point yet They need no Proof but Require only to be Magnified Displayed and Illustrated Argum. 2. Any Author or Writer that can Write Sense and who does indeed Write Sense and Writes with some Largeness and Diffusiveness of that his Sense and does declare He would be Heard and Read and would have the Minds that have Wisdom Exercise themselves upon what is Written let him wrap up his Mind and Sense in such Figures that none but the Wise and Considering should find out his meaning and let it but be that he accordingly hath Framed his Discourse whenever such a Writer gives out and makes publick such a Writing he thereby puts it under the Dominion of every One that is Wise and Sagacious and who will allow the Time and Thought that is necessary to make such Observation and Compare of the Hints and Remarks that cannot be Avoided in Rational and Coherent Discourse however Involv'd in Symbols and Figures by which the Sense and Meaning may be Understood and Found out But now it is on one side most True that None as the Divine Spirit can Write Highest Truth and of Stupendious Significancy and Coherence and yet Veil and Hide it so as that it should be impossible to find it out but remain perfect Mystery till the time of Revealing it should come if he pleased so to have it But then on the other hand none as he can Write in Figures and under Veils and yet so mix the Lights and the Shades if he please to have it so that the Minds that have Wisdom shall find Light Arising and Springing out in Taking heed to the sure Word of Prophecy And if They are Inclin'd and stirr'd up to separate Themselves to Intermiddle with this Wisdom it cannot be but they must make great Discoveries If they faithfully attend and lay the parts one to another and it be the will of that Holy Spirit of Prophecy they should do so Now that it is his Pleasure They should do so is made known by the very Writing and Publication of Prophecy and no Prohibition of Searching it as also by the obligation that lies upon all when he Writes to observe and understand This is due in Measure to every Intelligent and Worthy Writer but without Measure to his the Spirits Writing It is known to be his pleasure Because there is a General Command to Search the Scripture Because All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is Profitable and there is no Interdict upon Prophecy as to the search nor Limitation as to the Profitableness It is known to be his pleasure concerning Prophecy because it is said by our Lord with Relation to the Prophecy of Daniel Let him that readeth Vnderstand Because the Apostle Peter hath said of the more sure word of Prophecy yee do well in Taking heed to it because it is written as in Golden Letters on the Portal of the Revelation Blessed is he that Readeth and they that hear the words of the Prophecy of this Book which must needs imply with Understanding Because it is the Epiphonema the Burden of every Epistle of it He that hath an Ear let him hear And if it be thus then all the Locking up the Mind of the Holy Spirit of Prophecy is that he may reserve the Secrets of it for the peculiar Friends I say not of his word in general but of his Prophetick Word and that they may whet up the sharpest Exercise of their Powers of Understanding to find the Golden Taches and Couplings and one Part of Prophecy may be joyn'd to Another and the whole peice be under view in all its Frame and Contexture As soon as ever therefore the Holy Spirit hath once Publish'd and Expos'd his Prophetic Writings and thereby and therein Affix'd them to the Pillars of the Temple They are by his Grace made the Right of his Servants to search into and to Understand For they then cease to be the Secret Things that Belong to God But they being Reveal'd become those that Belong to us and to our Children we enter into that Priviledg of the Israel of God To us belong the Oracles of God every servant of God that hath his Heart stirred up hath very good Right to search and his search is no Sacriledg nor shall be imputed to him as Curiosity or presumption It is his Right to Search even as among Men it is no Violation to Inquire into the Sense of any Author offering himself to the Publick and there is greater Encouragement in Searching the sure Word of Prophecy than in Searching any other Author or Writing as is next to be spoken Argum. 3. I Argue from the Infinite Grace of the Divine Spirit that as he hath Given to Man a searching Mind after all Knowledg so he would not give any part of Scripture as a Torment of wise Inquisitive Persons but give the Key of Knowledg to Them and that he will as the Spirit of Truth so Lead into All Truth and shew his Servants Things to Come with such Uprightness Faithfulness and Sincerity that there shall be no more Secresy or privacy in the Interpretation of Prophecy than is necessary according to the Laws He knows Just and Due and which he hath himself weigh'd out as so Just and Due to Prophetick Oracles even as in All other parts of Scripture he hath in Infinite Wisdom as he weighed out the Mountains in Scales and the HIlls in a Ballance so proportion'd to every point of Scripture-Truth its Exact measure of clearness of Revelation and so consequently of Interpretation the most necessary are the most plain and yet there are Truths of the Grace of God freely Justifying and Accepting sinners in Christ that call for the most Quicken'd and Awaken'd Faculties for the Interpretation of them as also concerning the inward Operations of the Grace of God in the Hearts of Men and yet in all These and such as These The Holy Spirit hath Wisely and Holyly Given out his Oracles in a most Righteous Scale between the Excellency of the Truth he Reveals and the Exercise he knows necessary to the Mind of Man in Searching out the Interpretation and so hath made the Manifestation more Ligtsome or Requiring Closer Attendance And thus in Prophecy according to the Vehemency of Search and Enquiry he hath thought fit he hath Dispensed This doth not make it yet Private Interpretation because there are such Lines of Communication between part and part Emblem and Emblem number of Time and number of Time between words in Prophecy and words used in the Time of Prophecy Fullfill'd between Rules of Time in Prophecy and celebrated Rules of Time among Men in Prophecy Fulfill'd between Prophecy and Vniversal History that all may be made Plain But beyond All this Interpretation of Prophecy is not Private because The Spirit of Prophecy who Knowes it because he gave it Even that Blessed Publick Spirit of Wisdom Truth Scripture is present to Assist his Servants Searching into Prophecy Leading
them into the Treasures of it Springing Thoughts into them all of the Sudden Bringing Things to their Remembrance that else would not have come there and so Enabling them to Match and Enterweave All those Foremention'd Indentings one with another and thereby raising in them Assurances equal to Demonstration He also foresaw what Humble Enquirers into these Things he would stir up and Assist in every Time and what measures of Assistance he would Allow them And yet this does not make Interpretation Private to such persons apart because such Accesses to All the Means of Interpretation and to those Assistances of the Spirit are free and open to one as well as another and what is given in Interpretation to any one ought to be freely Communicated and in the Reasons and Grounds of it It lies open to All And they who are thus Assisted are not Assisted for Themselves only but as Lights set on an hill that they may not be Hid. Now this Assistance of that Blessed Spirit as a Spirit Graciously present to the Searchers into Prophecy is an Encouragement beyond what any Author in the World can give to them who search into their Writings For who as he can be so always present to the Minds and Understandings of Those who Read and Meditate upon them Who as he can Recompense the Love Reverence and Diligence of those who wait upon Him Who can as he Prompt to Them summon to their Memory keep them in Doubt and so urge them to further Enquiries refresh their Researches and so make Things further known to Them so settle confirm and assure Them that they may know the Certainty of the Words of Truth This is an undeniable Priviledg and Ground of Hope to All who set Themselves by Prayer Desire and Humble Endeavours to Search and so seek out the Misteries of Wisdom to be found out in the Book of Prophecy why then should it be Thought a Hopeless Undertaking or an Incredible Thing that any one should be so Assisted that doth Humbly Profess he hath so waited upon God in his Word Or that That Key of Prophetical Knowledg should be vouchsafed to such a one when so gracious Assistances are Promised from and by the Divine Spirit the Publick Spirit of Prophecy and its Interpretation Now All this I have Discoursed in General I would particularly Argue concerning Prophetick Time and by an Argument most peculiar to it For not only in general If All and Every Prophecy be Constituted of a not private Interpretation then not Prophecies by Numbers defining Time to the Kingdom of Christ For as hath been said if All Scripture as the Apostle Paul says be of Divine Inspiration Then Prophecy So if All Prophecy be not of Private Interpretation then not that very particular Part of Prophecy which Defines Time And as Prophecy is so excellent a part of Scripture so the Numbers Defining Time are an excellent part of Prophecy and therefore cannot be of private Interpretation if Prophecy be not so For every General includes all especially chiefest Particulars But I shall further Argue with a Peculiar Respect to the Prophetick Numbers of Time that they of any cannot be of Private Interpretation For Number Weight and Measure are Things of so great Exactness that the whole Communication of the World Depends upon them and Scripture puts upon them great Honour also requiring above all that they be Exact as the Rules of all Enter-Course Now therefore when Scripture takes Number and Measures of Time into it self if these are not well understood how can they be such Standards of Enter-course Seeing then Prophecy hath so many Numbers 2300 Eves Morns Time Times Half a Time 1290 Days 1335 Days in Daniel 1260 Days with Time Times Half a Time Three Days and an Half and 42 Months 2 Times mentioned in the Revel if these Numbers that so evidently speak a Fitness for Calculation of Time with greatest Exactness If these by a due Search and Compare one with another cannot be understood what spaces of Time they Define when they begin and when they End They of all the Points of Prophecy tho they carry the Face and Appearance of Greatest Significancy yet would be indeed of all the most