is to be converted in such a miraculous manner as I was Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as our English has it for a pattern to them for then it should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for a representative Figure or Type of them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting This seems to be the natural sense of the place For why should he say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in me first if others were not to follow that should be converted in such a miraculous manner as he was by Vision and Voices from Heaven For in other ways of Conversion he was not the first of the Jews that were converted Wherefore there must be a Conversion of the Jews by such a mean as S. Paul was converted and of which the manner of Paul's Conversion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prophetick Type or Figure These three Scriptures may incline a rational man to believe that some chief of the Jews the most able the most noted and most zealous of them for the Jewish Religion may be called as Paul was Whose Testimonies will awake all the Jewish Nation and cause them more impartially to consider the Truth of Christian Religion And the Completion of Prophecies and their genuine Interpretation the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and the lives of the Reformed Christians a sort of them at least may be so considerably perfected by that time those few Names in Sardis by that time being well increased that things being so fitly prepared it may seem a Miracle for any honest sincere Jew in those days not to be converted These are my own proper thoughts on these three places of Scripture But for fuller satisfaction you may consult Mr. Mede I do not love to dwell long on an Argument that I cannot so certainly and assuredly master CHAP. XIX The last part of the Letter The Reinforcement of his Objection against the literal or physical sense of the first Resurrection from two parallel places of Daniel and John An Answer to that Reinforcement from those very parallel places The Genius of the Prophetick Stile in Daniel and John in intimating one Antitheton by another What Antitheton to those awakened into Eternal life in Daniel is to be found in the Apocalypse What is meant by the Devil's detrusion into the Abyss That the first Resurrection is Physical not Political proved from the Text it self Apoc. 20. v. 4. That the Judgment there did pass upon those that were either naturally or politically dead before the Millennium when the wicked were not politically so and therefore cannot be those revived in a Political sense after the Millennium Further Arguments that the first Resurrection is Physical THUS far I wrote before I received your last which contains a Reinforcement of your former Objection against the taking the first Resurrection Apoc. 2◠in a literal or Physical sense and not in a Political What you add I confess is sober and ingenious and may suit with some mens palates the best but though I have thought several times of this very thing afore of my self yet mine ever refused it I will set it down in your own words that I may not disadvantage the strength of the sense you aim at You ask Whether since my self make that place of Daniel Chap. 12. parallel to that of Apoc. 20. the first Resurrection mentioned there by S. John may not be understood rather in a Political sense of the state of the Church in the Millennium than in a natural and Physical concerning the Martyrs For those others say you in Daniel which awake to shame and everlasting contempt perhaps may be answerable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apocalypse and the awakening there parallel to the living here c. And whereas it is said by S. John The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished what hinders say you but it may be understood of the wicked getting into Political power again after the expiration of the Millennium That is briefly your sense if not your very words To this I answer That though the attempt be ingenious to object thus from those two parallel places yet the places themselves that are parallel will jointly bear off the force of the Objection and show that a mere Political sense for these places is harsh and forced For what can be more violent and harsh than to interpret Dan. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Political sense This is the main place that the Jews alledge for their Article of the Resurrection in a Physical sense as also the Christians And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very Gospel-phrase again and again inculcated that signifies a blessed Immortality in a glorified body And besides this as Apoc. 20.12 there is mention of Books being opened at the general and Physical Resurrection as all well in their wits must needs understand it so before this Resurrection in Daniel there is mention of the Book in which those whose Names are written are to be saved as it is said Apoc. 20.15 that those whose Names are not found in the Book of Life were cast into the Lake of fire These things considered methinks make it certain that the awaking here in Daniel into everlasting life signifies not a Political but Physical Resurrection let Porphyrius and Grotius phansie what they please And therefore in this parallel place of the Apocalypse the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their living and reigning with Christ must have a Physical sense not a Political and signifie their Vivification into celestial bodies and their reigning with him in Heaven And so those that had not worshipped the Beast nor received his mark c. they answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in eodem genere that is to say in a Political sense to those that in Daniel are to be in shame and everlasting contempt one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying the opposite thereto and the opposite to that in Daniel is here made choice of in the Apocalypse For it is the Genius of the Prophetick stile in these two Prophets Daniel and John to intimate one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by another I have observed several Examples though I have not the command of them in my memory for the present That in
of which the Truth is to be followed and the shadow to fly away And lastly For what is alledged in the seventh Argument they are but such things as are already answered by my answering the first where I have explained in what sense there is said to be no death nor sorrow nor pain And it being said there is no curse that is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that respects the Papal Curses as is noted in my Exposition And that there is no Night is no more than is said by Esay of the state of the Church on Earth Thy Sun shall no more go down c. Chap. 60. And this state of the Church being so holy on Earth it is no wonder that such ill people as are called Dogs Sorcerers Whoremongers Idolaters c. are excluded from it and not admitted into their Communion And in that they are said to enjoy the sight of the face of God and of the Lamb what is this more than what S. Paul witnesses we are capable of in this life That God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness may shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ So that there being so many indications as I have observed in my Notes that the description of this New Jerusalem is a description of a state of the Church on Earth and the best Arguments