say there is an expectation in this patience even as the hireling waits for the end of the day and the watchman watches for the morning so do the people of God wait for the promised redemption we through the spirit do wait for the hope of righteousness by faith for we are saved by hope as the Apostle says in Rom. 8. But hope that is seen is not hope so as that now from henec we gather this that where there is not an expectation there patience will be found very weak and impoteut and indeed that will be found to be the account of our impatience want of faith and hope so is the strength and firmness of our patience Abraham saw the day of Christ he waited with a great firmness of patience because he saw my day and rejoyced and was glad and therefore let me tell you friends upon this account before I pass from this particular it is your interest as well as your duty I say it is your interest to study the promises to study the prophecies and to study the times these three things are to be studyed it is your interest as well as your duty to do it I know that you will grant the first that it is your interestto study the promises but alas this is a lame business the studying of the promises if you do not study the prophecies and study the times for to have a promise that some time or other there shall be a new state of things and not have the time discovered to you this is but a languishing tomfort alas say many it will not be in our days as that good man comforted himself that the evil threatned would not be in his days So patience is very lame upon this account because they know not whether it will be in their days or nor that is the cause of so great slightness in this respect they leave these things to others say they you have leizure you can study the times and the promises and so they take it upon the words of other men but we may speak long enough ere we can bear a solid ground of comfort into your hearts if you have it only from our words unless as the Samaritans said to the woman ye have heard and seen it your selves and so know that the time doth draw near And if you say how should we alas how should we discern those difficult those obscure periods that are delivered so darkly in the Revelations and other places let me tell you I desire to be free with you I know not whether it will suit with me or no to speak oft among you espetially this winter time though if I were among you I should embrace the call to be often among you for it is my comfort but let me tell you I have in these my poor labours among you directed you to Dan. 12. that you might take it and make somthing of it which you may if you wait upon God the words are plain that from that time of taking away the daily sacrifice and setting up the abomination of desolations it should be 1290 days If one should tell you that at such a time or at the end of such a period such an estate should fall to you or such a kingdom beyond sea would you not study it when this time would come up though it were set a little darkly it is nothing but that you have not a heart to it I beseech you bear with me it lies upon my spirit as a grief that people complain so of the times are so weary of the times and would be at better things in that regard and yet they will take no pains to look into the times of the promises if any should give you bonds will you lay them up in your desk will you never look when these bonds will be due I confess it is too plain and I have no ground to recall my word I stand to the reckoning that I have made among you that from the time of Julian the Apostate who in opposition to Christianity was engaging to repair Judaism from that time to 1650. or 1653. the 1290. days came up and that from thence there are but 45 years to come to the blessed period would you have any thing plaincr and if the Lord hath so considered us in such a Scripture as this we ought in thinkfulness to him to set our hearts to the understanding of it if all the interpreters be out yet we may fetch the sence of it from heaven strive then with God that he would give you some account of the prophecies as to the times having brought this glorious hope so near as I have done or as God haâ—h done to me and I to you as within a little more then 20 years now I lay aside all my books and all my reckonings though the evidence thereof abids with me still I cannot bring it nearer nor can I fee how it is further off I am now studying the times and there is a self evidencing light in the times in the dispensations of God and in his dealings with his people and his manifesting himself in their spirits and forming them it is a self evidencing property that is in the dispensations of God to acquaint us what they are and what Gods connsel and purpose is in them And I have sound great comfort in this reflecting upon the times our Saviour says it is that that may afford us light yea heathens can discern the face of the sky and yet cannot we discern the signes of the times there is as much light to be gathered from the times if we wisely consider them as our Astrologers gather from the face of the sky as our Saviour instances of them in some things as in a cloud arising out of the west and the blowing of the Southwind c. and have we not now a notable cloud arising in this western part of the world so that I say there is a light in the times and truly to give you one iustance I do apprehend that we may clearly see in the times both dissolution and restitution though more of the former then of the latter you know it is said that there must be a dissolution before there be a restitution the first heaven and earth fled away from the face of him that fate upon the throne and seeing all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be Then I pray answer me this in your own spirits whether this generation or age that we have lived in from the times of our childhood at least the most of us that are here whether it hath not been a dissolving age Remember the first Scripture that I pitch't upon to give evidence of the times from that Mat. 24. There shall be signes in the sun and in the moon and how I opened them this is that I say we have seen in this part of the world a little model of the great dissolution of