Insignificant Now seeing an Insignificancy in the Highest Points of Signification can by no means be imputed to the Wise and Holy Spirit of Prophecy I conclude that even these Prophetick Numbers in a peculiar and Eminent Manner may be understood both what space of Time they Emensurate or Line out to us and also when they Begin and when they End and so I have finished the First Head of Discourse I proposed I come now therefore to the Second Head proposed to give Answers to the great Objections that are Levyed against this Proposition viz. That All and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of Private or Reserv'd but Publick Free and open Interpretation Object 1. If Prophecy of Scripture be of so Free Publick and Unreserv'd Interpretation how comes it to pass that so few have so much as Attempted the Books of Prophecy that Fore-tell Great Events and the Times of Them Yea that Most judg it so Unpresumable and Undertaking as to Reject all Interpretations of Daniel and the Revelation that Debate Things throughly to their utmost point and issue and that search what or what manner of Time is signified by the Spirit in them or is more than by way of ordinary Comment as if they were the Performances of only Fanatical and Imaginative Men and upon the Evidence but of such an Endeavour condemn them immediately as such Ans Let God be True and every Man a Lyar Now God hath said Every Prophecy of Scripture is so Descended that it is not of Private Interpretation that they do well who attend to the Light of it shining as in a Dark place and so Enlightning it if then it were Dark it self how should it enlighten a Dark Place for it would be Dark to Dark which increases Darkness still whatsoever enlightens must be it self Light This main Truth ought therefore at all times to remain Stable and Firm. The immediate Cause therefore of this so general prejudice against search into Prophecy however Coloured over with Modesty and Reverence of Divine Mysteries and secrets into which Men pretend they would not Pry are these 1. There is so great a Darkness upon the present state that though the Light Shines in it yet it as Darkness comprehends not the Light of Prophecy shining upon it 2. Hence as Men in the Dark they are Afraid of every appearance of Difficulty They say concerning All Interpretation of Prophecy There is a Lyon in the way It is as the Sons of Anak to them that cannot be Encounter'd and as the Walls that cannot be Scaled so difficult and unintelligible is Prophecy that it cannot be Interpreted It is as a Sealed Book the Learned cannot Read because Sealed nor the unlearned because not Learned 3. How many are they who are afraid
shall lye open as a Volume most clearly and fully understood in the Hall as I may say of that Palace of the Kingdom but not as in a dark place but as Light uniting with Light unto perfect Brightness Then it is the Day shall dawn and the Day-star shine in the very Hearts of all the Servants of Christ and the Light of one Day be as the Light of seven Nor can the Apostles sense be made good by Prophecy being understood when fullfilled For indeed the Disputes are as Great concerning the Time at which Prophecies that undoubtedly have been long ago fullfilled were fullfilled as concerning Prophecies yet to be fullfilled And though it may well be allowed that there have been some Bruits and Noises of the Things foretold by Prophecy that they were coming to pass at the time they did come to pass yet there are Two Things evidently intended by the Apostle as the Great Scope and End of his Discourse much to be considered by all that would find the Purpose of the Holy Spirit by him 1. That there is one Glorious Day and Day-Star to break out and shine in the World which is the Great Point at which Prophecy aims and into which it shall unite as a Lesser Light with a Greater and more Glorious which is indeed the Kingdom of Christ and to which the Apostle had respect as is to be shewn throughout this Epistle This is that Time of the Restitution of All Things of which all the Prophets have spoken since the World began as that same Apostle Peter spoke Acts 3. 21. This is the Mpstery to be fulfilled as he hath spoken or Evangelized as Happiest Tydings by All his Sevants the Prophets Rev. 10. 7. Prophecy is therefore a Light shining till then and guiding to the Time when it is to begin and then falls in One with it as the forenam'd Scriptures shew 2. There is a very particular dark place that Prophecy shines as a Light in till then and it is indeed the whole Time from the Delay of the Kingdom of Christ at his Resurrestion and Ascension till it dawns and rises as a Day-star but it is yet more particularly the Time and State of the Apostacy which is as a Smoak darkning the Air even the whole State of Christianity in the very Heavens of it Prophecy shines therefore as a Light in a dark place giving Assurance of and shewing the Time of that Day and Day-Star dawning upon the World till it shall Illuminate into the very Heart with its mighty Influences and Beams of Glory Object 4. It is to be further urg'd If the Time of this Kingdom and Glory be not generally known and agreed upon it can do but little Service for the Inlightning the dark place of the Apostacy and that we do not find it hath been and if Prophecy be not in its own Constitution of private Interpretation yet if it hath Eventually proved so how is the Light of it seen Answ 1. It is very agreeable to the Wisdom and Glory of God that the Fountains of Truth should be running and the Lights of it shining though the Streams and Rays are not received nor have their kindly Effect as the Evangelist John says The Light shineth in darkness though the darkness comprehend it not God left not himself without Witness among the Heathen though we know of Few who received the Testimony Acts 14. 