if Episcopacy be to be plucked up root and branch which you pleaded then no reliques of your Classical government will be left remaining much less will it be granted that you sit in the seat of judicature to adjudge all besides your selves to be Heresies Sects c. or that you have any authority given from heaven by humane force to captivate them to your wills and canons The Independents are in many respects in their way neerer to the Kingdome of Heaven then the Classical men and if you would not willingly subjectly your consciences to the separation which power they defie to own why should there be such high indeavors to imbondage them In this you are declared to be far beneath a legall spirit which teacheth to doe to others as you would be dealt withall by them Are not their consciences as tender as yours Are they not as pious and dear to GOD as upright to their neighbour as serviceable and faithful to the State as cordial and real to our publike Cause And why should they not with others partake in that common priviledge purchased by the expence of many of their deare lives It was not long since your selves were under the Bishops rod and then such a liberty would have been sweet and gratefully accepted but now nothing will satisfie unless you may in their steads lord it over your fellow-brethren The precept is ordinary yet profitable Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Let the ruines of other tyrants teach you more wisdome and moderation In the next place you come unto me and our walk in particular in which to pass by other phopperies opprobrious dealings and false suppositions as not worth spending inke paper and time upon we shall only take notice of two passages The first is your calling it a Sect and in the title of your Book a Schisme Answ A Sect is a renting a Schism a cutting off or dividing from the truth now whether we or you be renters we leave to the tryal of the Word It hath been the usual policy of Satan to brand the new springings forth of truths by such opprobrious titles Thus dealt the Jews of old with the Gospel Acts 28.22 Chap. 24.5 14. and separation being now that which God calls his people to walk in we believe this charge of yours will be found to be as untrue and calumnious as was theirs and to come from the same spirit We should have expected no other language from the mouth of a Pope or Bishop but wonder to hear it from one who would rank himself amongst the godly However we regard not the censure of your papal chaire as being neither discovered to be what you stile us nor discouraged by such disgraceful Characters for we are not ashamed to bear the rebukes of Christ Your indeavors this way will prove but bare Essays whose births may be vanity and shame at conclusion Secondly You come to our company whom you call unstable souls and defame their assemblings by base scurrilous verses out of Ovid the very language of hell and unfit to be written by a chaste pen much more unmeet to be applyed to a godly or hopeful people For my own particular as I have freely received so I freely dispense the word and deny none to hear who are freely drawn as being sensible of the power of God who may chuse the mean and base things in the worlds esteem to confound the noble Notwithstanding were the same people with you many would be counted pretious Saints others very faire commers on though now from a root of bitterness they are so greatly vilified Such virulent invectives tend but to the fulfilling of the Prophecies which foretell that the meetings of these returners shall bear a reproach and burden Ezek. 34.16 Mica 4.76 7. Zeph. 3.18 albeit in short time they shall have a praise and a fame in every land where they have been put to shame their gathering or congregating being by the Lord Jesus ver 19. I cannot in charity think that these came simply from your self but from the instigation of some others whose spirits are compounded of gall and vinegar and have dipt your pen with the cruel venome of Asps We are sure such ribaudry becomes not the gravity of gray hairs much less of one esteemed an ancient professor It seems their throne being touched their kingdom waxing dark and people leaving them they begin to accomplish what is spoken Revel 16.10 11. The Lord open the eyes of their understandings that they many no longer be found fighters against God Before we pass from hence we shall mind you of a seasonable observation In the Primitive time there was an outward Jerusalem figured by Hagar the bond-woman whose zealous children under high pretences of holiness were the most desperate enemies to such who by their free Gospel-walk declared themselves to be the off-spring of Jerusalem from above So now there is an outward rejected court Rev. 11.2 and thereupon another inslaving motherhood and those who are over-rigid in those externalities and stand most upon them are like to prove the greatest enemies to such who by their practise of separation manifest themselves to be children of liberty and aim most at spirituality But leaving this we shall speak something of our first Letter after the receit whereof as you affirme it was noised that I had thereby blown up c. Answ If there were any such report the sound of it was not loud enough to come to my ears till I read it in your Epistle This I am sure of it was a private Letter never intended by the writer to come publikely abroad in the world and comprised but a light and hasty draught of my apprehensions touching the subject you requested whose principal scope was to proffer you a fuller discourse by word of mouth upon the particulars therein barely hinted But since you being pleased to divulge it in your book without my knowledge or approbation I shall only remark two passages The first is a mistake in printing in the second page and seventeenth line It is printed We are in our journey to Sion visibly separated whereas it ought io be To Sion visibly stated and so it was written in my Letter also Revel 8.34 for Revel 8.5 in the third page The second is as you assert that I quoted Isa 66.5 for Isa 56.5 which error you not finding out said nothing on that place Answ There were some such errors in yours insuing which when the words were written I rectified and replyed accordingly and it is possible that amongst many Scriptures I might faile in the quotation of one yet the words of the text being named your Concordance might soon have directed you to finde out the place ar else within the compass of eight or nine moneths for so long space it was ere your returned me answer you might have inquired of me we living so neer one to another You neither have nor I suppose ever can in your
