the first-fruits are in future to come then these pretenders incult and careless of true Christian practice cannot be the first-fruits for others to follow Such Professors cry up with vain acclamations old Errors and Deceits for new Lights and are so far found lyars We shall now enquire Fourthly What is here meant by Mount Sion in the Text It s Type had its higher and lower parts It s higher part contained Moriab Sion and Calvary On Moriab stood the Temple On Sion was the Tower and City of David On Calvary was Christ crucified Jerusalem was built on the lower part of it The upper and lower parts had the denomination from its highest part of Mount Sion Sion and Sinai are Synantitheses or directly contrary So was the Wilderness and the Land of Promise As Jerusalem was the Metropolis of the Land of promise and Sion the chief place of note therein So Sinai was the Head and Symbole of the barren Wilderness Their disparities appear thus expresly from the Text. Tell me saith the Apostle Do ye not hear the Law for is written That Abraliam bad two sons the one by the Bond-Maid the other by a Free-Woman which things are an Allegory For these are the two Covenants The one from Mount Sinai which is Hagar and engendreth to bondage But he of the Free-woman was by Promise And Jerusalem above the Mother of us all is free The Mother of us all That is of all Sarah's Seed the sens of promise Wherefore Sion and Sinai as Types differed as Hagar and Sarah as the two Covenants as Grace and the Law Life and Death Bondage and Freedom Type Sion was a threefold foundation the substructure of the Temple of the City of God of the City of David Thither the twelve Tribes came to keep the Passover Therefore Type Sion was a Figure of the Foundation of the Church of God and a literal place But Spiritual Sion no literal place shall be the Antitype-foundation of the Gospel-Church For the Lamb and with him 144000 having his Fathers Name written in their foreheads shall stand there Ch. 14.1 The Foundation of the Church of God is transcendent Secondly Derivative The Transcendent Substructure is Deus in Christo pacatus God reconcil'd in Christ This Foundation the Rock and Pillar of Truth from eternity stands for ever The Derivative Foundation of the Gospel-Church is the knowledge and love of the Truth or a fruitful Faith in the Promises of God through Christ Christ said to his Disciples But who say ye that I am Peter said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Jesus answered Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Matth. 16.15 This Derivative foundation of the Gospel-Church was the Faith which Peter confessed and it had respect to and was built upon that first and transcendent Foundation This Derivative Foundation a living and fruitful Faith shall be that Mount Sion Ch. 14. where those conscript 144000 the Antitype of Solomons Temple shall stand and whereon the City of God shall be built Chap. 21.2 The Prophetick-promises are express and the Texts full and clear that prove it which notwithstanding many may object and say That this Foundation was laid long before The Assertion I confess and grant that this foundation was laid long before even in the Primitive times But a falling away was to come and a departing from the Faith 1 Thess 2. 1 Tim. 4.1 For the Church at least in a very large measure forsook the Rock of her safety the Foundation of her standing fell from Heaven where she stood and fled into the Wilderness for 1260 years Revel 12.1 6 14. So the Prototype-Church Jacobs family fell away departed out of the Land of Promise fled into the Wilderness and into her place there prepared of God To wit Egypt the most barren place in that Wilderness were it not miraculously prepared of God and as it were in the middle of it and returning thence through part of the Wilderness turned aside there also They were then far remote and long removed from the Type-foundation Sion literal where Abraham would have offered his son Melchizedeck was King of Righteousness and where the Lord was twice seen in abundant Grace and Mercy So their Antitype the Gospel-Church was long removed as aforesaid into the Spiritual Wilderness from the foundation of her standing But as many of the captives carried to Babylon were mindful of Sion and would not forget Jerusalem Psal 137.5 6. So some of the faln servants of God in the Gospel-Church have had some weak desires of Sions welfare and are somewhat though very little mindful of their first foundation But may some say this foundation Faith in the Promises stands still firm I Answer Sion stood after the City and Temple built upon it were turned to ashes but it was left desolate the living were departed the dead only and the slain were left there as the Lamentatious declare at large And so the Faith of the Antitype revolted-Church in the Spiritual Wilderness was and is a desolate Faith a Faith fruitless or far from being fruitful in the practice of good Manners and at least drawing near to a dead Faith and therefore no way fit to be the Foundation of the Gospel-Church adorned to be the Lambs Bride Ch. 21.9 But Antiype Sion shall be a fruitful Foundation a living Faith giving life to the City of God that shall be built thereon For Such as the Tree is such is the Fruit and such as this Foundation shall be the Superstructure upon it But these 144000 the Antitype of Solomons Temple built thereon shall be undefiled and withour fault saith the Text vers 4.5 That is Their Righteousness shall be so perfect in a fourfold conformity but there is no man that sinneth not I Kings 8.4 6 that it shall be a sweet Savour and a Sacrifice well-pleasing to God But the Faith of the Gospel Wilderness-Church is as was that of her Prototype a barren faith affording very little fruit to Gods glory or the good of men The Wituesses we read were to be killed And this faith is much after the manner of the Carcasses of those killed Witnesses And indeed their Carcasses was such a Faith a dead or dying faith having some small insensible and almost unperceivable true life For Faith without Works saith the Apostle is dead a Carcass of Christian Profession without power James 2.17 20. And such a Carcass of the killed Witnesses or somewhat like it the Spiritual Gentiles kept unburied to be a foundation to build the Apostacy of Antichrist upon and it 's the Pillars of it to support it Nor are inanimadversive clypt inconform half-performances any fruits of a living but the deceits of a dead faith Such a faith Such a fruitless foundation is Sinai not Mount Sion and most unfit to be the Substructure of the Church of the living God Nor can it procure his favour but his anger or enmity for so Sinai signifies
internal and more properly spiritual Her Graces were dead or ready to die Therefore their fruits her works differing little perhaps in true appearance from dead works were not found perfect though their doctrine might be so sound and profession so strict that from thence she might be famed or have a name that she lived chap. 3.1 2. For Hypocrites judge of spiritual life by outward forms and empty verbal professions and not by obedience conform to Gospel-rule This inward death of the witnesses properly spiritual was presignified sometimes by sleep like death sometimes by death real and literal And first By sleep like death we read That a deep sleep and an horrour of great darkness the Sun going down fell upon Abrabam Gen. 15.12 Abraham as a Prophet suffered this passive prophesie as the vision of outward affliction and inward darkness and desertion which was after fulfilled literally upon his seed after the flesh in literal Egypt and likewise upon his spiritual seed in Egypt spiritual where such an horrour of great darkness and deep sleep fell upon them that the text saith expresly they were dead And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City called spiritually Sodom and Egypt c. they were spiritually dead because dead in spiritual Egypt and the means of their Resurrection from that death was by the Spirit of life from God entering into them that is their Graces were dead Or sick dying Graces They did not awake unto Righteousness but slept a sleep like death in sin and disobedience They held forth a Righteousness inconform to Gospel-rule such as some Sects Heathens and Hereticks hold forth and might dream that to be true obedience scarce thinking upon true Righteousness in practice