17. How many have the Gospel-Light without its proper saving Effect Answ 2. There hath been a strange Collineation or Levelling and Aiming of the Servants of God upon the Years of this Last Part of this Seventeenth Century for the Glory of Christ's Kingdom and besides some Later a Prophecy found in the Study of Justus Lipsius transcrib'd into the Preface of Dr. Mayer to the Volume of his Interpretation on the Prophets Great and Small is perpendicular on the Year Ninety Eight in such a Language as speaks Effects begun and in their Course as at Ninety Seven as shall Appear in a short Appendix to this Treatise But to All that hath been said it may be added in satisfaction of the Principal Objection that supposes Prophecy hath not been understood till fullfilled It is very plain we cannot give a certain Account what Light God may have given his Servants into Prophecy in any Times He gave Noah the Exact Time of an Hundred and Twenty Years before the Flood to Abraham Four Hundred years from the Time of that Oracle to his seed Returning from the Egyptian Nation after God had Judg'd them Till which time They were under that oppression According to which Moses very Probably thought His brethren would have understood God would deliver his people by his hand Because it grew so near the time and Moses was a person so signalized by God in his miraculous preservation and his having the offer of being called the Son of Pharoahs daughter and yet Refusing that Glittering Honour as mark'd out by God for much Higher viz. In the deliverance of his People with whom he Chose to suffer Affliction rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Of all which I have no doubt He had the notices from the four hundred years He knew were Given to Abraham The Children of Issachar were men that had Knowledge and understanding of Times and Knew what Israel ought to Do 1 Chron. 12. 32. And undoubtedly some Oracular Instructions they had Joyn'd with Jacobs Prophecy by which they knew Judahs being a Royal Tribe and that the Lyon of the Tribe was the Emblem of it even till Christ the Lyon indeed of it and they Collected Davids Royalty should then begin Daniel understood by Books not onely the Book of the Prophet Jeremy But as we may very Reasonably suppose by the Books of other Servants of God that Kept or Searched Records of Times according to Jeremies Prophecy I doubt not Simeon Waited for the Consolation of Israel according to Daniels Seventy Weeks What Light God gave to his servants in the First times of Christianity we have not such certain accounts as might be desired But as it is reported to us by Ecclesiastick History It was foretold of Julian he was Nubecula cito Transitura a Cloud tbat would soon vanish But this I am sure was according to Prophecy that Sathan being cast down by the change of the Pagan Empire into the Christian Empire After Constantine there could be in the Roman Empire no place found for him any more of continuance in its Heaven though some short Attempts there might be as of Julian Eugenius Argobastes Maximus in his Pagan Supremacy altho under the Name of Christ as it were in his Right and as the Vicar of the Fifth Monarchy of him the Manly Birth on the Throne Satan crept in as an underminer and in the Anti-Christian Supremacy He hath a Throne as on Earth whether therefore the Speaker had his Ground it self in Prophecy The thing it self had and it could not be otherwise
but if it was so It Argues There was some Observation Defer'd to it by him that he gave that Paper a place in his Study which Foretold Rome as the Catholick Church should become one of the most notorious Fables in the World and be exposed as one of the greatest Cheats upon it Altho he seem'd to adhere to it I say He seem'd for of so great a Wit I question it However bigotted he appear'd in Writing the Virgo Hallensis But that which is enough to me and will be I suppose to others in this Kind is That it hath undoubtedly been extant in Print above Forty years and so in the Hands of many persons and that any one may see it at any Time that Pleases Now it must needs be Dr. Mayer knew it a Prediction of some Age in his Time in Assigning it to Lipsius his Study who Died near Fifty years before and how long before it came into Lipsius his Study it cannot be said Yet indeed Forty years in this matter is as much as an Hundred and Dr Mayers Preface in this Case as much as Lipsius his Study For the whole stress lies here that such Events were Foretold so long before that there was no Train of Causes leading probably to that Ninety Eight more than any other year and that there be sufficient Assurance of this by the Predictions being in well known Hands Now both these are uncontestable concerning this Prediction by being so long ago in Print in Dr. Mayer and Dr. Mayer's Works in many Hands The Sum of the matter is This Prediction was so