those little innocent Children to whom Christ said the Kingdom of Heaven appertains 11. And whereas we hear many such sayings as these or to the like effect The way is broad that leadeth to destruction and the Gate so streight which gives admittance to Salvation that few enter in thereat That many are called but few chosen That though the People were as the sands of the Sea a small number should be saved That the Righteous in respect of the Wicked were but as here and there an Olive-berry upon the boughs after gathering-time or as a few Grapes after the Vintage with such-like asseverations These I acknowledge to be true yet my belief is notwithstanding all this that a far greater number shall be saved then condemned at the last Judgement For I cannot believe these expressions have respect to all Mankinde dispersed throughout the world from the beginning to the end thereof but as relating comparatively to those onely who are and were Members of those visible Churches and Provinces of Christs visible Kingdom upon earth to whom the ordinary means of Salvation were and are dispensed whether Jews or Christians the greatest number of whom for their wilful neglect of that means for their turning the Grace of God into wantonness for their seeking gain by pretended Godliness and for their meer formality and hypocrisie shall be shut out of that Kingdom whereof they judged themselves to be sole Inheritors and all the rest of the world to be cast-aways So did many Jews believe of themselves heretofore and so do many Christians now who will at last finde it to be a spirit of self-love which possessed them producing no better fruit then the Apples of Sodom are said to be These as I conceive are those of whom the sayings in holy Scripture aforementioned shall be verified and of whom onely they were intended These reputing themselves the onely Children of the Kingdom boast of their Priviledges such as the having Abraham to their Father The Temple of the Lord or the Word and Sacraments of the Gospel among them how much soever abused or neglected and these alone are concerned in those places of holy Scripture which declare the paucity of that number who shall be chosen in comparison of them who are called and the paucity of those among them who shall be saved in respect of their numerousness who shall perish by their neglecting or abusing those advantages which were put into their hands I conceive to be thereby meant For I cannot think that such sayings had a purposed relation to them unto whose knowledge that means neither came nor was likely to come whilst they lived after they were born into the World Such in particular as are many millions of Heathens in the remotest parts of the world As also little Children dying before they are capable of understanding what they hear and who must inavoydably and everlastingly perish if God hath provided no other means of their Salvation by Christ then such a way of preaching it as is vouchsafed to us 12. Therefore in my judgement they should have little hope of pardon for their many actual transgressions who knowing God hath provided means of life and nourishment for Children in the Mothers Womb when they can neither breath nor eat as when they are born if they shall not believe that God who is infinite in Mercy hath not provided as sufficient a means to nourish their Souls and Bodies to eternal Life who by Death in their infancy or otherways are without their personal default incapable of the ordinary means It is in my understanding so great an injury to the Goodness and Mercy of God to affirm he hath exposed to everlasting destruction all those Innocents by leaving them totally without remedy that they seem to me incapable of Forgiveness through Gods Mercy to them until they repent of their blasphemous mis-belief of his Fatherly compassion who hath given them no just cause to imagine he neglects to make provision for the wellfare of all his impotent Children Therefore that we may not obstruct the Forgiveness of our Debts and Trespasses which we pray for or charge God with so much cruelty as to expose his own Children by Creation at least to be a prey to the Devil and which is more abominable to teach other men to believe be hath eternally decreed the Reprobation of all Mankinde except a very few in comparison of the rest I will endeavour to make it more evident though I have alledged much to this purpose already that a very few shall be everlastingly damned in respect of them who shall be saved by the Mercy of God in Jesus Christ and that this is sufficiently provided for by GODS eternal Decree of Election and Reprobation which hath by many been misunderstood to the dishonour of his Divine Justice contrary to the light of Reason renewed and santified by Grace and to that illumination which is added thereunto by Gods Word and Spirit And though to make odious that Doctrine which I assert it is called Heresie Arminianism Popery and what else they please who oppose it I hope it shall be so generally received that all good Christians will ere long be ashamed of it and make it appear so wicked that it will hardly be believed by many in future times if there were not so many great Volumes written to uphold their error For who in Reason can believe that he who created all things in Love by Love and to be beloved of his Creatures for whose good he created them did