The KEY OF Scripture-Prophecies OR A Glass of some New Discoveries Being An ANSWER to a Book Published by Mr JOHN ELMESTONE Wherein is resolved 1. Whether a true constituted Church with true Office and visible Membership together with the Ordinances proper to such a Gospel-stating continued true by a line of Succession from the Primitive time downward to our times or whether it were not interrupted by the Apostacie 2. If they did there intermit when they return again to their first glory whether now or hereafter and what is the dispensation now approved by the Spirit BY SIMON HENDEN LONDON Printed by Ja. Cottrel for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1652. The EPISTLE To the Reader CHristian friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus who are purchased from the rest of mankind by the precious blood of the Lamb of God and begotten by the incorruptbile seed of the Word to a life above nature it is you I owne by the nearest relation under what title soever stiled and to your wisdoms principally I direct this Epistle with the ensuing treatise The true occasion of this contending controversie you shall find in the front of the book to be a combate with a Presbyterian Minister by whom I was provoked to enter into the list The man though clouded by ancient principles I have esteemed to be one of the sealed number redeemed from the earth The Manuscript sent by him in opposition to me I received as the common mouth speaking the mind of many who are as much nay more interessed in the cause pleaded for then himself and thus much I may as I suppose say of it that if it were his alone it containes in effect the chiefest strength a whole party can produce in their defence We had rather receive the next return in the name of all then to meet with the forces of all under the title of one The subsequent Answer was a first by me written to be more private and not in the least intended to come forth into publique view it being a retired contest in it self and not clothed with the ordinary dress of elegancie sutable to the gust of this curious age nor so exactly polished as might be required for the Press But since my Antagonist appearing in Print in open oftentation with the common applause of the Presbyters who vote his book to be unanswerable and many of my godly friends urging my be the most ingaging tyes of entire affection backed with this covincing argument that the Lord gave me not a talent to hide in a napkin I am willing to satisfie them and mine owne conscience and rejoyce to meet him in the hight of his and his parties confidence as not fearing but the integrity of my cause will bear me out against all opposition For truth seeks not to be concealed in obscure corners but delights to come forth into open light and present her naked beauty to the publique view of Nations I am not ignorant that the subject with some searching reproofs though drawn from Scripture-record will be unpleasing unto many at the first appearance chiefly to such who are tyed up or much indeared to their respective constitutions Many are veiled by antiquity the judgements and interpretations of learned men in former or latter times whom they almost look upon as Oracles sounding out nothing but undoubted truths and adjudge its high presumption in themselves or other to swim against so full a stream These do not duely ponder in what a dark night our progenitors lived nor how the truths of God brake forth by several steps and degrees out of that deep apostacie My advice to such is to beware that under the derisive scorn of new lights they blaspheme not the discoveries of the Spirit streaming out to a perfective alteration Let them first examine before they censure Others seem to look with more eagle-eyes over many generations into the purest primitive times and erect new models of Churches parallel as they suppose to their first and most accomplished pattern and this I am perswaded the most do out of the sincerity of their hearts But they not observing the Cessation and departure of the glory of God from the ptimitive Government nor how Antichrist had full power in that outward Court not rightly discerning the next immediate fountaine whence a Gospel-marriage flowes nor marking the variety of Gods dispensations in several seasons imbrace shadows for real substances and set up bestiall Idols instead of true Gospel-Churches I shall desire them to consider that this manifest kingdome of God grounds not it self on visible faith nor comes with observations and buildings up visible forms and then bringing Christ unto them so as to say Lohere or there is Christ but comes with power from above being like lightning descending downe from heaven as shall be proved in the following treatise The greatest number being principled and guided by others of more eminencie are so strongly affected to what they have embraced and walked in that they account it no less then fighting against the waies of Christ to disclose their practice or acquaint them with their misleadings For affection is blind and can