10.6 It is done saith the Text expresly Chap. 16.17 And thus my Opponent's first Objection and in that all the rest falls to dust with one stroke from the very words of the Text besides those upon Oath by the Living God in the 10th Chapter expresly gainsaying it Nor is my Opponent herein faulty alone but all Writers and Teachers consentient with him must be like him at a loss in mistaking the Matter of sundry Texts ahd Chapters not knowing where it begins nor where it ends nor what they hold forthe Nor are such mistakes peculiar to him or them alone but incident as an Epidemick Disease almost to all Writers For the most able and Orthodox I can except very few are not free from many mistakes that work setled habits of Error against Truth and Reason My Progress theresom till such false Foundations be first removed may give great offence to such and satisfie few For so many misapprehensions work as it were an universal incapability and where the Subject is uncapable the Agent cannot operate I am driven therefore here by urgent constraint and unavoidably as the Reader may plainly perceive to a brief Digress that I may remove those mistakes that obstruct them in reading and my success in writing for otherwise they must needs read both the Scriptures and those Books that best unfold them with little profit if they are not first well informed where the Matter in the Texts and Chapters begins where it ends and what they hold forth These Remora's therefore must be first removed Such an Intendment provided it be effectual do all future Ages call for and the present claims to refel Errors to reform Manners to heal the Churche's almost deadly wounds made wide besides no few failings of her own by the perverse ignorance of sundry subdivisions and to procure the Peace Conversion and Reviction of all Sects and Nations Something hath often been pretended but not effectually and in earnest intended to these ends I shall therefore with humble submission to the Judgments of Men more able endeavour as a duty indispensable to God and to his Church to shew briefly what sundry Texts and Chapters not only in the Scriptures counted plain but in the Prophets and in this compendium of Prophesies the Apocalyps hold forth and where the Matter in them begins and where it ends I promised to explain more fully some Texts handled in my first Treatise and it falls in most fit here to perform my Promise Nor let any grudg at this brief Digress for it may perhaps prove not only useful but needful for all that read the Scriptures both the Prophetical and those called plain and for all that shall hereafter Preach or Write upon either Howbeit such as before they read it had rather omit it may pass it by though with mach less profit to themselves and proceed where I return to prosecute my Answers to these Objections THE DIGRESS MAN made last was the most perfect Creature God made on Earth So this last Book of Holy Writ the Apocalyps is sacrae caput culmen Scripturae the consummate perfection of all the Scripture and an Abstract of it 'T is true it 's most despised by Ideots and Hypocrites and that 's the praise of it But as all the Tribes of Israel had Jerusalem and the Temple as their Metropolis and Center so all the Scriptures concenter in this last Book and are perfected and explained by it Would any know what God hath declared to his Servants the Prophets Here he may find it and find the supream end and intent of it in order to God's Glory and the ineffable good of Men Rev. 10.7 Is or hath any Book of Sacred Scripture been sealed with seven Seals Here we may find the truth of it asserted and how its Seals were and may be opened Chap. 5th 6th to Chap. 10.2 8 9 10. The Church till this Work be well begun must needs wander in the Wilderness and find no way forth For this Book being sealed was the cause of her Ingress and it being opened must be the only means under God of her Egress or coming out of it The Serpent brought Sin and Death upon all Men by beguiling Eve That Cause and those Effects are since grown into an excess of greatness but we find in this last Book an undefiled Company that shall be without guile and without fault before the Throne of God and how that State may be attained Chap. 14.4 5. Without Guile That is Men shall not as they do and have done deceive and be deceived and Sin and Death shall not have dominion as now and heretofore they had That those deceits of the Serpent whereby he beguiles as he did from the beginning the whole World to bring it with speed to Perdition may by being made manifest miss of their end and his aim is the Subject principally intended in this Digress It 's the Opinion of some Professors that what is contained in this last Book of Holy Writ concerns Asia only without further extent because it 's written to the seven Churches of Asia and Babylon therein mentioned was and Euphrates therein also exprest is in Asia I Answer Sodom and Egypt are also therein mentioned and Sodom is not in being and Egypt is in Africa But Sodom and Egypt in Chap. 11.8 are spiritually so called saith that Text expresly That is they are such in substance as Sodom and Egypt were in a figure Babylon now in being is not that City formerly so called but another built in another place but the first of that name is not now nor was that we find in being when John wrote This City therefore so called in these Texts is also not that literal City but is expresly called Mystical Chap. 17.5 And so Euphrates on which