thy faith fail not Luk. 22.31 neither did Jacobs faith fail him in that night of his conflict Gen. 32.25 nor Jobs while he could make such a glorious confession chap. 19.23.27 neither did Davids faith fail him though it was shaken and seemed to fail when he said I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 yet we read afterwards he encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1. Sam. 30.6 it is said the powers of heaven shall be shaken and so may faith be shaken but shall not fail Gog Magog shall compass the camp of the Saints on every side so that which way soever they look there is nothing but danger and sear this will make all things fail but faith as David saith my heart and flesh faileth but God is the strength of my heart it will put even faith if self to it and drive it into God where properly it is to dwell How great this tryal is like to be may be guessed from these considerations 1. That it is the last and dying effect of the Dragons cause therefore his rage is great saith the text knowing he hath but a short time after which he hath no more that he can do 2. He acts from desperation and though he cannot hope to prevail yet he will set his life as dear as he can and make it as costly and bloudy a victory to the Church as God will suffer him for no other bounds will be set to bloody rage then the restraint God lays upon him who in his holy counsel permits him to go as far as may be with the safety of the cause and interest and the faith of the Church which is to be a full tryal of it and of their patience that it may have it's perfect work and that the glory of that tryal may be the greater as we may see in Job the Devil had full scope to all manner tryals his life only excepted so the Church shall live and that is all till this tryal is over therefore the Lord sets this bound Esay 57.56 Lest the spirit fail before me and in another place lest the righteous put forth their hand to iniquity Psa 125.3 they shall almost come to it but there it shall stop A second end of god in this tryal is to bring upon the Church Christs mistical body that needful qualification and preparation for glory that God wrote upon Christ the head to make them conformable to him according to the law of his eternal counsel Rom. 8.29 for even Christ was made perfect by sufferings being crucified through weakness or for the weakness of that state he was in in the flesh which could not work out redemption for us without it's passing away and the Apostle tells us all after that law and example that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God this mistical death therefore is to rid us of our selves and those foul mixtures which made our former works miscarry and prove abortive as the snake pressing between sharp tones or rocks puts off her old skin and renews as the Eagle by casting her bill so God useth the ministry of Satan himself in these sharp tryals to help us off with the old man for it is a new race of Christians or Christians new formed regenerated spirited that are fit for the new Jerusalem and all this would not do to fit us for converse with Christ and that heavenly company if the Lord did not put to his own hand at last in that change in a moment in the twinckling of an eye but these tribulations help that is the 2d end The third is that the Lord may take occasion by this fresh and bleeding discovery of the serpent and his parties enmity to destroy them and deliver the Church from them for ever they have given occasion and provocation enough all along and God hath rapt them for it but deferr'd his anger till this time giving the Church support mean while as not having finished his work on Mount Sion and so former provocations slept and were forgotten but for the glory of Gods righteousnesse and to make his justice the more conspicuous he permits them this laft opportunity to shew themselves which they do to the full that God may take them in the fact while they are reaking hot in their rage against the Church that all the world may see for what it is he destroys them and how he favours the Church which the world could not well read in former dispensations they were so intermingled but now the vision shall be so plain that he may run that reads it this is the account which the Lord himself gives of this dispensation Zeph. 3.8 therefore wait ye upon me faith the Lord till I rise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them my indignation even all my fierce anger and Ier. 51.39 In their beat I will make their feasts and I will make them drunken that they may rejoyce and sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake saith the Lord God will give them all the scope their hearts can desire power multitudes to excecute their will and no power with the Church and then will God triumph over them as in the day of Iehosaphat and the day of Gideon call'd the day of Midian and the day of battel Zach. 14.3 Esa 10.26 Mich. 4.11.12.13 There are many other holy