hardly be perswaded to espie real deformities in that object on which it reposeth its delights The Lord onely can and in short time will alter this eccentrick motion of his people and turn the wheel of the heart to move concentrick to himself But this is common to them all that to what way soever they are addicted the whole face of Scripture seems to cast a direct and favourable aspect onely towards them and to look upon others either more obliquely or not at all That as to one who hath the yellow Jaundise the aire it self with every object he beholds seems yellowish sutable to the distempered species in the eye or to him who looks through red or green glass or any coloured medium the same things shew red or green or answerable to the colour of the medium which presents them to his sight so those Scriptures that are in themselves uniform beating their genuine signification being veiwed through false glosses or the deceiveable light of delusive principles seem to men of differing judgements to carry several repugnant senses corresponding their misguided apprehensions The intuitive action is then lurest when the medium is diaphanous receiving that light of truth in its own purity which irradiates and manifesteth every colour in its proper kind and when the understanding the eye of the soul is like the crystalline humour and the visible species will complectioned in the bodily eye to wit clear perspicuous and capable of all colours but infected with the tincture of none Therefore the sea Rev. 4. by which the spiritual glory was discerned in the primitive times was of glass like to Crystal pure uncoloured and shining through which the several or contrariant colours were seen in their own peculiar dyes Also in the new Ierusalem her light the
consideration I gathered what the meaning and mystery of this last marriage is by the stating of old Israel at mount Sinai Gal. 4. and by that of the Christians in the primitive Matth. 22. and found the same in the visibility to belong to external Church-constitution and disciplinal Order It is be demanded whether the Elect were before during the apostacie in the estate of widowhood and non-marriage I answer They are not simply but respectively in regard of visibility as compared with the primitive marriage For in this season Christ was as one gone and long absent and these elect ones were in their outward stand strangers in a strange country even in spiritual Babylon and there were under the rule of other lords and therefore the Scripture seems to figure them out in the condition of a forsaken widow Luk. 18.3 Isa 54.4 Also we are to minde that the same thing is set forth in various Types and Metaphors as it hath a bent to divers respects so the kingdome of heaven in the rule of grace is expressed by many parables Matth. 13. that thereby God may shew himself compleat in his word and what is wanting in the one is supplied in the other and so by this means there may be a fulness of Ministery knowledge and practice Hereupon the godly in another regard in the time of tribulation when they were but few little small and weak are denoted in another type and Metaphor to wit in the form minority and youthhood Isa 54.4 in the period of separation they proceeding to a higher growth and stature are deciphered in the conditions of virgins Matth. 25.7 Revel 14.4 and in the season of the wedding-day when they are come to more maturity and ready are represented in the state of a married wife Matth. 25.10 Rev. 19.8.9 Finally I took a survey of other interpreters on the Apocalypse and saw by many reasons that they very were defective and much mistaken in their senses of the later Prophecies speaking of our times and that ensuing and that the later part of the said Book when the little book is opened Chap. 10. must have a new interpretation both for time and matter of which you may observe something in the after-work and concerning which I may meet with occasion to treat more amply in our next reply if the Lord so dispose it But that I dwell not too long upon the Epistle I shall onely speak a few words of the following Book and so conclude I confess the stile is plaine and something rude plainness I endeavoured that it might be sutable to the meanest capacity the more unpolished it is because the most are my first and sudden conceptions For constant exercise in spiritual imployments and multitude of necessary worldly incumbrances would not permit me times of absolute repast and solitude to recollect and reduce my thoughts into an exquisite composure Also some Scriptures are often repeated occasioned partly by necessity it being but one case in the root in prosecution whereof I endeavoured to use the clearest and most pertinent texts partly by reason of Master Elmestones multiplicity of Arguments meeting in the same base together with some repetitions of his in a manner the same in sundry places of his book and for the better resolving such knots where I met with them I made use of those Scriptures which were elsewhere proved more at large that the weak might be thereby the better satisfied in particulars Such who are more intelligent may dispense with what may be for the benefit of lower apprehensions And I doubt not but they that are spiritually prudent will prize the naked and solid Truths of God delivered in the plain language of the Word before the adulterate shadows of carnal Reason though glittering in the specious habit of humane Eloquence Christian and sincerely pious Reader though this subject may seem new and strange and the Scriptures dark and doubtful at a sudden glance yet he that will bring to pass his act even his strange act hath promised to make dark things lightsome and crooked things strait and upon a serious reflection you may finde the accomplishment of the same promise blessing your endeavours and removing the veil to shew