which we shall after shew what it is Had Abraham not slept yet that horrour of great darkness that fell upon him had been sufficient to hide all things from his sight that he could see little or nothing and do as little But besides that darkness a deep sleep fell upon him so that he might seem dead in that sleep buryed in darkness yet Abraham was not dead all that time So a lasting Lethargy like death and a deep sleep of insensibility and spiritual security was to fall upon his spiritual seed the Gospel-Church and her Witnesses for 1260 years yet neither they nor she could be quite dead all this time but should retain some inward sick secret but living Graces all the time of their lying as dead in that threefold City For Secondly I sleep saith the Church but my heart waketh Cant. 5.2 She slept after the similitude of her Patriarch Abraham a deep sleep like death but was not dead The Members of her body both for action and understanding hands feet head were exceeding drowsie or in a deep sleep but her heart awaked She was not dead but lived by some weak sick but living inward Graces An inseparable sign of such a deep spiritual sleep is the difficulty to make her or her Members know that such a Lethargy lies upon them with a great impugning unwillingness to be awaked Secondly that inward spiritual death was also prefigured by death literal For the drybones were the whole house of Israel not so much legal as Evangelical And those bones were dead Ezek. 37.3 11. For the Witnesses the subordinate heads of the Church could not be dead but the Members of the same body must be much more dead Secondly I might here shew that Jonah our blessed Saviour presignified prophetically not only that outward threefold death aforesaid but also this inward and spiritual death of the witnesses towit Jonah by a seeming death and our Saviour by a real death The durations of both which three days and an half artificial or 42 hours are exactly conform as prophetick types to the duration of the death of the witnesses to wit three days and a half that is three years and a half or forty two months of days Annual which are 1260 years as we shall more irrefellibly shew in the sequel The Eighth Epoche IS of the treading of the Gospel-Church and her witnesses under foot by those Gentiles the spiritual Gentiles of this threefold Mystery of Iniquity whom we finde fitly described in the 8th and 9th Verses of the 11th Chapter to wit the Spiritual Ethnickes Gentiles in practice by profession Christians of Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual And the Holy City the Gospel-Church and her witnesses shall they these very Gentiles tread under foot for forty two moneths saith the text chap. 11.2 That is they shall persecute convitiate rashly censure and contemn the Gospel-Church and her witnesses and her and their testimony for forty two moneths Here needs no Daniel to read the sins of the revolted Church too easie to be read in her just punishments And what were the Gospel-Churches chief sins She and her Saints trod under foot contemned sleighted neglected at least too much substantial knowledge of the truth true obedience and the witnesses of both and perhaps under a blind pretence of minding things plain and most necessary espoused a trivial shallow superficial knowledge of the truth with like obedience And where read you this Her just punishment renders it in Capital Letters she for treading under foot or not promoting and advancing with due diligence things most sacred profitable and honest was given into the hands of the Gentiles to be troden under foot forty two moneths And what those forty two moneths are the very next Verse tells you expresly That they are 1260 days to wit days annual or year swherefore the Epoche of the thus treading under-foot of the gospel-Gospel-Church and her witnesses which also imports their death fully shews both the time and manner of it is the same with the former All synchronizing The Ninth Interval IS of the Witnesses sackcloth prophesie And I will give power to my two Witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in sackcloth Rev. 11.3 Our blessed Saviour and his Disciples prophesied as in sackloth to the legal and Jewish Church a Rebellious and gain-saying people for 1260 days literal predicted by Daniels half week of years He also wept over Jerusalem for the then chiefly spiritual desolations of Zion we have also shown that the Prophets in Ahabs time while Rain was restrained prophesied as Proto-types in great affliction and sorrow as it were in sackcloth for 1260 days So their Anti-type the Gospel-witnesses were to prophesie also in sackcloth in great sorrow and affliction for 1260 days to wit days annual or 1260 years which the ensuing Epochaes and sequel of this Treatise will also fully shew The Tenth Epoche is of the six Trumpets sounding THe six Trumpets sounding and the witnesses sackcloth prophesie though of different denominations are the same thing and the duration of both the same time Lift up thy voice saith the Lord to the Prophet like a Trumpet shew my people their transgressions c. So
of Papal Rome And when the time of those two Parents the Earth and the Sea was come to the Birth and there was no strength to bring forth the Bicorne and Decacerastick beasts Papal then did this second Dragon though he wounded both those Infant new born beasts with a sword give power to their two Parents to bring them forth by affording what furthered in that grand design their sick desires For he took away all that letted and filled other Nations of the Empire besides Italy with his Armies that they could not hinder it He also gave strength and means of growth to those two Parents by him first wounded Off-spring For he gave his power the Supremacy therein to that Decarch secular and Papal whom the Sea brought forth and likewise power to the Bicorne beast Rev. 13.2 4. ch 11.10 Dan. 7.25 That is he immediately after he had taken and burnt Rome lest the ruines of it with Italy almost ruinated to the wounded beast and false Prophet Papal For Honorius that good Emperour though a man of no great gifts durst not at least did not reside any more at Rome And that second Dragon in some process of time consigned his kingdoms to the false Prophets care embracing himself the unity of the Church of Rome He several wayes and at sundry times gave his seat and power which he took away from those he took out of the way as aforesaid to the beast and false Prophet wherefore He that is taken out of the way and he that taketh him away must needs be two But the first Dragon and Imperial Rome that letted the rising up of Rome Papal were taken out of the way But he that took away the first Dragon with Rome Imperial was this second Dragon 2 Thes 2.6 7. Rev. 13.24 which also Church History hath confirmed and will more fully confirm Therefore there must be inevitably two Dragons the second taking away the first and the first taken away by the second which also we find apparent from Reason Scripture and Church-History The first we find in Heaven and we find the Woman the Gospel and Primitive Church in the same Heaven of power at the same time Rev. 12.1 3. But she had not at her first ascending into that Heaven of authority such full power as that first Dragon had For he stood before her in the time of Constantius the first and in the beginning of Constantines Reign to devour her Child so soon as it was born ver 4. That is to destroy every man that might as a Christian Prince Emperour or Magistrate defend the Church The Woman or Gospel Church was then in Heaven in a double respect or in a twofold acceptation of the word Heaven but the Dragon only in a single acceptation of it And first the word Heaven holds forth an holy conversation And in this acceptance of the word the Church was then said to be in Heaven shining in the splendor of her Primitive Graces and not then faln from Heaven nor fled into the Wildernesses where her good works were much more dark and less visibly conform to Gospel Rule Secondly She not only had her conversation in Heaven but was ascended also into the Heaven of power and Authority in the Roman Empire and sate upon part of that Dragons throne whereon that Dragon sate Supream And in this respect both she and that first Dragon were said to be in Heaven that is in the Heaven of high power and Authority in the Roman Empire For in that Heaven of an holy