were sealed I answer Their Title teacheth us the causes of their being so called They are called The first-fruits it seems because they are to be the first after the grand Apostacy that shall bring forth fruits of more visible and conspicuous Obedience to God and good Works to Men And the 144000 in the 7th Chapter to the 9th vers the Church sealed were for different or contrary causes not called The first-fruits To wit Because they during the time of the grand Apostacy ' did not bring forth fruits of such visible obedience to God nor good works so apparent to Men For such as the Tree is such is the Fruit but that Numerus sigillatus was the sealed Church And such must her fruits be sealed works of necessity For a Book or Letter sealed is scarce at all legible And such is the love and works of that sealed Church There 's little exemplariness in her practice for others to follow Her works so weak are they so over-grown with Weeds of evil Manners are scarce at all manifest But the fruits of these first-fruits cannot but be manifest must of necessity be signally manifest because they shall have the Name of God written in their foreheads And their works wrought in a quadruplex conformity after the Pattern of the good Samaritan their grand Exemplar shall be that Name of God written in their foreheads exemplary and legible to all Ages and Nations I do not absolutely state the Epoche of the sealed Church at the Commencement of the 1000 years about the beginning of the reign of Constantius the first For they are said to come out of great tribulations which is more truly intended of their Conscript Antitype vers 14. Howbeit They did then begin to come out of those tribulations when the first Dragon began to fall Therefore Their Epoche of being sealed might seem to begin then But if they begun to be sealed as 't is likely they might at the beginning of the fall of the first Dragon Then they were at first that Woman in Heaven clothed with the Sun c. Ch. 12.1 And the same Church that triumphed over that false-accusing first Dragon in these words Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ For the accuser of our brethren is scast down vers 10. From that time her Graces decayed till after 400 when she fell from Heaven and fled into the wilderness vers 1 6 14. After that time she retained a great part though ftill decaying of her Primitive integrity for above 800 years Then her Graces grew still weaker till they were almost wasted and near quite spent For Abraham put Bread and a bottle of Water upon Hagars shoulder and sent her away with her son She wandered in the Wilderness till the water was spent and the Child ready to perish for whom she lifted up her voice and wept But God opened her eyes to see a Well of Water and she gave the Lad drink and he revived So the Righteousness and Graces of the sealed Church are like Hagars bottle of Water She also hath wandered in the Wilderness above 1200 years till her bottle is almost spent Well may her Children and she both ready to perish sit down and weep But the Name of God written in her and their foreheads shall be a Fountain of living Waters to revive both her and them For it is not an empty crackling of Thorns in a formal profession nor the vain blaze of foolish Virgins half-performances nor litigious contradiction nor bold confidence in blind obedience nor the stony-grounds shallow superficies of found Doctrine and practice like it nor Lo here nor Lo there nor the Witnesses weak and that also now expiting Sackcloth-Prophesie that can support the Gospel-Church whiles she herself is shivered into Schisms and Subdivisions brought to the brink of the Grave and her Righteousness that should sustain her almost spent Wherefore A necessity a necessity urgent and indispensible even comples the Gospel-Church and all Ministers and Magistrates to ask of God to open their eyes that they may see the life-redeeming River of apparent Righteousness and do as Hagar and her son did Drink and not dye That is That they may find what that sacred Name of God in the foreheads of his servants shall be and seek to have it fairly transcribed in their own that so they may be a part of those first-fruits redeemed from the Earth vers 3 4. We must therefore give all diligence to make this sacred Name of God sure to our selves to know what that life-redeeming Righteousness is and how to work it But how shall we know how to work it without a pattern A pattern a perfect Patern is and hath been long wanting upon Earth where then shall we find it We must seek the Patern in the Mount And I looked and lo a Lamb stood upon Mount Sion and with him an hundred forty and four thousand having his Fathers Name written in their fore-heads Chap. 14.1 There 's the pattern in the Mount and he that holds it forth The Name of God written and the Writer of it That Lamb was a light to the sealed-Church at least for about a thousand years Ch. 20.4 But to the Conscript-Church he shall be a Temple in her a Pattern to her not for a thousand years but unto all ensuing Ages Not by any corporal presence but by the abundance of the Graces of his Spirit When he was Corporally present on Earth he was called in scorn by the Pharisees a Samaritan and was indeed that good Samaritan that left the best Pattern upon Scripture Record of perfect Righteousness to all posterity And first Jesus said A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among Theeves which stripped him of his Raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead And by chance there came down a certain Priest that way and when he saw him he passed by And likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was And when he saw him he bad compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds pouring in Oyl and Wine and set him on his own Beast brought him to an Inn and took care of him and said to the Host Take care of him c. Luke 10.30 to 38. Saw him Not only the man but that which was right in it self and due to be done For the Priest and Levite passing by saw him but would not see to do what was right Their seeing him signified nothing So the Children of the Son of perdition see their neighbour So the sealed and true Saints commonly see their Brother Their seeing signifies little Inanimadvertency next to Avarice if not before it is the root of all evil in the body of the Apostacy of Antichrist But the wounded Man wanted speedy help There