long before 98 an undeniable matter of Fact in Print and known to be so But I must not conceale There is a Prediction in Stows Annals p 749. According to which This I am Discoursing most probably was Form'd as appears by several Allusions of the one to the other so plain as not to be Denied It is a Prediction upon that famous year 1588 running thus Post Mille Expletos a partu Virginis Annos Et post Quingentos Rursus ab orbe Datos Octagesimus Octavus Mirabilis Annus Ingruet Is secum Tristia Fata Feret Si non hoc Anno Totus Malus Occidet Orbis Si non in Nihilum Terra Fretumque Ruant Cuncta Tamen Mundi sursum Ibuntque Retrorsum Imperia Luctus undique Grandis Erit There Englished thus When after Christs Birth there shall be expir'd Of Hundreds Fifteen years Eeighty and Eight Then comes the Time of Danger to be fear'd And all mankind with Dolors it shall fright For if the World that year shall not fall If Sea and Land then Perish ne decay Yet States and Kingdoms then alter shall And men to ease themselves shall have no way Now this last Recited Prediction is said to be written by Regiomontanus that most Famous Astronomer of his Time in the year 1475. the year before he died at Rome And the Prediction I now Recommend may seem to be a meer Imitation of it and so to be the Diversion of a Fanciful Poetical and Adventrous Pen wantonizing upon a Former Prediction and Running Counter to it and that therefore there is no Regard to be had to it But I shall argue the contrary and that upon Due Compare of the one with the other That in Dr. Mayer will be much advanced in Repute I do grant That it was written by one that had laid the Prediction of Regiomontanus before him Nay I make no doubt he writ it after the year 1588. when the Remarkable Events of that Famous Year had given Reputation to the Prediction upon it Whoever therefore writ the Prediction before us Coasted and Glanced along upon that of Regiomontanus grown into Esteem by Things Answering it and grafts a far greater Prediction upon so much as would serve his main purpose and Leaves the Rest And this he did to give it some Remarkableness by appearing in some of the Garb of what had obtain'd a Degree of Honor by the Effect Following it But it indeed far exceeds its Copy and since I know it is so Truly according to the Sure Word of Prophecy I am assur'd whoever writ it writ it either from a Judgment enlightned by deep Enquiry into Scripture Prophecy or by some Divine Impulse and far above the Copy And as Reasons of my Assurance herein I make these Observations upon it 1. In the other Prediction there is nothing but what falls within an ordinary Human imagination supposing the world in an Hurly-Burly and Confusion but such a Series of Events known only to Scripture and its Prophecy not to be Read in the Stars nor in the Book of Nature but the Book of God only shews a much higher Original than Human Imagination taking Copy from one much lower than it self but either a mind Divinely Taught by Scripture Prophecy or at least Providentially Impell'd as Caiaphas's was John 11. 51. and not speaking of it self 2. Whereas in the other Prediction The Events though signified to be great yet are but General and Confused and no one Express In this Prophecy all is very great each Event is of the greatest that can be Thought of within the state of the whole present World each is Distinct Firmly declared Like one that knew he spake on great ground this Poetry and Fancy do not use to do 3. Whereas a mere Fancy or Humor of Foretelling would have chosen some nearer Time than above a Century beyond that 1588 to raise a quicker Expectation and thereby a greater Amuse this Prediction carries steddily to 1698 so far off 4. A Naked Fancy or Incertainly guided Arrogancy of Foretelling if it had born so Aloft and at a Distance from the Time of the Former Prediction would have hardly miss'd of the Crime of 1688 Answering 1588. For we see common Expectation hath of it self run upon that year and has not been greatly mistaken in Regard of the Revolution in this Nation wherein All the European World hath been so much concern'd also to carry therefore the Prediction as from one 88 and not to stop and quarry as one may say upon the next 88. but to fall Perpendicularly upon 98. is a higher flight than of a Fancy 5. The words chosen out by whoever was the Predictor so susceptible of so ready to Fall into and to Cope with the words and Images of Scripture Prophecy are a very great Argument and Assurance He either from Great Acquaintance with Scripture Prophecy and Assistance from it in that mediate way or some more immediate Inspirings of that Holy Spirit of Prophecy or at least from a Providential Impulse or Motion of Mind was Enabled to use words which the Holy Spirit Teacheth comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual 6r That which above All Assures me there was a Divine Extraordinary either Explorating and searching out of the Testimony of Jesus in the Written word or from some Emotion of the Spirit of Prophecy in some Holy and Sanctified Person or at least from some Providential Impulse of that Spirit upon the Person that writ the Prediction is that he hath fallen upon that very time I have by exact Calculation found to be the very Time for the Coming of these great Events to pass in a settlement in 98 after their beginning 97. FINIS