shivers by the Stone the Saints in the time when this prophecie is fulfilled and that it was not in the age of Christ's Incarnation for then Augustus Caesar reigned under whom that Empire was in the highest degree of its glory and strength Florus reports of that time Hic est Romani Imperii juvenâ—…s quasi robusta maturitas This age was the youthly state and mature manhood of the Empire The destruction of this last kingdom is reserved for these last days to be accomplished by the Angel pourers Rev. 16. Chap. 18. 3. The Stone having broken down and driven away all the former image becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth and so must reign alone answerable to that magnificent kingdom Rev. 19 6. Zeâ—h 14.9 When the highest Saints take and possess the kimgdom of the former Monarchies Dan. 7.18 22. This they did not in the first Gospel-day when all the power of the Civil Rule was in the jurisdiction of those Romanes to whom the Church at that time was by the Ordinance of God subservient 4. This illustrious kingdom thus filling the earth is said to be everlasting and ever to enjoy the same plenitude of regiment vers 44. Chap 7.27 But even the Ecclesiastical Government of the primitive was seized on by Antichrist and the Nations who had all the outward court given them and who trod the holy city under foot in which time the Church had a great sink and decrease Your next Scripture Psal 1 10.2 speaks of the times of the vials when the Iron rod of Christs strength shall be sent forth out of Sion to bruise his enemies and then Christ in his separated people rules as a conqueror over his adversaries who though never so numerous shall be brought in subjection and such as withstand shall be broken in pieces Hereupon the Spirit by the Kingly Prophet gives sweet and seasonable counsel Psal 2.10 11 12. Be wise now therefore O ye kings be learned ye judges of the earth kiss the Son lest he be angry c. That we may avoid needless tautologies we shall answer to the relation betwixt Christ and his Church as he is a Head a King a Husband and she a Bodie a Kingdom a Wife as also to your supposed inference of our bringing a notable alteration in Christ in the fourth Paragraph Sect. 6. But here you bring three Reasons why this relation must be visible Object 1. They are visible things by which this relation is typed out and so must point out a visible you mean a constituted Church Answ It is usual in Scripture to figure out matters mystical and hidden by things visible and apparently known to us that by objects natural and obvious to our senses our mindes may be raised to the contemplation and comprehension of things divine and supernatural Thus the relative dependence between Christ and a believer is too too subtil and sublimate to be beheld with bodily eyes also Christ ascended as the Head the King and Husband and the throne of grace before which we make address though typed out by visible subjects yet are all to us invisible but the dispensation dâ—maning hence is sometimes more conspicuous sometimes more internal according to the pleasure of Gods own working Object 2. The Church invisible as so is unknown and wholly unseen to men and Christs invisible rule cannot by men be discerned and what honour were this to Christ to reign onely invisibly c. Answ We deny not that there was some degree of the profession of faith always existing but not a Church stated and set in a true visible order Indeed your argument appears very plausible to flesh and blood and makes most for the Church of Rome who onely in all the Western world can chalenge a continued succession of such a visibility of which she most boasteth and layeth as the chiefest pillar to bear up her Babylonish fabrick If then the glory of Christ cannot be uphold unless it be carried on with such an open regiment this deformed Whore is either the onely beautiful Spouse or else could have no honour in the world This Maxime of yours smells strong of a carnal spirit and tends to bring Christ to Lo here or Lo there even in that time when neither the first nor the last open days of the Son of man were to be seen Luke 17.22 If your eyes were further enlightned you might discern that the strength of Christ is made perfect in weakness and magnifies it self as well in the lowest estate of his Church as in its highest exaltation though more eclipsed from his peoples apprehension And thus the Lord is magnified that though he suffered Antichrist to usurp all the external Order of Ecclesiastical Regiment and make it a desolate wilderness yet in this earthly lowe stand of the Saints captivity he reserved to himself a sealed elect number whom he upheld by his own immediate power and gift against whom the gates of hell could not prevail and will at last more abundantly manifest his power justice mercy and love in the destruction of this man of sin and returning to his people more outward magnificence then ever they enjoyed before it being the wisdom of God to make humility the way to honour the darkest night of misery to bring in the brightest day of peace and happiness Again when Antichrist as you confess had seized on all the outward court of Order it would have been no honour to the King of kings to dignifie this visibility in the possession of another with the lively breathings of his Spirit but rather very derogatory for him to give his glory to another and thereupon he cast it out Object 3. Where faith is there it will be visible Answ Your self holds that infants may have the being of faith yet the manifestation thereof appears not unto us Psal 22.9 10. Rom. 9.11 12 13. but true it is that when Christians are of yeers faith will shew it self in the fruits of visible profession in a godly and holy life and exercise of the duties of Piety 2. Visible believers in the first initiation of visible constitution cannot state themselves but must first be stated by Christ by the pouring out of his Spirit as is at large cleared in the second Querie of the Cessation Object But to prove a visible constituted Church through the Antichristian times you instance first the two Witnesses Rev. 11.3 Answ These Witnesses are not visible stated Churches but such men as held forth the light of Ministery for the feeding of the elect in the wilderness of Babylon For 1. They have a true relation onely to the hidden mystical temple without any reference to the outward court 2. Their clothing to wit their outward investment into membership and office was with sackcloth as is before spoken The Primitive clothing was with the Sun even when the Dragon raged against the woman in the height of cruel persecution 3. Their visible stand was in the