fore-intend to make the greatest number of them everlastingly miserable and design them to that unhappiness before they had being or possibility to do good or evil yea that he necessitated them to do that evil for which they should be condemned what love was there in this or what love could be expect from those who should be taught thus to believe or what Truth is in such Teachers who incourage their Disciples to think so of him who hath said and sworn he desired not the Death of sinners but that they should repent and live Verily if there be any madness in Bedlam more extravagant then this I am greatly deceived 13. It is true that God hath absolutely predestinated some to Salvation and ordained some to condemnation of old with respect to their Qualifications in time and to a Covenant between him and them but none absolutely to condemnation nor either with respect or disrespect to their persons before time or before they had a temporary being though he fore-knew what the one and the other would be David tell us in his fourth Psalm who they are whom God Elected even the GODLY that is such as he fore-saw would hear heed and be conformable to the dictates of his Word and Spirit and who when he had inlightned their understanding and renewed their wills would endeavour perseverance to the end according to the power he gave them not trusting to that obedience or to any
Righteousness of their own thereby acquired or seeming to be formerly inherent but to Gods Free-grace onely who when men have once given him their hearts thereto allured by loving compellations never afterward fails to keep them to himself maugre all the frailties of the flesh or the temptations of the World and the Devil because Whoomsoever he once loveth he loveth to the end These are they who were from eternity Elected and given out of the world to Christ by his Father and for whom he prayed that none of them might be lost when these have chosen God for their onely refuge taken up his secret place for their Habitation and can say unto him in their hearts with David Psal 91. Thou art my Shield my Fortress and him in whom I trust c. he will give his Angels charge to keep them in all their wayes that neither open or secret fears or perils shall affright or indanger them though thousands and ten thousands fall round about them Though these may be exposed to temptations by prosperity or adversity they shall be carried through them with safety and honour though they walk among Adders and Lyons that is live among subtle Seducers and tyrannous Oppressors neither of them shall have power to hurt them but they shall tread upon them with contempt and proceed on through all difficulties to the fruition of Eternal Glory These God hath elected from before all worlds without any meer personal respect until their Faith hath qualified them for a personal respect in Christ Jesus and he hath neither eternally reprobated nor of old ordained any man to condemnation but those onely who after they came into the world should incline wholly to the suggestions of the Devil the inticements of the World and the lusts of the Flesh wilfully and finally neglecting and despising that means of their Salvation which God should offer unto them in the Ordinary way of preaching it by his Word by his Judgements and Mercies or by the extraordinary operations of his Spirit in them who have not the ordinary means to help them improve their single Talent of Reason and the Light set up in their own Consciences By these Cords of love the Father seeketh to draw all men to Christ and though many of his Elected ones are at first moved to come unto him through self-love or fear for their own sakes they are so strong that at last they draw all men unto him for his Love-sake who loved them first except such onely as frowardly and wilfully stop their ears shut their eyes and harden their hearts till he justly deprives them of their hearing sight and understanding and gives them up to a Reprobate-sence because they would not hear see and understand when they might These are they and they alone whom God may be said to Reprobate Eternally or of old and if he recals any who are thus far elapsed it is more then he hath promised to do for ought I know and if he doth so his Mercy is his own to confer when and where he pleaseth without wrong to any in so doing And it is a Mercy that he hath not revealed ought whereupon to ground an absolute confidence of being often called For it would be abused by most men to the rendring them the more presumptious and the more careless 14. There are many false Inferences and absurd supposals drawn from Gods fore-knowledge pre-election whereby Learned men have deceived themselves and others because they misconceive Gods Prescience and Election as if he as we do consider'd things as being precedent and subsequent to each other in time whereas he being Eternal all things past present and to come are present with him as existing in one and the same moment the ignorance or heedlesness whereof as also of other such-like verities are the occasions of other errors Alas what remedy when Foundations are overthrown A great number of those who seem to be true Preachers of the Gospel of Christ by a conscientious undertaking of that Duty being such as have brid'd themselves into that sacred Calling for preferment to those Dignities wherewithal the world