the Witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie run parallel in the same Epoche So the six Vials and this Cities duration synchronize with both which is plain from their temporal periods For The period of this threefold Mystery of iniquity in the tenth Chapter is thus exprest There shall be time no longer And its period in the sixteenth Chapter under or at the beginning of the seventh Vial as the former was under or at the beginning of the seventh Trumpets sounding is likewise thus exprest It is done And what is done The answer is made in the next verse but one And the great City was divided into three parts c. That is this threefold City was done ver 19. The scope and almost the express words of both texts is the same shewing That this threefold City or Mystery of iniquity should at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and pouring forth of the seventh Vial begin vigorously to be made manifest and the Mystery of God her Antithesis to be compleated that is The true Church should then begin more vigorously and visibly to expatiate and appear to all Sects and Nations For those periods It is done Time shall be no more are terms of expression that are synonymous in sense and are in both texts a twofold sacred record that the duration the more entire duration of this threefold City should be 1260 years synchronizing with the six Trumpets with the six Vials with the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie and with all the rest of these twelve Epochaes Thirdly the duration of this threefold City is commensurated which are also the Epoche of the death of the Witnesses by three dayes and an half Rev. 11.9 11. In which texts the two former texts are more fully explained and the same period of this threefold City the third time repeated And first We see that the two Witnesses were to lye in that City dead for three dayes and an half ver 8 9. Therefore the end of those three dayes and an half was the period of the Witnesses death and of the duration as will appear of that threefold City For After three dayes and an half saith the text the Spirit of life from God shall enter into them ver 11. Therefore the end of those three dayes and an half must be the period of their lying dead in that City and the period also of that Cities duration For The same hour saith the text the tenth part of that City fell ver 13. And fell not to but from Apostacy in manners to pursue sincere truth and peace in Theory and practice or to use the words of the same text shall then begin to give Glory to the God of heaven that is Shall then begin to give Glory to God with greater vigour and visibility of true obedience then formerly And these three dayes and an half of the duration of the death of the Witnesses in that City and of that City till it should begin to fall as aforesaid are also conterminated as the same period the third time exprest with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet vers 13. And the seventh Angel sounded c. Therefore these three dayes and an half of the more entire duration of this threefold City and of the death of the Witnesses therein synchronize with the six Vials the six Trumpets and the Witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie in 1260 years For those in this Chapter twice repeated three dayes and an half are the same three times and an half chap. 12.14 the same forty two Months chap. 12.2 And the same 1260 dayes in the next verse which being 1260 dayes annual are 1260 years For the durations of the death of the Witnesses and of this threefold City were pre-signified in Scripture both by three dayes and an half artificial or 42 hours and by three dayes and an half Annual or forty two Months as we shall fully and that so soon as we shall first lay down these twelve Epochaes instantly shew The Fifth Epoche is of the Gospel Churches grand revolt FIfthly The Gospel-Churches profligation and defection seems to retain the same time For We find her in Heaven holding forth though at last more remisly her primitive integrity of an Heavenly conversation till about 407 Rev. 12.1 And till then from about 292 in the Heaven of high Power and Authority in the Roman Empire For She casting the first Dragon from his seat there sate sole Regent in his Throne of power Her Eagles exalted both her and themselves into that Heaven ver 7. to the 12th But a falling away was to come and the Church fell fell from Heaven fled into the Wilderness for 1260 dayes Annual 2 Thess 2.3 Rev. 12.1 6 14. Therefore the Church fell from Heaven though not totally and finally in a twofold respect First in reference to her Heaven of high power Secondly In respect to her heavenly conversation Her fall in conversation caused her other fall She fell in part from her former Heavenly conversation Therefore She fell as the effect of that cause from her Heaven