you the inward beauty of those Prophecies aspecting your own generation which will direct you to imbrace and walk in the right path cast up by the Spirit and to avoid those accursed things that will bring a general deluge upon the secure world that while darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people his light may arise upon you till at last his glory be seen upon you Now that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of himself is the desire and uncessant prayer of him who is Your cordial friend and Brother in the Lord Simon Henden Certain ANIMADVERSIONS upon Master Elmestone's Epistle to the Reader YOur Epistle comes galloping in upon the wooden story of the Trojan-horse built by the counsel of Pallas and by subtile Sinons perswasion received into Troy to the ruine of that ancient and famous City For from thence issued out a warlike Troop of most valiant Greek Captaines who laid that City wast with fire and sword To this horse you compare the liberty granted for tender consciences in Religion procured say you by Satans craft and the insinuation of some cunning Sinons and may redcund to the great prejudice if not the ruine of your Troy your Church and Gospel For out of it have come forth c. Answ The native language of Canaan is more sutable to the majesty of Divinity then the fabulous fictions of heathen Poets and did you conceive your Church to be genuine of a Celestial birth you might be better advised then to Christian it by the name of an outcast stranger Indeed to follow you in your own similitude Rome being built partly by some roving Trojans was called a second Troy rising out of the ruines of the former and what should move you to stile your Hierarchical Church a third we cannot guess unless because you are an off-spring arising from her ashes in England However you may be pleased to consider that the maine cause bringing desolation to the first was not the Trojan-horse but the wilful retaining of Helena a defiled whorish woman amongst them and if there be the like accursed thing with you it is that will procure your great prejudice if not your ruine We use the more boldness that these your works may burn and your persons be saved in the day of the Lord. Notwithstanding that liberty which you most unfitly yoke with the said woodden horse is a precious jewel bought by the invaluable ransome of Jesus Christ who by the price of his dearest blood did at first redeem his Saints from vain traditions and humane thraldoms to be a free willing people to him their sole Soveraign in Religion but in the
an earthy bottomless and Babylonish wilderness Now the woman could not be in the wilderness while her officers were in heaven but they must both fall together 2. This mournful season emphatically stiled by our Saviour the time of tribulation Mark 13.24 must initiate with the first of those three grand woes sounded by the Angel flying in the midst of heaven and that began with the fifth trumpt Chap. 8.13 The former four were gradual preparations the fifth the full accomplishment of that great defection The begining of this time The same as I conceive took its exordium about the yeer 390 after Christ at the time the Bishop of Rome by the general consent of the Asian Affrican and Europian Bishops obtained the priority and Bishoprick of the first seat which is the sole interest and proper centre of Jesus Christ And where this universal primacy was granted to a bare creature Christ would not give his glory to another but wholly departed and left it empty whereby it became meerly humane and bestial The Duration thereof The duration of this time is declared in the Revelations to be 1260 dayes or fourty two moneths which taken according to the Egyptian and Jewish account thirty dayes to a moneth make up exactly the former number of dayes the like doth time times and an half Chap. 15.3 the beast had power given him to make war or prevaile for so is the original forty two months also Chap. 11.2 the nations so long trod the holy City under foot likewise vers 3. the witnesses prophesied clothed in sackcloth the same space of time Chap. 12.6 all this time the woman was in the wilderness which in vers 14. is described to be time times and half a time answerable to the former account which raken prophetically a day for a yeer as this book is delivered in the highest majesty of a prophecie constitute 1260 yeers The computation 0390 1260 nbsp 1650. Now to reckon up the period of this season if we add to 1260 the foregoing time of 390 we may finde the expiration thereof to be about 1650. Many arguments may be produced to prove these dayes to be prophetically a day for a yeer but it hath been done by others and most that are judicious by pondering the hight and order of this prophecie with the event successively answering will proprio nisu of their own voluntary consent agree with me and them in this particular What remarkable turnings and alterations of affaires there were about 1650 in all our dominions even in these ends of the earth with the subsequent success is shewed in Parag. 4. 