she might flee into the Wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time times and half a time from the face of the Serpent ver 14. The times in both texts are exactly the same and make a twisted or double record That the Epoche of the Churches abode in her place prepared of God was to be 1260 years Into the Wilderness That is into an obscure sad desolate and distrest condition both in temporal and spiritual respects Into her place prepared of God Having here proved the Epoche by the double testimony of two texts we shall refer this place prepared of God but a little further to a fitter place where we shall shew what this place prepared of God was where the Gospel-Church was to be preserved for 1260 years The seventh Epoche IS of the death of the Witnesses And when they shall have finished their testimony their Primitive testimony in 407 and not their 1260 years Prophesie in Sackcloth the beast saith the text that cometh out of the bottomless pit the second Dragon shall overcome and kill them shall cast them out of their primitive power and capacities temporal and spiritual and kill many of them corporally And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City called spiritually Sodom c. That is their dejected condition shall be visible and obvious to the frequent view of those spiritual Gentiles of that threefold City of Apostacy And they of the Peoples and Kindreds c. those Gentiles aforesaid shall see their dead bodìes their persecuted and despised state three dayes and an half That is Three times and an half chap. 12.14 Or 1260 dayes Annual or years chap. 13.3 That 's the Epoche both of the death of the Witnesses and of their Prophecying in Sackcloth And so Their type Eliah and the Prophets of Israel finished also their as it were primitive testimony against the wickedness of Ahab and Israels Apostacies And when they had finished that primitive testimony Jezabel Ahab and the false Prophets killed them for 1260 dayes literal That is Killed many or the most and persecuted all for 1260 dayes Therefore they that escaped death corporal fled with the persecuted Church as into a Wilderness into the secret subterfuges of obscure latency for 1260 dayes literal So long also did her and their type-surviving Witnesses as well they might and had most just cause Prophesie as in Sackcloth in great obscurity and contempt And just so long was rain literal restrained to wit for 1260 dayes literal But after those flying persecuted type-Witnesses had finished those 1260 dayes of their type-death and Prophecying â—n Sackcloth they were not killed we find little of that in that grand exemplar or Patern So when the Gospel-Witnesses St. Basit Ambrose Athanasius Jerom Chrysostom and others had finished not this Sackcloth Prophesie of 1260 years but their primitive testimony about 407 against the fast approaching defections of the primitive Church And when she and her revolting children repented not then did the Beast that came out of the bottomless pit the second Dragon kill the Witnesses And the Sea born-beast and false Prophet-Papal to whom that Dragon gave his power the Supremacy therein prosecuted though they seemed gentle for the first 805 years the killing of them for 1260 as in the Patern literal dayes Annual Therefore they such as escaped death corporal fled with the persecuted Church into the spiritual Wilderness into the secret subtersuges of obscure latencies for 1260 as in the type literal dayes dayes Annual Just so long was rain restrained in the type literal in the Anti-type spiritual rain To wit for 1260 as in the Patern dayes literal Annual dayes or years And therefore the Gospel-Witnesses such as were killed by the death of persecution but not corporally or totally killed Prophesied as well they might and had most just cause for 1260 as in the Patern literal dayes Annual in Sackcloth th it is in great infirmity affliction obscurity and contempt for 1260 years Wherefore when they had finished for that 's intended in the text their primitive testimony about the year four hundred and seven or ten then the second Dragon somewhat assisted even at first by the Beast and false Prophet overcame and killed them as aforesaid for 1260 yeas But after that Epoche of their 1260 years death and Prophecying in Sackcloth they as their type were not are not to be killed There was no such thing in the Patern nor shall be in the Anti-type of it Nor is there any ground that I find for it in Scripture but abundantly sufficient for the contrary For we may add to this of it self full evidence That it plainly appears to be a matchless piece of absurdity That the Witnesses should Prophesie in Sackcloth 1260 years because they should be killed many killed and all persecuted so long by the Dragon Beast and false Prophet who were to continue in power so long And then when the Witnesses should have finished that 1260 years Prophesie and the Dragon Beast and false Prophet should cease to be in full power the Beast out of the bottomless pit scarse in being himself or not in such full power should overcome and kill them the second time for 1260 dayes immediately after he for who else should kill them had first killed them for 1260 years before The futility of this absurdity the Paterns which are more then one sufficiently