alledged against it being really invalid it remains manifest that the state of the Church in the Millennial Reign of Christ on the Earth is predicted and described by this Description of the New Jerusalem But now after the pondering of the Plea of both Parties though I am very confident that the description of the New Jerusalem is a description of the Church on Earth in the Millennium yet I am on the other side as confident of what is not at all repugnant to this that this excellent Millennial state of the Church is a Type and so intended to be in its description of that more transcendently blessed and glorious state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven And the reasons that induce me to this belief in brief are these First It seems handsom and congruous that it being so universally acknowledged on all sides that the State and Oeconomy of the Jewish Church was a Type of the Christian Church which was to succeed it so the best state of the Christian Church Militant which is the Millennial state or rather the state of the New Jerusalem here described which the Heavenly state succeeds should be a Type of the succeeding Church Triumphant in Heaven Secondly There is a sufficient lively Description and sensible Representation of the state of the second Death which succeeds the general Judgment the Lake burning with brimstone and fire why therefore should there not be as lively or rather more lively description of the state of Eternal life to which the Godly are adjudged as well as the Wicked to the other state Thirdly therefore The Description of the New Jerusalem State or Polity for it is the Kingdom of Heaven immediately succeeding this Lake of fire in the very next Chapter under the very name of a new Heaven and a new Earth the same with the New Jerusalem and this after the Conflagration we are fairly invited thereby to conclude that the state of the New Jerusalem on Earth is so described that it is also a Type of the Triumphant Jerusalem in Heaven And thus far we will allow force in Alcazar's second and third Argument that they may fairly warrant in conjunction with other Considerations the description of the New Jerusalem on Earth to be a Type of the Church Triumphant in Heaven Fourthly This being a most Holy Book of Divine Visions and this of the New Jerusalem the last of the Visions what can be a more proper Vision than this that typifies also the glorious and blissful state of the Saints in Heaven to be the close of all and which not only this Book of the Apocalypse but the whole Bible aims at Fifthly and lastly It is observable and I have noted it in my Mystery of Godliness Book 7. Chap. 7. That in a Prophecy that may have a meaner fulfilling at the first and is really intended for that fulfilling yet by reason of the high actuation of the Spirit of the Prophet some expressions may come from him that much better fit the Antitype than the Type in which the Prophecy is first fulfilled This is so over and over again verified in the Prophecy Typical of our Saviour Christ that it is needless pains to name any And many such instances also are observable in the Typical Prophecies of Antichrist as that in the Prince of Type c. Now this being so observable in Predictions that are but Types of what there will be a fuller completion that there are strokes in them that properly belong not but only figuratively to the Type but to its Antitype there being this very case in the description of the New Jerusalem a Prophecy of the Millennial state of the Church on Earth that is to say there being such expressions therein that more naturally describe the state of Heaven as S. Augustine has well observed in the first Argument and Alcazar in the last the genuine Result of this Consideration is this That it is a Prophecy of such a State of the Church on Earth as is a lively Type withal of that transcendent Happiness the Saints will find in Heaven where there shall be not only no more death sorrow crying tears pain or torture from that bloody persecutive Polity of Babylon which are intimated by a Synecdoche Generis but absolutely and properly speaking without a Figure there shall be none of these things at all These are the Reasons that move me to think that though the description of the New Jerusalem be a Prophecy of the blessed Reign of Christ on Earth that yet it is withal a Type of the Joys and Glory of the Kingdom of Heaven wherewith the Saints are rewarded after the Conflagration CHAP. XXI The occasion of his more fully making out that grand Truth that the whole Apocalypse in a manner consists of three main Prophecies beginning with the Church and reaching to the end of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy Sealed Book Prophecy and Opened Book Prophecy with the three Introductory Visions prefixed thereto That the Epistolar Prophecy is such a Prophecy That the Sealed Book Prophecy is such And also the Opened Book Prophecy The Reference of the three Introductory Visions to the Title of the Book of the Apocalypse Introductory Visions to Prophecies in Isaiah Ezekiel and Daniel and that they are not properly Prophecies themselves The Meaning of the Introductory Vision of the Epistolar Prophecy The like Meaning of the Introductory Vision to the Prophecy of the Sealed Book The drift of the third Introductory Vision muchwhat the same with the two former and that the Angel there
appearing is Christ That this third Introductory Vision is a kind of Transitionary Introduction to the Opened Book Prophecy Proved briefly from the Oath of the Angel that the Sealed Book Prophecy reaches to the End of the World FOrasmuch as I am fully perswaded in my own judgment that I have suggested in my Exposition of the Apocalypse touching that Volume of Divine Visions is true namely that the whole in a manner consists of three main Prophecies which reach each of them from the beginning of the Church to the End of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy to the Seven Churches the Sealed Book-Prophecy and the Opened Book-Prophecy and of three Introductory Visions each of the three Prophecies having prefixed to it one And because this is so fundamental a Truth that no man with success can interpret any part of the Apocalypse repugnantly thereto yet knowing certainly and experimentally that men of Learning Wit and Parts and of a Genius to these kind of studies have notwithstanding overlooked this necessary Principle and thereby have bewildred themselves and lost themselves in inextricable Labyrinths therefore for the more sure inculcating so sound and necessary a Notion I have thought fit something more fully here to insist on the proof thereof but more especially that those three Visions prefixed to these three Prophecies are rather Introductions to the said Prophecies than Prophecies themselves That the Epistles to the Seven Churches is a Prophecy I have in my Exposition demonstrated by no Iess than twenty solid Arguments which are also set down at the end of my Exposition of the Visions of Daniel and the scope thereof is enforced by Notes thereon But that it is a Prophecy reaching from the beginning of the Church to the End of the World that one Consideration might assure any one that is not hoodwinkt with prejudice viz. that these Seven Churches imply seven Intervals from the beginning of the Church as any will grant that is convinced it is a Prophecy and the Number Seven every where in the Apocalypse implies All from the Terminus whence the Reckoning is and