hath corrupted and prophaned it or else to make a Trade of it whereby to get a livelyhood have taken up Truth or Heresies as they accidentally stumbled upon them where they had their Education endeavouring to supply their want of Spiritual Gifts by such helps as meer humane Industry could afford adding thereto formal Austerity Gravity and shews of Piety which draw ignorant well-meaning heaters to be Zealous in what they teach them be it right or wrong And as their Disciples follow them so they followed their chosen Ring-leaders in those Opinions which they happened upon as Wilde-geese follow their Leaders whithersoever they fly If the Goose that heads them is wary and having been acquainted with the profits and dangers of the Country carries them thither where they may feed and rest in safety it is well bur if he be such a Goose as mindes only the filling of his Belly neither heeding the Nets nor the Stalking-horse of the Fowler both he and the Goslings that follow him are in a Net or the shot in their bowels before they are aware Thus it fares with many poor souls led by blind Guides and false Teachers of whose encrease there is more likelyhood then of reducing Christian Doctrines and Disciplines to their pristine purity till the Kingdom of Christ shall come into the earth yet every conscientious man ought to contribute what he is able thereunto in the mean time and so will I. 15. Gods Frescience that such or such a thing will he done doth not therefore necessitate or cause the doing it more then my knowledge that mortal men shall dye is the cause of their death neither is it rightly inferred or justly to be concluded from Gods predestinating some absolutely to eternal Life that therefore all the rest were decreed absolutely to condemnation more then it may be truely said that when a King without any considerable condition premised pardoneth some of those who were guilty of the same offence with others that he thereby implyed all the rest should be executed without mercy when he offers them pardon once and perhaps oftner upon such conditions as they were then able to perform and still might have done until they had wilfully disabled themselves by long neglect or contempt of his Grace offered God may do with his own what he pleaseth and if he will give to one gratis for doing nothing as much as he will to me for working according to my Covenant what wrong Bath he done to me whereof I may justly complain or if he punished me who both left that work undone which I could and ought to have done and slandered also his Mercy and Justice yet pardons another who is no less culpable why should I repine that he obtains Mercy because I am justly punished In this and such-like Cases it is that the Scripture saith God hath
the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity and shall be until the King of that Kingdom appears again to personate his distinct Office with the Father and the Holy Spirit who have always an intrinsecal co-operation with him What I further apprehend concerning their joynt-acting in and concerning this Kingdom I will offer to consideration though such speculations may perhaps appear Novelties For sometimes great Fires are kindled by little obscured sparks and my Rush-candle may perhaps occasion the enlightning of many Torches hereafter when my snuff is burnt out There is an Interweaving of many dark expressions in the Apoculypse of St. John concerning this and other sublime Mysteries to him delivered wherein things preceding have relation to things following and some things following to those which precede by way of supplement as I conceive and some also having reference both to what was precedent and subsequent Thus under correction I apprehend and that among such the binding of Sathan for a thousand years is one having respect as well to the restraining of him from setting up his Mystery of Iniquity until the LET should be taken away which was before the Bottomless Pit was opened as a relation unto the time wherein he should be restrained a thousand years from deceiving the Nations after the BEAST the false Prophet and the whole Mystery of Antichristianism should be destroyed by the coming of Christ to personate his Kingship upon earth For it was a thousand years after our Saviours Ascention and after the Roman Empire was at highest and began to decline before the Beast which arose out of it could ascend to his height which consumed all the number of years alotted to that Empire until the Beast last mentioned arose This time was enigmatically presignified by M. the first and greatest Numeral belonging to that Empire the remainder of their Numerals to wit DCLXVI presaged the time alotted to the second Beast the last Relick of that Monarchy mystically represented by that part of Daniel's Image which was composed of Iron and Clay For though I must confess I have no Precedent for what I declare my Judgement to be nor any other warrant but what hath been spoken to my own heart in private I do conceive which I have heretofore published effect upon several occasions that God though it seems they took no notice of it gave that Empire a Mysterious hint in their own Numerals how long it should last after it was at highest both in the main of its first Institution and in that which should arise out of it until the total extirpation thereof branch and root All the said