resell But that is also fully done in the sequel by many perhaps undeniable demonstrations From what already appears we plainly see that the Epoche the twice repeated three dayes and an half in the 11th Chapter of the death of the Witnesses is 1260 as in the Patern of days literal of dayes Annual or years and runs exactly paralel with their Prophecying in Sackcloth succeeding their Primitive testimony about the year 407 and not their Prophecying in Sackcloth 1260 years after it But to come nearer to the matter we shall having shewn the duration of the death of the Witnesses here distinguish The death of the Witnesses was ab extra vel ab intra external or internal Their external death is threefold Corporall civil spiritual Corporal chiefly from the Dragon civil from the beast spiritual from the false Prophet in all Papal Sects To wit By Papal fulminations excommunications rash censures slaunders c. These external deaths for brevity I but briefly hint But Secondly their death internal is more properly spiritual because its the death or decay of spiritual Graces whiles the lusts of the flesh of the eyes and pride of life seem to live and judgment mercy and faith to dye in the souls of Saints and whiles they manifest that internal death of Graces by outward correspondent fruits and practices So the Church of Sardis had a name that she lived and was dead And how dead None of her Members were killed that we read by any corporal civil or spiritual death as the witnesses were externally But her death was
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
largest Magnitude must needs amount to a Redemption from death Righteousness saith the Text delivereth from death But the want of this Righteousness is as Death to those that want it and their usual both Temporal and Spiritual overthrow Vespasian asked Apallonius what was Nero's overthrow Nero said he could touch and tune the Harp well but would sometimes screw up the Pins too high sometimes too low And this ill-tuned Harp a Heart tun'd too high or too low like the Harp of Nero is the almost Epidemick overthrow They thereby usually perish that have it and are the cause that others perish I shall but present this perfect pattern of a wel-tuned Harp The man wounded by Thieves wanted help There was res rect a in se right in itself The good Samaritan the best Harper considering that Incomplex-right made it Complex took care to know it and to conform his Will and work to that known right They that are so busse as to pass by that which is right to others or take no due notice of it have not the Harps of David but Nabals voice Folly is with them be they never so wise or Learned But God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 God therefore as the greatest meroy to fallen Man and Saints revolted hath promised to call raise and draw them by the delicious harmony of the Harps of God that so they hearing his call may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved For Truth is the Door of Life and Knowledge the Key to open it Knowledge of the Truth is twofold In Theory In Practice Theorical knowledge chiefly from Scripture as its Fountain is the knowledge of sound Doctrine Practick Knowledge is the Knowledge of that which is right in it self and due to be done to every man The first is opposite to Heresie The second opposeth Heathenism and Hypocrisie The first serveth to acquire a Form of Godliness The second conduceth to procure the practice and power of it The first is the Extrinse ground of Faith The second is the fruit and proof of Faith and the immediate Foundation of all good manners The Object of the first is Janua Doctrinae Truth in Doctrine The Object of the second is Janua justitiae Truth in practice Both are the Key or Means to Men Saints and Sects to come to the Door of Life that they may be saved without both can none come They that read not the Scriptures nor hear them read or seek not diligently to understand them by reading such Books or hearing such Teachers as fitly unfold them come not to the knowledge of the Truth Therefore such slothful Professors that would be saved by a Faith Implicit or wanting practice come not to the Door of Truth that they may be saved For God would have all men to be saved by a Regular means in a rational way and come to the knowledge of the Truth truth in Doctrine Truth in Practice without which they cannot be saved He that will come to the knowledge of the Truth must try all things Try all things saith the Text 1 Thes 5.21 Jacob wrastled with God by prayer all night not without much corporal labour prevailed and obtained the blessing So they that would come to the knowledge of the truth must not only wrastle with God by Prayer but expect to take serious pains in trying all things that they may find that which is pleasing to God and profitable to men Which Beroean-disquisition is the greatest pleasure to such as are sincere but a burden to base minds Heathens and Hypocrites Therefore Few find the strait-Gate the door of Life by coming to the knowledge of the Truth because they wrastle not like Jacob with God by Prayer nor take the pains to try all things But If Prayer without Pains will procure it many will not want this blessing But De Caelo ignavis precibus Deus ipse repugnat God resists the slothful though they make many prayers Hence we may demand why such Sects Jews Papists Turks c. and many Formal Professors so long abide in their blind Schisms and fruitless Formalities The Answer is almost as Obvious as the demand easie They count it Sacriledge to try their own Tenents Filthy Heathens hold it the highest Profaneness and so do Formalists and Hypocrites to examine what themselves mis-suppose to be true Religion But Sola nobilitas est unica virtus Virtus consist it in actione Actio virtutis est disquisitio veritatis None are noble but who try all things