conversation with the true Church that Dragon never was nor could be His conversation was not in Heaven but quite contrary to her Heavenly conversation Nor was he in Heaven That is as some assert in the true Church For both the Church and he are said to be in Heaven and he not in her or for her but before and against her But he was in Heaven that is he inhabited the Heaven of high power and Authority in the Roman Empire and was far above the Primitive Church at her first arrival into this Heaven For we find her there crying travelling in Birth and pained to be delivered that she might bring forth a Man-child a Christian Magistracy or power secular to protect her from that red Dragons bloudy persecutions And we find him standing before her to devour that Man-child or Christian Magistracy should she produce any But she brought forth a Man-child saith the text That is a Christian power secular and Military Michaels substitutes that overcame that Dragon and cast him out so as his place was found no more in the Heaven of Supream power and Authority in the Roman Empire He strove various ways and at several times to regain his place regained some power but his place was found no more in Heaven He had some power for a very short space power to persecute the Church but prevailed not He never after arrived to Supream Power in the Roman Empire but was soon after deprived of his being and about 412 cast into the bottomless pit forever By this it may plainly appear impossible that this Dragon should give his seat and power to the beast secular and Papal when he himself had none to give and when that beast was not in being who existed not till that Dragon that letted as the text saith his rising up was taken out of the way But the Dragon saith the text gave his seat power and great Authority to the beast Therefore that was the second Dragon But for the Readers irrefellible eviction we shall consider the Paterns or Prophetick Types and compare them with their Antitypes And first we find the type-Woman the Jewish Church Primitive Jacobs Family in Heaven adorned by an heavenly conversation having the Sun Moon and twelve Stars her Lights and guides Gen. 37.9 So we find her Antitype the Gospel Church Primitive in Heaven also having the Sun Moon and twelve Stars her Lights and guides Rev. 12.1 Thus we see that the Prophesies of the old Testament even in Genesis were not finally fulfilled as some affirm they were at the death of our Saviour or at the destruction of Jerusalem but signally ecchoed forth future transactions far beyond those times But of this we shall give after a short progress full proof The type-Woman Jacobs Family was as it were ascending into the Heaven of power become more mighty saith Pharaoh then the Egyptians therefore that Dragon for so the Scripture calls Pharaoh expresly the Dragon Ezech. 29.3 stood before that woman to devour her Man-child And this Dragon of Rome Pagan that Dragons Antitype stood before the woman the Gospel and Primitive Church ascended into the Heaven of power to devour her Man-child also so soon as it was born Rev. 12.4 The type-Dragon Pharaoh with his servants were cast out of their Heaven of power into the Sea Sank as a stone in the mighty waters The Sea covered them for ever Exod. 15.10 So his and their Antitype this
she might flee into the Wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time times and half a time from the face of the Serpent ver 14. The times in both texts are exactly the same and make a twisted or double record That the Epoche of the Churches abode in her place prepared of God was to be 1260 years Into the Wilderness That is into an obscure sad desolate and distrest condition both in temporal and spiritual respects Into her place prepared of God Having here proved the Epoche by the double testimony of two texts we shall refer this place prepared of God but a little further to a fitter place where we shall shew what this place prepared of God was where the gospel-Gospel-Church was to be preserved for 1260 years The seventh Epoche IS of the death of the Witnesses And when they shall have finished their testimony their Primitive testimony in 407 and not their 1260 years Prophesie in Sackcloth the beast saith the text that cometh out of the bottomless pit the second Dragon shall overcome and kill them shall cast them out of their primitive power and capacities temporal and spiritual and kill many of them corporally And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City called spiritually Sodom c. That is their dejected condition shall be visible and obvious to the frequent view of those spiritual Gentiles of that threefold City of Apostacy And they of the Peoples and Kindreds c. those Gentiles aforesaid shall see their dead bodìes their persecuted and despised state three dayes and an half That is Three times and an half chap. 12.14 Or 1260 dayes Annual or years chap. 13.3 That 's the Epoche both of the death of the Witnesses and of their Prophecying in Sackcloth And so Their type Eliah and the Prophets of Israel finished also their as it were primitive testimony against the wickedness of Ahab and Israels Apostacies And when they had finished that primitive testimony Jezabel Ahab and the false Prophets killed them for 1260 dayes literal That is Killed many or the most and persecuted all for 1260 dayes Therefore they that escaped death corporal fled with the persecuted Church as into a Wilderness into the secret subterfuges of obscure latency for 1260 dayes literal So long also did her and their type-surviving Witnesses as well they might and had most just cause Prophesie as in Sackcloth in great obscurity and contempt And just so long was rain literal restrained to wit for 1260 dayes literal But after those flying persecuted type-Witnesses had finished those 1260 dayes of their type-death and Prophecying â—n Sackcloth they were not killed we find little of that in that grand exemplar or Patern So when the Gospel-Witnesses St. Basit Ambrose Athanasius Jerom Chrysostom and others had finished not this Sackcloth Prophesie of 1260 years but their primitive testimony about 407 against the fast approaching defections of the primitive Church And when she and her revolting children repented not then did the Beast that came out of the bottomless pit the second Dragon kill the Witnesses And the Sea born-beast and false Prophet-Papal to whom that Dragon gave his power the Supremacy therein prosecuted though they seemed gentle for the first 805 years the killing of them for 1260 as in the Patern literal dayes Annual Therefore they such as escaped death corporal fled with the persecuted Church into the spiritual Wilderness into the secret subtersuges of obscure latencies for 1260 as in the type literal dayes dayes Annual Just so long was rain restrained in the type literal in the Anti-type spiritual rain To wit for 1260 as in the Patern dayes literal Annual dayes or years And therefore the Gospel-Witnesses such as were killed by the death of persecution but not corporally or totally killed Prophesied as well they might and had most just cause for 1260 as in the Patern literal dayes Annual in Sackcloth th it is in great infirmity affliction obscurity and contempt for 1260 years Wherefore when they had finished for that 's intended in the text their primitive testimony about the year four hundred and seven or ten then the second Dragon somewhat assisted even at first by the Beast and false Prophet overcame and killed them as aforesaid for 1260 yeas But after that Epoche of their 1260 years death and Prophecying in Sackcloth they as their type were not are not to be killed There was no such thing in the Patern nor shall be in the Anti-type of it Nor is there any ground that I find for it in Scripture but abundantly sufficient for the contrary For we may add to this of it self full evidence That it plainly appears to be a matchless piece of absurdity That the Witnesses should Prophesie in Sackcloth 1260 years because they should be killed many killed and all persecuted so long by the Dragon Beast and false Prophet who were to continue in power so long And then when the Witnesses should have finished that 1260 years Prophesie and the Dragon Beast and false Prophet should cease to be in full power the Beast out of the bottomless pit scarse in being himself or not in such full power should overcome and kill them the second