Numerals joyned together in order beginning at the greatest and ending at the least being these M.D.C.L.X.V. and I make one thousand six hundred sixty six The thousand years were consumed before the second Beast which is the Mystery of Iniquity was compleated and then that usurped the whole power of his Predecessor and the remaining Numerals make up DCLXVI which is the number of a Man to wit the Mystical man of sin and will be the whole time limited as I conceive for his wicked Raign after he came to his highest exaltation and as I take it we are to begin to reckon this double number from Christs death and passion or Ascention not from his Birth because the Roman Empire was not at his highest till then and declined not until it had Crucified the Lord of Life And if so we may guess within a short time how long that Mystery may continue if we knew certainly how many years Christ lived upon the earth and if Chronologers have rightly computed preceding times from his Birth till this year 1665 and that time as I have already said may be about four or five and thirty years yet to come I will not so absolutely determine it as once heretofore I did being a little-over heated with Zèal upon occasion given to treat of that time For Christ having intimated that a compleat certainty of it is not revealed to any man in the flesh I wave that peremptory expression though I still believe it will be about that time and perhaps God sometimes permitteth such casual slips when they are not purposed to keep his Children quiet when they desire things before they can be had as we do our Children by suffering them to please themselves with uncertain harmless hopes When the number of the Beast is finished I do believe there will be a space of time in which that which is truely Good shall be as well made known at Evil hath now been almost six thousand years and that the time thereto allotted is that seventh Mysterious Day or Sabbath which the Lord our GOd hallowed when he had finished his six days works and that the Jewish sabbaths of dayes and years were but Types of the great sabbath separated from the other six parts of time and sanctified by GOD for himself and his chosen people to rest in and is called a Day by him with whom A thousand years is but as yesterday it being usual in holy scripture to signifie many years and times consisting of many ages by the denomination of a day or days as in Daniel a time of many Generations then to come by 1335 dayes Dan. 12. 12. and in the Revelation 11 by 1260 days and in the same Chapter by three day and a half and it signifies the whole time of Christs Kingdom upon earth in that place where it is said Abraham desired to see his day and saw it For he fore saw it by Faith 24. Six days of a thousand years apiece as I conceive was alotted for the men of this VVorld to prosecute therein those works which they thought they had to do and were alotted both for their Probation and to acquite as aforesaid that experimental knowledge which was desired by our First-parents And in that space of time both good and evil men who were Vicegerents or Subjects either of the Kingdom of God or of the Prince of this world were permitted to be active for their several Interests according to their distinct inclinations and to pursue them so far forth as that good or evel which was in them would extend But neither the Righteousness which was in the best is sufficient in it self to perfect their desired Kingdom nor the wickedness which is in the worst enongh to establish their Dominion because the restraining power of him who is the Supream Governour of all things would not permit the Adversaries of his Kingdom to be so wicked as they would have been in acting destructively thereunto though the wickedness of their Will wanted nothing to compleat of demonstrate their personal untighteousness of that perfection of Evil which was in them But when the great Sabbaths of years is come in which the supream Kings of both are to manifest and exercise their Powers in another mode then heretofore or at this present to wit during the last thousand years or seventh part of time
if she would cast her self into the bosome of their Church as they perswaded her to do And it appeared by her own expressions that a secret spiritual pride made her to glory in those voluntary sufferings as more to be depended on then Christs But I hope this spirit of delusion will be cast out of her when she is better informed for by trusting to false lights and by admitting a self-merit of being divinely illuminated and called to the highest Form of Sanctity not onely produceth a melancholly madness and many wicked fooleries to the scandalizing of Piety with the sincere professors thereof and to the advancement of the mystery of Iniquity whose abetters do secretly sowe and cherish the seeds of Impostures every where to that end 15. Nevertheless we must not exclude these out of our charitable hope and care nor disaffect their persons though we approve not their follies For even the Apostles misapprehended the nature of Christs Kingdom until they were perfectly inlightned and affected vain superiority as it seems by the Sons of Zebedeus when they got their good old Mother to intreat their Master that one of them might sit at his right hand and the other at his left yea they were tempted by the spirit of persecution when they