tribulation out of which the godly at last do come nor doth the figure of the wilderness and secret Chambers fitly allude to those who took on them to be Christ in Person but all these properties with the rest above specified most exactly concur with the great Antichrist whether Romish Episcopal or elsewhere and none but in him As for Bencocab he was a Jew and seduced none but Mosaical Jews who soon found him as you confess to be an impostor and therefore called him Bencosban the son of a lye his deceit was to the Jews only of short continuance and did not at all indanger Christians much less the elect amongst them As for Hacket he was an obscure man and did not involve England much less the Christian world in his private error which was not known of most or if it had was too too gross to delude so universally The special warning of Christ to beware infers a greater and more mystical subtilty then were Bencocabs or Hackets Object But say you this false one in the wilderness cannot be applyed much less appropriated to the Roman Antichrist who hath not acted his part in a desart but hath set as God in the Temple of God 2 Thess 2.4 and ruled with pompe over nations Answ 1. We did not appropriate him to the Pope but granted the Bishops and national Presbyters also to have an interest in him who mingled all together compleat this false Christ in the wilderness 2. This wilderness is not a proper as you carnally apprehend but metaphorical speech and alludes to such a way as resembles a desart which is cleared above Now though such worldly pompe may appear very majestical to flesh and blood yet in the Spirits judgement and in a mystical sence it is a desolation being barren and voide of spiritual fruitfulness Thus outward Babylon was the glory of kingdoms the golden city anc very magnificent in the eyes of natural reason yet together with her nations is called a wilderness as before So Rome the head and mother of this mystical Babel is as you assert to a carnal judgement a great and stately City and ruled over multitudes of people yet together with her nations compared with the primitive heavenly glory of Christianity is a meer desart as saith the Prophet Isa 65.10 Sion is become a wilderness That Church which in the first Gospel-day was Sion in the beauty of apostolical order afterwards having such a desolation and confusion of her first Gospel-order so great a famine of the word of God so many thornes and briars in her and usurping a terrene national hierarchy with multitude of ravenous devouring beasts together with a pompous shew of humane Ceremonies Canons c. might most fitly be stiled an earthly wilderness she being worldly in her foundation and whole artifice The place in 2 Thes 2.4 in which Antichrist sits is called the temple by a Synecdoche the whole for the part to wit for the outward Court for no more was given to the Nations over whom he rules as God then the outward Court Rev. 11.2 but the temple vers 1. within to wit the inward roomes of the hidden man that beast never reigned over it being sustained by Christ and this you must assent to unless you make Rome to be a true Church and to have true measurement this text of the Apocalypse interprets that of Paul and the same outward Court was by the Antichristian impietie made a wilderness You grant That the Brownist Dippers c. invite into secret chambers Answ If so then surely it is very improbable that Christ should pass over in utter silence the great beast of Rome the head of all the rest which for many ages did so universally deceive the world and hint only upon the last and least It is not safe to tax Wisdome it self with such an oversight not to close up your eyes against the light of so clear a prophesie You further inquire Whether the calling of men into houses parlors and Chambers do not reflect c. Answ These Chambers are not proper but figurative Chambers as before is shewed and preaching and praying in houses are not as barely considered these false narrow roomes for the Apostles went about from house to house and Christ hath promised his Spirit to those who truly worship him in any place whatsoever You tell me That mutato nomine de me fabula narratur the fable may be told of me Answ If any can tax me with false doctrine or touch us in out call for or walke in separation let him come forth we do not bring Christ to any particular stating so to say Lo nor bottom our union on a narrow corporation but separating from all these restraints we bear up our spiritual relation with all the godly wherever scattered and indeavour to bring them off from these bestial formalities which bondage the Saints and divide Christ to Lo here Lo there that renouncing these they may joyn together with one consent in the way of separation wherein Christ is gone forth that so they may get full victory over the beast and this is not to bring into but pull men off from their inthralings either in the wilderness or secret Chambers I will not say Fabula de te narratur as making the oracle of Truth to be an old wives fable