and Dishonour under the wrath of God and the Lamb. And of this all the Judgments that have been hitherto in the World have been Parts Peices and Portions also Pawns and Pledges of that State Those Great Judgments therefore on the Fallen Angels on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah on Egypt on Corah Dathan and Abiram on Nadab and Abihu have been already instanced in the Destruction of great Armies as most especially in the Valley of Jehosaphat 2 Cor. 20. 24. Joel 3 12. a great Type of that last Result at the Battle of Armageddon is most worthy to be considered and so indeed are All the Judgments we Read of in the Book of God The Book of the Wars of the Lord Numb c. 21. 14. Run down with a strong Stream and Torrent into their Great Sea the last Judgment at the Kingdom of Christ and having all the Nature of Miraculous confirm the Point we are now upon That Miracles and the Kingdom of Christ are closely Connex'd and Joyn'd together Argum. last For a Summary or Recapitulating Argument we may look back on some of the most Remarkable Miraculous Appearances of God in the Old Testament and see what an Illustrious Correspondence they bear to the World to Come or to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Translation of Enoch that he should not see Death Gen. 5. 22. Heb. 11. 5. That we know was perfect Miracle compar'd with the Present State of Dying Elijah and Elisha's Raising the Dead Types of the Resurrection 1 Kings 17. 17. 2 Kings 4 28. The Dividing the Red-Sea and Jordan Types of the smiting the Egyptian River in the Seven Streams and Destroying the Tongue of it making men go over Dry shod and of a High way for his People as to Israel in the Day he came up out of the Land of Egypt Esay 11. 16. and Like Drying up the Deep and the River and the Pride of Egyptian and Assyrian Departing away when all shall be strengthen'd in God and the people shall walk up and down in the Name of the Lord Zech. 10. 11. c. The giving of Mannah as Bread from Heaven looks to Christ the Bread of Life and the Tree of Life as the Water out of the Rock to the Water of Life But I would especially have Respect to that Standard Miracle of the Sabbatical Year A great Wonder of the Riches and Might and Power of God Every Seventh Year there was a mighty shewing forth of the Power of God For that the Earth brought forth it self so much in the Sixth Year that they might Live upon it without any Plowing or Sowing the seventh Year The seventh Year was to be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath to the Lord the Children of Israel were neither to Sow their fields nor to Prune their Vineyards nor to Reap nor to Gather but all were to Live alike of what came forth of it self God promised to Bless the sixth Year so that It should yeild meat for three years that so the seventh year might be a year of Sabbath or Rest to them Now let us Consider what the Prophets have spoken concerning this World to Come how exactly suitable and agreeable to this they have spoken of the World to Come From whence I Argue and do appeal to any one whether the Argument be not exceeding great The seventh year among the Jews was a Symbol was a Peice Parcel Portion of the World to Come whereof we speak and of the great Sabbatism of it Amos 9. 11. In that day will I Raise up the Tabernacle of David that it may be Built as in the days of Old That they may possess the Remnant of Edom and of all the Heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this And then it follows Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treader of Grapes him that soweth Seed and the Mountains shall drop sweet VVine and All the Hills shall melt The Earth and the Mountains and the Hills shall Flow out with a great Freedom and Spontaneousness into an abundance for the Servants of God Then shall the full Sense and Meaning of the Sabbatical years be understood Then shall the Full Sum of which that was but a Part and Portion be brought into open View Then instead of the Briar and Thorn shall grow up the Mirtle Tree and the Fir Tree And It shall be unto the Lord for a Sign and a Memorial that shall not be cut off When our Lord was here in the Days of his Flesh he gave an Experiment of Divine Power to the same purpose and it was a Miracle he seem'd to delight in For he several Times Repeated it He fed with a few Loaves and small Fishes so many Thousands and the Baskets of Fragments far exceeded the Principal or very first Provision Now these Things are all own'd to be Miracles let us but ask our selves whether these things were not so If we now in this Nation should let Plowing and Sowing alone for a year would we not look upon it as the Introduction of a Famine but now if God should positively command us and