of high Power and Authority Her fall in conversation was Spiritual Her fall from Power was temporal In reference to both she according to those texts aforesaid stood in Heaven And in reference to both she fell from Heaven The manner of her fall from both is plain from her Patern or Prophetick type Lament 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to the Earth the beauty of Israel c. So God covered her the Anti-type-Church with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to the Earth the beauty of Gospel Israel For She like the Church of Ephesus left her first love forsook her first works works of Judgment Mercy and Faith and remembred not scarce yet remembreth from whence she fell Thus she fell first in her conversation from Heaven therefore God sent the second Dragon with a flaming Sword who cast her as were our first Parents out of Paradise out of her Heaven of power and Authority and drave her into the Wilderness for 1260 years chap. 12.1.6.14 Many Expositors call that falling away in conversation that grand and general revolt of the Gospel Church from Faith and Obedience Howbeit it was in her true members though much inwardly chiefly in outward appearance and practice The gradual aggresses of the Churches defection from about 340 to 407 we shall shew afterwards The sixth Interval THe sixth Epoche and this of a different denomination more fully proves the former is of the Churches abode in her place prepared of God which is twice recorded in two several texts of the same Chapter And the Woman fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 dayes which being as we shall instantly and irrefellibly shew dayes Annual are 1260 years chap. 12.6 And there were given to the Woman two Wings of a great Eagle that
Therefore was God angry forty years with the Type Wilderness-Church and swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest So the Antitype-Wilderness is the place or dispensation of Gods heavy anger and sore displeasure even against his own Church and People because saith he of the Figure of these they do always err in their hearts and have not known my ways Heb. 3.10 Do always err c. Their Antitype also err always because they are ever inanimadversive and mind not or mind not much what they say or do One said of the troubled Sea Nibil bio nisi Pontus Aether So may we say of the dead faith of this Spiritual dreadful Wilderness There is nothing there but errors in mens imaginations and little else in the hearts and hands of Saints For the fruits of a dying or desert-faith are through brutish inadvertency erring imaginations ignorant animosities Schisms deceits in Opinions and mistakes in Manners A dead faith the foundation of the Apostacy of Antichrist is threefold or subsists of three parts First Inanimadvertency Secondly Ignorance or erroneous knowledge which the Apostle calls Science falsly so called 1 Tim. 6.20 From these two proceeds the love of a Lye And these three constitute a fruitless dead faith And Secondly Antitype Sion or a fruitful living Faith the Derivative Foundation of the Church of God is also threefold or subsists of three parts First Animadvertency Secondly true Knowledge and from these two proceeds Love the life of a fruitful living Faith For Knowledge comes by animadvertency and from both springs Love the life of Faith And I looked and lo c. Animadvertency is the Root of Faith Knowledge the Eye of it Love is the Life thereof But a dead faith Acts and looks not Censures and sees not Reads and minds not or with an evil Eye minds amiss mistakes pieces and fragments of good Works for perfect Obedience and deceits for Truth no better fruits must they expect that make a dead faith the foundation of their-Works and the substructure of the Church of God Break off thy sins said Daniel by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lenthening of thy tranquillity Nebuchadnezzar no doubt did as Daniel directed But it 's not a careless clypt Righteousness of a dead faith nor half-performed mercy to the poor that can secure Professors Salnts States or Churches from dreadful Calamities He was driven as a man without Rule or Reason from amongst men and his dwelling was as in a Wilderness with the Beasts of the field till twice 1260 days past over him His Faith was a Wilderness dead Faith bringing fruits forth by halves The dreadful evils of the barren Desert Literal and Spiritual and the contrary benefits and blessings of Sion in Type and Antitype may briefly appear from the fastings of Moses Eliah and Christ forty days in the wilderness The time was above fourty days and perhaps about 42 days conform to 42 moneths Propbetical which was the time that the Gospel-Church should fulfil in her place in the Spiritual Wilderness Chap. 12.6 14. Ch. 13.5 For Christ had finished 40 days fasting before the Devil began to assail him with his fiercest temptations Matth. 