which your inversion against me is but whether for you to take up a new power to state Churches and to make members and officers upon your own call name time spiriting and to shew such signes and wonders in inspiring you stative Ordinances some whereof are meer inventions for you I say to begin such a narrow limited obscure and unwarrantable work upon your own observation as a false Christ and teach it up as a false prophet be not numbered amongst these secret Chambers we leave it for wise and impartial men to determine You indeed plead for national Churches and are officiated from their hierarchies being in your confession in the wilderness but in your walk as those in the narrow roomes Conclusion For conclusion and close of this subject we acquainted you that these latter Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation c. have a being in the Scriptures and the mind and desires of the faithful and that we carry them along with us in our journey of separation as the Israelites of old did the vessels of the temple out of outward Chaldea but dare not officiate in them within the territories of Babylon in which we are till we have passed by the sixth vail over the river Euphrates Object If they have a being in the Scriptures then are they the institution of Christ and ought alwayes to be taken up in practice proved from Mat. 28.20 Answ Those Ordinances which have their constant existence perpetuated in the word by institution and promise are ever accompanied by the same Word and the Spirit thereof for their continued use in all convenient times and places as you affirme
an earthy bottomless and Babylonish wilderness Now the woman could not be in the wilderness while her officers were in heaven but they must both fall together 2. This mournful season emphatically stiled by our Saviour the time of tribulation Mark 13.24 must initiate with the first of those three grand woes sounded by the Angel flying in the midst of heaven and that began with the fifth trumpt Chap. 8.13 The former four were gradual preparations the fifth the full accomplishment of that great defection The begining of this time The same as I conceive took its exordium about the yeer 390 after Christ at the time the Bishop of Rome by the general consent of the Asian Affrican and Europian Bishops obtained the priority and Bishoprick of the first seat which is the sole interest and proper centre of Jesus Christ And where this universal primacy was granted to a bare creature Christ would not give his glory to another but wholly departed and left it empty whereby it became meerly humane and bestial The Duration thereof The duration of this time is declared in the Revelations to be 1260 dayes or fourty two moneths which taken according to the Egyptian and Jewish account thirty dayes to a moneth make up exactly the former number of dayes the like doth time times and an half Chap. 15.3 the beast had power given him to make war or prevaile for so is the original forty two months also Chap. 11.2 the nations so long trod the holy City under foot likewise vers 3. the witnesses prophesied clothed in sackcloth the same space of time Chap. 12.6 all this time the woman was in the wilderness which in vers 14. is described to be time times and half a time answerable to the former account which raken prophetically a day for a yeer as this book is delivered in the highest majesty of a prophecie constitute 1260 yeers The computation 0390 1260 nbsp 1650. Now to reckon up the period of this season if we add to 1260 the foregoing time of 390 we may finde the expiration thereof to be about 1650. Many arguments may be produced to prove these dayes to be prophetically a day for a yeer but it hath been done by others and most that are judicious by pondering the hight and order of this prophecie with the event successively answering will proprio nisu of their own voluntary consent agree with me and them in this particular What remarkable turnings and alterations of affaires there were about 1650 in all our dominions even in these ends of the earth with the subsequent success is shewed in Parag. 4. 2. The second material passage to be expostulated is what is the dispensation now approved of God in this next revolution after the former season of adversity Quaere 2. whether by new erecting of visible Churches or by separation without stating waiting till the Lord begin it or thus whether the time for the return of visible marriage be now or hereafter For the resolving of this Gorgian knot See Parag 4. we may propose to our selves a twofold rule First Whether there be a call to foot any Church-constitution in our time or in a time to come Secondly what is the next immediate cause to give vital being to the same 1. For the first we observed by searching the Scriptures that every thing belonging to Church-order either at its first rise or after a general long and total loss was grounded on the written word of God and manifested by the spirit of Prophecie Surely the Lord will do nothing in this but he reveales his secrets to his servants the Prophets Amos 3.7 that the book of the Revelations compiling in a certaine method the several changes and administrations time after time must as well inform us when this manifest kingdom reverts as it doth teach us when and how the primitive was dissolved and became Babylon and upon strict inquiry we could not espie the least hint either by type or vocal expression for any approved visible Church-marriage in the age we live in but that the Revelations together with the old Prophets agree with one accord that the time for this noble work is to be fulfilled in an after-age The signes to know this magnificent fabrick to be to come are these 1. The destruction of the Antichristian enemies and removing obstacles out of the way as Hos 2.18 The Lord will make a covenant for them with the