time for 1260 dayes immediately after he for who else should kill them had first killed them for 1260 years before The futility of this absurdity the Paterns which are more then one sufficiently resell But that is also fully done in the sequel by many perhaps undeniable demonstrations From what already appears we plainly see that the Epoche the twice repeated three dayes and an half in the 11th Chapter of the death of the Witnesses is 1260 as in the Patern of days literal of dayes Annual or years and runs exactly paralel with their Prophecying in Sackcloth succeeding their Primitive testimony about the year 407 and not their Prophecying in Sackcloth 1260 years after it But to come nearer to the matter we shall having shewn the duration of the death of the Witnesses here distinguish The death of the Witnesses was ab extra vel ab intra external or internal Their external death is threefold Corporall civil spiritual Corporal chiefly from the Dragon civil from the beast spiritual from the false Prophet in all Papal Sects To wit By Papal fulminations excommunications rash censures slaunders c. These external deaths for brevity I but briefly hint But Secondly their death internal is more properly spiritual because its the death or decay of spiritual Graces whiles the lusts of the flesh of the eyes and pride of life seem to live and judgment mercy and faith to dye in the souls of Saints and whiles they manifest that internal death of Graces by outward correspondent fruits and practices So the Church of Sardis had a name that she lived and was dead And how dead None of her Members were killed that we read by any corporal civil or spiritual death as the witnesses were externally But her death was
Author were any such must expect the same or somewhat like measure from the modern Apostacy that Saint Jerom found from their Fore-Fathers scarse find a man amongst them such proud in animadvertency ever attends Apostacy that would take the pains to read it many to condemn it unread or before by their cursory reading of it they could understand it They have also their supposed necessary business in their Opinions of greatest importance To wit besides secular divertisments their serious duties as the Pharisees had of formal devotion for such is the strictest unfruitful profession and soundest doctrine that deceives by busie misdoing this they count to be a far more Heavenly and powerful means to salvation then the knowledge of the truth indeed and the practise of it But as all the Apostacy at the beginning of it espoused a scornful and sloathful inadvertency So some I hope of the same Apostacy now near the dissolution of it do or may begin to mind things most conducing to Gods Glory and a general good to all Ages and Nations But The Senate of Pharisees cryed c. We shall briefly enquire what and for what they cryed out against Saint Jerom that so we may better perceive what Apostacy is and what the sins of it are So a thorough reformation in practice the main-one-thing needful among men Saints and professors may be effectually procured or at least the way to remove the evil manners of the Apostacy of Antichrist by their being known may be levigated and prepared And First The matter of their cry and the manner of it might be this You Jerom we observe are ever too Censorius not that he was so but themselves were such and we utterly condemn and that 's most common with Hypocrites your confidence in that you durst dedicate your book to the Apostolick Bishop of the Catholick Church as if you could adde the least necessary notion to his fulness nor need you be so bold because the Book is not yours you can give no account of it Not but that Jerom could do it but brutish inadvertists arerediest to require satisfaction and least capable to receive it from the most rational solutions We dislike might they say those way esand courses you take as Mendicant and begging wayes Not that Jeroms wayes and courses were such but the basest of men cast usually the vilest imputation as Nabal upon David upon men of greatest piety and parts We might they say are so busie and our business of such serious concernments none are more busie then the most blind that we have no time to regard what Jerom sayes or writes We mind might they say religious matters more necessary to salvation then Jerom new coyned notions are Not but that Jeroms notions were most necessary to salvation but the Rabble of Revolting inadvertists think nothing so needful to salvation as their own empty brain-sick conccits Nor must Jerom might they cry command our Purses or we charge our selves to promote his useless Editions Not but that Jeroms Works were more worth then all the money in their Purses but blind Apostates and Hypocrites prefer their money above the due advancement of Learning or Religion nor can they through covetousness nor scarse true Saints be drawn to perfect any good work Were Jeroms workes might they say of such worth he need not want friends to further him nor countenance to carry on his work All from the least to the greatest would largely recompence him and promote it This is the fond conceit of foolish Opinionists that are least forward to do it themselves For Virtus vix laudatur alget Vertue seldom finds much furtherance the Apostacy so prevails even them from those that are vertuous much less from Inadvertists and Hypocrites Jerom himself found a great Cry little friendship from the Senate of Pharisees And Lastly The whole Senate of Pharisees might cry out against Saint Jerom all at once That he deserved death for his frequent Blasphemies against the Catholick Church and Saints For such blind Apostates count the true records and faithful reproofs of the Gospel Witnesses to be blasphemies deserving death Such Barbarous blind and wicked determinations ever attend the ignorant Rabble of Apostates and Hypocrites So such advance Learning and Religion or at least neglect both such rewards the most Learned and Religious must receive at their hands So much of the matter of their Cry and manner of it We shall now enquire what the cause of their Cry and the intent of it might be And so Secondly An Eager may be heard three or four Miles off before it comes to the place where a man hears it and its intent seems to be to overturn as in a Deluge all before it So this general Cry in Jeroms time was a palpable sign of the fast approaches of the Apostacy of Antichrist to overwhelm as by a flood the Gospel Church and her witnesses The Cause of that Cry was on the revolted parties part Pride Envy Vain-glory which cause they cast upon the Gospel witnesses as if they only were guilty of it And so the Type-pharisees in our Saviours time cryed out at him Crucifie him crucifie him and made this the false cause of their furious Cry That Christ was proud a self-exalter and a blasphemous vain boaster Real pride in the Pharisees which they falsely pretended to be in our Saviour was the cause of their Cry and of his Condemnation Corah's company cryed out against Moses And what was the cause of their Cry They imputed Pride which was real in themselves to him that was the meekest man on Earth you take said they too much upon you ye sons of Levi. Smite him on the month was the high Priests Cry against Paul what was the cause of it Paul in the Opinion of the High Priest was a proud self-justifier He justified and praised himself before all the people I have lived said he in all good conscience before God untill this day That is from the day of his conversion he did exercise himself to have alwaies a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Acts 21.1 Ch. 24.16 Had the High Priest said it it had been vain boasting because a lie but in Paul it was no lie and therefore no boasting but a necessary and indispensible duty in him For every true Saint or witness of the truth must justifie himself according to sobriety because they that would justifie the testimony of Jesus both in words and works which they hold forth must justifie notwithstanding the loud Cryes of Apostates and Hypocrites themselves as the testators and subordinate fountaines of that testimony Tum vero exoritur clamor Then the whole Senate of Pharisees and Apostates cry out against them as they did against Christ and against Saint Jerom all at once That they are vain boasters blasphemers and proud selfe justifying Hypocrites and what need they any more witness then that out of their own mouthes The Gospel witnesses we read were