and gracious ends the Lord hath in this dispensation might be instanced as to commend the following rest and glory therefore the Lord continues to take his people just off a troublesom and tempest uous sea into it that they may have the fuller and more perfect rellish of it which to intimate to us seems to be consulted in that manner of phrase in Peter where he speaks of the spirit his testifying in the prophets beforehand of the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow as much as to intimate that the sufferings are ordain'd among other and great ends as a foil to the glory But I hasten to the conclusion of this discourse there is one point I would speak more fully to and that is to give in fuller evidence and satisfaction that the times of the 5th trumpet are not to be ranged so high as interpreters commonly carry them but to belong to the times of Satan loosed which having slipt the proper place to bring it in I shall therefore add it at the close of this discourse and therewith shall also offer a paper which I drew some months since whereby the main subject of this discourse may receive some further light in the mean space I shall speak a word as to the aplication of the precedent discourse to the times and to the particular concern of the people of God in these times 1. As to the times the designe of this short discourse hath been to give or get some light to discern the times and
be run out and as this late time hath been full of wonders this might be reckoned among them as one to be too early with our expectations or observations it having been the common fault of all times hitherto to lagg and come behind and it were very strange if any of us in this sleepy age should be up and stirring before the Lord is stirring for my part I cannot think it I shall shut up this point with this one note referring the reader to what farther he shall find in the end of this discourse the 11th of the Rev. which gives us a chronology of the whole time and tryal of the Church from the race of Antichrist to the 7th trumpet gives us no expectation of any long time of exercise after the resurrection and ascention of the witnesses but only the third wo which it is there said comes quickly and will likely as quickly pass away which third wo can be nothing but this Gog and Magog Now that the witnesses are risen and ascended may I conceive be made out both from the time allotted for that scene and from the evidence of the thing it self when it appeared for the time it must be at and with the expiring of the 41 months of the beast which 42 months good measure pressed down and runing over and above a hundred years to spare may be put to the account of the beast if we should reckon from the downful of heathenisme at Constantines coming to the Empire but I pitch the Epocha and commencement of his 42 months Anno 390 in that last expiring of the Dragons cause by the discomfiture of Eugenius by Theodosius which came up in 1650. at or before which time I question not may be proved the witnesses were risen and ascended to a heaven of rest and glory to which they were called by a great voice from heaven as by a calm and unprejudiced reflection on times not out of our remembrance might be instanced when a scone of this nature not in one or two particulars but in all circumstances throughout so paraiel that an exacter portracter of the vision could not be drawn did present it self therefore that scene being over what can any wo since be other then that of Gog and Magog My 2d word thersore is to the people of God in respect of their spiritual and inward affairs and concernes it serves both to give them account of what hath befalne them and to advise them both what to expect and what to do 1. By way of account it hath been such a time of tryal and troubles upon the saints in respect of their own particulars as well as the publike within as well as without as I think no former experience can paraiel what with strange spirits false Christs and false prophets and danger of seduction and delusion thereby what with horrible temptations carried on with such artifice and cunning such delusive power not to be resisted wherein these spirits of darkness have been so far successful to make such impressions as have captivated multitudes hurried more and distracted somewhat with the shock of terrible outward dispensations by persecutions losses tryals of all sorts and that which hath added to the horror of all hath been the darkness of the dispensation that they have not known what to call it nor upon what account to put these things which now begins and I am perswaded will every day more and more go on to clear up to be upon the account of the Devil let loose and to be their particular share with the publick interest of Christ in this tryal by Gog and Magog 2. By way of advice it serves to teach us what to expect till this scone be over to direct us what to do and to comfort us in what shall follow first expect all that an enraged enemy the Dragon with all his instruments can do to the utmost of their line to make your lives uncomfortable and to drive you to utter despair we read under the 5th trumpet when the Locusts first came forth of the bottomless pit that so great would be the tryal and torment that men should seek death desire to dye Re. 9.6 if in those days under the first wo what in these days under the last wo both Jeremy Daniel Joel the prophets the Apostles Christ himself all acquaint us it will be a day none like it of such tribulation that men shall be dispiried walk up and down like Ghosts and shadows yet be not dismaid for