creatures and will breake the low sword and battel ouâ— of the earth and make them to lie down in safety and then verse 19 20 I will marry thee to me for ever also Mat. 13.30 43 the tares are first cut down before the wheat is gathered into the barn so Revel 11.18 19. Chap. 15.8 there is no visible temple in heaven opened till the were destroyed who destroyed the earth even till the destruction of the great City mentioned Chap. 16.19 and Chap. 18. likewise Chap. 19.7 8 9. there is no marriage specified till the Hallelujahs be sung for the finall ruine of Babylon and the glorious reign of God Almighty and then Zech. 14.9 when the Lord only is king in all the earth the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife prepared for her husband then she hath a new grant of his beautiful wedding-garments whereby she shall be outwardly Isa 611 10 covered with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroome decketh himself with his ornaments and a bride adorns her self with her jewels then is there a new call to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. Thus we may note that this illustrious prophecy given by Christ to shew to his servants future events leads us as by a hand-dyal to the time when the primitive was cast out and to the very season when it returns in its own supernatural lustre 2. The next signe is the call of the Jews and those Eastern parts as Psal 50.1 The Lord hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof and then God will shine out of Sion the perfection of beauty vers 2. So Matth. 24.27 28 when there is a true manifest gathering to the dead carcase Christ noting a stating work then he will manifest his shining dispensation from east to west like lightning and thus Rom. 11.12 15 speaking of the Jews concludes What shall their receiving be but life from the dead 3. The last signe is the visible effusion of the Spirit which being more properly a cause then a signe I shall refer the proof thereof to the Rule next ensuing The final subversion of-Antichrist the call of the Jews and the eastern parts and the open pouring of the Spirit are all as yet unaccomplished 2. The next rule of Trial is what gives life and present existence to a visible Gospel-constitution and the keys thereof Under this notion we examined the common received Maxime of all the lesser independent bodies which is this That in times of Apostacie as this of
tread the holy City the sealed number under foot are tyrannical and bestial But such National Churches do so tread as is further asserted And the holy city shall they tread under foot The truth of this hath shewed it self not onely in the cruelty of Rome but also by the like tyranny of the Bishops in England and the rigour of the Presbytery in Scotland and that the same aspiring spirit is in many amongst you if the sword of the Magistrate would second and impower you the declarations of some both in their writings and in their open Pulpits which men look upon as the oracles of Truth have sufficiently manifested to the world we hope they will be more wise and tender of the consciences of others for the future These National Churches considered in one universal body are the great city Babylon Chap. 17.15 18. Chap. 11.8 9 10. Now if the visibility of Church-constitution was onely National for many generations as is cleared by all the evidences of former times and these National Churches Babylonish then must there be a fail and cessation of the truth of the same visibility Compare this Scripture with the event and you may finde that as here the whole outward court was given to the Nations and then cast out by the Spirit so the event is parallel to the prophecie which tells us that the total Order of Ecclesiastical regiment became National and was for many hundred yeers Romish in the full possession of the Pope where by the common grant of all Protestants it is held to be Babylon and when the visible Church became a stranger and bottomless the key of outward Government in Confirmation Ordination Excommunication c. must be of the same nature with the Church as is declared in the former Paragraph The truth of this is likewise confirmed by the state of the true Church in the times of this apostacie who was onely a sealed elect number which by an invisible union made up a mystical temple a Sion a women c. whose visible abode was in the wilderness of Babylon as you may read in the Cessation I shall here demonstrate it by another Scripture which was there omitted The text is Micah 4.10 where the prophet speaking of the daughter of Sion saith that she shall go forth out of the city her genuine and celestial Order and shall dwell in the field answerable to the wilderness into which the woman fled Rev. 12.6 and shall go even to Babylon to such a field where is meer confusion from whence the Lord will at last deliver her by separation and redeem her from the hands of her enemies And that this alludes to the condition of the Gospel-Church in spiritual Babylon is evinced by the gathering of the nations against her vers 11 which agrees whith these last combinations against the Saints Zeph. 3.8 Isai 54.15 Revel 16.14 16. by her horns of iron and hoofs of brass to thresh and beat in pieces many people also after her complete victory by her consecrating their gain to the Lord which never was fulfilled in the majesty here delivered but must be proper to the time of the vials wherein the people coming out of Babylon reward her and her assistants with the like degree of punishment Rev. 18.6 Dan. 7.22 The event doth likewise comply with this Scripture as face answers to face in a glass For the primitive Church who was glorious in her visible constitution setled and beautified with Apostolical power did after decline from thence into the vast barren field of the Babylonish nations where she was scattered here and