proper way to preserve it This way therefore being used at the Publication ought to be used at the Restoration The running Waters are living and wholesome but the standing do putrifie Christ is the Alpha and Omega The Throne mentioned in the first part of the Revelations is nothing else but this New Jerusalem This Book is the most exquisite piece of Paint in the World and were the Painting-Art lost it might be found here The Son of God first draws the Design then the heavenly Raphael 's and Michael Angelo 's go on adding Line upon Line and Stroke upon Stroke guided by his Divine Hand till at last they finish and shew this Incomparable Hierogliphick in its proper colours By Throne nothing is meant but this City And the Prophet Jeremiah doth confirm the same saying At that time they shall call Jerusalem The THRONE of the Lord and all Nations shall be gathered into it to the Name of the Lord at Jerusalem And when the Text saith I saw Thrones and they sat upon them and Judgment was given unto them I know not how to understand any thing else but Cities where places of Judicature are usually erected Nor do I see any Inconvenience to let the Sword of Justice and the Sword of the Spirit to make their Monthly Circuits together that the Counsel of Peace may be betwixt them both When the Prophet saith And thou O Tower of the Flock this argues there must be many of them else they could not be a Flock And every holy City in each Nation sending annually their Representatives to pay their Homage and receive Instructions there these make in Council together The General Assembly of the First-Born much greater than that at Nice Thus saith the Lord of Hosts It shall come to pass that there shall come People and the Inhabitants of many Cities And the Inhabitants of one City shall go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also Yea many People and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. And another Text saith That whosoever of all the Families of the Earth that shall not come up to Jerusalem upon them there shall be no Rain We cannot suppose that the whole Number should come to the Feast of Tabernacles but some Representatives from the Regenerate City of each Nation and these being in a Body at the Feast of Tabernacles make up the General Assembly of the First-Born And the Prophet Isaiah saith And it shall come to pass from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. This has a peculiar respect to this most excellent Oeconomy in sending out Monthly Preachers out of each National Regenerate City which will give birth to Weekly Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Solemnities so that this Prophecy will then be fulfilled to an Iota These Circular Monthly Preachers are plainly hinted at in the Texts following I have set Watchmen on thy Walls which shall never hold their peace day nor night Thy Watchmen shall lift up the Voice with the Voice together shall they sing for they shall see Eye to Eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion And I will set Shepherds over them that shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking saith the Lord. And I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with Knowledge and Vnderstanding Then he brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the River Now when I had returned behold there were very many Trees on the one side and the other Then said he unto me These Waters issue out towards the East Countrey and go down into the Desart and go down into the Sea which being brought forth into the Sea the Waters shall be healed And it shall come to pass that every thing that liveth that moveth whithersoever the River shall come shall live and there shall be a very great multitude of Fish because these Waters these Preachers shall come thither for they shall be healed and every thing shall be healed where the River cometh And it shall come to pass that the Fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi to Eneglaim There shall be a place to spread forth Nets There Fish shall be according to their kind as the Fish of the Great Sea exceeding many But the Miry Places thereof and the Marshes That is those that will not hear or admit of these Preachers shall not be healed but given to Salt And by the River on the Bank thereof on this side and on that side shall grow all Trees for meat whose Leaf shall not fade neither the Fruit thereof he consumed That is these Preachers shall never fail to make their Monthly Circuits out of the Cities it shall bring forth new Fruit according to its Months because the Waters issued out of the Sanctuary And the Fruit thereof shall be for Meat and the Leaf thereof for Medicine This is so full that there will be no occasion of quoting that of John which in a manner is a Repetition of it Daniel saith in the end of his Prophecy Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased And Zacharia We have walked to and fro thorow the Earth and behold all the Earth sitteth still and is at Rest Were but these things fixed then might we very well say How Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of him that bringeth Glad Tidings that Publisheth Peace that bringeth Good Tidings of Good that Publisheth Salvation that saith unto Zion Thy God reigneth These things are to be performed and done in the time of Christ Reign And these Preachers shall further say Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the Waters and he that hath no Money come ye buy and eat yea come and buy Wine and Milk without Money and without