as our Saviour said in the case of Lazarus this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God and for your glory when God hath sinished his work upon Mount Sion when patience hath had it's perfect work Therefore the direction is act faith in God under this dispensation let your eye be on the designe of God which is your mercy your glory see every tryal every thing ordain'd to serve and promote this designe anoint the means by faith that they may attain their end or rather Gods end upon them offer up your selves to God under this death this tryal to be regenerated to be made new to be fitted for the kingdom expect such a gracious working of your tryals not from your selves nor any grace in your selves but from the grace of God his covenant of grace our former works miscarried because wrote much in our own spirit therefore the Lord hath taken the work into his own hands hath laid by man and every creature that he may work all himself and have all the glory and his work shall abide this is the direction the comfort follows first this is the last enemy and this is the last shock by this enemy the last enemy is death if this enemy be not called death and signalised by that name Esa 25. as the type of him is Esa 28.15 yet death and the Dragon or the devil that hath the power of death fall together Rev. 20. for no sooner is the devil cast into the lake but the white throne appears and by the judgment of the white throne death and hell are cast into the lake so that the saints after that shall be troubled with death and hell no more neither death corporal nor death spiritual And what follows then but the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem a new world and all things therein new But you will say we must passe through a sore fiery tryal first but still remember it shall be but a tryal the devil shall compasse the camp of the Saints but shall not carry his design no more then the Sodomites did that compassed Lots house fire shall come down from God out of heaven and feed on them you reade how by the 7th Vyal the great câ—…y is divided who knows what God may work by Gog and Magogs own divisions this third wo is indeed the greatest woe but to whom to the inhabitants of the earth not to those that dwell in
it but I have been perswaded in my own minde to cast my discourse at this time into another mould and to speak unto these two heads in this order First to make some further evidence of the times that we are in and that for this reason because it is the main argument and enforcement in the text here It is that that is to put us upon the disposing of our selves The preparing our selves It is that that hath a great influence upon this preparation that is here required and when I have spoke of that then I shall come to the preparation which is the second thing now in making evidence to you of this that this is the time when this exhortation is in season wherein it doth especially lye upon us to prepare our selves for the return of our Lord. I shall offer the evidence of this under two heads First to shew you that the time is fulfilled that was to precede the coming of our Saviour and secondly to shew you that the signes of those times have come up and presented themselves and shewed themselves before us if we had eyes to see and hearts to take notice of it First I say I shall begin with that that the time is fulfilled you shall see what my meaning is if you look into Mark 1.15 After John was put in prison our Saviour preaches saying the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand mark ye there our Saviour that had spiritual enforcements enough to have driven home his doctrine and instructions into the minds of the people yet he maks use of this argument this enforcement the time is fulfilled the meaning of our Saviour is clear to be this the times that were to precede my manifestation in the flesh they are fulfilled he says not to them Lo I am here the promised Messias though that was the thing they were to know but he bears in the acknowledgment of that to them he makes way for it by this consideration the time is fulfilled it is as much as if he should say my father did set the time when I should visit the world it my first appearance the time was set to a day to an hour that time is now fulfilled therefore under that consideration of the time being fulfilled look about you repent and believe the Gospel attend now the time is come says he is not this clear therefore that there is a time for every purpose under heaven There was a time for his first appearance and there is a time for his second appearance And when the time is come men should be up with their expectations if our Saviour that spiritual Doctor that was able to convince the spirits of men by spiritual power and evidence if he work by this medium and tell them of the time we may be allowed to take the help of this consideration now the question will be how we shall prove the assumption for the major is clear if the time be fulfilled we are to look for his second coming that is clear now how shall we make that out for this the Lord help us and be with us I desire not to go forth in any confidence of the flesh we are all yet subject to mistakes how many have been mistaken if I should tell you of an immediate revelation made to me that is not made to other Saints you might demur upon it I shall not go by that evidence that the time is fulfilled but only by the Scriptures and that is by a double computation a computation of Daniel and the Revelations compared together in Dan. 12.11 you have two numbers which were there revealed unto Daniel Upon his great solicitousness and earnest application to the Lord after the Lord had thrust him away as I may say and bid him be quiet yet Daniel humbly putting himself forward again the Lord doth so far yield unto him as to tell him the time how long it should be and from what date it should begin From the time that the daily sacrifice should be taken away there should be 1290 days this is Daniels first number and computation The computation of the Revelations you have in chap. 13. v. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power given unto him to continue 42. months These 42. months being resolved into dayes as they are in Revel 11. contain 1260. dayes which is the time of the witnesses prophecying in Sackcloth and it is the time allotted unto the beast and unto the Gentiles to trample under foot the holy City Now Daniels first number of 1290. dayes is more then this it is 30. dayes more then this 1200 and therefore how shall we make these to square why I shall briefly give you my sense of it I conceive they have one and the same Period of expiration though not one and the same rise they begin not at the same time but they end together This number of Daniels 1290. concerned the Jews shewing how long they should be trodden under foot by the successors of that Monarchy under whom they were at that present time broken and humbled The number begins from the time of Julian the Apostate and he says from that time that the sacrifice should bè taken amay and the abomination that was desolate set up which was the attempt that was made to restore Judaism which after it was abrogated was a desolating abomination from that time there should be 1290. dayes Now the Apostle John shews the time of the beast of the Roman beast the Roman Monarchy under the last head of it the Papacy and he sayes there is but 1260. dayes allotted to it therefore if these two numbers do expire together we must begin the computation of the Revelations 30 years after the time of Julian But happily you may say this is by guess only I answer I have this ground for the beginning the computation of the Revelations 30. years later then the time of Julian For Julians time was 360. and I begin this computation in 390. or thereabouts I say it began after because that that was the time of the expiring of the Dragons cause you know there are 3 enemies the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet that do exercise the Church of Christ till the Dragons time was out the Beast did not ascend the stage Now though the Dragon was cast out of heaven about the time of Constantines coming to the Empire in the year 310. yet he was not totally and finally vanquished so as to give up his cause till about the year 390. or 393. there is some difference in our Chronologie but it is not considerable when Theodosius obtained that signal victory against Engenius Now after that defeat Heathenisme never displayed banner in the field more and then was that power removed out of the way which did let the appearing of Antichrist 2 Thes 2. He that letteth must first be taken out of the way now then
beginning at 390. both the computations will come up together both Daniel and John and so they did come up together I am very well satisfied in it I speak it as to my self but I impose it upon no other I say they did I humbly conceive come up in the year 1650. then was Daniels 1290. dayes expired and then was the 42 months ended Now for the 45. dayes that are afterwards they are I believe the time that Daniel speaks of here in the beginning of this chapter At that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people This may seem strange that after Antichrist his 42. months are expired we should have such a time of trouble as never was but pray mark I believe there is a great mistake in this in the objecting of this trouble or in the applying of it As if it were the time properly of the Churches trouble I grant that the Church shall have a great sence of the trouble in common among others nay I grant that the enemies of Christ and of his kingdom shall chiefly direct their aim in all the time of that trouble against the Church even if it were possible to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven But the holy Ghost doth not object this trouble directly upon the Church nor properly for this being that time when Michael stands up the trouble is only accidental to the Church for it is the time that the Lord will deliver his people the trouble is but the charges of the suit would you be delivered without suit It is as if a woman should expect to be delivered without travel you should look upon the issue of the trouble observe how it is spirited how it is intended what is the designe of the trouble the Lord is coming to judge he is coming to take down this old state of things that he may bring in a new this is the trouble of these times It is not a trouble that is under the management of the enemy as if they did what they would no they are passive they are driven by the judicial hand of God they are bringing down their own house with their own hands as Solomon says it is that trouble under which the saints are called to lift up their heads because their redemption draweth nigh A little to gird this closer to us of the times being fulfilled wherein I do expose my self and my judgment Let others think of it and me as they shall see cause but I say I do verily apprehend it so I would not come to you with vain visions were it not sealed up to me to my heart and soul and it is not a new thing but I have been a long time leading into it