to find the Truth Ther 's no Nobility but what 's faithfully and soberly disquisitive A second Answer to the same demand may be this Therefore Sects Saints and Nations are so far from agreeing and so ready to make and maintain Divisions Because these Harpers that by their exemplary practice shall appease their Rage scarce yet appear to be the presidents those predicted first-fruits for others to follow Samuel's sons the Text sayes not they knew not the Law but walked not in his wayes turned aside after lucre took bribes perverted judgment They gave no good examples for others to follow Samuel was sufficient to teach his sons the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and manners but they were so wicked that they would not learn to know that particular Truth that attends upon practice for which cause they were cast out and their Government translated For men may and many do attain to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners and may add the greatest Gifts and Parts to the strictest Profession and soundest Doctrine and yet never come to the knowledge of the Truth to be saved but remain as Eli's sons did men of Belial and most wicked if they seek not to come to the knowledge of the Truth that particular Truth that attends upon practice That is If they do not duly consider that right and mercy that is due to be done and that they may do it to every man For the doers only of the truth in practice and not the sayers hearers or knowers of the Truth in Doctrine are justified and accepted in Gods sight But it 's the common practice of many strict Professors of Locusts and Hypocrites especially and too much of true Saints to take competent pains to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith But to the knowledge of the Truth in practice they come not or scarce come They have hired Farms or are busie in seeking perhaps to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith without regard to the knowledge of it in practice whereby they may be saved and by which true conviction and peace may be procured to all people Lastly Supercilious Pride surpasseth all other means that most oppose the peace of Men Sects and Nations Who is David sayes Nabal who 's the Son of Jesse Nabals folly might further thus plead I
profess ingenuously I could never yet observe the deserts of this David What 's his merit or worth if well examined I am not now to learn what he can teach Nor are his supposed sacred Notions of necessary use at least not new to me Once I read but five lines of his learned work and was so weary it was so ill composed and to little purpose I could read no more He observes no Method and is too tedious in all he writes I could have contracted his matter to better purpose in the tenth part of his words But why sends David upon such a a day as this which he knows to be a busie day He should have first sat down and cast up the cost of keeping so many men so all wise men do and not send to me to maintain them I was ever bountiful ti 's well known to the well-deserving But who is David who 's this Son of Jesse Sic bacchantur Moriones Thus proud Professors folly's Off-spring swell with brutish insolence against the knowledge of the Truth in Practice and those by whose examples they might come to the knowledg of it Virtutis hoec merces meriti hoc praemium Thus proud Professors cast down Peace and Truth by their folly as the foolish woman pull'd down her house with her hands This is not that Peace-producing harmony of those Harps that are the Harps of God But Because two contrary Paterus set together must needs make each other more elucid and apparent I shall in such sort set two by comparing the good Samaritans perfect pattern with those evil-examples of that Priest and Levite that passing by came not to the knowledg of the Truth in practice A certain Priest saith the Text saw the man wounded and passed by A Levite likewise looked on him and passed by on the other side Luke 10.30 The Text chargeth neither as nescient or not knowing the Scriptures Both might come to a large measure of the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners but took no notice of considered not that which is right in it self and due to be done to the wounded man They passed by Truth in practice What profit to what purpose is it for formal Professors to attain a large measure of the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners to attain all Faith all Knowledge if they pass by obedience to God mercy and equity to Men For it was the Trade not of that Priest and Levite alone but of the whole Tribe of Pharisees and Apostate Jews by whom our Lord was crucified to say and not do to assert the Truth in Doctrine and pass by the practice of it And so their Antitype Locusts and Hypocrites by whom our Lord is more spiritually crucified in his Mystical Body make it their chief business to come perhaps to the knowledge of the Truth in Doctrine that they may the better by that means pass by the practice of it For the Pharisees searched the Scriptures that testified of Christ that they might find testimony in them against him to put him to death Death they found due to Blasphemers This Doctrine was true And this misapplyed to Christ was enough they needed no more to put him to death Omnia sunt hominu tenui pendentia filo Surely the lives of Men and Saints and the lives of Princes depend upon a very slender thred if one Text of Scripture misapplyed by blind Hypocrites be sufficient to make them to pass by all Equity to Men and Loyalty to Princes Certainly such Professors be their Doctrine never so sound their Professions most strict most deserve effectual refutation and rebuke For misapply'd sound Doctrine is the Doctrine of Devils that very Doctrine which the Devil delivered when he tempted our blessed Saviour and the very same Doctine which the