this Spiritual City likewise stands and is supported by it is to be understood Spiritually also that is Euphrates was to prototype Babylon or the first forerunner of her Antitypes the many Waters of that literal River which denoted in the last City and last but one of that metaphorical name Rome literal and Rome Papal both called Babylon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues Ch. 17.1 15. Ch. 11.9 We find in Chap. 17.5 Mystery Babylon the Great c. There revolted Rome Imperial ruling ten Nations is intended and her River her Euphrates is held forth in the same Chapter vers 15. And great Babylon came in remembrance before God Chap. 16.19 There Papal Rome containing ten Nations is intended Chap. 13.1 and her River her Euphrates is held forth in Chap. 9.14 Chap. 11.9 Chap. 16.12 So then not that literal City in Asia called Babylon but two spiritual Cities so called Rome Imperial and Papal Rome are intended in these Texts Here almost all Protestant Writers mistake and their mistake brings a multitude more with it for they take that City called Babylon in the 17th and 18th Chapters to be one and the same City with this in Chap.
c. That Lamb upon Mount Sion shall be this Antitype Mystery of God whom he declared to his Servants the Prophets And who shall that Lamb or so declared Mystery of God be I answer That Lamb shall be the Secular and Spiritual Representative of Christ Mystical the Gospel-Church revived and returned out of the Wilderness Chap. 11.9 11. Chap. 12.6 14. Ezek. 37.24 25. For the first Adam was the Mystery of God in a Figure who when God had formed him and breathed into him the breath of Life became a Prophetick Adumbration of the second Adam Christ Incarnate dead and risen from Death he was the Root of that first and of this Antitype-Mystery of God in the Text The first had and this shall have their being and denominations from him The first Man or Mystery of God was a Prophet The second Man was the Patriarch of all Prophets and both prophetically foretold the first by his Sleep the second by his Death and Resurrection this Antitype-Mystery of God who also lay dead and shall be revived by the breath of Life from God entering into him Chap. 11.9 11. Ezek. 37.14 And this Prefigured Mystery of God the chief end of Christ's coming and dying in order to God's Glory is the Mystery of God in the Text whom God declared to his Servants the Prophets and who is the principal subject of this sealed Book till he be finished and after shall be when the same Book shall be opened for evermore But Secondly If this Book be as the Text fully imports the Book of what God declared to his Servants the Prophets then it might seem to be the whole Scripture which also some of the best Expositors not rightly distinguishing say in effect as I noted before For the whole Scripture was given of God to his Servants the Prophets by Inspiration c. 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All the Scripture therefore might seem to be this sealed Book if it be the Book of What God declared to his Servants the Prophets which a Man may be the more apt to believe because Men Saints and Sects so live and so know and do as if there were no Scripture or as if all the Scripture were indeed sealed But in order to the opening of the Seals of this Book we must distinguish For Some Scriptures are not sealed in some respects and in others sealed Some are more some less sealed And In some respect the whole Scripture may be said to be sealed And first Some Scripture is not sealed in some respects and in other sealed For the Historical part of Scripture as Historical is not sealed But much of that that is Historical is also Prophetical And so it is or may be sealed For example The History of the Creation as it is Historical is not sealed But that History is also a Prophecy and holds forth the lost and supreme end of the Creation or the Antitype thereof which the Apostle calls a new Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3.13 A Man that is not unlearn'd may reade that God in the Beginning created Heaven and Earth and the things therein The History of them as it is Historical is not sealed But that History as also Prophetical points forth that promised new Heaven and new Earth and so it is or hath been sealed Isa 65.17 Chap. 66.72 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 21.1 5. So the History of the fall of the first Old World as it is an History is not sealed But that History is also a Prophecy and that World prefigured the fall of this present Old World The History holds forth the Causes of the fall of the first World and as that History is also a Prophecy so it foretells the same Sins in effect should be the Causes of the fall of this second Old World The Causes of the fall of the first were these in the History The wickedness of Man was great in the Earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually All Flesh had corrupted his way and the Earth was filled with violence so that God repented that he had made Man and it grieved him at the Heart Mutato nomine tantum Change but that History as Christ himself doth into a Prophecy and the same Sins are the Causes but more redundant and dreadful in the Antitype of the fall of this present evil Old World As the days of Noah were so likewise shall the coming of the Son of Man be Matth. 