would have had fire called down from Heaven and God doth now as heretofore permit errors and vouchsafe signal cautionary dispensations as the sins and errors of the times require to be sometimes personated by his servants in such manner that they seem ridiculous and offensive to good men and are in the Kingdom of this world reputed Fools and Phanaticks These things I have so well considered that I am afraid to indulge my own will so far forth as to pray absolutely for those lawful things which are most pleasing to my flesh and seem very pertinent to my natural well-being because I finde not my self wise enough to know how much either of sufferings or ease are best for me or what I might well use or abuse if I should be mine own chuser Therefore I pray absolutely for nothing save Gods Grace but bound my Petitions with this Clause Thy Will be done And this is now made easie because as I have often professed I want nothing with a repining sence of want so long as God is pleased to with-hold it from me in regard I am sure he knows what is best for me and hath love enough to vouchsafe it in that measure and at that time wherein it shall so be I naturally feel pains and desire ease as much as other men I perceive as well as they when my Field wants Rain or fair weather am as desirous of those good gifts whereby I might benefit my self or others and cannot root out of my heart a natural desire of desirable Objects yet I permit not my desire to be further inclinable thereto then shall consist with Gods Will and am assured it is then more acceptable then when we have no temptation or desire to the contrary For what obedience is there in him who shuns those forbidden things which he naturally abhors to do or in him who is constantly obedient to those commands onely which he is most inclinable to do There is more submission due to Gods Will then this even an absolute submission in that whereto our natural will is most violently prone And God hath so far forth freed the will of every Man born of a Woman ever since it was promised That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head That by his promised assisting Grace which never shall be wanting to them who ask it in Faith he may not withstanding any permissive power in the Devil or any irresistible defect in himself conform to the Will of God when by his VVord and Spirit the choice of good or evil death or life is to him offered For if it be not so man can have in him no more sin or righteousness then a stone This I believe and all they who believe this are in a good forwardness toward submitting their will to Gods 16. How Gods will may be done by us on earth as it is in heaven according to our measure I wil endeavour to demonstrate as well as I can We may collect from his holy VVord being interpreted by his holy Spirit which makes no part repugnant to the whole and main scope thereof that when the Kingdom of Christ is come to a perfect manifestation upon Earth the VVill of God will be there as perfectly fulfilled as in heaven because all the Subjects of that Kingdom being One with the King thereof and the whole extent of it with all therein though infinite being seen in him and fully known to all the will of every Creature shall be swallowed up in his and he be all in all This superintelligible Mystery cannot be fully demonstrated to our apprehension as we now are So much onely we are capable of as that we may know the deficiencies of our own will with the hazzards of adhering thereto and become thereby inclinable to resigne our selves to God at first perhaps through fear and at last for love But when that manifestation comes they who are of his houshold and Kingdom will abhor every thing how pretious soever it hath been that may divide or take up any part of that love which is due to their heavenly Father hate all who love him not as perfectly as natural men hate their personal Enemies renounce all things even themselves if cause be for his sake with whatsoever may not consist with the purity and glory of that Kingdom They being all of one Minde there will be no disputes as now about Doctrines and Disciplines no arrogating an exorbitant judging power over persons and Causes whereof they have neither perfect cognizance nor lawful jurisdiction no such unnecessary arguings as are here concerning Faith and Works or whether Repentance be before Faith with such like trifling Questions as have not a little disturbed the Peace and Concord which ought to be preserved For though Spiritual Graces appear to have precedency in time one before the other in regard we cannot take notice of such Objects one view or in what order they are wrought within us Yet all that which is by degrees manifested in time as pertinent to our Spiritual well-being is in one moment conceived in us by the Holy Ghost as the Soul is together with the Body in the womb of a Woman When the Kingdom we look for is come upon Earth there will be no such distinct Interests as are now here All things will be common in a more excellent manner then in the times of the Apostles and no such Self-seekings and Hypocrisie as was then discovered in Ananias and Saphira because as it is mystically expressed in the Revelation of St. John the very pavement of the City of our King will be pure and transparent gold which presignified as I conceive that all mens walkings will be then perfectly