blaspheming Pharisees practised when they put him to death And this way of blasphemy by which the son of perdition slayes the witnesses of the Truth draws so near though in these times of the grand Misadvertency almost Universal to that sin unpardonable that it is a desperate misaffection of the Will more than a mistake of the Intellect I know said Christ the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan Revel 2.9 where we clearly see that to boast of a lye is blasphemy And such blasphemers are most contrary to those Harpers that have the Harps of God We shall therefore handle both briefly together that both may more clearly appear And first Such blasphemers are so far boasters as to become rash Judges of other meus persons and actions of which and whom they are least able to judge But Secondly Such blasphemers misapply by sacrilegious and most wicked uncharitableness the same Text that the Pharisees did against our blessed Saviour and sundry others against the witnesses of the Truth whereby they ruinate their Estates and destroy their lives Such rewards must the best deserving find almost from all hands Unhappy Saints of the living God! unhappy witnesses of his Truth In this unhappy That any envious ignorant and unworthy Hypocrite needs but falsly charge them for their faithful Testimony with boasting or blasphemy and the business is done to their utter undoing What need we any more said the Pharisees But we shall here labour to remove the common mistake that 's the principal cause of that boasting and blasphemy that brings the greatest mischief to mankind and especially to the witnesses of the Truth And first Though I would desire saith the Apostle to glory I shall not be a fool for I will say the truth 2 Cor. 12.6 Whence it 's undeniably manifest That he that speaks or writes the Truth but then most when it makes for Gods glory or a general good is no fool nor a boaster though he seem to fools and Hypocrites so to be but a faithful witness of the Truth and do's therein but discharge charge his inevitable and indispensible duty to God and Man But it 's the common Opinion of Depravers and Hypocrites that to speak or write any thing true or false if it but reflect to the praise of him that speaks or writes it is boasting or vain-glory Then all the Prophets Apostles Saints and Martyrs must needs be boasters and blasphemers This was the mistake of Korah and his 250 conspiring Princes that told Moses and Aaron They took too much upon them were proud but were themselves signally proved to be sinners against their own souls Rebels in Gods sight Exod. 16.38 Ch. 17.10 This was the mistake of Aaron and Miriam when they said Hath the Lord indeed spoken by Moses Hath he not spoken also by us Numb 12.2 They imputed pride self-exalting to Moses the meekest man upon the face of the earth Thus we see that the most faithful Prophets and Martyrs such is the envious pride even in many Saints have been and may be grosly misled by this almost
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
into his rest And what was the cause of such great wrath Because saith he they always erred in their hearts and have not known my ways They always erred c. Et quid error mentis what 's an errour of the Heart or rather what and how many are the Errors of the Hearts of Professors Saints not excepted in the Spiritual Wilderuess Had they utterance and indeed they have that they might auswer for themselves and say My Name is Legion for we are many So many are the Errors of the Hearts of men that they are as also their Prophetick Type predicted continual and universal scarce admitting any limitation So God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth towards the end of the Old World and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually Gen. 6.5 The limitation or exception was only of one or two men ver 8. So all Israel in the Type-Wilderness two or four only excepted had corrupted their wayes were faln away from Faith and Obedience And so Gospel Israel especially towards the end of her Wilderness aberration hath so corrupted her ways that scarce may Faith be found And they very few excepted always err not caring to know the wayes of God And wherein are all the imaginations of their hearts thus only evil continually It 's a continual Error in the Hearts of Men and Saints to imagine that a careless shallow trivial knowledge and like practice is sufficient to please God and purchase their own salvation This was the delusion of Laodicea and is the deceit of Locusts and Hypocrites Therefore Their practice conform to that knowledge is ever half-performances Good Works perhaps well begun but desisted from before they be finished Bede we noted before complained that Christians in his time were contented with a trivial literature His complaint then is not now without cause and it 's tâ—e fault of many that the Female Sex suffers most under the burden of this Misery By this means many Men and Women are at best like those silly Women that were ever labouring and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth These may be ready to hear like Herod gladly and to read Books that unfold the Scriptures but cannot understand what they hear or read for want of due literature whereby they may understand But this kind of incult Christians are usually through for did illiterature and beastial ignorance the railing Frogs of croaking convitiations against men of parts and deserts For Art and Desert hath no adversary like unto ignorance Nor is careless contented ignorance the Mother of Devotion but Parent of Divisions and the Fountain of Factions and Schisms in States and Churches that divides and destroys both But Bede's complaint in his time grievous hath now got another complaint more grievous than it self which is this Most men that have gained a competent Literature and