24.37 Out Saviour adds that they knew nothing till the Flood came vers 39. Inadvertency was the Universal Flood-gate of all wickedness to that Old World and is to this That minded nothing and therefore knew nothing and this as much The History of the first we see is not sealed But as it is a Prophecy of this second it seems altogether sealed insomuch that Sects Saints and Professors rather say We are Rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing than believe that the Sins of the Old World are devolved with advantage upon themselves The History of Type-primitive Israels flying from the Famine into the Wilderness and into her place there prepared of God literal Egypt where she was fed and nourished is not sealed Gen. 46.1 But the flight or the Gospel Church-Primitive from the face of the Serpent into the Spiritual Wilderness and into her place there prepared of Gâ—d Spiritual Egypt the Papacy with her Sects where she was fed and nourished for 1260 years is prophetically held forth in the foresaid History And this Prophecy in that History is or hath been long sealed Rev. 12.6 14. Chap. 11.8 We find the same Prophecy further cleared in another History Exod. Chap. 14. Chap. 15. where the Jewish Church-Primitive fled from the face of Pharaoh and his Host through the Sea into the Wilderness where she was fed and nourished forty Years Pharaoh and his Host fell in the Sea and Moses and Israel sang a Song of Thankfulness to God Exod. 15. The History is not sealed but it shadowed forth prophetically the Gospel Church-Primitive when she fled from the face of Serpent into the Spiritual Wilderness for 1260 Years And then or soon after she having gotten the victory over the Beast and being returned out of the Wilderness shall also sing a Song of Thankfulness and Deliverance the Song of Moses and of the Lamb saith the Text Rev. 12.6 14. Chap. 13.18 Chap. 14.3 Chap. 15.3 That History is not sealed but this Prophecy therein is or at least hath been long sealed The History of the seven years Famine in Egypt and in all Nations denoted by seven lean Beasts is sufficiently legible but those seven Beasts held forth prophetically the seven Heads of the secular Beast-Papal Chap. 13.1 And those seven Years of Famine prefigured the superlative scarcity of Faith and Good Manners in all Nations for above 1260 Years whiles those seven Heads have preheminence For as Pharaoh's Dream was doubled to shew the certainty of it so seven Years
Righteousness for the duty of doing Right was more difficult in it self but impossible to be done when they had forsaken the foundation of it his Prophetical Ministry that held forth the Promises and Threatnings The Promises That if they did repent they should not be destroyed The Threatnings That if they did not repent they should universally perish This Ministry therefore was the means to work Faith which is the foundation of all Moral Obedience that makes it Genuine and Evangelical But Faith Hope and Charity the only three Fundamental and Fruit-bearing Graces are wrought as the means under God by the Prophetical Scriptures wherein the Moral Scriptures or those which Formalists falsly call most Profitable and Plain have little or no share For a Man may read the Moral Scriptures and the Historical that are not also Prophetical all the days of his Life and never learn what Faith Hope and Charity mean They therefore that would open the Seals of this Book or glorifie God and profit Men by their good Conversations must begin that Work not excluding the Moral and Historical in the Prophetical Scriptures which are for that end usually less Sealed and more easie to be understood than the Moral Scriptures are and therein Men and Saints seem to be universally mistaken I shall only add briefly this example All the chief Priests and Scribes could readily tell Herod when he enquired of them that Christ should be born in Bethlehem because it is written by the Prophet And thou Bethlehem in the Land of Judea art not the least among the Princes of Judah for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my People Israel Mat. 2.5 6. Mich. 5.2 This was a Prophecy which they all understood I might give many Instances of the like easiness in other Prophecies But our Saviour said unto them I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice go learn what that meaneth Mat. 9.13 Now speakest thou might the Pharisees say plainly and speakest no Pâ—â—able nor are these words any unprofitable and unintelligible Prophecy but a plain and easie Moral Precept We all understand what Mercy means and are not now to learn this Lesson But it was in them a signal and universal Mistake For that Lesson was so sealed that none of them could rightly understand it or learn what it meant and it remains still so firmly sealed that Saints themselves cannot yet open the Seals of it nor read it For by Mercy in that Text is meant all Righteousness to all Men to a Man's self and to all Church-Societies Sects and Nations but it principally intends not that sleepy spurious or at best weak and imperfect practice of present or former times but that true future quadriform Righteousness of Gospel-Promise which shall be the supreme end of Christ's Death in order to God's Glory and the good of Men. There was no need that any Man should say to the Scribes and chief Priests Go learn what that Prophecy in Micha meaneth for they all knew what it meant and could readily unfold it But there is great need that God and Men say to all Saints and Professors Go learn what the Moral Scriptures mean and what their chief use and supreme end is For they have