there a godly person outwardly mixed with the rude multitude from whom she was not distinguished either in Membership or Office and where she was held in chains of thraldom by Popes Bishops and the like beastly Hierarchies who in this strange country monopolized the key of Government into their sole tuition and in this desolate estate she must needs be an exile in a forraign land From this bondage also the Lord begins at last to call her out and deliver her from her enemies From hence we may necessarily conclude that if this external station wherein the daughter of Sion visiby stood was a field a wilderness a Babylon or forraign country of strange confusion then must all the beauty of her former outward Order be dissolved and turned into a rude Chaos that if her key of visible Rule was taken solely into the usurpation of Antichrist the Beast those alien lords Then must the Ordinances thereof lie void as did the Temple-vessels in the house of Nebuchadnezzar's idol-gods We will now with God's assistance proceed to answer your Objections made against this Object You alleadge that to say the visible Church did fail is as much as to affirm that the pillars of the earth were broken down the Church standing as firm by Gods ordinance power and faithfulness Answ It is true that the pillars of the earth are born up by the Word of God albeit the earthly governments thereof have the times of their shake and dissolution Psal 75.3 Isai 2.19 21. Hag. 2.21 And withal it is as true that the Church in the being of election inward grace outward profession and the more intrinsecal rule of grace is a kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 it being promised to be perpetual Matth. 16.18 But the visibility of Church-government was not so pillared in the Word for its successive abiding this is rather fore-prophesied that it should be corrupted by Antichrist and become Babylon To lay the ground-work of your after-discourse you here distinguish a visible Church M. Elmest First say you by a visible Church may be meant a company of Christians joyned together in one place set in true order of Worship and exercise of all Gods Ordinances that such a Church hath been in any one place or many successively you think cannot castly be proved Answ By such a Church if we understand you aright you mean a Church set in a right order of Discipline and furnished with true Officers And if such a Church cannot be proved to have been successively through the apostacie then must you yeeld that the primitive chain of Order was broken and so justifie its cessation for such an one it is that you have maintained to abide and we have proved to discontinue This grant of yours duely pondered doth at one breath unmount the whole fabrick of this your Babel and might soon put a period to the major part of this Controversie M. Elmest Secondly by a visible Church may be meant a company of persons professing true religion abstaining from all false worship and worshipping God in a pure way though for the most part in sundry places and meeting in small companies such a Church hath been perpetual Answ 1. Such companies may thus assemble for Ministery Prayer as did the one hundred twenty before they received powerfrom on high and we do now and yet not be a visible Church
the word of God we are assured is an unerring rule by which we shall endeavour to steer our course and not by the wandering notion of learned men Our recourse is onely to the Law and Testimony for proof whether you they or we be rightest In the interim we condemn not the grace of Christ where-ever we finde it nor the generation of the righteous as righteous Yet if their outward way be condemnable by the word of God we conceive it true humility and piety to judge accordingly and charity to acquaint them therewith Thus we shall end with your general exceptions against the whole and shall in the next place proceed to the more particular framed against some particular reasons before nominated which we will divide into several Sections Your fourth Objection is opposite to our first Reason deduced from Rev. 18.4 9. and runs as followeth Object 4. All Circumstances considered the time of this separating and rewarding is not untill God shall put it into the hearts of Kings to joyne together to destroy Rome it self and is surely about the pouring out of the last or some of the last vials And then being ready to give the onset on Rome by this voice they are called to plague her throughly At which time this call is directed to such of Gods people who are hidden in the Idolairous City and the adjacent territories to flee from her by a personal flight And how long it will be ere this be effected the Lord knowes Answ This your assertion consisteth of many fallacies which must be drawn out in their parts to clear up the truth 1. As that Babylon is not onely Rome with her adjacent territories but the great City chap. 17.18 reaching where out Lord was slaine chap. 11.8 above two thousand miles distant from Rome and duely pondered must be as large as the whole Roman Christian Empire and so compriseth England Scotland France or what place soever hath a false Church or beastly power to bear it up 2 These last plagues of God are not onely against Rome but every land where Babylonish Churches are residing even all Christian Nations The same whirlwind in these latter daies is said to begin at the ends of the earth and to go from Nation to Nation Jer. 25.31 32 33. chap. 23.19 20. chap. 30.23 24. Psal 110.5 6. and to be universall Isa 24. chap. 34. Luk. 21.35 Mat. 24.37 c. We have seen the beginnings of it in our Dominion the effects whereof were lately like to fall on some men of note in England Caetera taceo 3. This call of separation is not simply from Rome as an outward place but from all Antichristian stands whether Romish Episcopal Presbyterial c. the call is generall and the surest remedy to escape the general judgement 4. The pouring these plagues is not all at once by the last or some of the last vials it is gradual by every vial degree after degree For all the Angels pour out in their order upon the Earth Sea Rivers and fountains Sun and Throne of the beast upon the great river Euphrates and the aire chap. 16. 