Price Many have paid very dear for a Draught of these Waters but old things are passed away and all things are become New The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that heareth say Come and let him that is athirst come and whoever will let him take the Waters of Life freely The Gospel then is to be as free as the Air or the Sun Beams Then will Righteousness cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea For what dry Mountain will not this constant heavenly Rain fall upon What dark Corners can be hid from these ever-shining Lights Glorious things are spoken of Thee O thou City of God! But when these things come to pass Men shall say that the Prophets have not told them half of the Truth That Pillar of Fire which led the Children of Israel out of Egypt and all the former Glory in the Tabernacle and Temple Administration were but first Fruits of the Glory which shall be revealed in this
place for the Servants of God in each Nation for the Dispensers of his Word to dwell in and it ought to be as our Saviours Sepulcher in which 't is said Never yet Man lay For had the Spouse layen in such an one before She had had no occasion of Repentance and had not now been called a Church Regenerate So many Vile Idolators having lain in Rome Corrupted her Manners and Conversation and made her unfit for her Lords presence What Irregularities and Confusions there have been in the last Dispensations I think will be needless here to enumerate they being so plain and self evident to the World and that the principal cause and occasion of them has been what I mentioned I think is a like manifest The Dispensation of Moses was much better than this Last for he appointed Thirteen Cities for the Priests and Forty Eight for the Levites through all the Tribes of Israel The Servants of God were not left to scramble for their Livings in such a precarious manner as ours but had their due Lot of Land allowed them for a Possession which indeed was the greatest Due and Justice in the World And God appointed Moses to do it And when they came into the promised Land they applied themselves to Joshua and Eleazer And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the Land of Canaan saying The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us Cities to dwell in with the Suburbs thereof for our Cattel The Lord commanding this thing not only shews the Justice but the Fitness and Properness of it And I challenge all the Skill and Wisdom of the Universe to propose a better Way and Method of Dispensing Gods Word than what He here doth Himself in this Chapter of the New Jerusalem There is a River of Life and a Tree of Life in the midst of this City which no Skill or Learning in the World can make any thing of but must of Necessity allow it to be the Gospel and the Preachers thereof And to what purpose can the Twelve Gates serve but that the Preachers may go out Twelve times a Years or every Month to heal the Nations 'T is said The Tree yielded its Fruit every Month and the Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of the Nations And the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour into it This shews the Millennium to be rather an Hierarchy than a Monarchy as I hinted before And this Constitution of Circular and Itinerant Predicants doth confirm the same The Inhabitants of the City are a Royal Priesthood a peculiar People zealous of good Works But some say This New Jerusalem is Heaven because it comes down from above The Millennium is the Morning of an Eternal Day and this Jerusalem-state is a Type of Heaven but not Heaven it self because the Text saith plainly it comes down from Heaven and therefore cannot be Heaven it self It is said to come out of Heaven because of the Excellency of its Constitution being contrived by God himself and because 't is a Copy of the Heavenly Motions answering it in all its Circular Revolutions But if Men consider it right 't is a very strange Opinion to make all the other Scenes through the whole Prophecy to be on Earth and this to be in Heaven they may as well make Solomon's Temple in Heaven as to make this City in Heaven As his Temple was the Perfection of the Tabernacle so this City is the Perfection of the last Tabernaculous Dispensation of Babylon The Bride and the Whore are always put in opposition to one another and to make one upon Earth and the other in Heaven is to go against the whole current of Scripture-Analogy This City can be taken no other way but in a Literal sence And Men that only Gaze and speak at Random may be surprized But whoever doth soberly and seriously consider of the matter must needs Vote for me in this Case There is such a Torrent of Reason and Justice on my side that I cannot well see how any one can withstand it All Men will acknowledge that God made This World as a Theater to display his Glory upon the Five Empires are no other but Five Acts And the Altar Tabernacle Temple Mock City and True City are the Five Scenes Jerusalem is but the Scene of the Fifth Act which always is the best And 't is usual in the Last Act to have all the Actors on the Stage at once For first there are the New-Risen-Witnesses or Church Regenerate then the Jews then the Whore and her Retinue and lastly a Set of Idolaters throughout the World Every one are to be rewarded according to their Merit The Witnesses are the principal Actors in this last Act and are Risen but as yet enter not publickly till The Scene of the New Jerusalem be Drawn when The Stone which the Builders rejected becomes the Head