many that have attained a large measure of Learning abuse those gifts to advance Avarice Ignorance and evil Manners and make themselves thereby much worse and more wicked than any careless incult and illiterate Professors are and having less cause are more confident than the most ignorant This careless contented ignorance and vain confidence is a continual Error in the Hearts of those Men and many Saints Their fruits are usually but the deceitful works of half-performances for which the plagues of the wrath of God are poured forth upon them as they were upon Hered Saul Judas for like contented shallow knowledge and half-practices And Secondly It 's an Error in the Hearts of men to imagine That the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie can procure that promised vigorous Repentance which Prophets and Apostles predicted It may and doth oft work a weak barren scarce-visible Wilderness true Faith and Repentance whereby many are saved but it 's too weak to bring forth those generous fruits of the Conscript first-fruits in a four-fold consormity to the perfect and durable good of men and to Gods glory in all ensuing Ages For the Winesses were to Prophesie 1260 years in Sackcloth and thereby to smite the Earth with all manner of Plagues Rev. 11.3 6. But they that were not killed by those Plagues saith the Text expresly yet repented not Ch. 9.18 And that Particle of time yet is the period of the six Trumpets sounding and conterminates the Witnesses 1260 years Sackcloth-Prophesie And therefore Thirdly They much Err in their Hearts that imagine that the Ministry under which they live or the strictness of the Sect or Church of which they are Members or that their own Zeal and Devotion can exempt them from the Plagues and Wrath of God which he pours forth upon such Semiadvertists and half-performists For then had Herod Saul and Judas been free from such Plagues because the greatest Prophets were their Guides and Teachers And the Pharisees and the Church of the Jews might have been exempted from the final excision of them and that Nation because they were the peculiar People and Church of God and the Pharisees the devoutest and most Orthodox of all Sects Thus we see that Type and Antitype Apostate Israel in the Literal and Spiritual Wilderness erred do always err in their hearts and know not ineed for such works are far from them the wayes of God nor are Saints themselves there exempted from the same vail of universal darkness that overspreads all Nations For There is a Cloud of darkness that covers all people as barrenness the Wilderness or waters cover the Sea Isa 25.7 But that darkness of ignorance was to be more prevalent during the time of the Gospel-Churches abode in her place prepared in the Spiritual Wilderness but most effectual immediately before or after the period of that duration This Cloud of darkness was signally shadowed forth by that borrour of great darkness and deep sleep that fell upon Abraham Gen. 15.12 which Prophesie was fulfilled in his Literal and Spiritual Seed in the Type and Antitype-Wilderness But That the right-Series of the Mystery of God and of the Mystery of Iniquity may plainly appear and what the power of Religion is may be more evident we shall with some diligence further enquire First what the Wilderness Literal and Spiritual was Secondly What the place prepared of God was in both Thirdly We shall prove that place to be the Theater or proper Seat of the Apostacy of Antichrist Fourthly We shall shew what that Apostacy is And Lastly We shall shew that Antitype Sion shall be the derivative Foundation of the Churches deliverance and redemption from the grand Apostacy And first We need not describe the Desert wherein Egypt stands that is done already sufficiently for this purpose and we shall but hint it here But Egypt was the place or one place therein prepared of God to preserve his Church in a Figure It was chiefly a Figure of its Antitype in the space of its seven years Famine It was part of the Wilderness and of it self more
back But Secondly To what must they be turned I answer The Conscript first-fruits shall as Elijah and John did in Types Turn the hearts of the Fathers to their Children the hearts of Children to their Fathers and the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just that is to do right and shew mercy in a four-fold conformity lest God come and smite the Earth with a curse Malach 4.6 Luke 1.16 17. And Thirdly What is that curse or what are the dangers if the hearts of Men and Saints are not turned back from those now more than ever swelling sins I answer The Old World hearkened not to Noahs Sackcloth-Prophesie but remained inanimadversive minded nothing and knew nothing till the Flood came saith the Text Therefore God smote the Earth with a curse destroyed the World Apostate Israel hearkened not to Elijah's and the Prophets Sackcloth-Prophesie for 1260 days and the restraint of Rain continued so long Had it continued longer it had cut off Man and Beast So the Antitype-Apostasie hearkened not to the Witnesses Prophesying in Sackcloth for 1260 years They yet repented not saith the Text Therefore The neglected and not regarded Witnesses smote the Earth with all plagues and with the plague of all plagues the restraint of the Rain of Spiritual Graces in the days of the 1260 years of their Sackcloth-Prophesie Wherefore Should not their hearts be turned back at last nothing could be expected but that the curse threatened should devour the Earth Therefore hath the curse devoured the Earth saith the Text Isa 24.6 The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it It shall fall and not rise again vers 9. Lastly Babylon the great came in remembrance before God to give unto her the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of his wrath Ch. 16.19 The Old Apostate World was drowned with water But the Antitype-Apostasie shall be drunk with the Wine of the fierceness of the wrath of God Jerem. 