a depth in them which few Men can fathom and are much more sealed than usually the Prophetical Scriptures are he therefore that would reduced them into right action must learn to perform what they hold forth in a fourfold Conformity grounded upon true Faith and so their Fruits become Evangelical obedience to God and right to Men But the practice of Right in a fourfold Conformity is or at least hath been notwithstanding the rash repugnances of perverse gainsayers as much sealed even to Saints as was Sampson's Riddle For Thirdly The whole Scripture may be said to be sealed First in respect to inadvertency almost universal in Men and Saints Secondly In respect to the adequate and supreme end of it And first Inadvertency the most common Mark of the Beast is the almost universal means that this Book remains sealed Noah was a Preacher but without profit to them to the old World and we read not of one Man in all the Universe some few of his own Family only excepted that repented What was the reason of it The Book was sealed in a Figure not that there was any evident obsignation upon or great obscurity in the sacred Oracles which God gave by the Mouth of Noah to the whole World but their Minds were universally sealed through Sloth They knew nothing saith the Text Mat. 24.39 And no marvel because they minded nothing of Noah's Admonitions nor duly regarded what he said or did The same inadvertency in her Daughter seals this Book by little less than an universal unmindfulness For the Book of late is perhaps open in a great measure to some but very few and the Prophecies therein are performed to the beginning of the seventh Trumpet and seventh Vial and yet it remains still almost universally sealed with seven Seals very few excepted to the whole World For De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem ratio Things that appear not and things that are not are of like capacity But when things most necessary and of highest concern are sealed through sloth or unmindfulness it manifests the most unexpressible Prophaneness and Ignorance that Man can be capable of nor does it signifie any thing to the so besotted World that the Book is open to some few but sealed with seven Seals to all the rest as the old World to whom the Book by a general unmindfulness was sealed in a Figure was no better at all that it was open only to a very few for that was the cause of their greater Condemnation Therefore this way of the Book being sealed whereby Sloth is added to brutish ignorance and the cause of it is the most desperate and dreadful of all Ways whereby it is or can be sealed For This is Condemnation saith our Saviour that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness So it may be now said which is the same This is the Condemnation of this World and will be the chief Cause of its speedy passing away that the Book of holy Writ having been sealed for many Ages with seven Seals begins to be opened and Men almost universally love to mind nothing But Secondly The whole Scripture is or hath been universally sealed in respect to its supreme end And what is that Answer The whole Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable to Teach to Convince to Correct and to instruct in Righteousness that the Man of God may be absolute being made perfect unto all good Works 2. Tim. 3.16 17. Good Works of Men and Saints made perfect are the supreme ends of the whole Scripture in order to God's Glory as these Texts expresly testifie But the profit of the whole Scripture to those ends aforesaid must needs be small whilst the Book is sealed and
square Righteousness which shall render and denominate these future 144000 to be that Mystery of God finished and the First-fruits redeemed from the Earth chap. 14.3 4. We shall therefore search the Apostles Times to see if we can find there the principal end of the Scripture and that Righteousness aforesaid for they might have some glimmerings of it though they did not perhaps attain to the true and clear knowledg of it And First But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to his Promise wherein dwelleth Righteousness 2 Pet. 3.13 If Peter knew what those new Heavens and that new Earth were and what that Righteousness in them was to be why did he not preach both to the Primitive Churches why did he look for them and it to come in future according to his Promise if that Promise of God was at that time or had been before performed Therefore this Righteousness of Gospel-Promise was not rightly understood but much sealed and hid from the Primitive Saints and Apostles themselves Secondly Christ taught his Disciples and teacheth us to pray saying Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven But the Will of God so done on Earth is the Practice of that future quadrate Righteousness of Gospel-Promise which only or principally is according to the Will of God and well-pleasing to him for all other Righteousness cannot but be faulty before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 Not but that there will be Sins in Saints then but Sins in subjection or slain Sins as the Ark and Dagon with his Head and Hands cut off were in one Temple Thy Will be done in Earth c. This is a prophetick Prayer which hath not been answered that I find in any Ages nor shall be until the Seals of this Book be opened for until then the Will of God cannot be done in Earth as it is in Heaven because Man's Direction so to do it though not with like degrees of Perfection