5. Not the Kings of the earth but the separated people are the principal instruments in rewarding for the text bids first Come out of her my people then reward States that come off may be assistants Object But this was done by the ten hornes ten Kings chap. 17.16 12. Answ The reading of the text must be warily observed for the better understanding thereof The most and authentick Greek copies have it The ten horns and the beast shall hate the Whore but Aretas whom the vulgar Latine followes renders it The ten horns on or upon the beast shall hate both senses are true and in both the hornes and the beast are coupled together the hornes and the beast hate also the horns hating are fastened on the beast And as the horns are these ten for nature Christians not for number for they did not all ten but some of them detest this Whore to the same Christian beast that abhors must be taken by the like Synecdoche the whole for the part to wit the Episcopal and Presbyterial beast shall hate not the Papal and the Whore defied must must be the great Whore or grandmother Rome who in her whordoms was grown over-foul They detested not the lesser and more specious daughters of whom themselves were a part nor yet the the woman Babylon in her extent for they most sadly mourned for her downfall their riches and delicacies being taken away with her chap. 18.9 10. Neither did they abominate the beast but beeing fastned on him did assist him with their Armies against the sitter on the white horse and his Armies and both hornes and beast fell together ch 19.11 to the end The abovesaid hating appeares to us to allude to the Protestant Princes who together with their beast the ecclesiastical hierariches either Episcopall or Presbyteriall did hate make desolate and naked consume and burn up the whore of Rome as having nothing to do with her in their dominions Now the rewarders before specified were not horns on the beast being severed from the very number of his name and being on Christs side follow him upon white horses to subdue the beast and horns together For the time of the call of separation I shal speak in the next place Object You go on and say that the spiritual separation made by Protestant Princes and Churches from Rome in doctrine and worship as they had a warrant from this call the reason whereof belonging to all times and persons not to partake in Romes sins do sufficiently inforce it so had they pregnant grounds from other Scriptures and commands Answ Here are many insinuations also couched up in this sentence which must be examined in their parts As 1. What you here intend by your spiritual separation 2. How you can justifie a spiritual separation to be made by Princes you mean I suppose by their laws If it be spiritual it must be caused by the free motion of the Spirit constraining a people by the linkes of love and not inforced by the cumpulsive lawes of men 3. You affirme your separation to be in doctrine and worship it seemes you are ashamed to say in discipline as being convinced in your conscience that yours is the same radically with Rome If your Church be grounded upon a Baylonish discipline it cannot be a visible Sion Jer. 51.26 4. You tell us they had a warrant for it from this call by which at at one breath you blow downe all you built before Marte cadunt subiti per mutua vulnera fratres For if this call be not untill Kings join together to destroy Rome it self about the last or some of the last vials and that then it is directed to such onely who are hid in that City with the adjacent territories how can these be applyed to Protestant Princes and Churches They renounced Rome long before they were
not hid in that City nor the adjacent territories nor fled they from thence by a personal flight These two extremes will hardly come together 5. This call here specified pertains not to all times and persons For as Israel was to be in outward Babylon for the space of seventy yeers before the call for their departure so the woman was to remain in the mystical for a full season even 1260 yeers Rev. 12.6 as before the wheat and tares were to grow together till harvest which belongs to the vials chap. 14. and then this call for separation had its peculiar time prefixed the war and it being conjoyned together The primitive Saints failing in their first love sunk into the same earthly confused condition and were left asleep in that wilderness for a full season till the times of God came for their deliverance from bondage 6. This of Protestantisme cannot properly be termed a separation in respect of Church-constitution but rather a dividing of the kingdom Dan. 2.41 The true separation consists in a number out of Nations Rev. 7.9 who are off from the beast and his thorne over consciences as standing immediately before the highest throne and were not defiled with women chap. 14.2 3 4. But theirs was whole Nations good and bad together and they set up a beast originally derived from Rome and by consequence must in their Church-state be a strange woman as is proved in Paragraph 1. Sect. 3. Indeed Antichrist reigning long in his Catholique pontificalitie grew so foul at last that he was found out by the Protestants and being discovered was contented with them to sit down in Episcopacy but lording it there with too much tyranny was also disclosed to be the same beast trimmed in other habit and where he could not be admitted that attire in policy that he might the easier deceive masked himself under a more curious