2. The second material passage to be expostulated is what is the dispensation now approved of God in this next revolution after the former season of adversity Quaere 2. whether by new erecting of visible Churches or by separation without stating waiting till the Lord begin it or thus whether the time for the return of visible marriage be now or hereafter For the resolving of this Gorgian knot See Parag 4. we may propose to our selves a twofold rule First Whether there be a call to foot any Church-constitution in our time or in a time to come Secondly what is the next immediate cause to give vital being to the same 1. For the first we observed by searching the Scriptures that every thing belonging to Church-order either at its first rise or after a general long and total loss was grounded on the written word of God and manifested by the spirit of Prophecie Surely the Lord will do nothing in this but he reveales his secrets to his servants the Prophets Amos 3.7 that the book of the Revelations compiling in a certaine method the several changes and administrations time after time must as well inform us when this manifest kingdom reverts as it doth teach us when and how the primitive was dissolved and became Babylon and upon strict inquiry we could not espie the least hint either by type or vocal expression for any approved visible Church-marriage in the age we live in but that the Revelations together with the old Prophets agree with one accord that the time for this noble work is to be fulfilled in an after-age The signes to know this magnificent fabrick to be to come are these 1. The destruction of the Antichristian enemies and removing obstacles out of the way as Hos 2.18 The Lord will make a covenant for them with the creatures and will breake the low sword and battel ouâ— of the earth and make them to lie down in safety and then verse 19 20 I will marry thee to me for ever also Mat. 13.30 43 the tares are first cut down before the wheat is gathered into the barn so Revel 11.18 19. Chap. 15.8 there is no visible temple in heaven opened till the were destroyed who destroyed the earth even till the destruction of the great City mentioned Chap. 16.19 and Chap. 18. likewise Chap. 19.7 8 9. there is no marriage specified till the Hallelujahs be sung for the finall ruine of Babylon and the glorious reign of God Almighty and then Zech. 14.9 when the Lord only is king in all the earth the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife prepared for her husband then she hath a new grant of his beautiful wedding-garments whereby she shall be outwardly Isa 611 10 covered with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroome decketh himself with his ornaments and a bride adorns her self with her jewels then is there a new call to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. Thus we may note that this illustrious prophecy given by Christ to shew to his servants future events leads us as by a hand-dyal to the time when the primitive was cast out and to the very season when it returns in its own supernatural lustre 2. The next signe is the call of the Jews and those Eastern parts as Psal 50.1 The Lord hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof and then God will shine out of Sion the perfection of beauty vers 2. So Matth. 24.27 28 when there is a true manifest gathering to the dead carcase Christ noting a stating work then he will manifest his shining dispensation from east to west like lightning and thus Rom. 11.12 15 speaking of the Jews concludes What shall their receiving be but life from the dead 3. The last signe is the visible effusion of the Spirit which being more properly a cause then a signe I shall refer the proof thereof to the Rule next ensuing The final subversion of-Antichrist the call of the Jews and the eastern parts and the open pouring of the Spirit are all as yet unaccomplished 2. The next rule of Trial is what gives life and present existence to a visible Gospel-constitution and the keys thereof Under this notion we examined the common received Maxime of all the lesser independent bodies which is this That in times of Apostacie as this of
union of the Spirit which is their breath of life and represents them unto us as the lively appearance of Jesus Christ And this may be called ours it being part of our inheritance when the same Spirit is severed and departed from them they remain as empty rudiments Object But many partake of the Ordinances that have not nor ever shall have union with Christ. Answ Those who do truely partake of the Ordinances must in the participation thereof have union with the Spirit of grace because the same Spirit that is in the Ordinances is in the Saints But to such as have in no kinde the workings of that Spirit the Ordinances are both dead and empty or rather a savour of death not that they are so in themselves but by accident because of their spiritual blindness and unbelief There may be a clear and bright light in the air yet for want of light in the eye a blinde man cannot see nor enjoy the comfort thereof Thus the ministery of Christs Gospel was a light shining in darkness but the darkness comprehended it not Joh. 1.5 the Gospel was not void of light nor the Ordinances being as pipes to the Lamps in the dispensation of their lustre but the men wanted spiritual eyes to behold and embrace its beauty Object But the foundation of Ordinances is the institution of Christ. Answ We deny not the institution of Christ to be the foundation of Ordinances but withal affirm that the next immediate principle is the Spirit of grace proceeding from Jesus Christ which by its union gives them their life and soul There may be an institution before the Ordinance hath its proper existence sometimes the command as made known to us by Scripture-record may be a ratification of that which was in being and practise before as we can instance in both However if the institution be perpetuated in the Word then it continues and the Spirit joyns constantly with it when existing if not then may the Spirit leave it sometimes always sometimes for a certain time determined Object The later are grounded on the Covenant of grace and so are the former if by founded you mean they are effects c. Answ 1. If they be effects they must depend upon their cause as their base and principle Every cause is a principle for Omnis causa est principium 2. We deny not that the later are branches of this Covenant but the former have a more neer relation and connexion therewith then the later for the former were used while Christ was on the earth before the keys of the later were given also the elect in mystical