Assure us That there should be care taken in any one year for three years and we should Find it so taken Would we not look upon it as Miracle If any one should Set down so great Numbers of People as Christ did to so small a Provision that every one could not take a little should we not look upon it with as great or greater amazement than the Apostles did upon Christs doing so But if the small Feast in the Beginning should Multiply in the Eating and become More after a plentiful Eating than it was before Eating Should we not look upon it as a Miracle Now All this Imports That a Sufficiency of Food and Durable Cloathing shall be in the Kingdom of Christ that his Servants may Eat and be Satisfied Eat and Drink at his Table in his Kingdom and attend upon the Lord without Distraction that is Fulness of Enjoyment Thus the Miracles Christ did in Healing and Recovering the Sick the Blind and the Lame How did these mighty Acts look to that State of the World to come Revel 21. 4. There shall be no more Sickness Sorrow Pain Death nor Curse but God shall wipe away all Tears from his Servants Eyes The Great Readiness of Christ in shewing his Mercy and Power towards the Blind and Lame that they might be so no longer makes me think of that Glory in the Book of Samuel when it is said of David the Blind and the Lame whom David's Soul hated I only make an Allusion not considering the strict Sense Jesus Christ his Soul hated not the I ame or the Blind but the Blindness and the Lameness the Sickness and the Death His Soul had such a sense that this came upon the World upon Mankind by sin That he Laboured and Travailed in Spirit till he
for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither Why but because Lot was in a peculiar manner undertaken for by the Mediator as is signify'd in Two Expressions 1. The Lord being merciful to him and he finding Grace in his sight And 2 God Remembred Abraham with whom we know he had Established a Covenant in the Mediator v. 16. 19. 22. Behold here another Miracle of Judgment because contrary to the General Undertaking of the Mediator This was indeed a strange work of Judgment and as the Flood was of the General Destruction before the New Heaven and New Earth of the VVorld to come so was Sodom a Type of the Vengeance of the Eternal Fire that shall make that Destruction In the same manner the Plagues of Aegypt were Miracles of Judgment because the Mediator was coming in Exodus all along to Chap. 16. up against them with a Glorious Type of his Judgment on Spiritual Aegypt with his Seven Vials Revel 15. c. 16. made on purpose parallel to the Plagues of Aegypt Now the Reason was the Mediator in Grace no longer undertook for Pharoah and his Aegypt but set him up as a Rock for his Judgments to be planted against The last Miracle of Judgment I will instance in because it much declares the Nature of Miracle is that of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 29. If these men saith Moses dye the common Death of all men or if they be visited after the common Visitation of all men Then the Lord hath not sent me But if the Lord create a New Thing and the Earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertains to them and they go down quick into the pit Then ye shall understand these men have provoked the Lord. Every Miracle as hath been spoken is a New Thing This is the Nature of Miracle whether it be a Miracle of Mercy or of Judgment A New Thing of Mercy lifting up the present State settled in common by the Grace of the Mediator or a New Thing in Judgment when the Mediator deserts this State upheld by him and Judgment breaks in above Ordinary Judgments and this to shew that Desolation that shall be at last upon this World of the First Adam that the New Heaven and the New Earth according to his promise may come in Thus this Opening and Swallowng Alive is like the Opening of the Lake into which the Beast and the False Prophet those Apostate Pretenders to be Sons of Levi are cast alive Rev. 19. as the whole Antichristian Race say They are Jews but are not but do lye and so are given up to Wrath by the Mediator Thus it will be at the last Burning of the Earth and of the Wicked upon it Then the Mediator will bear up the World no longer Thus when any particular Person is destroy'd cut off by Death and cast into Hell until that very Time the Mediator undertakes Then he undertakes no longer for him To draw up then these Poâ—nts to a Sum. We find the present State in an Equipoize in an Even Ballance between the Grace of and by the Mediator and the Wrath and Justice of God keeping its Hold upon this World of Aposlate Adam And both the settlement of Things by Grace and Mercy and yet under Wrath and Justice are now Call'd and Styl'd and Deem'd to be