therefore it necessarily implies all the intervals of the Church from the beginning to the end thereof This must be indubitable to him that understands the stile of the Apocalypse And taking this ground and observing the intervals we have chosen and applying History to each of them the Epistles are found an exquisite Prefiguration of the things in each interval and the Paronomastical allusions hugely expressive of the Events of every interval which is as full a confirmation as one can desire that the Epistolar Prophecy reaches from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World And now that the Sealed Book-Prophecy does so too it is evident from the same Argument drawn from the Septenary which is an Apocalyptick Symbol of Vniversality taking in from the term it commences all the space of mundane Affairs wherein the Church may be concerned and Divine Providence and Prophecy imployed which therefore is to the end of the World And thus not only the seven Seals reach to the end of the World but by the same reason the seven Trumpets commencing with the seventh Seal and seven Thunders commencing with the seventh Trumpet must reach to the end of the World And the Angel Chap. 10. swears to this Truth That there shall be no more time saving that wherein the seventh Angel shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished as I shall make good afterwards Wherefore here is abundance of Evidence that the Sealed Book-Prophecy reaches from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World And that the Opened Book-Prophecy does the like that is reaches to the end of the World is manifest because it reaches to the last Judgment and Conflagration Chap. 20. And that the Visions of Chap. 12. respect the beginning of the Church viz. the Woman in Childbirth and the Fight of Michael with the Dragon no man of common sense can deny From whence yet it will naturally follow That the measuring of the Temple of God and the Altar c. respects also or reaches the beginning of the Church for the Church was Symmetral as soon as it began But these three Points there was less need to insist upon they being sufficiently made out elsewhere The chief thing intended here is to prove that the three Visions prefixed to these three main Prophecies are Introductions only to those Prophecies and not properly Prophecies themselves For the better clearing this Truth we will take our rise from the Title of the Book comprized in vers 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified viz. the things to come to pass some sooner some later by his Angel to his servant John Here we see how methodically in a plain vulgar stile is set down the summ of this Book viz. that the Book is a Book predicting things to come that is to say a Book of Prophecies That this Book of Prophecies is a Revelation of Jesus Christ that he is the Revealer of these things to come and that unto John by Angelical Ministry But that the Man Christ Jesus had this Revelation from God it being the high Priviledge of the Soul of the Messias to have such Secrets revealed unto him The two main things therefore included in this Title are these That this Book is a Revelation of things to come That this Revelation is from the Man Christ or through the Humanity of Christ but by the Gift of the Eternal Godhead Both these things are set down here in an ordinary vulgar stile But forasmuch as those Predictions in the three main Prophecies which might have been made also or expressed in such a vulgar plain stile but yet are not but in pompous and Aenigmatical Phrases it was very suitable and congruous that the signifying that these three Prophecies were the Revelation of the Man Jesus Christ by the gift of God should be expressed with correspondent Pomp and Magnificency And this is the thing I contend for that those Visions prefixed to these three main Prophecies that the main design of them is to intitle the succeeding Prophecy to the Revelation of Jesus Christ by the gift of God and that the Godhead is joined with him in every one of these three Introductory Visions and so makes good that part of the general Title of the whole Book and in as magnificent a manner as the Prophetical part it self is set out therein That there are such Introductory Visions prefixed before eminent Prophecies is observable in very illustrious Examples thereof As Isai Chap. 6. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple Above stood the Seraphims c. Which Vision is no Prophecy but a signification of Isaiah's Mission and Inspiration from God whereby he was inabled to utter infallible Prophecies The
them naturally of it self But the special intention of prefixing it here is to signifie in this magnificent manner that the Sealed Book-Prophecy is the second part of the Revelation of the Man Jesus Christ which God gave him For it is plain that the Man Christ Jesus signified by the Lamb that was slain took the Book out of the right hand of him that sate upon the Throne Chap. 5.7 which is the Eternal Godhead and opened the Seals in order Chap. 6. and so communicated the Visions of each Seal to John a thing which no Creature in Heaven nor Earth nor under the Earth was found worthy or able to do besides him This therefore is the special and particular defign of prefixing this Vision of the Spiritual Kingdom of the God of Israel before the Sealed Book Prophecy which yet is so attempered as I said before that the parties represented in it seem to exhibit a Dramatical show that hath a prefigurative signification of the Happiness of the Millennial state of the Church For it is the priviledge of the Angelical Kingdom that they can exhibit Prophetical Shows or Plays when we Mortals can only exhibit Historical ones Wherefore though the more special end of this Vision is that which has been already declared and such in a manner as of that in Isaiah and Ezekiel yet the thing so naturally bearing it nothing hinders but that it may have a kind of general Prefigurativeness of the Joy and Glory of Christ's Kingdom in the Millennium And now for the third Introductory Vision prefixt before the Opened Book-Prophecy That the special intent thereof is the same with the two former Introductory Visions viz. to intimate that this third Prophecy is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him may appear from hence In that Christ is understood by this Angel Which Title or Representation cannot be thought too mean for him when he is represented and called a Lamb before Besides in Isaiah Chap. 9. he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Malachy Chap. 3. Angelus Foederis And Christ that led the Children of Israel out of Aegypt bears the Title of an Angel sometimes and under this Title and Garb he has appeared unto some of the Patriarchs Wherefore there can be no scruple but for all that he is called an Angel he may be Christ And that he is really Christ may appear from comparing Dan. 12.7 with Apoc. 10 5 6. where both these Angels do the same thing But he in Daniel is Christ as has been proved from his Aaronical Habit which no Angel can appear in not sustaining the person of Christ Besides it is said that his Face was as the Sun which is like that Chap. 1.16 And his countenance was as the Sun shining in its strength which is said there of Christ And his feet like Pillars of fire answer to his feet like fine Brass burning in a Furnace and Pillars will answer to the strength of Brass And lastly the Rainbow over his head is an infallible token