at Kingdoms which began with the sound of the first Trumpet and with the forty two months War or prosperous Reign of the Beast which ended with the Rising of the Witnesses and last blast of the sixth Trumpet So exact is the Synchronism of the forty two months and the six first Trumpets rightly understood Nor is the Beast represented in the Vision with its ten Horns crowned to signifie the Empire was not a Beast till it was thus actually divided into ten Kingdoms but that it was a Bestianizing while the ten Horns were catching at and actually obtaining one after another their respective Kingdoms So that the Beast began to be at least with the catching at and obtaining a Kingdom by the first of the ten Horns But all the ten Horns are exhibited as crowned in Counter-distinction to the Representation of the Roman Empire Pagan where there are seven Heads and ten Horns but the Horns without Crowns that we may be sure the Vision belongs to the Empire after it had become Christian And thus the forty two months of the Beast and the sound of the first Trumpet beginning with the time of the Apostasie it is evident the twelve hundred and sixty days of the mournful Prophecy of the Witnesses and the rest of the synchronizing Medial Visions commence from the same Epocha and consequently that the twelve hundred and sixty days expired about thirty years ago The rest of the most material things in your Letter I will answer very briefly What you alledge therefore out of my self that I allow of a double Rising of the Witnesses Synops Prophet lib. 2. cap. 7. sect 7 11. one quoad speciem the other quoad gradus you are to take notice that that distinction is mentioned by me only to this end that no man should expect at the Expiration of the forty two months an universal Rising of the Witnesses or total Fall of Babylon but only speciminal But that after this speciminal Rising I allow the following Victories of Christ against Antichrist to be called the further Rising of the Witnesses This though by some Analogy it may be called and is so by me called a further gradual Rising of the Witnesses yet I must confess I think it now more proper and safe to call nothing the Rising of the Witnesses but what is included within the Time of the forty two months and intimated by the partial Fall of the City Whatever other Accessions are made to the Kingdom of Christ under the Vials must take their denomination from the Vial they happen under And looking upon the thing it self those that bore Testimony in those Times that the Cause of Truth seemed so obscure in that none would owne it but those Witnesses these I say have a more special Right to that Title But the Cause is now plainly decided by the manifest Judgment of God in giving Victory to the Witnesses and fulfilling exquisitely the Prophecy recorded Apoc. 11.11 in the blessed Reformation So that further witnessing in a decided Cause seems superfluous men now that stick to the Truth decided are rather honest conscientious Professors of the Truth than Witnesses to it and they that suffer for it may rather be said to be murdered than martyred for the Truth though the Merit of their Suffering is much-what alike to the other And now in this proper sense of the Rising of the Witnesses when I say they are risen above thirty years ago this is no contradiction out of forgetfulness to my own sentiments who make the Rising of the Witnesses to begin about the middle of the second month of the last Hexamenon or Semi-time and end about the middle of the fifth from mine own Epocha Anno 393. or 400. as if hereby I finished their Rising later than about the midst of the fifth month of the last Hexamenon and so differ about fifty years from my self For where I say above thirty years ago I speak in the Language of them that by the twelve hundred and sixty years will have so many years Extent signified My meaning therefore is that even according to them granting that Extent to them yet the Witnesses are risen above thirty years ago counting from the right Epocha so that there is no further fulfilling of that Prophecy But though there is no more counting on any further Accessions to the Kingdom of Christ under the Notion of the twelve hundred and sixty days unexpired or Rising of the Witnesses yet there is from the Effects of the Vials as I have hinted already but we go on Daniel's Semi-times are illustrated by the Apocalypse 1 In that they are by changing them into twelve hundred and sixty days or forty two months declared to be but three times and an half And 2 it is declared by placing three days and an half at the close of the Vision of the Witnesses that they are the measure that the Events of the Medial Visions are to be computed by that is that a Semi-time is the Vnite not a Month or Day And withal we must remember that the Artifice of Concealment is as well intended in the Apocalypse as the Certainty of Revealment Furthermore Remember that the forty two months Reign of the Beast is not understood of his Reign at large but of his prosperous belligerant Reign against the Saints and Witnesses till their Rising and the partial Fall of the City so that these necessarily synchronize Your Comparison of the last stroke at the Tree felling the Tree is witty but not so well fitted to this case The Rising of the