Nature the State of Nature the Law of Nature the Course of Nature And whatever there is either in Mercy or Judgment wherein a Divine Hand a High Hand a Hand Lifted up and made Bare appears is called and styled Miracle The Light and Glory of the Heaven the Fruitfulness of the Earth the so General Health Beauty and Vigour of Body the Order Peace and Good Government we at any time observe in the World we look not upon as Miracle but as the Natural State of Things under the General Goodness of God though indeed as hath been shewn it is the Goodness of God in the Mediator But together with these we allow Storms Tempests Unfruitful Seasons Pestilence Famine Sickness Lameness Poverty Want Deformity Death agreeable to the Course of Nature also and no Miracle Yet indeed why are They not Miraculous when God made the World in such an Order of Nature if we 'll call it Nature Can we think when God made Man in that Noble State of his own Image it can be any other than Miracle of Judgment Men are left to be such Butchers one of another and that it is counted a Glory a Bed of Honour to dye so doing No undoubtedly Even that Christ shall Restore the World to as the Prince of Peace to learn War no more and to make the Battle cease to the Ends of the Earth is that which was at first the State of unfallen Nature And all the contrary State is Miracle of Judgment however because setled we do not call it so When Navies and Fleets are destroyed at Sea and Nations destroyed and desolated and all the Sinews of Government loosed we do not call this Miracle And yet from the Beginning these Things were not so nor design'd to be so much as Providentially Natural but because according to the Wisdom Holyness and Justice of God the Mediator upholds the World under this Caution and Reserve It should give Room and be as it were the Stage for these Judgments of God to have their Play in and upon They are so So though to die be now the ordinariest and most certain Thing in the World an Ordinance and a Debt to Nature as we call it vet Adam was not made to Dye and to Dye is a Miracle of Justice if consider'd according to the Original Constitution Indeed because the Mediator undertook no further but that it is as the Apostle says Fixed Determined Enacted that All Men should dye it is no Miracle nor that any of the other Unhappinesses common to Men befall Men do we account them Miracles But the Things we account Miracles are either the Extraordinary Sudden and Immediate Strokes of Wrath and Justice as those on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah on those Impure Men of Sodom struck with Blindness the Plagues on Pharoah on Nadab and Abihu the stroke of immediate Death by Fire from the Lord the swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram the striking Vzza dead the withering Jeroboam's Hand the striking Vzziah with Leprosie the striking Antiochus with an Incurable and Loathsome Disease and in the New Testament the falling backward of the Men that came to take Christ the falling down Dead of Ananias and Sapphira the sudden and immediate Blindness that fell on Elymas the Sorcerer Herod eaten with Worms These we account Miracles of Judgment On the other side the Benefits God daily loadeth the Children of Men of all Kinds with we account not Miracles but the Raising the Dead by Elijah and Elisha the Multiplying the Widows Oyl the Healing the Leprosie of Naaman the preserving Jonah from the Sea in so wonderful an Ark as
brought forth as you know so many great Instances of the Redemption of Mankind in Carrying our Sorrows and bearing our Sicknesses till there be that perfect Restitution of All Things named before and the Creatures or Creation it self be Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Manifestation of the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God Now these things joyn'd together seem to me so full of Evidence that my heart is while I speak of them so satiated with them that I cannot but hope they will be also most Acceptable and satisfactory to them that read them so as to conclude how close Miracle and the Kingdom of Christ are Related one to another and that the Chief and Adequate End and Reason of Miracle is that they are Portions and Parcels Peices and Pledges of the Kingdom of Christ or of the World to come and shall bring it in at last CHAP. VI. A Discussion of the Times wherein Miracles have been most Illustrious and when there hath been greatest Darkness among the People of God in Relation to them Preparatory to the Asserting That Miracles are not ceas'd but a Return of Them is to be Expected SEeing from All I have Discours'd it appears very undoubted that a Return of Miracles is and ought to be expected because the Great and Adequate End of Miracles