taken out of Ezekiel's Vision and that of S. John here again of the glory of the God of Israel viz. Christ according as S. John says He came to his own and his own received him not Furthermore there being the unsealed or opened Book in his Hand which the Lamb received and opened it is the most easie and natural to conceive that the Book remained with the same party now transformed into another shape Add also that his speech doth bewray him that is his roaring like a Lion that he is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as he is called Chap. 5.5 These congruities must needs perswade any one that is not over-tough or stiff that this Angel is really Christ And then it naturally follows that John receiving this opened Book of this Angel and by eating thereof being enabled to prophesie before many Peoples Nations Tongues and Kings that this Opened Book-Prophecy is also the Revelation of Jesus Christ which he received of God for he took the Book from him Chap. 5. and here signifies the things therein contained to his Servant John in the Visions following Thus we see that this Introductory Vision to the Opened Book-Prophecy serves the same end that the other two Introductory Visions do and is therefore of the same nature with them not a Vision that sets out any particular affairs though it may have some more general Presignificances of the state of things in the times it may thus presignifie as the Introductory Vision to the Sealed Book-Prophecy has touching the Millennium And that roaring of the Angel like a Lion to supply the place of the seventh Trumpet and the seven Thunders uttering their voices the mean time whereby they naturally divide the seventh Trumpet into seven Intervals as the seven Trumpets do the seventh Seal this Roaring and Thundering has a presignificancy in general of the Calamities and Miseries that will befal that Party that this roaring and thundering is against during the space of the seventh Trumpet So that this Introductory Vision is a kind of Transitionary Introduction to the Opened Book-Prophecy and dispatches the Sealed Book-Prophecy with that general Account of the Roaring of that Lion-like Angel and of the seven Thunders during that Roaring which fill up the space of the seventh Trumpet and consequently of the Sealed Book-Prophecy that so there might be an orderly proceeding to the Opened Book-Prophecy the Sealed Book-Prophecy reaching to the end of the World as is confirmed by the Oath of the Angel as I promised to make out which I do thus This roaring of the mighty Angel is put in the place of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and therefore must occupy the same space of time with it or be Synchronal thereto And that it supplies the place of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet is manifest from that it immediately follows the sixth and also is distinguished into seven Thunders as the seventh Seal is into seven Trumpets This may assure any one that is not blinded with prejudice that the roaring of this mighty Angel supplies the place of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and consequently that it is Synchronal thereto But now forasmuch as Chap. 10.6 7. that Oath of the Angel in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is maimed sense or non-sense if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there does not signifie as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true translation of this Oath is this That there shall be no more time saving in the days of the Voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished This is certainly the true and genuine sense of the Oath of the Angel according to the Original Text as is more fully proved in the Answer to the Remarks But it is plain from this Oath of the Angel that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet reaches to the end of the World Therefore the roaring of the Angel
Which Consideration will justifie against the idle Cavils of the Unskilful what we have writ in Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. Chap. 16. touching the Visions of the King of Tyre in Ezekiel applying them to the Bishop of Rome And now in the next place we may also note That as in Ezekiel his eating of the Roll does not signifie that he was thereby to expound Prophecies but to utter Prophecies himself so in like manner S. John's taking the Opened Book from the hand of the Angel and eating it and his being bid thereupon to prophesie does not signifie expounding Prophecies but the uttering Prophecies himself as he begins to do immediately in the next Chapter so that a man may justly wonder that any thing should blind any one so as to interpret John's being bid to prophesie after his eating the Book of either preaching or expounding Prophecies And thirdly and lastly As Ezekiel his sight of the Appearance of the Glory of the Lord as of the Bow in the Cloud in the Day of Rain was an Introductory Vision to his eating of the Roll and prophesying John also seeing this Glory of the God of Israel this great Angel of the Covenant Christ with the Rainbow on his Head from whose hand he takes the Opened Book eats it and prophesies what can this signifie more naturally than that this Appearance of this glorious Angel is an Introductory Vision to S. John's Opened Book-Prophecy as the Appearance of the Glory of the God of Israel was to Ezekiel's Prophecies as was concluded before in the foregoing Chapter CHAP. XXIII His reason of inserting here his Demonstration that the Reformation begun by Luther is the Rising of the Witnesses The two first Visions of the Opened Book Prophecy proved Synchronal The agreement of the fore-parts of these two Visions and the exquisite correspondency of the middle-parts one with another Whence the Fall of Babylon in the second Vision is proved to be the same with the Fall of the City and Rising of the Witnesses in the first That consequently the Fall of Babylon in the second Vision is after the sixth Trumpet That the Fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses is the Object of those Acclamations in Heaven Chap. 11. and of the Doxology of the Elders As also of the Song of Moses and the Lamb sung by the Victors over the Beast That this Song therefore follows the sixth Trumpet And that all the Viols follow that Song From whence the above-mentioned Demonstration is concluded THAT excellent usefulness of having an assured knowledge that the blessed Reformation begun by Luther and here in England more especially perfected was the Rising of the Witnesses which most naturally must beget a peaceful mind in men and due value for our Church makes me resume again the seven Arguments at the end of the Answer to S. E. his Remarks on my Apologie enlarging at least upon some of them more fully that so useful and necessary a Matter may not be omitted or maimedly managed in these Paralipomena That the abovesaid Reformation therefore is the Rising of the Witnesses I demonstrate thus First We are to observe in the two first Visions of the Opened Book Prophecy viz. the Visions comprized the first of them in the eleventh Chapter of the Apocalypse and the other in the twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth Chapters that they begin from the same Epocha and that they end in the same times namely with the last Vial which contains a full and final overthrow of Babylon or of the Beast and false Prophet Whence these two Visions must be concluded Synchronal Now that they begin from