endeavour to shew briefly what their use and meaning is Wherefore we shall distinguish by their respective works or fruits they bring forth betwixt the sealed and Conscript-Churches and betwixt both and those that have not the Seal of God nor his Name in their foreheads And first The works of the flesh are manifest c. Gal. 5.19 Such works are not sealed works nor deceitful God sets no Seal to the doers of them vers 21. nor are they much deceitful For there is no great deceit or Mystery in the more proper works of the flesh which are manifest Of these I have written at large before and therefore need not now insist upon them But Secondly The practice of Truth-pretending Formalists is Justitia insigillata deceptiva an unsealed half-performed righteousness of deceit It was commanded them saith the Text that they should not burt the Grass neither any green thing nor any Tree but only those Men which have not the Seal of God in their forebeads Ch. 9.4 That is The Locasts as it were by a command from God ver 5. should torment Truth-pretending Church-persecuting Papists that had not the Seal of God in their foreheads with like retaliation as they had persecuted and tormented the Saints of God that had his Seal in their foreheads Nor had these Locusts themselves his Seal as neither Type Egypt nor the Locusts that tormented her had the Seal of the Covenant and the practice of those Papists and these Locusts that tormented them being both alike unsealed was a persecuting practice and a righteousuess not sealed but deceitful shewing that the doers of such rash violence have not the Seal of God Fiat tamen justitia Right must be done to evil-doers and not with-held from the well-deserving To omit either or do both negligently is not the least pe secution as we have seen in Eli and others Such persecution on the right hand or left is though almost universally practised by such as are sealed the practice properly of those that have not the Seal of God in their oreheads Thirdly The practice of those 144000 that were sealed with the Seal of God is Justitia sigillata vera sedvix-manifesta true righteousness through much weakness and many deficiencies not clearly manifest These 144000 were not the aggregate of the whole Gospel-Church but a select part of it excluding the outward Court that was cast out and given to the Gentiles Chap. 11.2 For the son of perdition was to sit as God in the Temple of God yet was not sealed or accepted of Him as a select member of his Church 2 Thes 2.4 The Seal of God is inward or outward 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth who are his And Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity The Lord knoweth who are his There 's the inward and invisible Seal And let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity There 's the outward and more visible Seal of God in the foreheads of his Saints wherewith these 144000 were sealed Primitive Saints were wont to shew their Faith by their Works Jam. 2.18 And so these 144000 especially at first did for a long time But they though sealed with the Seal of God were not like the Church of Thyatira of whom this record is given of God I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patitience and thy works and the last to be more than the first Rev. 2.19 But the works of these 144000 were more and more perfect at first than at last For the Seal of God in their foreheads though it might suffer some decay at the grand Apostacy about or before 412 continued competently visible near a thousand years Tum vetus ipsa dies extenuabat opus Then the impression of the Seal of God in their foreheads was much defaced and their departing from iniquity less apparent Wherefore God loosed the first Dragon out of the bottomless Pit after he had been bound about 1000 years upon the Gospel-Church fallen from her first Love and Works But God hath since greatly multiplyed as he did the Type-fallen-Womans her sorrows not by her bearing many Children but by suffering for her sins her Children to wound her with many Darts of afflicting Calamities and to rend her into Schisms Subdivisions which Balm can scarce heal nor any Art bind up Were any of her sons so dutiful to her so faithful for her as to tell her and declare unto her her deplorable and desperate condition 't were in vain she minds it not but lyes as it were insensible upon her sleepy Pillow seems to have given her self up to inanimadvertency and forgetfulness begins many good works forgets to finish them Torpor corpus totum tenuit sopor animam A desperate insensibility hath seised upon the Members of her Body and a deep sleep on her Senses She is Quasi Ecclesia moritura non mortua as a dying Church only not dead But God shall wipe away all tears from her eyes Ch. 7.17 Ch. 21.4 He hath promised it and will perform it which must be done if ever it be done by his writing the Name of God in the foreheads of his servants her sons So may she be revived in her Off-spring For Fourthly These 144000 in the 14th Chapter are the same gospel-Gospel-Church redeemed as it were from death Redeemed from the Earth saith the Text ver 3. Both are the same Church but in different respects and times For the 144000 in the 7th Ch. to the 9th vers were the Church of God fed in the wilderness for 1260 years Ch. 12.6 14. But these 144000 shall be the same Gospel-Church fix't upon Mount Zion Ch. 14.1 That 144000 in the 7th Chapter was Ecclesia sigillata the sealed Church of God But these 144000 shall be Ecclesia conscripta the same Gospel-Church having the Name of God written in her forehead That sealed Church triumphed over Primitive Apostate Rome Ch. 18.20 Ch. 19. to the 7th vers This conscript-Church the same Church in succeeding times should triumph over Papal Rome Ch. 15.2 3 4. Therefore Both differ much in distance of time For that 144000 in the 7th Chapter were sealed long before these 144000 in the 14th Chapter should have the Name of God written in their foreheads And Lastly They differ much though both the same Church in preceding and succeeding times in respect to things For Those 144000 in the 7th Chapter sealed above 1200 years before the Name of God should be written in the foreheads of these their successors were not though so long before them called The first-Fruits But these 144000 in the 14th Chapter though so long after those former are called The first-fruits redeemed from the earth and from among men vers 3.4 Therefore it requires necessarily our serious disquisition to examine For what causes these the conscript Church are called The first-fruits so long after those in the 7th Chapter
with the Lamb upon Mount Sion Ch. 11.2 Ch. 12 6.14 Ch. 13.5 That Type-Wilderness was the place of provocation wherein those in a figure sealed servants of God erring in their hearts and not knowing the wayes of God provoked him to anger and they all perished in that place for their provocations That Type-Desert was a literal local barren part of the World But this Antitype-wilderness is less literal more spiritual no less barren in good works and is in the Aggregate of it the whole World For the Prototype Apostate-Church was driven out of Paradise into the barren World that brought forth as a curse laid upon it Bryars and Thorns And the Antitype revolted Woman the Gospel-Church fled from Heaven her Primitive stations and was driven thence into the Wilderness this wicked World where evil Beasts Heathens Hereticks and proud and blind Hypocrites in habit and which is an inextricable Labyrinth of investigable intanglements and wayes all overgrown with Briers and Thorns of the Cares and Pride of this life A place where the sealed servants of God habituate themselves to err in their hearts and to be ignorant of his ways with all confidence and continually provoke him to anger But The Gospel Church was not to continue scatrered over all this Spiritual Wilderness but to be more strictly confined for 1260 years to her more pecular place there prepared of God The pâ—â—ce prepared in the literal Wilderness was Egypt as we shall in the sequel fully shew Another Prophetick-place prepared of God and that more Mystical was the Apostate body of Israel or they in their journeys and places of their pitcâ—â—ng their Tents For all Israel above twenty years old about four excepted fell away when the faithless Spies brought evil reports