Witnesses or falling of the City is rather like the mowing of a Meadow which is not said to be mowed just at the last cut as the Tree to be felled at the last stroke of the Ax but it is mowed and a mowing all the time till the last Sithe-full such is the nature of the Rising of the Witnesses Their Rising was in succession not at one joint Jump as the falling of the grass is in succession not all at one stroke of the Sithe In Arithm. Apocalypt pag. 382. I make the twelve hundred and sixty days of the Witnesses expire Anno 1652. speaking according to their Hypothesis that understand the full Extent of so many years by them yet say I they expired in the year 1652. from the true Epocha though they were so to be extended and though we did not measure the time of the Medial Visions by Semi-times But this is but one true Tale to say they expired An. 1652. from the true Epocha according to that Hypothesis of some but that the Witnesses Rising was past in a different year from the said Epocha consulting History and measuring by Semi-times or making a Semi-time the Unite It 's much you did not understand my meaning before And whereas you conceive the Witnesses could not be politically dead from the very beginning of the Apostasie that word Political was the best word I could hit on to oppose to Natural death But
not committed such gross errours if he had not been remiss and careless And thus much shall serve for the preparing the way to an Answer to those two main Objections which we shall be able now briefly to dispatch We answer therefore to the first That it is an unreasonable thing Josephus wholly omitting the Expedition of Caius Caesar into the East and his making Peace with Phraates King of Parthia that we should expect of him the commemorating any Civilities or Attendances of Herod upon Caius Caesar as he passed by Judaea it being a contradiction the whole entirely omitted there should be mention of any part of that affair This argues a great defect in Josephus his History but none in T. L. his arguing in this matter But whether Josephus his ignorance or his dissembling the truth was the cause of this great omission is not so easie to determine Suetonius in the Life of Augustus writes of him thus Caium nepotem quòd Judaeam praetervehens apud Hierosolymam non supplicâsset collaudavit This pride therefore and contempt of Josephus his Religion who was a Jew might lye in his stomach and make him omit the whole business of Caius for his omitting his duty as he thought to the God of Israel in worshipping him at his holy Temple as other Grandees of Rome had done He avoided the Recording the whole Affair of Caius that he might not record this slur put upon his Religion Or it may be it was out of ignorance of this affair it having no complication with Herod's at all Herod out of cautiousness and policy that he might neither offend Caius by omitting any Civilities he might expect in his passage by Judaea nor Tiberius his Corrival by doing them casting his journey so that he was on his way to Rome which is the last he made thither while the other was on his Expedition into the East insomuch that Herod was absent from Judaea in that very year when Christ was born This T. L. copiously makes out in his Recensio cap. 14. but it is little to our present purpose to pursue it any further Only this I will note by the bye that Christ being born this very year of Herod's last journey to Rome there are so many things done by Herod after his return recorded by Josephus that less than three or four years cannot suffice for the atchieving the same Which therefore much confirms the Opinion of the ancient Fathers that declare that Herod lived four years after Christ was born And now for the other which is the more weighty Objection the Answer is short but I hope sound I say therefore that Josephus in his Narration of Caius his being present at the Council when the Cause of Herod's Sons was pleaded who should succeed him in his Kingdom supposing there was any of Augustus his Sons at that Pleading which I speak because no other ancient Writer I know of mentions it but himself that he has committed a mere Antonomasma or Misnomer therein as he did in attributing such things to Xerxes which belong to Artaxerxes and as Epiphanius is observed by Petavius to set down Claudius instead of Cocceius Nerva see my Synopsis Prophetica lib. 2. cap. 2. sect 8. But this Antonomasma of Josephus in this place is more excusable than those others every thing exquisitely agreeing saving the Name For Augustus might place first in the Council an adopted Son of his born of Agrippa and his Daughter Julia but his Name was not Caius but Agrippa Posthumus Nor could there be the least doubt but that it is an Antonomastick mistake but that Writers give such an ill Character of Agrippa Posthumus As Velleius Paterculus lib. 2. Hoc fere tempore says he qui eodem die quo Tiberius adoptatus ab avo suo naturali jam ante biennium qualis esset apparere coeperat mirâ pravitate animi atque ingenii in praecipitia conversus patris atque ejusdem avi sui animum alienavit sibi moxque crescentibus indies vitiis dignum furore suo habuit exitum This last I verily conceive is meant for a justification of Tiberius his killing of him immediately after Augustus his death and Velleius is a great