the same Epocha we prove thus They both begin from the beginning of the Church For the Vision in the eleventh Chapter being the first Vision S. John sets down after his eating the Opened Book and his being bid to prophesie that is to say to prefigure or predict things to come as Ezekiel did after his eating the Roll and what is set down Chap. 11. being plainly a Prophecy it is plain this is the first Prophecy of the Opened Book and therefore according to indispensable Method if any Visions of the Opened Book-Prophecy begin from the beginning of the Church this first must and not be Visio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a decollated Vision with its head struck off But that the Vision of the Fight of Michael with the Dragon and of the Woman in the pangs of Childbirth commence with the beginning of the Church which are parts of the entire Vision of the twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth Chapters is so plain a thing that impudence it self if not stark blind cannot deny it Wherefore the Vision of the eleventh Chapter must begin from the beginning of the Church as well as the other and so must have the same Epocha And as the fore part of the Vision Chap. 11. viz. the Temple measured and the Worshippers therein denote the Purity of the Primitive Times as to Worship so the fore-part of the other Vision the part contained in Chap. 12. viz. the Combate of Michael with the Dragon and the pangs of the childbearing Woman denote their fortitude and patience in suffering for the Truth Now that these two Visions end in the same times is plain from hence in that the end of the first Chap. 11.19 is a lively description of the seventh Vial. There were Lightnings and Voices and Thunderings and an Earthquake and great Hail the same description that is found Chap. 16. v. 18 21. and no where else are those five Phaenomena put in the whole Apocalypse So that the first of these two Visions ends in the seventh Vial. That the second does so too is plain for that it ends with the treading of the Wine-press where blood came out even to the Horse-bridles Which therefore must be the slaughter by that mighty Heros on the white Horse Apoc. 19. Commander of the Army in the Battel of that great day of God Almighty which is plainly under the seventh Vial. Wherefore these two Visions beginning from one Epocha and ending with the seventh Vial do Synchronize Secondly As the fore-part of these two Synchronizing Visions represent a pure Church conflicting with the Pagans over whom at last they get the Victory Chap. 12. v. 9 10. so in the next or middle parts of these two Visions the former from v. 2. to v. 11. in Chap. 11. the latter the whole thirteenth Chapter there is contained the like Conflict betwixt the pure Apostolick Church and the Apostatized Church or Pagano-Christians and a Victory noted Chap. 11. v. 11 12 13. in the former and in the latter Chap. 14. v. 8. the foregoing verses being referrable to this Conflict as the description of the Souldiers of the Lamb. So that the middle-parts of the two Visions exquisitely answer one another these middle-parts of both the first and second Vision containing a War of the Witnesses or Souldiers of the Lamb or Saints with the Beast and we are to
observe that the event of that War is an actual but partial overthrow of the Beast or Babylon called the great City as is manifest from Chap. 11. v. 11 12 13. unto which answers the actual Fall of Babylon in the second Vision Which must needs be Actual else the Angel would speak an untruth in saying Babylon is fallen is fallen Chap. 14. v. 8. and but partial because it both answers to that in the first Vision and precedes the seventh Vial in the second before which the full and final overthrow of Babylon is not And whereas Prophecy is anticipatory History and yet no actual success of the forty two months War but this Fall of Babylon is prefigured in this second Vision it is plain that this is the success thereof and immediately before menaced by the first Angel declaring the Judgments of God against the Idolatrous Bestians and therefore the very same with the partial Fall of the great City and the Rising of the Witnesses in the first Vision which was in the last Half-Day of the three days and an half or in the last Half-Time of the three times and an half Whence the Fall of Babylon the Angel brings news of must be so too and not before because the upshot of that War also was not till then We see therefore what a perfect Correspondency the middle parts of the two Visions which parts are terminated in the success of the Beast's War with the Saints or Witnesses have one with another Thirdly therefore Forasmuch as the Fall of Babylon in the second Vision is the same with the Fall of the great City and Rising of the Witnesses in the first and this latter viz. the Fall of the City and the Rising of the Witnesses is just at the close of the sixth Trumpet the former must be so too viz. the Fall of Babylon must be at the close of the sixth Trumpet also and the third or remaining part of each Vision must be after the sixth Trumpet for the same reason Fourthly Forasmuch as this Fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses is an ample object of Joy and Thanksgiving to the Evangelici the Witnesses and sealed Souldiers of the Lamb against whom the Beast warred and was too hard for them all along though they held out through Patience and Faith and Hope of promised success at last Chap. 13. v. 9 10. these being encouraged as well as the Bestians menaced by the first Angel therefore as there is a joyful Message by the second Angel of the actual Fall of Babylon in the second Vision Chap. 14. v. 8. so it is impossible but those Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders Chap. 11. v. 15 16 17. should respect the partial but actual Fall of the City and Rising of the Witnesses it being so ample an Object of those joyful Acclamations and of that thankful Doxology and there being nothing betwixt but the graceful ushering them in with the sound of the seventh Trumpet For though they may glance at more enlarged hopes of future Accessions yet the principal Object and Occasion of this Thanksgiving is the actual Rising of the Witnesses For were it not so this signal Providence and illustrious Victory would be without any Doxology or Thanksgiving which is grosly absurd that there should be no shout nor sign of Joy at such a surprizing Providence as this namely at the reviving of the two Witnesses when they had lyen slain three days and an half in the streets of the City nor at their ascending in a Cloud into Heaven in the view of all the people the tenth part of their City who slew them falling in the mean time by an Earthquake and many thousands of their Enemies buried in the Ruines How incredible how unsuitable a thing is it that so happy a Catastrophe of the Witnesses sufferings as this should pass without a Plaudite Therefore it is a sensless thing not to make the Rising of the Witnesses and the Fall of the City the Object of those Acclamations and of the Doxology of the Elders and contrary to the usual Mode of the Apocalypse that ever closeth the good success of the Church with some indications of Joy and Thankfulness as Chap. 12. v. 10 12. Chap. 19. v. 1. and again v. 21. which concludes with a Feast of Joy and Thanksgiving for the Victory of the Rider of the white Horse Wherefore it is abundantly plain that those Acclamations and the Elders Doxology respect this event