upon the Land of Promise from Faith and Obedience That Apostate body was a place prepared of God to preserve his truly sealed servants So the Papal-Apostacy and her subdivisions such at least as held the Homousian Faith were the Antitype-place prepared of God to preserve his truly sealed servants for 1260 years But these 144000 upon Mount Sion shall not need any place prepared in the Wilderness to preserve them because they themselves shall not be there Nor shall they need a body of Death the body of the Apostacy of Antichrist to preserve as the Fish did Jonah their lives from death But they shall have the Name of God written in their foreheads And that name true practice in a fourfold conformity shall be a strong Tower to desend them from all distresses Nor shall that Name of God the vivid practice of the power of Godliness be an Anchor in a storm but an impreguable Rock above all Seas which storms can never reach Paul's Ship wherein he sailed was long driven to and fro dash't with impetuous storms at last split in pieces The passengers got its brokenboards to bring them to shore And the Profuga Gospel-Church that fled from the Serpent for 1260 years hath been long driven too much like Pauls ship to and fro broken with violent storms and is now ready by dashing billows of dissenting brethren to split inpieces But these 144000 upon Mount Sion shall not need to fear Sea-storms of tribulations or persecutions because there shall be no more Sea saith the Text Chapter 21.1 No more Sea That is No more coaltern persecutions betwixt Professors of different perswasions nor tempestuous dashings of civil Divisions nor any more distresses as formerly for faithless disobedience So the whole World in time of the flood was a stormy-Sea wherein the Ark the Prototype-Church was driven But when it rested on Ararat there was no more Sea of dashing billows against that weather-beaten Type And so the sealed wilderness-Wilderness-Church hath been driven to and fro though her first 800 years were more favourable for about 1260 years as in a troubled Sea But when she shall arrive upon Mount Sion there shall be no more Sea Righteousness delivereth from death But her righteousness of a four-fold conformity which only is the fruit of true Faith shall deliver her from all future Sea-storms and Shipwracks But this righteousness is much more difficult to be done than the righteousness of formal Professors and far different from the promiscuous clypt and defalked righteousness of such true Saints whose Harps are ever out of tune For Formalists and Hypocrites nor are true Saints free from this fault really imagine that the way to work true Gospel-righteousness is obvious to any Every man they think may do it without much direction for any difficulty therein The ground of this almost general misconceit is this They mistake the deceiveableness of unrighteousness for the Righteousness of Saints and the Gold-like Crowns of Locusts for the Name of the living God written in the foreheads of his servants And this righteousness mistaken for true is most easie to be done by the most indocible It s most easie for men to pretend Religion and practise none To profess to witness the Truth and testifie lies in words and works or to witness it in both with those delayes and such slackness or partiality that it profits none To take much care to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners and be deceived but not to come to the knowledge of the Truth in practice that they may be saved This is Doctrina dedocenda Doctrine to be learn't at least to better ends To pass heady censures and practise actions of precipitate rashness which even Heathens abhor is as bestial abhorred of God Our Law said an Heathen condemns no man unheard But corrupt careless true Christians can and commonly do condemn Indictâ causâ inaudito viro any man or thing unseen and unheard But no Law Literature nor Religion nor strict Profession nor sound Doctrine No Gifts nor Parts can bind or debar unsealed evil-Beasts from this barbarous frenzy which the Laws even of wicked Heathens allow not and which makes men more bruitish than the worst Heathens This desperate wickedness of barbarous folly so easie it is to be learn't is little less frequent nor less esteemed for true Righteousness than it was by the Pharisees who by this temerity of blind Hypocrisie condemned and crucified the King of Righteousness But the Righteousness of this Chorus Virgineus contrary to the Crowns of Locusts deceits of Hypocrites and the dangerous diversious of corrupt careless true Christians shall be as the Text infers every way conform to that which is right Therefore it must be for difficilia quae pulcra far more difficult to be attained and practised These were not defiled with women saith the Text for they are Virgins That is They shall not pollute themselves with the false Doctrines and foolish Opinions of Erroneous Professors nor espouse their works Their works shall not be like the fruits of Formalists withered for want of Rain nor blasted with the Wind but be good and perfect fruits of a foursold conformity well-pleasing to God
and profitable to Man For so their site position and number import We find them not wandering in the Wilderness nor sitting under shadows of Death as they did before when the Woman fled into the Wilderness and her Witnesses were killed for 1260 years Revel 12.6 14. Ch. 11.7 9 11. But we find them situate and built standing no doubt after the Patern of the Lamb upon Mount Sion where Solomons Temple was built and so the Antitype of it Ch. 14.1 For We find their number to be 144000 Ch. 14.1 3. And the quadrate dimensions of Solomons Temple were 144000 Cubits thus cast up It s length 60 Cubits multiply'd by its breadth 20 Cubits makes its product 1200 Cubits which multiply'd by 30 Cubits the heighth of it makes 36000 Cubits whose square is 144000 Cubits And we find this sacred company to be 144000 to stand upon Mount Sion That is To be the Antitype of Solomons Temple or the true Gospel-Church returned out of the Wilderness and turned back to obedience That is To have the Name of the Father of the Lamb written in their foreheads which necessarily infers That this Caetus Virgineus must needs be Chorus Agni the Church of Christ That is The City of God re-built upon Mount Sion To wit upon inviolable Principles of Truth in Faith and Manners For Secondly Both their number and position imports a Quadruplex-conformity in practice For this City saith the Text lieth four-square in 12000 furlongs Ch. 21.16 It s Quadrate Dimensions it 's so easie and evident that it needs no casting up are 144000 furlongs which principally imports That the Righteousness of this Chorus incontaminatus should be of a Quadruplex-conformity or every way conform to that which is Right in it self A righteousness of arduous industry and acquisition directly contrary to the Goldlike-Crowns and deceits of Locusts and Hypocrites Thirdly The Name of God shall be in the foreheads of his servants the inhabitants of this holy City saith the Text Chap. 22.4 And his Name shall be written in the foreheads of these 144000 Ch. 14.1 Therefore these 144000 shall be that City of God I omit for brevity many other comparityes betwixt this conscript 144000 Ch. 14. and the holy City Ch. 21. The Position of the Prototype twelve Tribes about the Tabernacle was in a fourfold figure And their Antitype this 144000 Ch. 14. are of a square number And the holy City Ch. 21. is to be both of a quadrate number and figure And this fourfold congruity betwixt both in their number in the Name of God in the place of that Name and in their quadrate position signally proves that these 144000 Ch. 14. shall be the same City of God Ch. 21. And likewise that the practice of that quadrate polity for such as the Tree is such is the Fruit shall be a righteousness of a quadruplex or fourfold conformity which only or what tends thereunto is substantial and true Righteousness All other is but deceits We have already shown who that Lamb upon Mount Sion shall be Secondly Who these conscript first-fruits that shall attend him are to be And Thirdly We shall further enquire why this conscriptcompany is called The first-fruits redeemed c. Or from what and for what they shall be so redeemed And first from what they shall be redeemed To which I answer They shall be redeemed from doing the works of Heathens and