and am more and more confirmed in it that the time is fulfilled and that this work that is now in hand it is Christs work it is he that gathers the nations but I say to gird this unto us consider this one thing That Antichrist is the last enemy that is to infect or annoy the Church and the only enemy that doth let or hinder the revelation of the son of God or rather the son of man from heaven and therefore if we can shew as I think we have shewed that his time is out then the time of Christ is come which I shall desire no other evidence for then what you finde in the 2 Thes 2. Where the Apostle is setling the minds of believers in those days touching the times of the man of sin and of the day of Christ when it should be and he issues his discourse into this as you may see in that chapter that there was nothing that hindred but the man of sin who was not yet revealed but this mystery must have it's time it must have its course he must be revealed and then when that man of sin is revealed then shall he be consumed by the spirit of Christs mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his coming and then comes the day of Christ for so you see in the text let no man deceive you for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first Now when that falling away hath had it's course and that the man of sin hath been revealed then there is nothing to let but Christ will come I could please my self with this subject In the next place I come to the signes which may be more suitable to you then these calculations are For these signes are those that our Saviour accomodates to all capacities he delivers them to his poor disciples who were at that time men of no extraordinary reach though when the spirit came upon them they were wonderful men otherwise they were no extraordinary men and our Saviour gave them these signes of his coming And I tell you now before I point you to these signes I shall not point you to such as it may be you might think but the signes that shall come upon you you shall finde in Mat. 24.29 The sun shall be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the starrs shall fall from heaven c. And then shall appear the signe of the son of man in heaven I confess I have read these Scriptures many and many a time and have perused them over with the sence of an allegory in them a general notion of the darkness of the times and the like And some look upon them it may be according to the letter as if there should be a wonderful consternation upon these heavenly bodies that should make them to withhold their light But I shall acquaint you with what hath been presented to me and let them that are spiritual judge of it First where shall we begin these signes for here our Saviour doth give them a beginning immediately after the tribulation of those dayes now the question is what those dayes are that our Saviour speaks of before what the tribulation was as the end of which those signes do commence I know that you can hardly avoid fixing that tribulation upon the destruction of litteral Jerusalem I confess I would not undertake the task to carry the discourse that doth antecede this 29. v. out to any other subject then the destruction of Jerusalem but yet let me tell you by comparing this with another Scripture you shall finde a great help to discern what that tribulation was viz. Luk. 21.34 Jerusalem shall be troden down c. untill the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled Our Saviour speaks here and Luke doth record the very same discourse of our Saviour as Mathew doth and it doth appear by comparing these that our Saviour intended that description of those calamitous times that was to come upon Jerusalem to be a type and a figure of that passing away of carthly Jerusalem among the Gentiles The one was a glass as I may say and a mirror in which you might see the other it was a type and a
on the enemy by driving him by a judicial hand upon acting violence towards his people which was the violence of the enemy his own heart only God makes way for it takes off the bridle and gives them full scope that he may take advantage against them for it and so he doth 2 works at once he purifies his people by these scullions and for their filthy doing of it takes occasion to destroy them when they have done now therefore the allusion being taken from this place it is an argument that the work in both places is the same and that from the issuing froth of these Locusts here under the 5th trumpet the first two trumpets that hour of Gods judgment is to be reckoned to begin whereof he speaks Revel 14.7 which hour takes in these 3 last trumpets and they take in all the times from the begining of the beasts declyning which was from the begining of the reformation or the preaching of the everlasting Gospel at the entring of the 13th century to the white throne this is my third ground My 4th ground is from a knot of Arguments taken from this vision of the 5th trumpet Rev. 9. The 1st whereof is from the accommodation which arises from thus stating this vision to that schem of the 1000 years mystical raign from the downfal of heathenism 2 Hereby the Locusts under the 5th trumpet and the army of horsemen under the 4 Angels in the next trumpet are the same enemy split into 2 times and actions as by their characters in the prophecy they seem to be and not 2 several enemies as former interpretations have made them for they agree in their numerousnesse Locusts are innnmerable as the army of horsemen are in the vision 2. They are both like unto horses prepared unto battel 3. They agree in their breastplates 