of the Rising of the Witnesses And is yet further manifest from that passage in the Doxology it self v. 27. where thanks is given to God Almighty because he has taken to him his great Power and hath reigned viz. in that Fall of the great City and Rising of the Witnesses in this he resumed a considerable part of his Kingdom which Antichrist had usurped But if it respect not this the very Assertion is false and Thanks is given for nothing Fifthly therefore We being so well assured that the partial Fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses is the Object of the joyful Annunciation of the second Angel Chap. 14. and of the Doxology of the Elders Chap. 11. and meeting in the very next Vision to these viz. that of the Vials with a Song prefixt thereto of Praise and Thanksgiving by the Victos over the Beast for an actual but partial Victory such as that was over him in the two foregoing Visions and this in this Song discovers it self to be actual because it is said therein Chap. 15. v. 4. For thy judgments are made manifest viz. in that late Fall of Babylon and yet the Victory implied in this Song is but partial because the Song is prefixt before the Vials which are to bring to pass the full and final ruine thereof and there being no precedent actual and partial Victory but this in the Fall of the City and Rising of the Witnesses which may be the Object of this Song of Thanksgiving like that of Moses upon the Overthrow of Pharaoh at the Red Sea it is impossible but this Song must be to the same effect with the Doxology of the Elders and synchronize with it Sixthly therefore It is as clear as Noon-day that that Doxology of the Elders immediately following the sixth Trumpet this Song of Moses and the Lamb must immediately follow the sixth Trumpet And now Seventhly and lastly All the Vials following the Song of Moses and the Lamb it is apparent that they all follow the sixth Trumpet and the Rising of the Witnesses and consequently there being no part of the two first Visions of the Opened Book which begin from one Epocha and end with the seventh Vial which prefigures that notable and indeed stupendious Atchievement of Providence which therefore cannot but be predicted within this space in causing so many Provinces Principalities Nations and Kingdoms to cast off the Pope in the late Reformation begun by Luther unless this of the partial Fall of Babylon and
having suffered like a Lamb was to be again advanced to the Throne of God Some such sense quoth he as this we shall be obliged to put upon it forasmuch as it exceeds all belief to think that when the Book aforesaid shall be to be opened God himself in Person shall appear amongst us sitting on a Throne with a Book in his right hand and that after Proclamation made for one to open it in the Ears of all the World his Son Jesus shall appear coming to his Father and take it out of his hand c. Or which is equally absurd the four Beasts and twenty four Elders shall be taken up into Heaven to see the same things acted there Whence it is concluded That the sealed Book is not to be opened by the Lamb himself in person but by some mortal man or other whom he shall imploy in this service Answ This is argued handsomly enough were it not upon a double false Foundation The first is That opening the Seals is explaining the Prophecies which I have already shown to be a mistake The other is That this Vision is an absolute Vision not an Introductory Vision to the Book-Prophecy which point I have cleared Chap. 21. nor need I here repeat things And in the third and last place The individual Person of Christ is so exquisitely described that no other but himself can be meant For besides that he is said to be slain and to have redeemed us with his Blood and to have made us Kings and Priests he is stiled the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Root of David How is it possible that any one but Christ himself can be meant by this description This is no description of a mystical Christ but of the very Person of Christ himself I am thus brief in answering this last Question because there will be an abundant supplement made in the answering the Confutatory part of his Papers where he endeavours to entangle my Hypothesis with as many difficulties as he can Wherefore I will in the next Chapter give a summary Account of my sense of this Vision and then answer to his Allegations against it CHAP. XXXIV A summary Account of the fore-mentioned Vision and the sense of several Particulars acknowledged by the Expositor Ten Objections to entangle the abovesaid Account and the sense of the Particulars Distinct Answers to the said ten Objections COncerning this Introductory Vision comprized in the fourth and fifth Chapter of the Apocalypse I have spoke so fully in the twenty first Chapter of this Treatise that I may well be allowed to content my self only with a summary Account of that Vision here which is this This Vision impressed on the raptured Imagination of S. John is a Theatrick Representation of the Glory of the God of Israel in his Angelical or spiritual Kingdom in Heaven which besides that common use of all the Introductory Visions which is to signifie that the succeeding Prophecy as this Book-Prophecy in counterdistinction to the Epistolar Prophecy is the Revelation of Jesus Christ obtained of God and communicated to his Servant John it is framed in such a Dramatical way as both to be prefigurative of several things appertaining to the glorious and joyful state of the blessed Millennium and also significative what a dear regard God has to his Son Christ even according to his humane Nature and what an inestimable value is to be put upon this Book-Prophecy in which is comprehended both the sealed Book-Prophecy and the opened Book-Prophecy This is a brief summary Account of this Vision In which we admit that the four Beasts and twenty four-Elders though they represent the spiritual or Angelical Kingdom in Heaven are also prefigurative of Believers some time to be on Earth We likewise further assert That he that sits on the Throne is God Almighty himself and no other That the slain Lamb is no other than Christ in his own Person That the seven-sealed Book is a Symbol of the secret Counsel and Foreknowledge of God touching the affairs or state of his Church and of the World as much as concerns his Church from the beginning thereof to the last Judgment And God his giving this Book to Christ signifies his communicating these his Secrets to him And the Lamb or Christ his opening the Seals in the sight of John denotes his imparting this Scene of future things to his Servant John though no man yet understood the meaning of those Typical Prefigurations All this for my part I owne whatever other Interpreters do And now let us see what the ingenious Objector can say to entangle so solid an Hypothesis 1. I demand only says he these few things First Where was ever any such loud Proclamation made at God's delivering this Book to his Son as is spoken of Rev. 5.2 2. Secondly How unlikely a thing is it that the things therein contained being only in the Mind of God as is supposed there should be any such Proclamation made at all to find out one that was worthy to know them For it may seem to be too much trifling in a weighty matter 3. Thirdly But if any such Proclamation were ever made who-ever heard it For it must needs be supposed that the Proclamation was made in the ears of a great many 4. Fourthly And where was Christ when this Proclamation