4.2 So Eliah took one days journey into the Wilderness and was miraculously fed there before he fasted 40 days 1 King 19.4 And Moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights before God gave him the Tables of the Covenant Deut. 9.11 Forty days and forty nights rotunditatis gratiâ or as a round number are exprest but the whole time of the fastings of all the three appears to be longer That time was an abbreviated adumbration of the Gospel-Churches continuance in the Antitype-wilderness and what they did or suffered in that time there prefigured Prophetically the state of the Profuga-Church And first Moses fasted two several times 40 days and when he had finished his first 40 days in Horeb he found Israel more degenerate in Manners and Opinions than they had been before worshiping a Calf Deut. 9.12 So the Gospel-Church and Professors having now near finished their Wilderness-Pilgrimage are so far from being nearer to Mount Sion that they are much more erring in their hearts and ignorant of the ways of God More abundant in mistaking evil Manners for good Works and more blindly Superstitious in Worshiping as Israel did a Calf the works of their own hands The works of their hands Revel 9.20 And what are those works I Answer All careless deficient long-delayed or half-performed works of mercy and equity are though wrought by Saints the works of mens hands which God abhors Such much more are the works of all Saints and Professors that mistake their Cui persons or things whom they misintend to right or promote We are debtors saith the Apostle not to the flesh to live thereafter Rom. 8.12 But this is the misery of Modern times that all men and Saints for the most part mistake their Creditors and mind not to whom they themselves are Debtors For the miserable Wilderness-Christians are all Debtors and owe almost all they have to themselves little or nothing to their neighbours to whom what is part of their due they pay as the Pharisees did to their own Proselytes Kin Friends or Members of their own Societies But to things profitable and honest and to the pursuers of such things they find nothing or the least part due and accordingly repay them These are Debtors be they never so Spiritual to the flesh and these their fruits the works of their own wicked hands are worshiped almost by all as Israel when Moses had finished his 40 days fasting were found worshipping a Calf No less wicked are the Works of the hands of Hypocrites that make the Witnesses the Cui of their condemnation and false accusers forgers of lyes through their indulgent or not diligent examining of them their Cui of Credit and Reputation For this cause multitudes of blind zealous careless Professors readily give credit to and capitulate with the greatest Impostors against the injured most innocent This practice is the power of the Prince of darkness in the Mystery of iniquity whereby he crucifies Christ Mystical and kills his Witnesses in the Spiritual wilderness Secondly Eliah wandered and fasted forty days in the dreadful Wilderness and when he had finished that sore travel he was so sar from Mount Sion that he was got to Horeb quite contrary to it So the Gospel-wandring Saints and Professors having almost finished their much more sore travel in a far more troublesome Wilderness are so far from drawing near to Mount Sion that they are come to Horeh So horrible are the mistakes and deceits of these men and times But how and when did Eliah begin his Eremitetiavel I Answer He fled for his life from Jezabel as his Antitype the Gospel-Church fled from the second Dragon but indeed at first from both combined Ch. 12.6 14. He came to Beersheba where he left his
and black Conspiracies against the best of Saints was as Rome Papals sins now are fully ripe immediately before her final downfal Therefore Theodosius that great and good Emperour loathing to die upon such a dunghil liv'd with St. Ambrose Jerom fled as from a Captivity from her before her approaching fall and God called his People out of her lest they should partake of her sins and receive of her plagues But Contrarily Papal Rome though mystical also and called a Spiritual City chap. 11.8 was called The place prepared of God to preserve his Church for 1260 years from the rage of the second Dragon chap. 12.6 14. For those two texts in one and the same chapter are not only a twofold Witness in the Word of Truth but the Experience of Ages doth also witness That there was never any other place that ever did or possibly could preserve his Church in such sort so long but only Papal Rome with her Subdivisions She was more a Nursing-Mother than a Stepmother for about eight hundred years to the Gospel-Church a fit place prepared of God for her defence as aforesaid and ever had and still hath which the sequel will clearly shew a reverend