25.15 27 c. The Wine of the fierceness of bis wrath This is an expression that a man would think could scarcely be exprest and the plague thereby threatned is the plague of all plagues From all the plagues wherewith the Sackcloth-Wituesses smote the Earth and principally from this Plague may all Men and Saints have great cause to say good Lord deliver us Thus we see the dangers are most dreadful and superabundant if the hearts of Men and Saints are not turned back from the sins aforesaid But they may say we see the dangers sufficiently and that the Plagues are like the curse laid upon Cain greater than we can possibly bear But where 's our safety wherein consists our remedy I answer Fourthly The safeties of Men and Saints consist in having their hearts turned back from those sins aforesaid in getting like those Harpers the Harps of God in learning their Song not in deceit but in deed and in flying from Sinai to Mount Sion as Lot to Zoar For those Harpers shall be the first-fruits redeemed from the Earth and from among men Ch. 14.3 4. to wit from those sius aforesaid and from those dreadful Plagues they produce For they shall not be defiled with Women vers 4. and therefore shall not worship Idols nor act Spiritual Fornications Their worship shall be according to the sincerity of the simplicity in Christ and the practice of it wrought in a fore-fold conformity of Truth contrary to the prevaricatory multiplicity of Antichrist in deceitful pretences delays and half-performances Such shall be the fruits of those first-fruits in Antitype Ston where safeties shall clothe the conscript-Church as dangers compassed her about before in the Spiritual-Wilderness There shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye Ch. 21.27 There shall be no faithless dealers nor false accusers Therefore there shall be no more curse Ch. 22.3 There a River of Water of Life shall refresh the City of God and the Tree of Life shall afford food for her Inhabitants And the leaves of that Tree shall be to heal the Nations That is To turn their hearts back that so they may be safe Ch. 22.1 2. Turn us again O God and we shall be saved Psal 80.3 Turn us again O God of Hosts and we shall be saved vers 7. Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts and we shall be saved vers 19. This petition we see is three times exprest in the same Psalm And this assertion we shall be saved is thrice annexed to that Prayer This Prayer is the Prayer of these times I wish with all my heart That all Ministers and Magistrates Men and Saints would make this seasonable Formula the Patern of their Prayers in this juncture of time and praying continually say Turn us again O God from halting betwixt halves in our Opinions and Practices and we shall be saved Turn us again O God from our disloyal revoltings from Faith and good Manners and from affecting a confident fruitless dead or dying Faith Turn us again O God from the constant Errors of our hearts and our contented ignorance of thy ways and we shall be saved Turn us again O God of Hosts from worshipping the works of our own hands Literal and Spiritual Idols of Gold c. and from our Spiritual and Literal Murders and Sorceries and Fornications and Thefts And we shall be saved For As there is no Name but the Name of Jesus under Heaven by which we can be saved So there is no other way or means on Earth by which Men Saints Sects and all Nations can be safe but by turning from Sinai to Sion from those sins to serve the living God and stand with the Lamb He is and shall be the Rock of safeties to all Ages and to follow his perfect Patern of true Christian practice in a four-fold conformity is as the Fruit only keeps the Tree from being cursed the only outward means thereunto But here I must partly by constraint conclude this first Part because many that promised to futher me are slack in persormance and not a few faln off like Demas through covetousness whereby I am betray'd into the hands of deceitful men drawn into some debt and thereby have suffered long imprisonment Haecreferunt tantos Secula Fabricios Paul was a day and a night in the deep But my dangers are most from the multiplicious dasnings of shallow waters Shallow Professors men of busie ignorance some literate some illiterate have most resisted me retarded this Treatise Such men that cannot read it or not understand what they read have done me as the Copper-Smith did to the Apostle the most harm by their ignorant defaming of Me and It Wherefore I humbly request the truly Learned and Judicious if they find we deserve it to suffer Me and It to Anchor in the safe Harbour of their Candid Favour and Protection Lastly A third cause compelling me is the confident opposition of
servant There and then he began his Prophetick-Pilgrimage For he travelled thence one days journey into the Wilderness lay down and slept under a Juniper-Tree There an Angel touching him awaked him and bid him eat and drink He lay down again and the Angel touching him the second time bid him eat and drink So Christ commanded his Disciples to watch and pray and coming the first time found them asleep So did he three times and said Now sleep on Eliah so sleeping and the Disciples sleeping three times as aforesaid Prophetically prefigured the sleepy disposition of the Gospel-Church and Saints in the Spiritual Wilderness And what is sleep Sleep is a Mirrour of false Idea's wherein all the Imaginations of men are vain Visions and the things and actions which they dream they see or do are not in the least the same not seen nor done indeed So the Antitype-Hermitage of the Gospel-Churches aberrations is a large Vally of vain Vision where Saints and Professors wander in darkness and live if such may be said to live in a deep