was made that it is said No man in Heaven in Earth or under the Earth was found able to open the Book or look on it 5. Fifthly But if the meaning be that none but Christ was found able how comes S. John to weep for that Who could he expect or desire should do it besides 6. Sixthly How comes an Elder to know of Christ's taking the Book out of his Father's hand sooner than S. John himself 7. Seventhly What Elder was that that gave the first notice to S. John that Christ had prevailed to do it 8. Eighthly Who are they all that are set so near the Throne of God and of Christ as these Beasts and Elders are said to have been when God communicated the knowledge of these things to his Son and who are said upon that occasion to have sung a new Song with Harps c. to this effect Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the seven Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God c. and hast made us Kings and Priests unto God and we shall reign upon the Earth And there is the like reason of the Angelical Address that follows c. 9. Ninthly Interpreters interpreting this Angelical Address of Angels literally so called as they also interpret the strong Angel v. 2. contradict themselves and all Interpreters in other places who expound Angels to be meant of men 10. Tenthly and lastly But the greatest and most manifest Omission of all saith he is that whereas in the next place it is said That every Creature in Heaven in Earth and under the Earth c. I John heard
the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them to him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb to what times possibly can this belong but to the holy happy and glorious Millennial Reign of Christ in his Saints upon Earth The Song of the twenty four Elders and four Beasts prefigure the Joy of the Millennial Monarchs and People that of the Angels the Joy of the Angels in Heaven at this flourishing State of the Church on Earth and that of the rest of the Creatures the Conviction of all the World that the Lord Jesus was no less than he declared himself to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World to whom the Father had given all Power in Heaven and Earth of which this Millennial State of the Church is a most illustrious and glorious Effect filling all the World with wonder and amazement And this I hope may satisfie the eighth Query 9. Ninthly To the ninth Allegation I answer That the Doxology of the Angelical Quires does prefigure the Joy of Angels in Heaven for that blessed condition of the Church in the New Jerusalem state on Earth So that though this Vision which is a Representation of the glory of the God of Israel in his Spiritual or Angelical Kingdom in the Dramatical frame of things is so contrived that the four and twenty crowned Elders and four Beasts prefigure also the Monarchs and People of the Millennium yet there are left numerous Quires of Angels in counterdistinction to these to signifie Angels literally so called and the Song is to signifie their Joy at this State of the Church on Earth Nor has that strong Angel that makes the Proclamation any other sense than so that he was one of the Angelical Retinue of the God of Israel in Heaven Nor is that Rule of interpreting Angels of men in the Apocalypse universally true I am sure not in the Introductory Visions The word Angel occurs in several places of the Introductory Visions where it stands for an Angel literally so called not for a man to say nothing of other places So little force has this ninth Allegation 10. And lastly for the tenth which urges That if there had been any such universal Doxology to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb after he had taken the Book that there would have been some traces or footsteps of it in History To this I answer That it is a marvellous groundless conceit and expectation that what is here Parabolically and Dramatically set down only to express that Joy and Happiness which would redound to the whole Creation from Christ's being invested with this Power of opening the seven-sealed Book that is to be enabled both to foretel and guide the affairs of his Church so as that the state thereof will be so glorious and prosperous at last here upon Earth that all the World will be convinced of his stupendious Foresight Wisdom and Power that therefore there shall be such an universal Te Deum sung to him throughout the whole Universe at once so that the Solemnity might be recorded in History This is not the meaning of the Prophetick Stile And besides if it were the time is not yet come when this is to be For such expressions as these can suit with no meaner State of the Church on the Earth than that of the Millennial Reign when the four and twenty Millennial Monarchs including both the Jewish and Gentile Sovereigns or Princes may seasonably sing this Song Thou hast redeemed us with thy blood and made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon Earth viz. in Christ's Millennial Empire But to expect Records of such a Doxology in History before the Doxology has been is a great Incongruity Wherefore I hope any indifferent eye may easily discern that notwithstanding all these ten Allegations my Exposition of this Vision comprized in the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Apocalypse is unexceptionably true CHAP. XXXV Three Objections from a considerate hand The first against our making the three Times and an Half the forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days to be the same time The second against oun affirming the Euphratean Horsemen to have subdued the Eastern Roman Empire with Fire-Guns The last against our making the Aegyptian year to consist only of three hundred and sixty days in Arithmetica Apocalyptica but in Apocalypsis Apocalypseos of three hundred and sixty five with Answers to all three THE first Objection Every day in the forty two months signifying a year makes in the whole twelve hundred seventy seven years at least there being really in every year not three hundred and sixty but three hundred and sixty five days This seems to make the three Times and an Half or forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days not to be the same Answ That the forty two months are Aegyptian Months and consist of just thirty days apiece is manifest in that thirty times forty two make just twelve hundred and sixty days And these days and those months are the time of the mourning of the Witnesses and of that which all along occasions their mourning viz. the outer Court being trodden down by the Gentiles which is a plain indication that the twelve hundred and sixty days are a note of no more nor less time than the forty two months and that therefore they must be Aegyptian Months And as it is plain that the months are Aegyptian so we must conceive that the years in the three Times and an Half are so many Aegyptian years and an half consisting of Aegyptian Months which therefore make each of them three hundred and sixty days See Rev. Chap. 12. v. 6 14. This is their solid Year consisting of so many months to which they add the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called the Dies adjectitii which are five which here the Spirit of Prophecy takes no notice of but resolving the forty two Aegyptian months which is three solid Aegyptian Years and an half into just twelve hundred and sixty days shows that no more years than so are to be understood thereby And this not respecting at all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or five adjectitious days in this Compute of the Time of the Medial Visions all which synchronize one with another complies excellently well with that Truth which I have made out viz. That the eventual measure of the Medial Visions is not a Year which has been thought hitherto so to be but a Semi-time in respect of which seventeen years or more is not at all considerable So that there was no need of being so precise as to take the Dies adjectitii into the Reckoning and so to make the whole twelve hundred and seventy seven years at least as you would infer Wherefore though every day in the forty two months stands for a year yet these months being Aegyptian months and consisting of just thirty days apiece and there is the