esteem for St. Jerom as chief of the primitive Fathers whom Apostate Rome primitive by joynt confederacy conspired against Therefore this City in the 11th and 16th chapters and not that in the 17th and 18th chapters must be the tenfold Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or City of Papal Rome humbled and somewhat reformed at first and so prepared of God by the then late dreadful fall and translation of Imperial and Christian Apostate Rome I pass by for brevity in this place those several joyful Acclamations and Alleluia's of the Church in the 19th chapter which she exprest in under and at the beginning of Rome Papal after the fall of Christian Apostate Rome which Alleluia's as also above 800 years of the first Dragon 's binding fell out and were fulfilled in the first times of the Beast and false Prophet Papal chap. 19.20 chap. 20.4 But the perfect dilucidation of these things though intelligent Readers may at present perceive them appertain to their due places in the sequel where we handle them at large Sixthly This threefold City and the Holy City co-indent in a contrariety But the Court without leave out for it is given to the Gentiles and the Holy City shall they tread under foot c. chap. 11.2 The Holy City There 's the City of God the Gospel-Church troden under foot They those Gentiles that trod her under foot There 's this threefold City in the 8th verse more fully set forth Both are Cities Therein they co-indent The Holy City shall they tread There 's their enmity or contrariety This contrariety and its cause is threefold And first The Holy City is contrary to Spiritual Sodom in opposing sensuality Contrary to Spiritual Egypt in impugning sordid tenacity Contrary to Apostate Salem in opposing factious pride and ignorance This threefold opposition from the Holy City is the sum of all Christian duty Herein or in nothing must all Ministers exercise their Preaching and they and all Saints their practice for their own Salvation and examples to others The contrary opposition from this threefold City is the summe of all iniquity in the tenfold body of the Apostacy of Antichrist What that threefold Iniquity because wrapt in the darkest mystery of deceit is we shall shew in its due place and so seek to remove many gross mistakes in manners amongst all Sects Societies of dissenting Brethren and too much amongst true Saints that so men may better know how and what to reprove or preach against and a right means to true peace and prosperity plainly appear For How shall they preach the Text sayes unless they be sent And we may say I say not of all of too many How shall they be sent to reprove that know not how to reprove or to preach that know not what to preach know not what Manners what Opinions to approve what to preach against By this means deadly strife and discords are built upon mistakes frequently every where but Peace inviolable is not built upon the pillar and ground of truth But The Holy City or true Church is no literal but a Spiritual City For her Type the Jewish Church was a Spiritual and no literal City but sometimes scattered in all the 127 Provinces from India to Ethiopia Esth 8.9 9.30 So her Antitype the Holy City or Gospel-Church is no literal but a Spiritual City scattered in many Nations and Church-Societies Her Saints sit down some in Spiritual Sodom some in Spiritual Egypt some in Apostate Salem Some are setled in this Society of dissenting Brethren some in that Sect. And so her Antithesis Papal Rome called Babylon the great in the 16th chapter is no literal but a mystical City because called spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified chap. 11.8 And because extended as far in all Sects and Nations as the Holy City troden by her under her feet is scattered For Seventhly This City say the texts in the 11th 16th chapters was a great City Nor Sodom nor Egypt nor Pagan Rome nor Apostate Salem could ever equal her greatness Literal Egypt was a large Nation and the place to the whole Type-Church of her refuge and defence from the famine So this City called expresly Spiritual Egypt chap. 11.8 was also the place prepared of God for the whole Gospel-Church Her place I say of refuge and defence from the face of the second Dragon for 1260 years chap. 12.6 14. Wherefore As Type Egypt was a National City So this City Antitype Egypt complex of many Sects and Nations is a City of Nations and so the Text expresly asserts v. 9. And they of the People and Kindreds and Tongues and Nations c. And Nations And what of them shall see their dead bodies where in the street of this great City ver 9. This City as Egypt was a Nation was a City of Nations That those Nations in this City were at least ten we shall shew in the sequel But Literal Rome that now is is by the estimate of many Writers but the tenth part in extent to Pagan Rome And it were very absurd to imagine that Rome that now is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of modern Writers but the tenth part as many modern Writers account of the greatness of Rome-Pagan can be Babylon the Great or the tenfold Body of the grand Apostacy Herein therefore Papists and Reformists are both mistaken All Papists few or scarce any excepted misapply all those texts in the 11th 16th 17th 18th chapters that mention a City to the City of Heathen and Imperial Rome and bless themselves in their security as not at all concerned therein In those texts of the 17th and 18th chapters they are not mistaken but much mistaken in those texts of the 11th and 16th chapters which intend