Flatterer and high Encomiast of Tiberius every where in his Writings And again Suetonius in the Life of Augustus cap. 65. mentioning his three Grandchildren Lucius Caius and Agrippa Brevi that is a little after Augustus had adopted him the same time he did Tiberius ob ingenium sordidum ac ferox abdicavit seposuitque Surrentum cast him off and confined him to Surrentum And then toward the end of that Chapter he says Agrippam nihilo tract abiliorem immò indies amentiorem this in all likelihood is spoken in imitation of Velleius his dignum furore suo habuit exitum in Insulam transportavit sepsitque insuper custodia militum And lastly Dion Cassius lib. 55. describes Agrippa as one that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love to be much on the Sea a fishing and thence stiled himself Neptunus that he would reproach Livia as a Stepmother and mutter against Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had more of his Father Agrippa's Goods than was fit For this Carriage therefore he was at last abdicated by Augustus and banished into the Island Planasia These things I thought fit to bring into view that I might not seem to trepan any one unawares into an opinion by concealing what might make him more shy and wary But now that I have produced the worst let us see what it will amount to In all likelihood to no more than Tacitus sets down in the beginning of his Annals Senem Augustum Livia devinxerat adeò ut Nepotem unicum Agrippam Posthumum in Insulam Planasiam projiceret rudem sanè bonarum artium robore corporis stolidè ferocem nullius tamen flagitii compertum Livia had got Augustus grown old so much under her girdle that at last she caused him to banish Agrippa his only Grandchild against his own inclination into the Island Planasia as haply she at first was the cause of his Confinement to Surrentum for a while But the affection of Augustus did so firmly cleave to his only Grandchild left M. Agrippa Posthumus that he is said as the same Historian writes not long before his death to have given him a private Visit with some few he could confide in Fabius Maximus accompanying him at Planasia Multas illic utriusque lachrymas signa caritatis spemque ex eo fore ut juvenis penatibus Avi redderetur Dion also lib. 56. speaks to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which secret coming out by Martia Fabius his Wife and Livia knowing thereof occasioned her to hasten Augustus his death by poisoned Figs the better to secure the Empire to her Son Tiberius See the full story in Tacitus and Dion Wherefore to save Josephus his credit and to make him mistaken only nomine
mentioned even in the fifth Vial. And when so horrible a War was raised against the Evangelical Party here in England in Eighty eight and that by the great Providence of God they were so defeated this is referrible to the third Vial. And if in the midst of the sedulous Attacks of the Antichristian Party some mighty Potentate in Christendom should by God's Providence be raised up in their behalf the hearts of Kings being in the hand of God this were referrible to the fourth Vial. But according to the Apocalyptick Stile this is to be accounted neither any part of the forty two months War nor of the Rising of the Witnesses It is something tedious to insist on things so plain 6. In your sixth Paragraph you lay great stress upon that Passage Apoc. 17.17 touching the ten Kings that God has put into their hearts to fulfil his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the Beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled which words of God you understand of Daniel's Prophecy of the little Horn having the Saints given into his hands until a Time and Times and dividing of a Time And of those other words of Daniel where he says I beheld and the same Horn made War with the Saints and prevailed against them until the Ancient of days came and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom Dan. 7.21 22. and then you skip from v. 22. to v. 27. adding And what Kingdom that is he tells in the following words but they follow a great way off The Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven And you say you suppose I will not say this Kingdom is so given and possessed yet and if not how can you say the little Horns making War with the Saints and prevailing against them for a time and times and half a time is expired I pray you Sir think seriously on this Answ Well I have thought seriously on it and find what you lay such great stress on has no strength in it at all I easily admit those words of Apoc. 17.17 may allude to these passages of Daniel But there is nothing here that infers that the forty two months War of the Beast with the Saints extends any further than the partial Fall of the great City and the then commensurate Rising of the Witnesses Which Time I call the prosperous Reign and War of the Beast which are the Time and Times and half a Time here mentioned in Daniel and in which Fall the last Semi-time current he made War and prevailed against the Saints as Daniel also has foretold And this was till the Ancient of Days came and Judgment was given to the Saints of the most High v. 22. which is further explained v. 26. which you wisely skipped over But the Judgment shall sit and they shall take away his