Hypocrites that are contrary to Gospel-rule And from those obscure commixt works of proud careless true Christians that are inconform to Christs Commands and render them though true Saints doubtful to themselves and others whether they be such or not Secondly We shall enquire for what they should be thus redeemed The Text expresly answers this demand in these words These are the first-fruits That is They should be thus redeemed to be the first-fruits or foregoing examples for all Ages to follow To wit To draw the Nations both Heathens Sects and Saints to practise good works conform to that which is right in it self For the works of Hypocrites have no power to draw others to practise sincere obedience because they by their works give not nor can give any good examples for Papists Jews or Turks to follow Nor can careless true Christians corrupt in Manners draw others nor be drawn without those first-fruits for them to run after their examples Therefore All Sects and Nations without these first-fruits and the Lamb for their Patern must remain statu quo prius ever unconverted never truly united but be as they are and long have been Or be if that be possible worse than ever they were Sic subitò deterrima deteriora si sint sequentur Saecula For corrupt careless slothful true Christians cannot run nor draw others to run the ways of Gods Commands They though their Doctrine were most sound they strict and devour their gists great and many have more need to be drawn than power to draw others by their examples Their drawing is rather a drawing back of themselves and a with-holding of others from pressing forwards For the proud covetous careless conversations of such true Saints have no attractive force to good draw forceably to evil Their slothful pains of careless Levity Pride and Avarice are usually fond and rash impugnations of censorious ignorance against the practice of that which is right Therefore the secret and scarce discerned Graces of such true Saints are too feeble to draw others by solid Doctrine or depth of Knowledge which they never seek after Or by good examples which they never give These are no attractive first-fruits though they may in due time be drawn by them But The Righteousness of these first fruits shall be opposite to the works of darkness Justitia manifesta works of Light made thereby manifest and for that cause forceable to draw he Nations Men Sects and Saints to God and to bind the attentive ears of all to hearken and obey by its delicious harmony Nor shall that sacred company serve for Paterns of practice to posterity but be Gnomon judicij vel Norma judicandi the Rule of Right Judgment to all Saints Sects and Professors that pretend to extraordinary gifts of the Spirit of God and to be endowed with power from above above their brethren of present or former times Such may try and judge themselves and discern and be discerned by others in a very large measure whether they be led by the spirit of delusion or by the Spirit of Truth and Sobriety For The Gospel-Church was to be in the Wilderness vailed in great obscurity involved in great distresses and decaying daily in Graces for 1260 years and until these first-fruits her Off-spring should begin to stand upon Mount Sion Therefore all Sects and Professors that pretend to be endowed extraordinarily with Gifts and Power from above before this time expire appear inevitably and may appear to themselves by undeniable Record of Sacred Scripture to be so far Impostors and Seducers of others For if
dammage therefore and causeless wrong from those that raise this injurious imputation and their busie ingratitude is very great I am damnified also much and the Truth much more by many that falsly charge me with false dealing with the Protestant party in asserting that sundry Texts in the seventeenth and eighteenth Chapters of the Apocalyps hold forth properly as the Primitive Fathers and sundry Modern Protestant Writers affirm Imperial Pagan and also Christian Rome Primitive but Apostate in Manners which that they do I suppose is fully proved in sundry precedent places of this Treatise and not Papal Rome otherwise than by a Prophetick Adumbration But they careless to read it or not careful to understand what they read impute to me this perhaps irrefellible Truth as a most dangerous Tenent tending to strengthen the Papists whereas the contrary Opinion so blind are Nonadvertists does rather really confirm them in all their Errours I suppose some of those that thus far perhaps oppose the Truth are persons of great worth and piety and my friends I have therefore oft desired sundry of them to lay down briefly their further Grounds of their contrary Opinions and I shall give by Gods assistance full satisfaction to them and others But they pursuing notwithstanding their false charge against me to my causeless ruine decline to do it Concerning all such as dare to be too bold to tast the forbidden fruits of the Father of Lyes I briefly conclude If any man so far own the Leaven of commixt falshood as to do good in part to any like that Prophet of Bethel and destroy him by a Lye Or like the Pharisees to rob and ruine any by Lyes of base ingratitude I say to such only as Michael did The Lord rebuke thee For such Instruments of wickedness and weapons of cruelty are far from being any part of the true Christian 's Quomodo Nor is Lastly Negligence Busie neglect leaves all good works either not begun or done but by halves Thy servant said Ahab a Figure of Antichrist was busie c. And the man to me committed to keep is gone God never committed formal Smoake nor Locusts Crowns to the keeping of Saints But Obedience or true Christian practice in a Quadruplex conformity is res commissa that thing which God commits to the care of all Saints and sincere Professors But Formal Professors and I am ashamed to say it Saints also are very busie about Smoake and Gold-like Works of Straw-like Levity or at best about good Works half perhaps performed never perfected but mind not tread underfoot so general is the Grand Apostacy the thing which God commits to their charge This busie neglect or half-performed practice was the loss of Ahab's life and of his family and people Saul Pilate Judas were guilty of the same half practice which very many almost all men miserably mistake for true Righteousness But it s most abominable in Gods sight and by him compared to Witchcraft and Rebellion 1 Sam. 15.23 The reason I conceive why Men Saints and Sects so much mistake Semipersormance for true practice is their common false Opinion that a Form of godliness a Fomal Smoaky Profession is the power of godliness and the duties contained in the first Table But the power of godliness Truth in practice or the fruit of Faith Hope and Charity conform to Gospel-Rule they reckon to be but Moral duties of the second Table not or not much worth their minding Therefore They tread under foot and no marvel all true Obedience to God and good Manners towards Men or perform such duties negligently or but by halves And for that very cause they themselves were given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot for 1260. years Chap. 11.1 2. To be short It was Johns Doctrine to the Pharisees That they should bring forth fruits meet for repentance or answerable to amendment of life Math. 3.8 But good Works done negligently or by halves are in no wise answerable to amendment of life But such works as are worthy of Repentance pleasing to God and profitable to men must be wrought in a Quadruplex conformity without any Quomodo of Pride Avarice Lyes or negligence Here I may add a word of the Excellency and necessity of this Quadruplex-right and of the real want of it Should I said the Vine forsake my Wine which cheareth God and man That is men of high and low degree But this Righteousness is both Bread to strengthen and Wine to chear the hearts of such Gods and Men And it only is well-pleasing to the living God For This Righteousness is the fruit of the true Vine and effect of Justification by Faith It 's panis vitoe sub Christo vita universis vel Agni convivium that promised-refection of the Lambs Supper or Antitypefeast wherein men and Saints shall by sincere and genuine obedience to God begin to be free'd from Schism and Divisions and servile Bondage to the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life Rev. 14.1 Secondly Nor shall it chear such Gods and Men as