Babylon were Israelites as those within the Covenant Rev. 7.3 4. and having their election sealed up had some breathing and nourishment by the former of these Ordinances but the visible Order in which they stood is by the Spirit termed a wilderness and Babylon and the later Ordinances coming from the false key of that Church were bottomless and bestial In the like manner Israel in Egypt had ministery the Passeover c. before the Legal Marriage was contracted likewise the ten apostated Tribes had Circumcision where the visible stated Church was idolatrous Thus the former being before and without the later have a more immediate compliance with the Covenant and the later with visible orderly Church-constitution joyned thereto the one declares a Covenant member the other together with it a visible Church-constituted member To your sixth Objection from Rev. 7.1 I shall hereafter answer in its proper place in Sect. 2. Now we come to examine and remove your Objections brought against the Cessation which we will divide into five Sections Section 1. Our first was that Ministery Prayer the Sacraments Faith with Profession had the promise of the Word to uphold their successive abiding But the later as Ordination Confirmation Church-censures c. wanted the said promise and so lie void and desolate for a time as is proved in the Cessation I shall return to your two first Objections in the third Section next following Object 3. In the third to prove the later sort to endure successively as well as the former you bring Eph. 4.11 12 13. and 1 Tim. 6.13 14. Answ 1. To that of Eph. 4 we assent that all the Officers there exhibited were gifts sent down from Christ after his ascension to his Father vers 8.11 as also that they were differentially distinguished each from other both in the Office its administration and operation vers 7. and that all these together exceedingly furthered the work of the Ministery and tended wonderfully to the edifying of the body of Christ and the completing of the growth and stature of the Saints But yet we maintain that this dispensation of Office continued not to the end of the world as you would insinuate for it reached no further then the Primitive Apostolical times For proof whereof we shall render these Arguments 1. Because all the Apostles were dead at the end of the first or beginning of the second Century and in little time after Evangelists and Prophets You may from this place as well argue the constant abiding of Apostles Prophets and Evangelists as of Pastors and Teachers seeing the Spirit here speaks of a complete and full dispensation of Official Ministery consisting of all these together to bring this noble work to its perfection 2. The whole primitive key of Office was lost in the Romish defection and returns not again till Babylon is destroyed See the Cessation 3. If Office had lineally descended from the primitive then must Rome's Officers and her officiating be good and true and so she a true visible Church in the deepest of her Apostacie whom the Scripture declares to be Babylon and cast out from true measurement Rev. 11.2 Chap. 17. 4. If your sence be right then apostated Rome must be a continued increasing growing Church higher then it was when Paul wrote this Epistle or the highest degree of the Apostolical Church For the word until notes a continued act and all the tenour of the verses declares an increasing growing state whereas Rome was not a rising but a falling away 2 Thest 23.4 5. Because Christ in the time of this backsliding promiseth a new gift that implies the failing of the former Rev. 11.3 6. The union of faith here specified as the period of this time cannot be applied to the resurrection for then we walk by sense not by faith and enjoy the thing now onely beleft Therefore Sir to give you the true sence of this Text in respect of time we conceive that this word until extends no further then the end of the first or beginning of the second Century For then when the book of the Revelations was given the whole Scriptures were completed and so the work of the Ministery made perfect then was the highest rise fulness and unity of faith then was the scruple of Circumcision in greatest part if not wholly removed the Temple being destroyed
Matth. 16.19 And as the natural windes bring a sweet influence of fertility to the earth and of purification both to sea and air by their breathing in this lower Region the restraint whereof causeth things to putrifie so this spiritual winde blowing here below on the Israelites earth sea and trees caused the spices thereof to flow out and purified all Cant. 4.16 but after it was withheld then ensued a common infection Chap. 8. Chap. 9. Chap. 13. Chap. 11. Chap. 17. which poysoned all except the sealed ones who properly had some secret inhalations from the Angel of the East These Angels we conceive to be evil spirits working by their principal ministers the four capital Patriarchs of the Christian world to wit the Bishop of Alexandria for the South of Antioch for the East of Constantinople for the North and Rome for the West who usurping and in a manner ingrossing all Ecclesiastical Government into their hands and tugging amongst themselves for Primacie did by contention pride avarice and heresie gradually detain the four windes from breathing in the external Regiment till at the last the Headship fell into Rome where it became another And this restraint was not properly in them as if any creature had power over the holy Ghost but by accident in the same sence that the infection of Nature is said to resist and quench the Spirit Acts 7 51. and 1 Thess 5.19 Now because the Israelites here spoken of are thought by some to be the natural seed of Abraham I shall for their satisfaction evidence by some arguments that they must be the Christian nations or Gentile Israelites proved by these