viz. the little Horn's Dominion not all of it at once as it was not at the Fall of the tenth part of the City and commensurate Rising of the Witnesses but leisurely by degrees Which Apocalyptick Vision therefore is an excellent Commentary on this Text of Daniel God has adjudged the Cause to the Evangelical Party by this partial Fall of Babylon and the then Rising of the Witnesses This taking away part of the little Horn's Dominion is a Pledge of the having it consumed and destroyed even to the end But this destruction and consumption is not the issue of the forty two months War wherein the Beast prevailed for such a time against the Saints but at last he was partially vanquished but it is the result of the Effusion of the Vials so that things that lay so close wrapt up in Daniel are thus distinctly and explicitely set out in the Apocalypse and the Explication found to be the easie and natural sense of Daniel Do not wink wilfully against Truth and you will easily discern it See my Exposition of Daniel's second Vision on this place v. 26. And though this is so easily answered yet you are earnest with me again at the close of your Letter to observe that the Time Times and half a Time reach as far as till the Ancient of Days shall come and till the Judgment shall be given to the Saints c. Which thing I grant you viz. That the Time and Times and half a Time of the Horns prevailing War against the Saints did reach so far till the Ancient of Days gave him so notorious a check and counterbuff in the partial Fall of the City and the then Rising of the Witnesses This was the final issue of the forty two months once prosperous War of the little Horn or Beast against the Saints Which Time and Times and half a Time is no where mentioned in the Vision of Daniel Chap. 7. but in v. 25. then comes that in the 26. verse which is evidently to be expounded as I have above expounded it That upon the Judgment being set his Dominion in part was taken away in the partial Fall of the great City to which the Time and Times and half a Time do reach and comprize in the last Semi-time This is the issue of the three days and an half 's War or seven Semi-times War of the little Horn or the Beast with the Saints But the consuming and destroying his Dominion to the end that is the work of the seven Vials which being done then it follows v. 27. And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the Saints of the most High For then is the descent of the New Jerusalem in opposition to the great City of Babylon now quite abolished and after comes in the blessed Millennial Reign of Christ upon Earth which is the greatness of his Kingdom under the whole Heaven All which glorious Providences you would crumple up within the three Times and an half whenas it is demonstrated in Mr. Mede that the three Times and an half reach but to the Exit of the sixth Trumpet which you acknowledge the seven Vials to follow Consider seriously these things But to proceed to the seventh Paragraph 7. Here I only briefly advertise you that the first appearance of the Rising of the Witnesses falling some eighteen years short of the last Semi-time according to your Epocha or not reaching it by eighteen years that this is a greater Argument against the truth of your Epocha than against my Hypothesis that a Semi-time is the only Authentick Vnite in the Eventual Computation of the Medial Visions For according to your Epocha the Rising of the Witnesses will not begin after the seventh Semi-time current but before it which is expresly against the Text After three days and an half which absurdity cannot be salved but by making the entire Resurrection of the Witnesses the adequate Object of the Prediction and so it will reach about seventy years at least
succeeding Body emerges out of their Persecutions into a Victory over the Beast c. then they become the Turba palmifera and that gradually First in the Sardian Interval after more gloriously and copiously in the Philadelphian which is coincident with the New Jerusalem Nor need they be thought those that suffered under Antichrist or the Dragon to be in the prosperity of the New Jerusalem state rewarded by a Proxy which is wittily expressed they according to the Genius of the Apocalyptick Stile being looked upon as the same individual Body Politick still as it is manifest in the Rising of the two Witnesses And lastly It is not too early of the Apocalypse to have the Jerusalem-state glanced at in a Vision Synchronal to the seven Trumpets which reach to the last Judgment and therefore include in them the Time of the New Jerusalem the ligher glances at which partake of the nature of that fuller description Chap. 21. and therefore are also Typical of the Martyrs Triumphant State in Heaven Consider our twentieth Chapter again of this Treatise Object 2. Upon pag. 102. The Vision of the two Witnesses hath always seemed to me one of the obscurest parts of the Book-Prophecy And he that reads what you have written on that Subject with due consideration will be apt to think it is scarce possible to employ more Wit than you have done to void the difficulties of it There are several things in the business of this Prophecy that seem to me of rational Conception 1 It is rational to think that the Apocalypse speaks stilo Judaico as all men