4. They agree in their Lion-like teeth and heads 5. They agree in their serpentine tails and stings so that whether you understand these locusts and these horsmen of the Turks or whether you understand them more largely of all the power of the Antichistian enemy and all his instruments to execute his wrath they are the same enemy acting a 1st and a 2d part the first only preparatory to the 2d tormenting but not killing so it is said under the 5th trumpet they were like horses prepared to battle v. 7. but v. 15 there they are loofed for execution that were prepared before and we have seen how appositely this may be applyed to the Turk who is the glasse or mirror of all Christs enemies under these 3 last trumpets as the beast is the image and representation of all the Babilonish enemies under that first 1000 years of the four former trumpets For these reasons I cannot consent that this 5th trumpet or first two trumpets should belong to so ancient times as above a thousand years ago but that it belongs to the times of Satan loosed from the year 1300 and that both these locusts and Euphratian army and Gog and Magog at last are no other then the whole power of the Dragon beast and false prophet combined that stand up for that cause which Satan hath all along managed by different parties and methods whether warrs of persecutions or inquisitions and so takes in both civil Ecclesiastical and military forces of Turk or Pope rising up against Christ and his interest or beloved city wheresoever and the designe of God herein is first to purge-and chasten his Church and so withall to spend and dry up these waters according to the import of the 6th Vyal and in the end to devour them with his fire from heaven which whatever it import more and more litterally according to the judgment that befell Sodom we have reason from what is said of the 7th Vyal and many places in the old Testament to include and take in the fire of their own divisions to which God will give them up to break and destroy one another as the Midianites did and Moab Ammon and Mount Seir to which way of working out the Churches quiet the prophets do frequently allude and we may see in part already this way on foot in the divisions between France and Spain and in other parts between men of the same profession who one would think should count it as they have done formerly their common interest to agree and joyne together against the beloved citty and would certainly continue so to do but that by a judiciall stroke from God they are blinded and so fall foul upon one another therefore let the people of God look up and lift up their heads for the day of their redemption draweth nigh and those that understand the Lords designe in these things will do so whence it is that in the prophets when they speak of this terrible day and these dismal dispensations they by the spirit of prophecy see come as the shaking of an olive tree and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done that lift up their voice and sing for the Majesty of the Lord glorifying the Lord in the fires they hear some that have a song in this night as when an holy solemnity is kept and gladness of heart as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord this to be when the earth is made empty waste is strange but who are those but such as Daniel calls the wise that shall understand that know the design of God in these things and where they shall end that have the mountain of the Lord in their eye and see these things working that way that know the thoughts of the Lord understand his counsel which the blind enemy doth not Mich. 4. These sit with the Lord in heaven and laugh for they see him about to fulfil that word that he hath spoken Joel 2.18 The Lord will be jealous for his land and pitty his people and remove far from them the Northern army as it follows there in confidence whereof they even dare their enemies as it is in the 3 chap. v. 11. Assemble your selves and come all ye heathen and gather your selves together round about for thither will God cause his mighty ones to come down and so v. 12. with a thousand more places to this purpose which the occasions of Gods people have called them to minde and acquaint themselves with of late times for which cause I need not quote them A Sober Enquiry into the Nature and Times of God and Magog and whether that Scene be not now on the Stage GOg and Magog is that last dark black cloud which God in his wisdom sees good to bring over his Churches affairs and hopes when after a troublesom and dangerous sea they are ready to enter the port or haven of their long wish'd expectations and is that in the body natural the last enemy after which follows an uninterrupted sevenity never to end but in the joy of eternity The false images that men have formed to