following Reasons 1. This Book of the Revelations was not sent to the Jews but to the Gentiles as principally belonging unto them and in various types pourtrays the several changes that should befall them from the days of John to the final consummation 2. The main body of this Vision was after the days of John as you may gather by Chap. 4.1 and for time begins when the open breathing of the Spirit was withheld when the trumpets that brought in the apostacie were sounded when the outward court was cast out even when the Jews were almost utterly fallen away from any profession of Christ from whom onely comes salvation and could not then have one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones amongst their tribes 3. The four Angels stand upon all quarters of the earth and the with-holding is universal The four windes and the hurt thereby to all the unsealed Israelites which cannot agree with any one Nation 4. This hurt was chiefly introduced by the locust Chap. 9.4 and by the Beast which can in no sence be applied to the Jews but to the Christian nations who were thus undermined by Antichrist 5. By comparing this text with Chap. 11.2 we may clearly perceive that the nations possessed the court without the temple which was the stand of the common Israelites The common Israelites stand in the court without the nations stand in the court without the nations then must be these common Israelites especially considering that all the visions of this book are not proper but allegorical 6. The number sealed from amongst them was the same not hurt by the Locusts Chap. 9.4 nor utterly deceived by the Beast Chap. 13.8 Matth. 24.24 the same standing on mount Sion Chap. 14.1 which duely pondered with all the circumstances can be reduced to no time or condition but that of the Elect in Babylon If the Romish and Antichristian defection be not deciphered by these figures and but the Jews onely then is it altogether omitted in this Book then must all from thence to the end of the Revelation be peculiar to the Jews neither of which can any man of wisdom assent to embrace The Spirit hath so interlaced this Chapter from vers 1. to vers 9 with all the after-types expressing the state of the time of the tribulation and from vers 9. to the end with the next revolution and condition of the harpers as may sufficiently remove such trifling conjectures from the mindes of all who will observe the order of this Prophecie Thus we shall leave the second Section and proceed to the third Section 3. Our third ground why the visibility of Church-constitution and the keys thereof comprising the later sort of Ordinances did sail was Because the Lord deserting them when made void of their primitive truth and purity the dragon had full power therein and gave to the fallen star another key even the key of the bottomless pit Rev. 9.1 2 3 4 c. Chap. 13. Object Against this you alleadge that the Pope got into his hands all the other Ordinances as well as these as Prayer Ministery Baptism and yet for substance they remained true why then may not the later as Ordination c. Answ Because you here require us we will give our Reasons together though most have been elsewhere written why the former continued and not the later Our Grounds why the former abode shall be first in general then in particular The Reasons in general are these two 1. The former being promised in the Word to remain the Lord so sustained them by his Word as no creature could abolish them 2. Because as Christ fore-declared that there should be a sealed number to make up a mystical Church in Babylon so he upheld the former as being more necessary to maintain the being of grace some means of salvation and the badge of the Covenant Now a few words for the former Ordinances with faith and profession in particular Those of Ministery Prayer and Praisings arise from a grace in the soul faith in the heart and a gift dispensed from Christ alone even then when the outward government was rejected now his Spirit could never be radically touched as it works in the soul Thus the desires of grace in the minde aspiring and fuming up to the Father of spirits in the Ordinances of Prayer and Praisings could not be restrained much less razed by the great Antichrist Likewise the gift of the Witnesses prophecie wrought in the inward man with the administration thereof breathing out teaching is so given inspired and sustained by Jesus Christ as the Beast could never take it into his full possession it this had been possible he would not have suffered them to turn his waters into blood ministerially and smite his earth with plagues and that not so oft as the Beast but as they listed vers 6. The Bishops with us in England when they had full command and jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical regiment could by no means wholly withhold or corrupt the desires and prayers of the Saints nor so take this inward gift into their custody but that in despight of their malice it brake forth in one corner or other of the Land to testifie the truth in some measure and disclose nay cry down the corruptions of the times Also faith in the heart and the effects thereof shining forth