Bread Wine or as a Feast but as Musick from Heaven raise their Hearts to Heaven by its Harmony And I heard the voice of Harpers harping Apoc. 14.2 Their Harps are called the Harps of God Chap. 15.2 What these Harps of God are is well worth our enquiry and perhaps not hard to find We shall shew negatively what they are not and positively what they are And both are briefly held forth in this halfverse Non musica Chordula sed Cor The Harps of Men are no Harps of God but the heart of man framed by the hand of God in this Quadruplex-Righteousness is the Harp of God These Harpers appear in both Texts to be those first-fruits redeemed from the Earth and from among men Chap. 14.3 4. That is The first-fruits after the Grand Apostacy visibly redeemed from Antichristian blindness and Barbarities Modo tollite mores Barbarorum This work seems to be The work because these manners are the Colocynthes or Death in all men and in Saints chiefly from which their Redemption or deliverance is a Resurrection from Death to Life These are the first Fruits saith the Text redeemed visibly and vigorously redeemed after the grand Apostacy from the earth Ver. 3.4 For we find others in Scripture before the Apostacy and in the Primitive times called The first fruits clearly distinct as is evident from these who were to be the first-fruits as they were before it after that grand Apostacy Therefore The great utility of these Harps This Righteousness though sleighted by Heathens and Hypocrites Chap. 11 2. fully appears from these Texts For They expresly shew it to be a Redemption a visible Redemption from death And reason it self shews the same utility and necessity of it to destroy dead works to convince and unite dissenting Brethren to refel errours and to make Men Saints States and Churches flourish in Temporal and Spiritual felicity Which Mercies of the
largest Magnitude must needs amount to a Redemption from death Righteousness saith the Text delivereth from death But the want of this Righteousness is as Death to those that want it and their usual both Temporal and Spiritual overthrow Vespasian asked Apallonius what was Nero's overthrow Nero said he could touch and tune the Harp well but would sometimes screw up the Pins too high sometimes too low And this ill-tuned Harp a Heart tun'd too high or too low like the Harp of Nero is the almost Epidemick overthrow They thereby usually perish that have it and are the cause that others perish I shall but present this perfect pattern of a wel-tuned Harp The man wounded by Thieves wanted help There was res rect a in se right in itself The good Samaritan the best Harper considering that Incomplex-right made it Complex took care to know it and to conform his Will and work to that known right They that are so busse as to pass by that which is right to others or take no due notice of it have not the Harps of David but Nabals voice Folly is with them be they never so wise or Learned But God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 God therefore as the greatest meroy to fallen Man and Saints revolted hath promised to call raise and draw them by the delicious harmony of the Harps of God that so they hearing his call may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved For Truth is the Door of Life and Knowledge the Key to open it Knowledge of the Truth is twofold In Theory In Practice Theorical knowledge chiefly from Scripture as its Fountain is the knowledge of sound Doctrine Practick Knowledge is the Knowledge of that which is right in it self and due to be done to every man The first is opposite to Heresie The second opposeth Heathenism and Hypocrisie The first serveth to acquire a Form of Godliness The second conduceth to procure the practice and power of it The first is the Extrinse ground of Faith The second is the fruit and proof of Faith and the immediate Foundation of all good manners The Object of the first is Janua Doctrinae Truth in Doctrine The Object of the second is Janua justitiae Truth in practice Both are the Key or Means to Men Saints and Sects to come to the Door of Life that they may be saved without both can none come They that read not the Scriptures nor hear them read or seek not diligently to understand them by reading such Books or hearing such Teachers as fitly unfold them come not to the knowledge of the Truth Therefore such slothful Professors that would be saved by a Faith Implicit or wanting practice come not to the Door of Truth that they may be saved For God would have all men to be saved by a Regular means in a rational way and come to the knowledge of the Truth truth in Doctrine Truth in Practice without which they cannot be saved He that will come to the knowledge of the Truth must try all things Try all things saith the Text 1 Thes 5.21 Jacob wrastled with God by prayer all night not without much corporal labour prevailed and obtained the blessing So they that would come to the knowledge of the truth must not only wrastle with God by Prayer but expect to take serious pains in trying all things that they may find that which is pleasing to God and profitable to men Which Beroean-disquisition is the greatest pleasure to such as are sincere but a burden to base minds Heathens and Hypocrites Therefore Few find the strait-Gate the door of Life by coming to the knowledge of the Truth because they wrastle not like Jacob with God by Prayer nor take the pains to try all things But If Prayer without Pains will procure it many will not want this blessing But De Caelo ignavis precibus Deus ipse repugnat God resists the slothful though they make many prayers Hence we may demand why such Sects Jews Papists Turks c. and many Formal Professors so long abide in their blind Schisms and fruitless Formalities The Answer is almost as Obvious as the demand easie They count it Sacriledge to try their own Tenents Filthy Heathens hold it the highest Profaneness and so do Formalists and Hypocrites to examine what themselves mis-suppose to be true Religion But Sola nobilitas est unica virtus Virtus consist it in actione Actio virtutis est disquisitio veritatis None are noble but who try all things to find the Truth Ther 's no Nobility but what 's faithfully and soberly disquisitive A second Answer to the same demand may be this Therefore Sects Saints and Nations are so far from agreeing and so ready to make and maintain Divisions Because these Harpers that by their exemplary practice shall appease their Rage scarce yet appear to be the presidents those predicted first-fruits for others to follow Samuel's sons the Text sayes not they knew not the Law but walked not in his wayes turned aside after lucre took bribes perverted judgment They gave no good examples for others to follow Samuel was sufficient to teach his sons the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and manners but they were so wicked that they would not learn to know that particular Truth that attends upon practice for which cause they were cast out and their Government translated For men may and many do attain to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners and may add the greatest Gifts and Parts to the strictest Profession and soundest Doctrine and yet never come to the knowledge of the Truth to be saved but remain as Eli's sons did men of Belial and most wicked if they seek not to come to the knowledge of the Truth that particular Truth that attends upon practice That is If they do not duly consider that right and mercy that is due to be done and that they may do it to every man For the doers only of the truth in practice and not the sayers hearers or knowers of the Truth in Doctrine are justified and accepted in Gods sight But it 's the common practice of many strict Professors of Locusts and Hypocrites especially and too much of true Saints to take competent pains to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith But to the knowledge of the Truth in practice they come not or scarce come They have hired Farms or are busie in seeking perhaps to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith without regard to the knowledge of it in practice whereby they may be saved and by which true conviction and peace may be procured to all people Lastly Supercilious Pride surpasseth all other means that most oppose the peace of Men Sects and Nations Who is David sayes Nabal who 's the Son of Jesse Nabals folly might further thus plead I