is a Connexion with and even an Introduction of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the World to come which Kingdom and World to come is not yet come and when it shall indeed come it shall have a mighty Power of Signs Wonders Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own Will to appear with it to introduce settle and establish it in the Order and Glory of the New Creation I shall therefore before I come to the down-right Proof endeavour to anticipate or to be before hand with the greatest Objection I meet with to it Object The Great Objection I find in my own Thoughts and which Raises and Confirms I doubt not in others a Resolved Pre-judgment that Miracles shall not Return is Because that now for a Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Years or near about Miracles except the Lying and Legendary ones the Antichristian Apostasy hath pretended to there hath been a going off and a Cessation of the True Power of Miracles and the Reason to be assign'd for it hath been thought Because the Doctrine of Salvation in the Gospel and the Canon of Scripture and particularly of the New Testnment hath been so summ'd up finish'd setled and sealed so confirm'd and assur'd by undoubted Power of Miracles that brought it into that Settlement and gave it so large a spread in the World that any further use or service of Miracles seems wholly superfluous and unnecessary For if it were not so it looks very strange and there seems no Reason to be given why God should be pleased to order so long a Parenthesis so Long and Dark an Interval such a long space and as I may call it Gap between the Power of Miracles in the Days of Christ and the Apostles and some space after and the present Time And indeed I would add To give the Objection all the strength I can That the Papists or the Antichristians both pretending Themselves to Miracles and finding among the Protestants and Reformed Churches no such Power nor so much as Pretension to it have been Loud and Clamorous upon it and have hereby assum'd it as a Good Reason to Damn the Reformation because it hath come Naked and Unarm'd of Miracles From whence the Reformed not having considered enough the True Reason of Miracles nor of their Cessaâ—ion have been under a Necessity to Defend Themselves by asserting Miracles are wholly ceas'd and no Return to be expected and that the Popish Pretences have been but so much Counterfeit and Falshdod In which Last Part they have spoken most Evident and undoubted Truth and this Defence hath also in the First Part seem'd so necessary that it could not be but it must sink Deep into the Minds of All the Most Holy Sober Serious Wife Protestants as well as the more General Profession of the Reformation and hath brought All Discourses of a Return of Miracles under Great Disrepute as Wild and Fanatical Altho indeed this part â—f the Defence arose from a not due consideration of the Reasons of the Cessation and of the certain Return of Miracles when the Force of those Reasons shâ—ll expire And I cannot but acknowledge It may seem strange according to the very Reason I am to lay down why there hath been such a Cessation of Miracles And there does arise a Difficulty upon it That there was not any Return of the Power of Miracles with the Reformation But I hope to give Fairest Solution to it In the mean time I cannot but take nâ—tice that the Popish Pretensions to a constant Power of Miracles does very notably not only agree with the Character of Prophecy in their Lying VVonders but also that they make indeed a Counterfeit Kingdom to the True Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ both in Prophecy and in their own Pretences and so far Counterfeit proves what ought to be in the Truth and the Life of That It is the counterfeit of and by Prophecy It was to counterfeit They give a Proof by the By That Miracles do indeed appertain to the Kingdom of Ghrist But to come to the main Answer to this Objection I propose upon it First To observe the State of Miracles or Miraculous Power in all the several Ages or Times Recorded to Us in Scripture and to collect the Light that may from thence be received to shew that Miracles shall certainly Return and Introduce the Kingdom of Christ 2. I will lay down what upon Great Reason I Esteem to be the True Cause of the Cessation of Miracles these Last Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years and why especially since the Reformation Miracles have not return'd seeing as Miracles pertain to the Kingdom of Christ so the Reformation it self was an appearance of that Kingdom Wherein I will consider any Collateral Objections that may spring up from any Discourse in this Answer That therefore which in general I pitch upon is that when