Stone of the Corner But I spoke of the Reason and Justice of the thing Is it not a most Just thing that the Lord in Chief when He comes to visit the World should be served with the best Furniture and lie in the best Room in his own House He has had the First Fruits of our Flocks and our Herds an Altar for the Earth a Tabernacle for our Tents a Temple for our Houses But he has had no City yet And 't is fit he should be presented with the first Fruits of all the Compositums as well as of the Simple and Natural Things on the Earth The Kings of the Earth have built to themselves many stately Cities and called them after their own Name Saith one Is not this Great Babylon which I have Built for the House of the Kingdom and for the Honour of my Majesty And this is the cause which makes the Earth mourn and the Hail-stones of a Talent the Bombs ruine so many Cities Men build their own Houses and neglect Gods David would not do so He would not lie in Cedar when the Ark of God was in Tents But now the WORD OF GOD is on his White Horse in the Fields and like Jacob must lay his Head upon a Stone For He has no Tent at all But 't is hoped ere long this thing will be considered by our David when the Wars are over and when God shall give him Peace round about Again Nebuchadnezzar calls Babylon The House of the Kingdom Every Kingdom is to have a House or Principal City in it Now all the Kingdoms of the World are become Christs and 't is the most reasonable thing in the World that He should have a House in every Kingdom as Lord in chief and Proprietor of the Whole This is but a very reasonable Sacrifice to Him who can enter upon the whole Premises when He pleases At this very time He is Soveraign Lord of the Universe The King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that by a Decree ordained Him from Eternity No Monarch in the World has a Foot
of Ground or an Inch of Power but what is given by him He therefore who has received from him the First Fruits of Power and Empire in England who has been preferred before all the Monarchs of the World being constituted his First Delegate He I say who has Received First ought to pay his Homage First and to Erect such a Monument of Gratitude as may be a Pattern to other Nations to all Generations I speak not so much of a Glorious City as a Tent Colledge or Tabernacle to shew the way and make a beginning And was it a City the thing is very feasible for if every little Village can rear a Church sure a whole Nation can quickly build a City In this Tent Colledge Tabernacle or City let there be built as for the Prophets of old a little Apartment for each Prophet putting a Bed a Stool a Table and Candlestick there and a sufficient Number being Annually chose out of all the Counties by Lot let them Twelve times a Year issue out and heal the Nation When this is done Righteousness will quickly cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea We shall have no dark Corners or barren Mountains but every thing will be full of Light and every thing will flourish and be green like the Paradice of God Indeed the Advantages of this most Excellent Administration are inexpressible and is worthy of the Great Contriver God Himself Then we shall know what the New Moons and the Sabbaths mean for Earth will Eccho to Heaven and we shall in a manner have a Sun Moon and Stars here below keeping due time in their Motions and Circulations with them above What the Sun is in the Heavens or the Heart in Mans Body the same will this City be in every Nation But Jerusalem in Palestine is to be the Head for to Her the great Stream of Promises belong The Text saith And Thou O Tower of the Flock to Thee it shall come even the First Dominion The Kingdom shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem Jerusalem will be the Royal Seat or House of Christ Kingdom for The Name of the City shall be THE LORD IS THERE That is He will be there in a most Glorious manner but not Personally His Name is called Wonderful Counseller 'T is extreamly probable his Presence will be there after the manner he was in the Temple of old viz. Oracularly And since I am come to the City of Ezekiel it will not be amiss to observe the position of it and of the division of the whole Land which is exactly like a Man For there are the Lot of Five Tribes above and Seven Tribes below and the holy Portion for the Priests and Levites in the middle and this City in the upper part of the holy Portion answering the Heart exactly the holy Portion below answers the Belly and Intrails which are esteemed holy And the Princes Portion lies on both sides the holy Portion East and West like two Arms. to guard and defend it And 't is said They that serve the City shall serve it out of all the Tribes of Israel This seem but Reasonable for this City being the Heart supplies the whole Body with Salutiferous Juyces The Preachers do issue out Twelve times a year to heal them and there is the greatest Reason in the World that the whole Tribes should serve it by Administring such Conveniencies and Necessaries as are suitable And that the Inhabitants of this City are Preachers tho' the Text be silent yet is a thing without all contradiction For the Waters that issue out first to the Ancles then to the Knees then to the Loyns and at last to be like a River not be passed over these Waters I say do plainly manifest that the Gospel and Preaching is meant hereby and their Salutiferous Virtue does confirm the same And another Prophet is more apposite to the thing saith he In that Day Living Waters