yet partly because I have dwelt already on this Calendar of Prophetick Time longer than I intended and partly because I have already noted such things as may satisfie the Reader touching the Matters betwixt the Calendarist and my self I shall endeavour to be exceeding brief in my strictures on this Postscript Wherefore as for his first second and third Objections and Answers pag. 80 81. I have so fully set down what may satisfie the Reader therein in the foregoing forty fifth Chapter that I will omit saying any thing of them here We come therefore to his fourth Objection pag. 82. which is this But if the Line of 2300 Evening-Mornings could be supposed to begin at Cyrus yet the 1335 days Dan. 12. cannot be set to any other point of time than Antiochus for it is expresly dated from the taking away the daily Sacrifice and that is enough to destroy the Calendar His Answer to this is ample and ingenious but the summ and substance is this That the taking away the daily Sacrifice by Antiochus being a Type of the Beast or Antichrist his taking away the pure Christian Service which was at the beginning of his Reign this is to be the Epocha of the 1335 days as the taking away the daily Sacrifice is the Epocha of the 2300 Evening-Mornings literally understood But here I reply Why then is not the taking away the pure Christian Service the Epocha of the 2300 Days mystically understood especially I having demonstrated Chap. 45. that the Epocha of 2300 days mystically understood cannot be Cyrus his taking of Babylon though it would thus be very pretty the Typical Line reaching from literal Babylon's falling to mystical Babylon's falling and from literal Jerusalem restored to the mystical or New Jerusalem as he urges pag. 80. But that Epocha I have fully routed in that forty fifth Chapter and therefore the Epocha of the Typical 2300 days must either be in the taking away the Christian pure Service at the commencement of the Reign of the Beast where he would fix the Epocha of the 1335 days Whence the Church of God will not be cleansed from the impure Worship of Antichrist till above a thousand years hence Or else the Epocha must be from the taking away the daily Sacrifice which is most true but this will again destroy infallibly the ingenious Author's Calendar which I think I have hinted above also We pass therefore to the fifth Objection The Beast's time began before 400 and that spoils the Calendar-Account In Answer to this he recurs to that witty Invention of his whereby he concludes 404 years after the Refurrection to be the Time of the Purity of the Church and consequently the 437 of our Lord to be the Epocha of the Time of the Beast But this is already refuted in the foregoing forty fifth Chapter so that I need say nothing more here Furthermore to my Argument drawn from the proportion of the outer Court to the inner he answers First That let Villalpandus his Measures be never so punctual the Text seems not to point at Time but to the Churches Purity or agreement with Ezekiel's Measures Secondly Villalpandus's Measures are adjusted to the Temple but the Vision to the Tabernacle and City to make the outer Court Whence Villalpandus his Measures will be unapplicable to the business Thirdly The Church symbolizing with the Eremitical Woman was retired into the Temple worshipping before the golden Altar of Incense the daily Sacrifice being taken away viz. at the entrance of the Reign of the Beast before which time he supposes the outer Court was commensurable Fourthly Although it be hence that the first Vision of the Opened Book does not begin so high as the seven Churches or Seals yet this is according to the true Apocalyptick Order which first compleats the History of the Trumpets begun to the very end of the Apocalyptick time and then begins from the very first in the Woman cloathed with the Sun as a new set of Visions But to the first I reply This measuring respects not only the Purity of the Church but the Time of the visible Church continuing pure else why is that third proportional so seasonably offered in the Vision To the second That Villalpandus his Measures are adjusted to Solomon's Temple in Ezekiel which is Typical or Prophetical but the City being added it is Iconismorum Metallaxis usual with the Prophets to typifie one thing by more Symbols than one And by the Holy City is signified the People of Israel congregated in the outer Court to worship and answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the inner Court. To the third I say The retiring into the Temple can be no fit Symbol of the Woman in the Wilderness by Wilderness Paganism being emblematized as Alcazar has noted and brought a Cloud of Witness to confirm it and the reason thereof is added in my Alphabet of Iconisms So little congruity is there betwixt the Woman's retiring into the Temple and her being in the Wilderness which is as wide and vast as the two-winged Empire Eastern and Western Re-paganizing and so becoming a Wilderness or Desart And for the outer Court 's being commensurable before the entrance of the Reign of the Beast we were not come to the outer Court then and the Vision respects the external and visible state of the Church To the fourth and last I reply That the making the outer and inner Court synchronous does most certainly infer the first Vision of the Opened Book not to begin so high as that of the seven Churches and Seals Which is an intolerable absurdity and as great a piece of violence as can be done to the sacred Method of the Prophecies And now for the Calendarist's Apocalyptick Order so far it is true as that it points to the running through the History of the Trumpets begun to the very end of Apocalyptick Time which is the thing that is done in the roaring of the Lion-Angel distributed into seven Thunders which are equal put together to the space of the seventh or last Trumpet which therefore reach to the very end of Apocalyptick Time And therefore the Angel having declared that there was no more time than this seventh Trumpet which he had in so general a touch run thorough after his giving the Book to John to be eaten John is immediately bid to prophesie And therefore the Vision of the measured Temple and Witnesses is as certainly the first Vision of the Opened Book-Prophecy as any thing in the World can be certain And if it be so the Calendarist himself cannot but confess it begins as high as the seven Churches or the Seals But if he imagine the History of the Trumpets begun to be compleated to the end of Apocalyptick Time in the Vision comprized in the eleventh Chapter because of the second Woe 's being said to be past and the seventh Trumpet sounding to make the Vision of the Woman cloathed with the Sun the first Vision of the