dress in Presbytery yet his ground-work arising by descent from the Pope is the same with the former and he also there usurps or chalengeth the like popedom over consciences The same beast remaines in all onely his Kingdome is divided To your fifth Objection we answer that by the word only we exclude stating not assembling for Ministery Prayer c. Section 3. Your next Objections are directed against our seventh Reason where we tell you that we are yet but in the way towards Sion Before we give a reply to yours we shall acquaint you what we conceive of this subject to prepare for that following We hold that there was a Sion 2 Temple a Woman a Kingdome of grace and a reigne of God therein through all Gospel-times yet withall that this did not constantly abide in the external order of Ecclesiastical government but was in its outward stand and dispensation various In the primitive day Sion was not onely inward in the work of grace and the hidden man saith c. but likewise visibly stated by Christ in the glory of her outward order In the dark night of Antichristianisme she was more retired subsisting simply in the grace of Election mystical union with some weak degree of profession and witness had the badge of the covenant but visibly in a false strange and Babylonish constitution as is cleared in the Cessation After the final subversion of Antichrist the like visible government shall againe descend from heaven as is shewed in the Cessation also Quaer 2. This is diversly stiled in the Prophets answerable to the sense it is opposed against or applyed to Sometimes to teach us that before the Saints were outwardly a scattered and bondaged people in a strange land or Babylon the visibilty of true Gospel-order and regiment is by a Synecdoche termed Sion Rev. 18.4 Isa 35. The ransomed of the Lord return from Babylon to Sion The redeemed ones were never absented from the mystical Sion but from the visible they were and to that are said to return Likewise to inform us that a mystical or more invisible Sion remained and to point out in particular what failed and what againe reverts the Prophets tell us that it is the visibility of regiment shall be added to the former as Mich. 4. after the vials wars are ended in a full peace ver 3.4 the Lord shal reigne agreeable to Rev. 19.6 and then thou O Tower of the flock the strong hold of the daughter of Sion unto thee shall it come even the first dominion the Kingdome shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem ver 8. then judgement shall be given to the most high Saints Dan. 7.22 Now to apply this to our case we affirme that in the former of these two acceptations we are in our way to Sion in the latter we are on Sion expecting the glory of her government to come from the Lord Jesus So that Sion in the Scriptures is sometimes taken only for the mystical or mount of true grace and thus it is in the times of the apostacy sometimes for the visible order of the Church-constitution or outward rule The not marking this hath caused many in the daies of this more intrinsecall administration to bring the promises belonging to Sion unto their stated formes and so to Babylon thereby deluding both themselves and the people thus did the Pope thus did the Bishops and the like do all the rest We shall now proceed to remove your obstacles Object 1. It is the state of all imbracing the Gospel to be come to mount Sion and the celestial Jerusalem Heb. 12.22 Answer This was spoken to the Gospel-Church of the primitive day who was Sion as in the being and profession of faith so also in her outward corporation and discipline and cannot in its latitude be extended to all Gospel-times Object 2. To prove the perpetual succession of a Gospel Sion stated in outward order through the Antichristian age you instance Rev. 14.1 Answ Sion here specified figures out the mount of true grace and the unmoveable foundation thereof For all the Elect sealed number and only they stood with the Lamb upon this mountaine See the Cessation If this be meant of a visible constituted Church then must if follow either that all the Elect in the world and only they through the whole season of tribulation must successively in every generation thereof be congregated apart by themselves and set in a true order distinguished from the Papacy Patriarkship c. or else that Rome and the Greek Church as corrupt as she carrying this continuance of visibility must be true and orderly constitutions made up of members elect and pretious and none but such If the former be asserted the Scripture and the event both manifest that the Saints were scattered and mixed amongst the nations if the latter more must attributed to Rome then she dares chalenge to her self Besides this daughter of Sion was visibly in Babylon where all the beauty of her exteriour order was turned into confusion as you may at large read in the same Cessation as also Parag.
in the fourth and fore-going Paragraph and proved by several Reasons We shall here more amply decipher their nature property and stand out of the three several texts of the Revelations in which the Spirit paints them forth The first is Chap. 7. v. 9. There you may see them not to be whole nations but a great number of or out of nations being chosen from the rest who stand immediately before the throne of grace clothed with white robes of rejoycing praise and virgin-like purity all palms in their hands an ensigne of victory and peace and alluding to the multitude who followed and cried Hosanna when Christ rode up to Jerusalem Mat. 21.8 9. Mark 11.8 9 10. Luke 19.37 38. all which attributes a difference of them from the sealed number and Witnesses before Vers 14 they come out of great tribulation which manifesteth the time to be after the 1260 yeers Vers 15 these for their diligence in holy exercises are said to serve God day and night in his