strong voyce saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen not only Temporally by a final excision from ever being as formerly Pagan or Imperial but Spiritually fallen also and become the habitation of Devils c. That is not fallen much from sound Doctrine but sincere obedience not from Orthodox Faith but from Faith of veracity or fidelity not from a form of Godliness but from the power of it And so far fallen as to persecute and conspire against as it were by common consent the witnesses of solid Truth and practisers of it This Spiritual Apostacy or falling away is also fully confirmed by as the effect of that cause not only the Temporal fall of the Empire but the flight of the Gospel-Church at the same time For such Spiritual grand and general revolts in Types were usually acom-companyed as their effects with the flying of the Persecuted Saints the supports of those places and with the final excision translating or destruction of those places But we shall see what Expositors say and how they further shew the completion contrary to the tenents of many moderne Opinionists and some sober Writers of those Texts in that very juncture of time 'T is Salvians complaint saith Doctor Hammond every where throughout his Book De Providentia That the Impieties of the Christians were so great and particularly those abominable Commissions and Customary practices of all unnatural uncleannesses which have ever been constantly the destroying not only of the Canaanites but of the Jews and Christians that it was Gods will they should be thus punished by the Barbarians who being Christians though Arrians were much more tolerable then these who though not Arrians were many of them very abominable livers where note That not the Heathens nor the Hereticks in Rome but the Christians for the most part Orthodox but Apostate in manners were the chief cause of Salvians complaint Doctor Hammond divides that great City as it was indeed divided into three parts To wit into Heathens Hereticks and Orthodox which last had the Supream power and preheminence and having done this he labours hard as he that would wash a Black-amore white to free the third part the Orthodox from this Signal revolt sounded forth as by a Trumpet by the strong voyce of a mighty Angel And would make the other two parts the Heathens and Hereticks that were not or were less if at all capable of it the matter of this stupendious revolt causing such astonishment and destruction for he seeks to transferre Jeroms record against those real though for the most part Orthodox revolters against and upon those Heathens and Hereticks who properly could not be said to fall then because they either fell or rather never stood before And while he seeks to do this he himself quotes Salvian whose record seems quite contrary For he expresly justifies those Barbarian-Arrians the worst Hereticks as much more tolerable than those Christians in Rome who though not Arians but more Orthodox were abominable Livers Having thus far seen Salvians witness and Doctor Hammonds also partly against himself we shall now further examine Saint Jeroms express testimonies of those times When I lived saith he in Babylon an Inhabitant of that Purple whore I would have written something of the Holy Ghost and have dedicated the Treatise to the Bishop of that City Of what City Of Rome Christian sure even then when most generally Orthodox but Apostate in manners and whom St. Jerom and the sacred Text calls and therefore calls fallen Babylon and the purple whore For Rome was never before so generally Orthodox as then nor the Orthodox therein ever before so depraved in manners as at that time As at that time when Imperial Rome fell for ever as the Prophetick Evangelist predicted and the Primitive Fathers the fittest unfolders of those Texts partly saw and bare faithful Record And at that time immediately before or at the ingress when Rome Papal commenced of the grand Apostacy And who was then Bishop of Rome Innocent the first was then Bishop not of the Heathens or gross Hereticks therein but of the reputed most Orthodox but Apostate in manners For he must needs be then Bishop thereof by