shall go out of Jerusalem half of them towards the former Sea and half of them towards the hinder Sea in Summer and in Winter shall it be Here is the exact Method and Administration pointed at and the Continuance of the same saying In Summer and in Winter it shall be Now 't is not possible to spell any thing out of this so clear an Expression but the Gospel and Preaching The Apostle to the Jews levels the whole of his Discourse to this New Dispensation for as it were rejecting the former he saith Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of Laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment These all seem to be the matter of the last Dispensation and therefore he leaves them and designs to speak of something higher implyed by the succeeding Verse And this we will do if God permit And he makes Christ to be the chief Administrator in it saying For unto the Angels he hath not put in subjection the World Dispensation to come of which we speak And afterwards he tells them But ye are come unto Mount Zion and to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels To the General Assembly and Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant And to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel This City is of a Heavenly Nature ministring in Spiritual things in which the General Assembly of the New-Risen-Witnesses do convene The Latin Version is Conventum Concionem implying a General Assembly of Preachers and their Names being written in Heaven answers to that Conscript Number which John mentions stood on Mount Zion and we cannot suppose that Heaven is meant thereby But this as I have before intimated for their Security in opposition to the Jewish Genealogies which are kept so strictly on Earth And for the Ministration of Angels God has always used them to Minister to Those which shall be Heirs of Salvation And no doubt but they will be imployed in a more especial manner in this most happy Dispensation This New Jerusalem can by no means be Heaven for Isaiah after having brought in God making a New Heaven and a New Earth he brings in the Children of Israel building Houses and inhabiting them and planting Vineyards and eating the Fruit of them which are things inconsistent with Heaven And 't is said The Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory into it which they cannot do into Heaven For Heaven needs no Glow-Worms to enlighten it And to represent any Church-state which is past there 's too much Beauty and Symmetry in it for that It must needs therefore presigure something to come And if it be
which by a New Predication will quickly over-spread the World This River shall receive no stop by the way as the last Satan being bound it shall run over all the High Mountains Isaiah saith And there shall be upon every high Mountain and upon every high Hill Rivers and Streams of Waters in the Day of the Grees Slaughter when the Towers fall Christ saith Every Plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up and this is the time of rooting up But God never pulls down but he builds up where he reaps he sows The falling of these Towers is nothing else but driving the wild Beasts out of the Forrest an overthrowing the Babylonsh Kings and their Buildings and this is done by the Sword Then comes the Word implied by these Waters and instructs and informs them in the Ways of the New Dispensation This is the last Dispensation which hitherto was to come The Text saith We give Thee thanks Lord God Almighty who art and wast and at TO COME This is that World or Dispensation to come which the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of It therefore being now come no more is to be expected Four do not bear Record in Heaven only Three the Father the Word and the Spirit And God having applied himself to Reclaim Men by Three several Methods they can in Reason expect nothing else And therefore the Text saith He that is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is Holy let him be Holy still implying thereby that no more Attempts would be made to reclaim them The first Approximation was by Angels very Terrible above them the Second by Flesh more Familiar and Kind yet without them the Last by his Spirit comes nearest of all even within them This is a most Gracious Approach and will leave the whole World without Excuse Men need not step out of Doors for any thing they have all things at home In the Propagation of this last Dispensation there will be no such Martyrdoms as before the bloody Beasts are driven out or chained up Old things are passed away and all things are bcome New The Martyrdom will lie inward a renouncing Self and the World and a crucifying the Affections and Lusts Nothing henceforward can hurt Gods True Church for Christ presides over the Forrestial Kingdoms and makes Kings the Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing-Mothers thereof 'T is said The Kings of the Earth shall bring their Glory and Honour into it 'T is an amazing thing to observe how tenacious Men are of their Old Models thinking that God will build so lasting an Empire as that of his Son upon such rotten and weak Foundations Whereas he has publickly declared to all the World that he would make all things New Let them henceforward think of nothing else but of being broken to pieces by the Stone out of the Mountain The whole Civil and Ecclesiastical World is now in the Crucible and the Fire of Gods Wrath will quickly melt it down and make it ready for a New Impression The Angel has his Sword in his Hand and only