can be found by no other means Christ therefore had not no doubt taught his Disciples and us to pray saying Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven if it was then actually so done on Earth by any but himself only at that present time or otherwise than by a prophetick Adumbration or Figure The supreme end therefore of the whole Scripture in order to God's Glory or that Righteousness which shall denominate the Mystery of God finished and be the Means of Mens principal Concerns and Safeties was much sealed or did not clearly appear to the Apostles themselves And therefore John wept much Rev. 5.4 And why did John weep much Because he had much cause to weep the Book was sealed in respect to its supreme end and that was cause sufficient to him of much weeping Nothing can be more lamentable than the sealing of that Book nor more blessed and full of joy than that opened For the sealing of it opens the Flood-gates of all Evils Miseries and Mischiefs Hoc solum omnigeni fons origo mali It is the cause of an Inundation of all Evils to Princes and to their People They complain of Plots and dreadful Designs to subvert their Estates Lives and Religion it self as if the World were again and so it is indeed filled with Violence Therefore they labour hard and so they do well to prevent every Man his own utter Ruine But it is not much unlike the Egyptians striving against the Stream of the involving Waters to very little purpose Hydra's adverse Heads spring up faster than they can be cut off Why then do they not seek to open the Seals of this Book and their Work is done The Wolf the Lamb and the Lion agreed well enough in one Ark and shall agree this Book being opened to better purpose Isa 65.25 Saul among the Prophets prophesied with them So Papists Protestants Sects and Turks if that Work be once done will agree to say and do the same things Enmity and Hostility shall cease and the destroying Angel shall stay his hand as he did when he was seen in Arannah's Threshing-Floor 2 Sam. 24.17 25. Therefore Lastly The whole Creation saith the Apostle groaneth and travaileth in pain and not only they but our selves also which have the First fruits c. Rom. 8.22 23. And what moved even the Apostles themselves and with them the whole Creation so to groan and travail in pain It was saith the Text for the manifestation of the Sons of God vers 19. And what is that I answer It is or rather shall be the Name of God written in their Fore-heads Rev. 14.1 For what more manifests a thing than the Forehead and what so much manifests the Sons of God as the Name of God written in their Foreheads And what is that Name It 's that Power of Godliness or that Practice of Right which shall be the supreme end of the whole Scripture in order to God's Glory and in respect to which principally it hath been long sealed All that work not at least to that end aforesaid are like Clocks that go not or go wrong Wherefore seeing that promised Righteousness in Practice which shall be the Will of God done on Earth though not with equal degrees of perfection as it is in Heaven shall be in order to God's Glory the supreme end of the whole Scripture and the most effectual means to Men of their entire Safeties and highest Concerns we shall with some diligence examine what those Works or that Practice of Right aforesaid in respect to which principally the Book is sealed are And first we must distinguish Evil Works are either visibly evil or But seeming good Good Works are subordinate or Supreme And firstly Works visibly evil are the Works of the Flesh Gal. 5.19 Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strofe Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like Such like are those Multitudes of Oaths which make the Land mourn and the Cause of them Atheism Witchcraft is mentioned among these Works of the Flesh which are manifest but I never read or heard of any Witch that durst or did swear or say God damn me This Age is grown hardy in unheard-of Wickedness Envy Hatred Variance are in the same List Schism therefore must be of the same Radix Sloth and Inadvertency are the Root and Foundation of all manifest evil Works and of those that are most mysterious The Doers of those more manifest evil Works are High-way-Hearers or the High-way ground Inadvertists Atheists that give no growth to the Seed of Grace But Secondly Works but seeming good are much more deceitful and difficult to be discerned from subordinate good Works They soon grow and soon cease from growing Hearing Reading Praying ineffectual Alms and pieces or half Performances of Right are seeming good Works And subordinate good Works are the same only these persevere when the other desist The stony and thorny Grounds are lively delineations of the Doers of seeming good Works The Apostle said to the foolish Galatians Ye ran well who hindred you chap. 5.7 So the Doers of seeming good Works seem to run well or rather better at first than they that perform subordinate good Works but before they run far they are hindred and having no depth of knowledg cannot persist in pressing forward or if their Knowledg be competent much Business and worldly Cares choak their good Works and makes them be but dead Works Therefore subordinate good Works seem to fall short at first of those that are but seeming good they are not so splendid nor promise so much when they are first held forth but they persevere when the other perish 〈…〉 * Assemb Annot. * Symp. Crit. * Assemb Annot.