consent of all Writers of Annals about the years four hundred and five or six when Jerom would have dedicated his Treatise to him For Secondly The Pot saith Jerom that was seen in the North spoken of by the Prophet Jeremy beginneth already to boyl But such a boyling Pot of affliction was never seen by Pagan or Imperial Rome or by the Primitive Church till about the years four hundred and seven ten or twelve when the Apostacy of Imperial Rome then full caused her fall and when the Papal Apostacy began And then Innocent at that very time began to rule the revolting Church which neither in all the ten Pagan or the eleventh Pagano-Arrian persecutions was forc'd to betake her self to flight before this Pot of the grand Apostacy began to boyl in afflictions from the flaming Sword of the second Dragon That Pot of tribulation was to continue boyling from that time aforesaid but in the first eight Centuries more mildly for 1260 years Ch. 12.7.14 Thirdly The Pot saith he that was seen in the North spoken of by the Prophet Jeremy beginneth already to boyl This not only imports the final excision of Rome Pagan the translating of the Roman Empire and profligation of the Primitive Church but also an ingress of the Gospel Church into another servitude for 1260 years for so the boyling Pot in the Patern shadowed forth the Jewish Captivity in Type Babylon as a Figure of this under Papal Rome And so Saint Jerom here appositely applies it as to her proper Antitype expresly called also both by him and by the sacred Text Babylon Jeremiah 1.14.15 Apocal. 16.19 The duration also of this boyling Pot and the further description of it is exprest in Ch. 11.2.3 Ch. 12.6.14 and in sundry other Texts all holding forth 〈◊〉 time aforesaid Fourthly And the Senate of Pharisees saith Jerom cryed out c. Jam nova Progenies Here 's a new Progeny the off-spring of the Pharisees their Antitype Synagone of proud factious censorious Christ-crucifieing professors newly sprung up in the place of the late meek sober charitable professors of the Primitive Church Fifthly Wherefore saith Jerom I am now as it were out of Captivity returned to Jerusalem This denotes That the Pharisees of falling Rome were the first fruits or praecursive part of the Son of Perdition that then came to lead the Gospel Church and Saints into the last greatest and most grievous Captivity under the Antichrist predicted by Prophets and Apostles Sixthly And I saw another Angel saith the Text And he cryed mightily with a strong voice saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen Fallen temporally from all at least all grounded hopes to be the Imperial City or holy City or head City of the Gospel Church And fallen spiritually to be a Senate of
Apostles Such Sects nevertheless come nearest to true Churches that holding forth sound Doctrine are sound most fruitful in the practice of good Manners Sects are either more General or more Special Sects more Special are Societies of Professors fallen from sound Doctrine or good Manners and separated from Churches more sound then themselves The more General Sect are such Professors in all Sects and Churches as are fallen though not from sound Doctrine from the practice of good Manners Doctor Colet calls this Sect The Sect of evil Manners Many Saints at least men somewhat Moral and Ingenuous may be found in many Sects who are the supports of them and are usually least regarded and most persecuted in and by those Sects For Locusts are apt to creep into and corrupt through Inadvertency Pride Ignorance and avarice all Sects and even the truest and best Church-Societies Cause Dissentions in them oppose diligence and fidelity and endanger to destroy them Therefore it is not my design in this Treatise to fall foul as Weather-beaten Ships at Sea upon any Sects or Church-Societies but in love to reprove them plainly and to manifest to them their manifold gross and dangerous mistakes in Opinions and Manners of which their inconviction though they little mind it is their greatest misery they do or can sustain on Earth To that end I shall beginning at the Foundations of both endeavor to distinguish the true Church and Saints from false Professors in all Sects and Churches And first The Rock whereon the true Church is built is Christ alone Sunt caetera Arenae All other Formal fruitless Christ-pretending Professions are but Sands of deceit or Smoake whereon the Apostacy of Antichrist and all false Practices are built The first Superstructure upon the true Rock is Animadvertency For Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Animadvertency to hear He heareth to very little purpose that minds not much what or how he hears For Secondly the first Superstructure upon the sandy Foundation of the Apostacy of Antichrist is inanimadvertency or a careless unmindfulness To hear profitably or To do what they hear