we look upon the several Varieties of Appearances of Miraculous Emanations or Flowings out from the Divine Gloâ—y and Power in Miracles according to the Records of Scripture there have been no Times wholly without them of which Any Records of Scripture have given us the Memorials Because there was always a certainty of that Kingdom Coming and the moâ—e Notable and Remarkable Manifestations have been prepared for those more Noble and Remarkable Manifestations of the Kingdom of Christ. The History of Scripture is indeed very short in the Time before the Flood yet we have an Eminent Instance of a Miraculous Power of Grace in the Translating Enoch to Heaven without any sight of Death Enoch walked with God so many years and was not For
God took him Gen. 5. 22 23 24. This was an Eminent Peice of that World to come Enoch was translated without seeing Death As the Apostle saith Some shall not Dye but be Changed and Caught up There were two Miraculous Appearances of Judgment The Lapse and Curse upon the Creation and Death upon mankind that Came in upon the Disobedience of the First Adam the grand Proâ—unciation of Judgment upon the whole State of the World of that First Adam and this compar'd with the First Glory of the Creation on which it Brake in is most justly to be esteemed Miracle tho now not so The so universal and general Judgment upon the Old World by the Flood of which was spoken before and how closely it Relates to the VVorld to Come as also of the Peculiar Miracle of Grace towards Noah and such a Remnant of the Creation with him as should give a present Restitution of all things and how Representative was that also of the World to Come in which the Servants of Christ shall be Saved from the Deluge of the Vials and of that Fire of the last Vial Now it was very Agreeable even to that Beginning of the World That it should not be left wholly without a Testimony of that Kingdom signified in the Promise of the Womans Seed wherein there is given the History of that Seed propagating it self as the almost whole History of that Time tho it was so very far off at that Time from Coming and was to pass through so many several Changes of Representation ere it came into its Glory The Confusion of Languages and the Division of the Earth in the Time of Shem the great Melchisedec and Eber the Holy Patriarch through whose Loyns the Holy Seed Ran and whose Son Peleg in an especial manner bore the Character of that Division had this Remarkable Relation to the Kingdom of Christ That it carried the Face of a Miraculous Judiciary Driving asunder the Nations and made the great Distinctiâ—n of Mankind That Kingdom hath made all along in the World and shall make For hereby the Oracles of God were so long committed to that particular Seed of the Hebrews of whom Christ God over All Blessed for ever came And hereupon arose that Temporary and present Remedy or Divine Expedient of the Gift of Tongues shewing the Miraculous Power of Christs Kingdom making way for its enlargement in the World and Foretelling also that Reunion of Languages At Pentecost in his Kingdom Thus the Time of the second Patriarchal Roll of Generation is Illustrated with a Miracle separating the Hebrews from all the Nations of the Earth The Time of Abraham with his Call to the Going out of Egypt was Enlightned with the continual Appearances of God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob which were indeed of the Naâ—ure of Perfect Miracle besides what was Miraculous in the Birth of Isaac of Jacob and that Miracle of Judgment on Sodom before spoken of Thus we see No Time hitherto to the Going out of Egypt hath been a Dark Place in Regard of Miraculous Appearances of God to his Servants because of the Great Son of Abraham according to the Flesh in whose Right of Inheritance as the Prince of the World to come Abraham is call'd Heir of the Worlds Rom. 4. 13. The Time of the Going out of Egypt from the Multiplication of the Children of Israel there to the very settlement in Canaan was one Continued Train of Miracles Nor was the Time of the Judges or of the Kings of Judah Un-illustrated by various Irradiations of the mighty Power of God towards his People in Fore-Assurances of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ which is much to be Remark'd Because the Law of God by his Servant Moses had Receiv'd the full settlement and Establishment by as high Testimonies from Heaven as serv'd not only the necessariness of its Sanction but the Glory and Grandieur of it And if only Prophets without any Power of Miracles had been Rais'd up in Addition to it There had been yet a Measure of Truth Shaken Down and Running Over For besides those Extraordinary Prophets there was the Standing Ministry as in Ordinary of the