wants the Word to fall on Christ has granted his Royal Pattent to his Church it wants only the Sealing and the Wax is just now a melting When 't is Sealed when the Complex Birth is Circumcised or the Child Regenerate Baptized with the Spirit I mean Then all the World shall know That the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ They are truly and really His now And never a Tree in the Forrest has any Legal Power but One But this World knows not But then they shall And all the Rest shall be found to be Usurpers Then wo to Herod Wo to Zebah and Zalmunnah For the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon shall do mighty things Then the Kingdom of the Forest will enter and every Man will be a Soldier to help to kill the wild Beasts Every Man then shall understand what is meant by the Man whose Name is the Branch And shall confess that God has given him for a Witness to the People a Leader and Commander to the People I care not to perplex the Reader with Numbers When the Sun is up there is no occasion to ask when he Rises Yet I could do it very exactly But this is anothers Province Before I Conclude I must desire the following Writers to take particular notice of what I have wrote The One is an Ingenious Man but more a Philosopher than a Divine He melts down the World Literally instead of its Civil Frame This is most Cruel and Inhospitable There might have been some better Correction found out than to burn Mens Houses about their Ears and Some Better Entertainment for wearied Guests and Strangers than to fall on them and kill them in their Lodging 't is not customary to turn men off before They have said their Prayers The Millennium is the Repentance of the world The Counterpart of a Voyage The Reversion of an Estate after an others decease But He cuts off the Entail Sinks the Vessel in the Harbour kills the weary Traveller and allows the Penitent no Benifit of the Clergy 'T is the custom of a Skilful Founder to Break his Metal before He casts it a new The Stone out of the Mountain is said to break the metal Image of the Four Monarchies to pieces This Breaking to pieces is nothing but the unravelling of all the Constitutions upon Earth Now Had He well considered This I Believe He would have left us our Good Old world standing during the Time of the Millennium For there is no doubt but It would Last us much longer were the Heavy weight of Mens Iniquities Swept off The Other is more a Divine than a Philosopher and would have Christ to come Personally and his Saints with him and to Live and Rule with him in a Heavenly Court over us in the Air dureing a Thousand Years and to have The Dead-Risen Saints to hold a Corespondence and Commerce with the Saints that remain alive below upon Earth as plainly appears by his Catichism and other of his writings Now having so plainly and fully proved The First Resurrection not to be Literal there needs no more to be said in Confutation This Castle in the Air as He himselfe makes it will quickly vanish The Man is a Pious and Good Man and has Great Communications of Light But Humanum est Errare 'T is much more probable That Christ will appear in an ORACVLAR manner as in the Temple of old rather than in a Personal On This account He is called Wonderful COVNCELLOR c. And The Prophet Saith Men shall Say no more The BVRDEN of The Lord But what hath The Lord ANSWERED This plainly Implies That He is to be Sought to for Councel and Advice And although The Name of The City be The Lord is There Yet an Oracular Presence is more Suitable to Reason Scripture and Gods
These Seven when the Great Shaking comes must all Remain and be of Use and Practice in the Millennium whatsoever Dreams some may have to the contrary Things Mutable to be Shaken 1. The Will of Man and every thing subject thereunto or that has dependance thereon has been is and ever will be Changeable 2. The Opinions of Men as to their differing Sentiments and Notions of things have been are and ever will be Changeable 3. The Differing Ways amd Modes of Eating Drinking Marrying and Giving in Marriage Buying Selling Building Planting c. in all Ages have been are and ever will be Changeable 4. The Outward Forms of Civil Government and the Administration of Justice are Changeable Witness all Histories and all the present Forms now in use 5. Lastly The Circumstantials in Religion as to the Outward Administration are Changeable of which there needs no proof The World being at full Age 't is time it should know its own Constitution And that the whole Oeconomy thereof is comprehended under the above Two Classes or Twelve Particulars I think none that has had but a little converse therein will deny me These therefore allowed me for Authentick I have some ground to stand upon And if I can find a Body of Men upon Earth which have made these Five Changes That is Whose Wills are changed whose Opinions are changed who have made a sober change in Eating Drinking Marrying and Giving in Marriage c. and who have made an absolute and intire change in the Outward From of Civil and Religious Government I say If I can find such a Body of Men in the whole Christian World who have made all these Changes I am in a fair way of finding my New-Risen-Witnesses for nothing else can be changed And this will extort a Confession from me That God has fulfilled his Promises of making all things new having changed all things that are changeable in this World And it makes not much to have things in their Perfection if they are truly begun and stand upon Perfect New Foundations 't