for this cause because it is the time not of giving forth new prophecies but of fulfilling the old And therefore the book of Revelations is but a collection of the old prophecies as to the subject matter thereof but which was that which none of the prophets could do there is made an orderly digestion distribution and applycation of them in the order of times to be fulfilled and all the scenes that concern us Gentiles are with allusion to the like that have been or are to be fulfilled among the Jews and are delivered to us in the language of those types as might be instanced throughout the whole book of the Revela from one to the other now we finde in the prophets no Gog and Magog prophecyed of to infest the new Jerusalem but before it commences we have a prophecy thereof at large by Ezekiel which is an argument I know not how any can get over therefore either the new Jerusalem is not the same state which the 1000 years or Gog and Magog must precede the 1000. years raign which is contrary to the text or else the Gentiles new Jerusalem state must be cast in another mould quite then the Jews is I say one of these 3 must follow if we have a Gog and Magog to disturb us after it when the Jews shall have none but only before theirs and so God must vary his rule and way and his oeconomy and dispensation to one part of his own family must be on this wise and to another on that wise in this particular which is alike in all others which without better grounds to suppose it I cannot admit My 4th ground is that by this Hypothesis there is a fairer account given of the 2 beasts Rev. 13. and of their distinction then the ordinary exposition doth afford if we take the time of the 2d beast for the times of Satan loosed when the beast that was so plausible and taking before changes his shape form and puts on a dragon-like rage and cruelty I know this will seem very absurd to suggest because of the hornes of the lamb that are seen on this 2d beast what more unlike a dragon then a lamb but let it be considered withall that this 2d beast spake like a Dragon so that there is something of a Dragon and a great matter too the mouth of the Dragon is as bad a part as any for with that he sâ—…s fire as we commonly say and poisons with his breath But 2ly Let us consider this 2d beast is not only 2d in way of numeration but in the order of his rising springing up after the other which though not so plainly exprest by John in the Revel but only couch't in those general intimations of the other beast and the first beast before him yet is expresly noted by Daniel Dan. 7.24 Another shall rise after them i.e. after the 10. horns and he shall be divers from the first and he shall subdue 3 kings and into the hands of this horn it is that times and laws shall be given untill a time and times and the dividing of time which time times and dividing of time cannot be the whole 42 months of the beast or the 1260. days of the witnesses fackcloth-prophecy as they are commonly expounded for that this beast rises after the 10 horns not with them nor presently after them it is to be supposed for that would be as good as with them but many hundreds of years after them and let it be observed that this phrase and reckoning is but once mentioned in the Revelation and that is chap. 12. and then 't is applyed not to the beast but to the serpent or dragon which is all one and that not to his times before his casting down out of heaven nor to his times while he was shut up in the pit but as I suppose to his last times of loosing again Rev. 12.14 for I take this 12th chap. for a compendium or abstract of the Dragons story from his dethroning by Constantine to his last treading of Gog and Magog where we finde a 2 fold fight of the woman The first v. 6. making an opportunity for Antichrists rasing or rather giving way to him at his coming forth The second v. 14. Upon the devils loosing for this double slight is paralel'd and answer'd with a double scene of trouble from the Dragon the one presently upon the birth of the manchild who had got into the throne in heaven being caught up thither the Dragon and his Angels sought to have destroyed this interest but prevailed not The 2d is after a 1000 years when this manchild had so long carried heaven away from the Dragon and that the beast and his followers to whom the Dragon resigned were discovered now by the dawning of reformation which then began about the year 1300 to be but an earthly crew the Dragon bethinks himself what use to employ them to and finds they were apt and sit to make instruments of outward trouble and persecution against the heavenly ones and so he employs them that way for the first warr was in heaven but this latter on the earth the first warr was managed by the Dragon and his Angels learned men and religious men for it is said that the Dragons tail drew the 3d part of the starts from heaven and did cast them to the earth i.e. he made them of his party for an earthly interest which yet they coloured with the name of heaven and with pretended miracles and jugling tricks sought to cozen the world and to put the cheat of a false and adulterated Christianity upon them wherein he prevailed upon the inhabitants of the earth all whose names were not written in the lambs book of life but the woman and her heavenly off-spring hold out against the Dragon Michael and his Angels got the day and the Dragons place was fonud no more in heaven then comes on the 2d war after the 1000 years wherein the dragon betakes himself to outward force then the woman flees the 2d time into the wilderness from this 2d state of the beast and his warr and under this assault she is helped by the earth which availed nothing to her help in the former warr but here the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood as we shall shew hereafter how kingdoms engaged and stood up for the witnesses bearing off much of the shock of warr and persecution from them untill at last the Dragon siugles out the remnant of the womans seed and goes forth with great rage to make warr with them and to swallow them up v. last of the 12th which I take to be his last attempt and properly to referr to Gog and Magog wherein as in all his former he shall fail and shall make least of all of it as shall be shewed in it's place This is my Scheme of this chapter and to confirm this observe that in this last warr to give light to us that