Priests Lips preserving Knowledg But that which is most Wonderful and Deserves particular Enquiry is That even in the Apostasy of the Ten Tribes besides the Communication of whatsoever great things God did in the Kingdom of Judah There were Those two Prophets Elijah and Elisha like two Witnesses after Moses and Aaron set out and Credential'd with a Mighty Power of Miracles to be as a Light shining in the Dark place of that Apostasy that was so great a Type of the Antichristian Apostasy and the Types of one are made by great Wisdom of the Divine Spirit Correspondent to the Types of the other even to so undoubted clearness and Certainty that I make no doubt to Assign it as one Reason Why there was such a Miraculous Presence there even that It with those witnesses at the Deliverance out of Egypt might be a Prophetical Plat-fotm of the Witnesses Appearing in the Twelve Hundred Sixty Days against the Antichristian Apostasy But besides that There was with Regard to Joseph of whom the Prophetick Benediction of Jacob and Moses spoke so great Things and who was so great a Type of Christ in his High Administration in Egypt and whose was as the Spirit of God Testifies the Birth-Right 1 Chron. 5. 2. There was a Type I say of the Kingdom of Christ necessarily to be Erected in his peculiar Posterity whereof he himself Foretold in Ephraim so that tho the Kingdom was Judah's and no one Good King of the House of Joseph over the Ten Tribes yet God being pleased to have some Representation of the Kingdom of Christ tho in so continued an Apostasy he was pleased also to Honour it with so peculiar a Prophetical Ministry and that so Illustrated with Miraculous Powers till he gave them a Bill of Divorce under the Name of those three Children of Whoredom Jezreel Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi Hosea 1. Yet because it was still a Type of the Kingdom of Christ There was an Eminent Type of the very Kingdom of Christ Elijah carried up to Heaven even above the Translation of Enoch in a Chariot of Fire without Dying Some years after the Captivity of the Ten Tribes when they were come under the very Perpendicular Influences of that Dreadful Lo Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi The Miraculous Power of God shone out with very Bright Rayes upon Hezekiah King of Judah a most Excellent Reforming Prince First in the Destruction of so great an Assyrian Army which threatn'd him with the Lot of the Ten Tribes and Immediately after with that Miraculous Sign in the Shadow that is as the Learned make manifest The Sun going so many Degrees back to assure his Life restor'd Then came on the Babylonish Captivity during the Time of which besides the Grandieur of the Spirit of Prophecy during that Time in Jeremiah Ezekiel and
they may know the Certainty of the Words of Truth This is an undeniable Priviledg and Ground of Hope to All who set Themselves by Prayer Desire and Humble Endeavours to Search and so seek out the Misteries of Wisdom to be found out in the Book of Prophecy why then should it be Thought a Hopeless Undertaking or an Incredible Thing that any one should be so Assisted that doth Humbly Profess he hath so waited upon God in his Word Or that That Key of Prophetical Knowledg should be vouchsafed to such a one when so gracious Assistances are Promised from and by the Divine Spirit the Publick Spirit of Prophecy and its Interpretation Now All this I have Discoursed in General I would particularly Argue concerning Prophetick Time and by an Argument most peculiar to it For not only in general If All and Every Prophecy be Constituted of a not private Interpretation then not Prophecies by Numbers defining Time to the Kingdom of Christ For as hath been said if All Scripture as the Apostle Paul says be of Divine Inspiration Then Prophecy So if All Prophecy be not of Private Interpretation then not that very particular Part of Prophecy which Defines Time And as Prophecy is so excellent a part of Scripture so the Numbers Defining Time are an excellent part of Prophecy and therefore cannot be of private Interpretation if Prophecy be not so For every General includes all especially chiefest Particulars But I shall further Argue with a Peculiar Respect to the Prophetick Numbers of Time that they of any cannot be of Private Interpretation For Number Weight and Measure are Things of so great Exactness that the whole Communication of the World Depends upon them and Scripture puts upon them great Honour also requiring above all that they be Exact as the Rules of all Enter-Course Now therefore when Scripture takes Number and Measures of Time into it self if these are not well understood how can they be such Standards of Enter-course Seeing then Prophecy hath so many Numbers 2300 Eves