is enough Good old Simeon sang the Nunc Dimittis when he saw Christ only an Infant Men cannot suppose that things should receive their Commencement and Perfection all at once And the Nature and Progress of the Kingdom of Heaven is all along to be observed in our Enquiry It ought not to be forgotten that 't is compared to a Grain of Mustard seed to Leven to a Stone out of the Mountain and to Waters that at first rose no farther than the Ancles By all which the gradual Increase and Progression are plainly intimated Christ being a single Man was the Grain of Mustard-seed He preached the Word and empowered the Disciples first the Twelve then the Seventy to preach the same through the Towns and Villages And in this nature and after this manner His Gospel by degrees was Published and Dispersed throughout the World This is the Pattern and after this manner the Gospel will be Restored One single Man of the New-Risen-Witnesses will first begin to Preach and so will be instrumental in Collecting and Raising a Body of Men who tho' simple and ignorant yet by the Assistance and Power of the Spirit of Life from God entering in them will cast themselves into such an Exquisite Mold and Constitution that the most refined Polititians in the World shall not be able to contrive the like That the New-Risen-Witnesses will make their Appearance and Progress into the World after this nature I think there is no Man will be so disingenuous as to deny me because 't is so like Gods former Method and because there is a Necessity the Body should be conformable to the Head in all things And further That these things ought to be so 't is unanswerably proved by Him that sat upon the white Horse followed by Armies cloathed in white Linnen with their Swords in their Mouth and whose Name was called The Word of God All the Divinity and Philosophy in the World can make nothing else of an Army so Equipped but an Army of New Preachers sent forth to Proselite the World to the Doctrine of the Restoration To think that any old Model should be pitched upon for a Pattern when Christ said He would make all things New is a very inconsiderate and sensless thought There 's no properer way can possibly be contrived then to Raise a New Body of Men out of the mass of the Whole who may Leven the whole Lump and may be as a Pattern or Standard Lifted up for the Rest to Repair to Nor is there a more proper way to raise such an Army than by Beating up for Voluntiers by a New Predication This is that Righteous Way that Christ has pitched upon to make War in in opposition to those inadequate and unrighteous ways of all the preceding Monarchies I will therefore take it for granted that we have such a Body of Men amongst us who have practised the same Method and have changed all things changeable in this VVorld and are a Body perfectly New in Temporals and Spirituals in their vvhole Rise coming up to the true and genuine Notion of a Resurrection And I knovv not vvhy I may not call them the New-Risen-Witnesses since they have so fair and just a Title thereto And since I have given them this Title I ought to deduce it regularly from the True Race of the Old Ones who can only give them a Just Claim It now therefore falls in my way to speak something of Them By the Old Witnesses I understand not Two Men or Two Books nor any single Church in any particular Nation but the Body of true and faithful Christians in all Christian Nations bearing their Testimony in all Ages during the 1260 Years Apostacy against the Mystery of Iniquity and the Usurpation of the Whore of Babylon on their true Rights Now the Text saith When they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascends out of the Bottomless Pit shall make war against them and overcome them and kill them and their Bodies shall lie in the street of the Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified And they of the People and Kindred and Tongues and Nations shall see their dead Bodies three Days and an half and shall not suffer their dead Bodies to be put in GRAVES And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and shall make merry and shall send Gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the Earth And after three Days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their Feet and great fear fell upon them that saw them And they heard a great voice from Heaven saying Come up hither And they ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them And the same hour there was a great Earthquake and the Tenth part of the City fell and
in the Earthquake were slain of Men seven Thousand and the Remnant were afrighted and gave Glory to the God of Heaven Now though the Witnesses are already Risen which the more Judicious may easily discern by the Characteristicks before hinted and so my labour of Proof might seem to be spared yet to satisfie others and to make the Copy agree with the Original I find my self obliged to compare them one with the other in the ensuing Explication The Time of Harvest or of finishing their Testimony to cut down the whole Earth being Come There are Two Angels with Sickles One is commanded to cut down the Harvest the other the Vintage Now the Corn is always Ripe before the Grapes and where should the Angel begin the Harvest but in a Corn Countrey We have only Corn England Scotland and Ireland the Grapes are beyond Sea where the Vintage is to be gathered 'T is plain therefore That 〈◊〉 Angel should begin his Harvest first in these parts I think 〈◊〉 not mention when our Harvest was Gathered in England