other men but rather mistrust my own conceptions in which I go alone unless I can prove that I have Daniels spirit or justifie it by irrefragable arguments Answ My desire is to dive into these types and Prophecies with an humble and self-denying mind and to be free from puffed-up phansies of mine own wisdom above others or beyond the measure God hath given me neither do I acknowledge immediate revelations and inspirations as Daniel and the Prophets had to belong to any in our time but mediate by the word and for mine own particular am very cautious what I receive for truth upon these Prophecies either from myself or others untill by comparing Scripture with Scripture together with the event it be cleared up to me by manifest arguments As for other interpreters some of them I adjudge to be godly learned and wise and highly prize their interpretations wherein I finde them to agree with the natural sense of the text Yet they sticking in national Churches and living in the obscurer times of the tribulation were so veiled that they could not behold the next dispensation of Christ after the 1260 yeers should be expired But now the date of that time being finished God hath and will raise up a separated people who stand at the Glassie sea Revel 15.2 in the more bright unfolding of the mind of the Apostles and Prophets both for matter and time answerable to the promise made to such a returning people Isa 42.16 I will make darkness light before them And for my sense upon them as I have with diligent circumspection examined it my self so I wish others truly to weigh it by the balance of the Sanctuary and they may find that it comes not from me but from Christ his Apostles and Prophets nor to me only but to all those freed redeemed ones whose eyes the Lord hath and will inlighten Your insuing discourse on this subject contains two particulars Object 1. The doctrine of Christs persons offices the meanes to apply him faith the most dangerous errors in faith and worship are better learned out of doctrinal texts of Scripture then out of the Revelations that holding forth a story of the enemies of the Church who they should be how they should oppress the Church and at last be destroyed by her and of the Churches estate before the enemies rising under their power its deliverance and glorious estate in the end and not of faith worship and good works Answ 1. The book of the Apocalypse is doctrinal as well as other Scriptures for all Scripture is profitable for doctrine 2 Tim. 2.61 if all be doctrinal then this book is not excluded 2. The offices of Christ faith worship and good works are here figured out by allegories which being compared with other plainer texts make their sense much more full and bright to such whose eyes are open to discern the mystery 3. This historical narration doth not only shew who the Churches enemies are but what they are and in what they chiefly stand to wit in the court without Chap. 11.2 nor barely describes her persecution by and deliverance from but also presents before us the several dispensations of God the divers outward stands of his people in their distinct periods both that of the primitive that under antichrist this of the separation that of the visible marriage and call returning and the glory of new Jerusalem all which are of great and high concernment for a Christians knowledge and walk Chap. 1.3 and the ignorance whereof may occasion deep misery Revel 18.4 Chap 14.9 c. Besides the subject we are treating upon to wit who the beast is what he is in his latitude what was the dispensation and stand of the Saints in mystical Babylon what it is and ought to be in the season of their separation from her is not expressed by plain text of Scriptures but by dark prophecies and visions by way of prophesie it must be as being to come in the ages when Scripture was penned and the Lord in divine wisdome hath delivered it more obscurely that the common multitude in hearing might not hear and in seeing might not see but as was fore-prophesied might be deceived by the beast and partake with Babylon in her plagues as also that the curious art of the Spirit might the more be magnified in its wrapping up so much choice matter into such brief compendious platforms and at last in its bright explicating those intricate types and sayings to his despised servants which are veiled from the great Rabbies of the time for such with other causes these wayes and judgements of God are parabolically delivered Now we must search them where they are written if we intend to find Object 2. The Revelations is veiled with such mystical visions as very learned Christians cannot uncover the vaile nor clearly see to the end of them An. That this is concealed from such as adhere to national Churches is true it being prophesied that the veile should lie upon nations Isa 25.7 Chap. 30.8 9 10 11. Chap. 42. 19 20. also Chap. 29.10 The Lord hath poured out upon you Prophets the spirit of a deep sleep and vers 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you like to a book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is sealed And the book is delivered to him that is not learned to read and he saith I am not learned Here the Spirit meets you in your argumentations of this nature for those who are most eminent amongst you alleadge that the visions of the Revelations and Prophets are sealed or as you here say veiled and we must not presume to dive into secrets such as are of a lower capacity complaine that they are unable to comprehend those mysteries and tell us that it belongs to scholars and learned men The reason of this darkness is because the Lord hath covered you But behold in vers 18 what the Spirit promiseth to such whom you adjudge to be blind and deafe The deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness And to these people who are inlightned to follow the Lamb this book together with the parables of Christ and the Prophets are as a cloudy pillar to lead them in their journey This worthy prophecie is the last book given by the Father unto the great Prophet after his ascension into glory and sent by his angel unto his servant John and is called a Revelation being delivered to shew to his servants things that were to come and that of Jesus Christ an emphatical title and proper to this book wherein it carries a dignity beyond the other Scriptures in the front whereof is promised an especial Gospel-blessing to such as read hear and keep the words of this prophecie keeping implies both an understanding of and a way or walk for his