Morns Time Times Half a Time 12â—0 Days 1335 Days in Daniel 1260 Days with Time Times Half a Time Three Days and an Half and 42 Months 2 Times mentioned in the Revel if these Numbers that so evidently speak a Fitness for Calculation of Time with greatest Exactness If these by a due Search and Compare one with another cannot be understood what spaces of Time they Dâ—fine when they begin and when they End They of all the Points of Prophecy tho they carry the Face and Appearance of Greatest Significancy yet would be indeed of all the most Insignificant Now seeing an Insignificancy in the Highest Points of Signification can by no means be imputed to the Wise and Holy Spirit of Prophecy I conclude that even these Prophetick Numbers in a peculiar and Eminent Manner may be understood both what space of Time they Emensurate or Line out to us and also when they Begin and when they End and so I have finished the First Head of Discourse I proposed I come now therefore to the Second Head proposed to give Answers to the great Objections that are Levyed against this Proposition viz. That All and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of Private or Reserv'd but Publick Free and open Interpretation Object 1 If Prophecy of Scripture be of so Free Publick and Unreserv'd Interpretation how comes it to pass that so few have so much as Attempted the Books of Prophecy that Fore-tell Great Events and the Times of Them Yea that Most judg it so Unpresumable an Undertaking as to Reject all Interpretations of Daniel and the Revelation that Debate Things throughly to their utmost point and issue and that search what or what manner of Time is signified by the Spirit in them or is more than by way of ordinary Comment as if they were the Performances of only Fanatical and Imaginative Men and upon the Evidence but of such an Endeavour condemn them immediately as such Ans Let God be True and every Man a Lyar Now God hath said Every Prophecy of Scripture is so Descended that it is not of Private Interpretation that they do well who attend to the Light of it shining as in a Dark place and so Enlightning it if then it were Dark it self how should it enlighten a Dark Place for it would be Dark to Dark which increases Darkness still whatsoever enlightens must be it self Light This main Truth ought therefore at all times to remain Stable and Firm. The immediate Cause therefore of this so general prejudice against search into Prophecy however Coloured over with Modesty and Reverence of Divine Mysteries and secrets into which Men pretend they would not Pry are these 1. There is so great a Darkness upon the present state that though the Light Shines in it yet it as Darkness comprehends not the Light of Prophecy shining upon it 2. Hence as Men in the Dark they are Afraid of every appearance of Difficulty They say concerning All Interpretation of Prophecy There is a Lyon in the way It is as the Sons of Anak to them that cannot be Encounter'd and as the Walls that cannot be Scaled so difficult and unintelligible is Prophecy that it cannot be Interpreted It is as a Sealed Book the Learned cannot Read because Sealed nor the unlearned because not Learned 3. How many are they who are afraid of the very Light it self what Prophecy Reveals is so contrary to the State they are in that they are as the Expression is in Job upon all appearance of such Light as it were in the Terrors of the shaddow of Death The Aspect of Prophecy upon both the Civil and Ecclesiastick State of the present World is most Terrible especially when it comes to the Determination of Time as near Thus the Lord makes Foolish the Wisdom of the Wise c. Esay 28. that they cannot endure it and so hate the Light and will not come to it least their State should be Reproved and Shaken and are Angry that such a Light should be flashed in their Faces But these are only the next or second Causes there is a higher judiciary Cause that sways Righteously and Holily and yet so as Permitting and leaving Men to themselves even this That Because men do not like to attend to the sure Word of Prophecy God gives them up to this Culpable Cause and Reason of all the Injudiciousnesses concerning the meaning of Prophecy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepossessions against the Interpretation of it as if it were private and Reserv'd and thus that his Wise and Just purpose purpose should be fulfilled that the dark place should be a dark place still while the Apostacy should according to the Oath of Christ for Time Times and half Time continue and till the Day dawn and the Day-Star arise in mens hearts and yet no Encouragement or Boldness ministred to it that it might continue so Dark without Great Sin And indeed though the faulty Cause of all