temple their hungering and thirsting no more nor the sun and heat lighting on them v. 16. infers the spiritual famine and affliction they underwent the preceding season from which now they are perpetually freed Their seeding by the lamb their being led to living fountains of water answers to the fertility and springs of water for spiritual strengthning and recreating breaking forth in the wilderness or high-way there to Sion Isa 35.6 7. chap. 41.18 chap. 48.21 chap. 49.9 10. Psal 107.35 and to the precious promises made to the same people Hos 2. from vers 14. to 19. Isa 42.16 The second Scripture is Chap. 14. Vers 1 is a type of the sealed number under Antichristisme expressed chap. 7. from vers 1. to 9. who stand upon the mystical mount of election or grace The separated Saints are presented from vers 2. where they are not onely rejoycers as before but harpers they singing for joy of heart and tuning their sounding instruments of praises Isa 51.11 Psal 98. Isa 42.10 Chap. 30.29 Their song for matter v. 3. is a new song sutable to the new work then created for them Isa 43.19 Chap 42.16.9 10. which was so abstruse and mysterious that none amongst the nations and false stands could truely learn it but the 144000 redeemed from the earth who by degrees will be capable thereof come out and joyn with the harpers Vers 4 these are not defiled with women which notes their separation from all false Churches either of the wilderness or secret chambers for they are virgins preparing for the marriage to come in chap. 19. and as the Lord goes before them so do they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes from vial to vial both in separating from and rewarding of they are not onely redeemed from the earth with the 144000 but also purchased from amongst men which hints at their separation from the rest of the world and being the first thus bought have the honour of being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. In vers 5 for the pureness and sincerity in their Ministery which brings Divinity up into a Gospel-glory they are said to have no guile in their mouthes for they are without fault before the throne The third text is Chap. 15. v. 2 3 4. in which their victory station and song are more distinctly and accurately described Vers 2 their victory is over the Beast to wit all usurped Hierarchies over consciences whether Romish Episcopal Presbyterial of any other his Image their stated Frames and Ordinances formed according to their carnal imaginations his Mark a subjection thereto from all which the harpers are redeemed and from the number of his name as a people separated in their distinguished assemblies Their stand was on a glassie sea the clear pure bright sensings of Scripture which for the copiousness is called a sea for its perspicuity of glass 2 Cor. 3.18 which is mingled with fire to consume the timber hay and stubble of Antichristian materials 2 Thess 2.18 and to purge the filth of the Saints by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of burning Isa 4.4 In vers 3 their song is the song of Moses and the Lamb for their outward and spiritual deliverance the substance of which is compendiously drawn out in vers 3 4. the like is declared in Chap. 14.7 c. And these for time arose presently with the Angel-pourers as appears by their being conjoyned together vers 1 2. by their victory and triumphant song which begins with and continues all the series of the vials These judgements and wonders of God have been of late so clearly manifested with us that no man spiritually enlightned can gainsay it Having thus delivered the state of these harpers we shall now acquaint you why your National Churches whether Episcopal or Presbyterial are none of their number They for time arose long before the 1260 yeers of tribulation were ended and were not a selected company out of nations nor redeemed from amongst men but were whole nations good and bad incorporated into one leprous body they were not clothed with white robes of joy praise and purity nor stand immediately before the throne but even the godly amongst them were clothed in sack-cloth stood visibly in the streets of the great city and before earthly Hierarchies who as terrene gods lorded it over them whereby the sun and heat smote them as was too well known in the Bishops times and by the proceedings of others elsewhere both before and since neither are you a growing people with an increase of spiritual nourishment and new rising springs of heavenly refreshings but are declining to more formality and deadness and will daily decrease as the light of Truth increaseth your kingdom grows full of darkness neither do you return from Babylon but sit down in that desart Thus you may take notice how contrary you are to the separated people expressed Chap. 7. Give us leave to shew you how unlike your National Churches ruled by Bishops or Presbyters are to the harpers painted out in Chap. 14. They sing not the new song of triumph over the Beast but the old one of crying him uâ—… and applauding him they stand not immediately before the highest throne but before Classical Provincial and National Synods coming as a medium between and ruling over the conscience they are not virgins in their purity from the Beast nor wait they for the marriage to come nor are undefiled with strange women but are strange women boasting with her Chap. 18.7 that they sit as Queens are already married in their visible constitutions and their members defiled with the same false married Churches they follow not the Lamb in his call of separation but go before him in their own of stating they are not redeemed from amongst men as herein obtaining the honour of the first-fruits in whose mouth is sound no guile but remain bondaged themselves and labour to enthral others as their frequent importuning the Magistrate for power to