Animadvertency the first Superstructure upon the sure Rock is threefold a mindfulness to hear to expect and to practise what is heard and read and brings forth a threefold operative Grace Faith Hope and Charity though true Animadvertency and more accepted of God is a fruit of that threefold Grace Inanimadvertency the first Superstructure upon Sandy Foundations is threefold Non animadversive Semi-animadversive Mis-animadversive and brings a three-fold effect contrary to Faith Hope Charity To wit Perfidy false confidence and rash and censorious uncharitableness This threefold inadvertency opposite to true Repentance is the threefold Substructure of Antichrist Sensual Secular and Spiritual And first Non-animadvertency is the Substructure of Antichrist sensual or of such Professors as mind nothing orlittle else but loose Profaneness Such were the men of the Old World They knew nothing saith the Text till the Flood came c. And no marvel For how should thew know any thing that minded nothing Non-advertists are very Beasts both have hearts alike to mind nothing Therefore both perished alike in the Flood These slothful Citizens of Spiritual Sodom regard not to read the Scriptures that testifie of Christ or Books that unfold the meaning of them Or they read both but mind not through sensual levity and folly to understand what they read Such were the Men and Swine of Gadara They cared not to know Christ the living truth and these care as little to know what truth in practice is So far are they from that that they mind not so much as the proper objects of right-producing Animadvertency or the Principles of the practice of good manners which Principles because little minded by most Professors through almost a general inanimadvertency we shall insert in the sequel Such Non-advertists are the Owles of Ignorance unclean and hateful Birds that hate the light and would were it in their power utterly extinguish it and destroy the Witnesses of it For truth in Doctrine and Manners is directly contrary to the bruitish ignorance of Non-advertists Therefore they oppose both by a direct opposition Yet these seek shelter for their sins of bestial ignorance under some careless Formalities or in some corner of the Court that was cast out and given to the Gentiles and receive the Seed of Grace like the High-way-ground let it lye where it 's scattered till it 's lost but it takes no Root there as it did in the Thorny and Stony grounds Secondly Semi-advertency is the Substructure of secular Apostacy or of men minding Earthly things These Professors for such as the cause is such is the effect Worship God by halves do good Works by halves are half-Christians in shew in deed Heathens And though Spiritual Egypt owns them are much like those Samaritans that succeeded captive Israel in their vacant Habitations They worshipped the Lord and worshipped their Idols also And these Locusts are such Semi-advertists seem to serve God by halves but in deed covetousness which is Idolatry altogether They were Men and Women in appearance Lions in practice winged Horses in pursuit of their practices For Semi-advertists assume several shapes according to which their evil manners differ Under these men if I may so call them not only good men but good works suffer Martyrdom They spin many threds of good works and go on for a space But their Lions teeth of avarice before these good works be finished bite in pieces those threds and lay those good works a bleeding All their good works are Opera refuga works of Apostacy They begin many and perfect none For Thorns sprang up in the Thorny-ground and choaked the good Seed And these are that Thorney-ground wherein Cavils Slaunders Quarrels Missuppositions Pretences Excuses and Busie neglect of the best things springs up and through Pride and Covetousness choake every good Work before it be finished Pilate was guilty of this sin so was Saul Both did very much and then turn'd Apostates in not perfecting what they had begun True Saints are oft guilty of these sins and pay dear for their Semi-advertencies and half performances For Moses omitted to circumcise his son therefore God met him and would have kil'd him 'T is like he lay sick near unto death So the Prophet sent to Bethel had performed within a very little all the task that God sent him to do But a Lion met him and slew him because he left part a very little part of his work undone Little do many true Saints imagine that the cause of their losses languishing sicknesses and oft untimely deaths is their Semi-advertency causing careless half-performances and keeping them back from perfecting any good work Such Saints can scarce be discerned by theirs Works from Locusts and Hypocrites Semi-advertency is so much worse then Non-advertency as Apostacy is worse than Profaneness or as To know and profess the truth and oppose it is worse than