there being now so many on the Premises who helped to get it in By Harvest is meant Constitutions Civil and Ecclesiastical and a Reaping is a Cutting them down Now 'T is plain they have been all Cut down in England as well the Vine of the Church as the Cedar of the State First Monarchy and Episcopacy were Cut down then they Returned and Cut down the Republick and Presbytery and all other Models growing on that Stock These were but Pangs of a New Birth and though they now are both upon the Stage and exist together yet 't is but upon sufferance They are but Trespassers upon the Premises The Promises the Power and Government belongs to the New Birth the Heiress of which they are at present but Guardians An Infant that cannot go must have some body to look after it and who more proper than its own Parents the Old Witnesses But they are certainly civilly extinct Their Cutting down and being Reaped is an undeniable Symbol of Rejection and Abolition The Lease of Old Power being Expired the Head of Monarchy was Cut off and the Head of Episcopacy too and the Head of the Republick and Presbytery had they had any would have been cut off too for Heaven designed to shew some signal Tokens of Abolition The House of Power and Symbol of the Old Dispensation was Burned This was a true Type of the last Conflagration but more particularly of the Expiration of the Old Dispensation when the Harvest is Cut down the Stubble is usually Burned A New Aera Commencing 't was fit there should be New Habitations and God himself designing to Visit the New Powers 't was fit a Purgation by Fire should be used There was an Harvest in our Saviours Time which was nothing else but a Cutting down all the Constitutions of the World as the effect has plainly declared And this is the Second Harvest and will have the same effects This Harvest then being first got in in these Countreys there was reserved some of the Good and Best Wheat for Seed to be thrown into the Ground to raise a New Crop This has been done and it comes up Green and Kindly and is in a very Hopeful and Flourishing Condition not Rising BARE GRAIN but with a New Body such as God has been pleased to give it but of this more hereafter The Old Witnesses observing the time of the Beasts power Expiring made an Attack upon the Whorish Retinue and drove them out of all Power and Dominion This is THEIR DEATH and they ought to Dye first the Time of their end being Come but This Retinue returns with New Vigor and again Assaults the Witnesses driving THEM out of all Power and Dominion This is the Witnesses Death and there is great Insulting and Rejoycing over them because they had Tormented them so much before and many Gifts are sent and much Rejoycing there is at their Re-settlement but they who were their Friends prevailed so much that they should not be Buryed in hopes they would Revive the Text saith They suffered them not to be put in their Graves this argues their Death was not Literal and that the Tree was not pulled up by the Roots only cut off by the Stumps that there might be a new Ingrafting They lie thus Civilly Dead expulsed out of all Employment and Power in the Streets of the Great City which is Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was Crucified This City can by no means be meant Rome as some would have it for it was never known that Jerusalem was called Rome and 't is plain Jerusalem is meant hereby Now Jerusalem was a Friendly City belonging to Christs Kindred and Nation and so ought this City in which his Body or Witnesses are to be Slain and no City in the World can claim such a Title as Lond n being the very shadow of it in a Line directly drawn as also doth answer the same in all other Respects of Kindred and Affinity to the Witnesses and though it be the Chief Protestant City yet in a Spiritual Sence Rome almost in a Literal it may be called 〈◊〉 and Egypt nothing hinders this In this City therefore for Three Days and a Half They lie Thrown out of all Power Spiritual and Temporal and some of them were really and Literally cast out into the Street this was in the last Persecution just before the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience when the Spirit of Life from God entered into them and they stood upon their Feet and Great Fear fell upon them which saw them And they leard a Great Voice from Heaven saying Come up hither and they Ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them This was a grievous sight to their Enemies they had taken all care imaginable not only to kill them but to keep them dead But their Death was their Victory as of old their Saviours was for now they rise again to the Amazement of them all Alas Their care extended no farther than to the Old Witnesses with whom they had fought and who had tormented them so much And when they see New Witnesses standing in the Court of Heaven they stand amazed as if they had seen a Spectrum These we know and These we know say they But who are Ye These New Enemies they never dream'd of There 's no Feeing the Soldiers to say they are not risen for they are seen of all the World These then as soon as they appear being the First Fruits of God and to the Lamb all other old Fruit becomes intollerable to Prophecy A sudden Hurricane arises And the Text saith There was a great Earthquake and the Tenth part of the City sell and in the Earthquake was slain of Men Seven Thousand It should not be of Men tho' this Version is so this favours a literal Death too much Other Versions have it the Names of Men or Men of Note The Latin