Lethargy of forgefulness forget the manner how to shew Mercy keep Faith or practise Right But dream they see what indeed they see not and do what in deed they do not mistaking morose long-delay'd half-performed good-works the Imposturous deceits of Antichrist for true Christian practice But Sion signifies not a sleepy Couch but a Watch-Tower and shall afford a clear Prospect where Men and Saints awaked from sleep revived from death shall see a far off right Idea's real Substances and practise according to Right Representations Thirdly Christ was led of the-Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil There he fasted forty dayes and forty nights Then and not till then did the Devil fiercely assault him with his fiery Darts which shews that the Gospel-Church and Saints should fustain the forest brunts and sharpest assaults of dangerous tryals and temptations about the end of her and their Wilderness-Pilgrimage Satans first inducement was to sensuality Most Men and most Professors fall into and fall by this temptation of the Devil And many without his tempting can be drawn away of their own lusts and enticed But Christ was far from being brought to practise this Pollution or being otherwise drawn or inticed Secondly The Devil taking him into an high Mountain tempted him to worldly covetousness Luke 4.5 This is the deplorable state and desperate condition of Saints and Professors in the Spiritual Wilderness That they are there alway subject to be haled by the hands of the Devil to be tempted by him to their own destruction Lastly The Devil tempting him to Spiritual Pride set him upon a Pinnacle of the Temple The Temple was built upon Mount Moriah that was part of Sion There the Devil departed There Christ overcame the Devil To intimate to all Ages That when the Gospel-Church and Saints shall arrive unto and be built upon Mount Sion to wit upon the lasting Foundation of a fruitful and living Faith then the fiery Darts of the Devil shall be spent Then shall she be ever Victrix and they overcome the Devil For Secondly The Prototype-Desert was as it were more peculiarly under the Devils jurisdiction There he tempted our blessed Saviour There Type Israel tempted and provoked God to wrath Such is the Antitype and Spiritual Wilderness much more For that is the place where the seven Vials full of the plagues and wrath of God were to be poured forth for above 1260 years upon Gospel Apostate Israel for her continual provocations Rev. 15.1 Ch. 16.1 But God chose Mount Sion which he loved For in Salem is his Tabernacle his dwelling place in Sion Psal 76.2 Psal 78.68 That is God chose loved and dwelt in literal Sion by a Prophetick-Adumbration but shall chuse love and dwell unto all after-Ages in Spiritual Sion by a much more manifest and real love power and presence Revel 14.1 Ch. 21.3 Ch. 22.3 4. Because Thirdly From Horeh part of Sinai was Sin from the Law there given made exceeding sinful But in Moriah part of Sion did the Lamb of God by the Sacrifice of himself take away the sins of the World But the efficacy of the satisfaction of that Sacrifice shall be principally illustrated and manisested to all Ages in Spiritual Sion where the Conscript-Church is called The first-fruits redeemed unto God and to the Lamb Ch. 14.1 3. Where its manifest from these express Texts that the Hermite-Churche's arrival in Spiritual Sion is contrary to the careless inadvertency of formal true Saints and Professors accounted and so called matter of Redemption Redemption the price and fruit of Christs Blood was wrought in Sion He first brought it forth planted it there Thence it was disseminated into many Nations where it brought forth its first-fruits That Primitive dispensation was the Gospel-Churches Spting succeeded by a short Summer For both expired soon after the year 400 Then a sharp Winter and a dark Night began to surprize that Royal Plant wherein it continued in much like condition to that Tree in Daniel and indeed was shadowed by it that was hew'n down had its Branches cut its Leaves shaken off its Fruits scattered till seven times past over it as they shall over this Dan. 4.16 Revel 10.7 Ch. 11.15 This Royal Plant those Times and that Winter of Tempests over-past shall be by the Lamb replanted not as at first in literal Sion but in Sion Spiritual and shall again bring forth the first-fruits redeemed from the Earth to God and to the Lamb Ch. 14.1 3 4. Fourthly Both the Legal and Gospel-Churches in the Literal and Spiritual Wildernesses provoked the most High Psal 78.17 Then was his wrath kindled against his people insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance Therefore he consumed their days in vanity and their years in trouble Vers 33. Psal 80.40 Consumed their days in vanity c. How in vanity The true Gospel-witnesses had power to Prophesie 1260 years in Sackcloth Vers 3. And what was the power of that Prophesie They had thereby power to shut Heaven that it should not rain in the days of their Prophesie and to smite the Earth with all Plagues Vers 6. that is Power to render the Antichristian World inexcusable to make their sins exceeding sinful their plagues insusserable At quando Messis What Reformation of mistakes in Manners What information against Errors in Opinions where are the first-fruits And what 's more vain Therefore God listed up his hand against his inheritance to overthrow them in the Wilderness consumed their dayes in vanity their years in trouble Rev. 11.2 7. Ch. 12.15 17. But God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes in Spiritual Sion Ch. 7.17 Ch. 21.4 rectified their Judgments reform their Manners and render them undefiled and without fault in his sight Ch. 14. But. Fifthly Great was the cause when God complained of his own people in the Desert That they provoked him to swear in his wrath that they should not enter