observe quòd saepissimè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 That these two Witnesses are two Judaical Prophetick Reformers Reforming Powers Movers and Mourners for Reformation mystically understood 3 That the Spirit of Prophecy speaks of them and characterizes them stilo Judaico as the two Olive-trees two Candlesticks of Elias-like zeal and terrour and Elias-like and Mosaick Wonder-working Power 4 That the cause of their mourning is the desolation of Jerusalem the holy City being trodden under foot 5 They are bipartite or of a twofold nature and quality and therefore represented by two Witnesses 6 It is rational to think that the Beast the ten-horned Beast the secular Power should kill them about the commencement of his Reign to rid the World of such troublesom Fellows But then the following Particulars seem to be as rational 1 The Text sets down things as they were represented 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and leaveth us to spell out the things signified corresponding to the Visional Representations or Iconisms and though the Rind and Pulp must not be confounded yet they must be connex correspondent and go hand in hand Wherefore 2 it should seem that the Witnesses prophesying upon their death quite ceaseth for mortui nihil agunt 3 That upon this account the Nations rejoice and send gifts because they are rid of them and their Testimony 4 That therefore they had been tormented by them and their Testimony for a long time before they were rid of them by their Death And 5 That the Beast himself was provoked and enraged by their long continued Testimony before he sets upon them to slaughter them And 6 That during the time of their Prophecy they could not be dead in the sense of the Prophecy because during that time they were as Olive-trees and Candlesticks standing before God and had and exercised all their Wonder-working Power mentioned Ch. 11.5 6. And 7 That their death in the Prophecy is represented as an effect and consequent of their prophetick Testimony so long continued to the Prejudice of the World These Sir are the best Objections that I can make against your Method of interpreting this Prophecy which surely is desirable it should be true But I cannot make all ends meet which possibly you may do But I intreat you consider Sir How it is possible that the Witnesses should be as dead Carcasses and yet be in Action all the while For if they be but Politically dead they must by the Text be as Politically dead If I could solve such Objections the Rising of the Witnesses sounds so like the Reformation that it would go down with me without chewing but I have tryed several Methods of reconciling things but none of them will do Answ The six first Particulars represent truly enough the Cortical meaning of the Prophecy But as to the latter part of the first of the following seven Particulars where it is required that the Rind and the Pulp though they be not to be confounded yet that they be connex correspondent and go hand in hand what the ingenious Objector would have by connex and going hand in hand I do not so well know but that there is a parallel correspondency I not only allow but assert And I say that their Political Death that is to say their Inability of reforming things amiss in the Church and Religion this PITH runs parallel with the RIND viz. with their lying three days and an half as dead Carcasses in the street of the City And those three days and an half viz. three times and an half the RIND again run parallel with the years the PITH that they are in this Death Political And what more exact Correspondency can be required But while they are thus dead as to Political power it does not at all imply that they are so to power Spiritual and Prophetical which they may exercise though at their peril and so in Individuals be naturally killed also though the Prophetick body or succession continue upon occasions prophesying and thereupon persecuted or suffering Martyrdom c. from whence appears the invalidity of the second Particular For though the Witnesses be politically dead yet they are not so to spiritual Power and Prophecy And mortui nihil agunt reaches no further than to what they are dead to Otherwise the Souls of men departed would be asleep who though they be dead to the things of this life yet they are alive to the things of the other And as for the third fourth and fifth Particulars their invalidity will be discovered if we consider the Prophetick Stile how Henopoetick it is representing frequently repeated Acts as it were but one single Act whereby notwithstanding there is understood as well succession of Acts as succession of Persons under one single Beast and these two single Witnesses Wherefore the Inhabiters of the Earth sending gifts to each other upon the slaughter of the Witnesses is the RIND in this part of the Vision but the PVLP is a successive or repeated rejoicing of the earthly minded Church and enjoying the World in keeping down these Witnesses the true Evangelici and outing them of all Political Power in Church or State and sometimes of their Lives and Fortunes and in the mean time sharing the World amongst themselves and rejoicing therein Wherefore the third Particular has no force against our Exposition of the Vision if we consider the nature of a