the Desolations of the Jewish Nation according to the Prophecy Dan. 9. ult which was perfectly fulfill'd by the last of these nam'd Emperours according to the second Seal Can any thing more justifiably follow this Train of Emperours than the grave just rational Succession of the Antonines or close with greater Esclatt and Renown than in Alexander Severus so fam'd for Justice that the Ballances are most worthily put into his Hand and by a Voice from the Throne in the midst of the Beasts the whole Scheme is directed upon the Church and the Half-Time fix'd from the Resurrection to the Apostacy or taking away the Daily Service of God under the Type of the Wheat Barly Oyl and Wine the Materials of Sacrifice the Type of the Christian Service all which are the Result of the third Seal opened Who can deny that a Chain of salvage Emperours press'd upon the Heels of Alexander in whose Equipage Famine Pestilence the Sword attended and was most fitly given with the Device of Hell and Death waiting upon the dismal Pomp of these Beasts of the Earth in the fourth Seal Is it possible to oversee the Persecution rais'd by Dioclesian that ceased not by the space of ten Years in which all the Christian Blood shed by the Pagan Emperour was summ'd up Is it I say possible to oversee this in the fifth Seal the Emblem of which is the Cry of the Souls under the Altar No more can it be denied That that great Shake of the Power of the Spirits of the Air above and of the Heathen Idolatrous Powers below is admirably pourtrayed in the sixth Seal opened After which we find an industrious Delay to the seventh Seal in the new sealing and the seventh Seal when opened did most leisurely produce the very sounding of the Trumpets for first There was the silence of half an hour a short and imperfect Time indeed but it stay'd the Effect of the Sealing for not till that half Hour past the Trumpets were deliver'd to the Angels After that there was a solemn Service of Christian Religion signifying the daily Service yet continuing and upon the Acceptance of it a second demolishing of Paganism by Theodosius Defeat of the last Rallyings of it by Eugenius and Argobastis after Julian and other Heathenizers upon his Prayers Now from that Time or Theodosius the Great 's Death within a Year after at 395 or near it all History dates the Declination of the Western Empire and Prophecy agreeably denotes the Angels preparing to sound in the many Impressions upon the Empire by foreign Invasions upon it yet respiting the very date of their Sound from the Time Theodosius died to 437 or 404 from the Resurrection somewhat above forty Years but according to the Half time exactly before observ'd at Alexander Severus's death An. Vulg. 237 or 202 from the general Epoch the Resurrection with this half 404. Let us now Review the wonderful Consent and Harmony between the Relation of History in Things so undoubted as to be incumbred with no Controversie and the Schemes of this Prophecy the one keeping hand in hand with the other in such an even uninterrupted and just sucession and course of Time as does abundantly prove this Line and its Beginning so far as is necessary in this first particular to be at 437 and consequently its End at 1697 All which have been more fully Treated and are here only summ'd up to make the Perspective the clearer and more entire I come now to the Second Enquiry viz. into the Importance Enquiry 2 of the Sealing wherein these two things will deserve our particular Examination 1. What the most natural and ready significations of Sealing are and which is here to be chosen as most agreeable with the other Symbols of the Worshippers Retir'd into the Secret of the Temple the Witnesses Sackcloth the Woman in the Wilderness upon the Gentiles Treading the Outer Court 2. When the Efficacy of this Sealing began for that leads the Time of the Trumpets even as the Trumpets fix the Time of the Sealings Efficacy As to the First it is to be known that Sealing imports three things 1. Secrecy and Retirement from general and ordinary observation Thus the Servants of God by the Antichristian Apostatical Times coming on are hidden no eye but the eye of God or of men inlightned by him could discern all of them The Disguise put upon them by Antichristians casting them out for Gods name sake their Retiring from the common corruption of Publick Worship their mourning for the Gentilisme brought in and the Kingdom of Christ not appearing their not being suffered to meet as a Church a Body or Congregation of Saints and the Glory of God and Christ not shining out yet upon them brought them into the Secresie of a sealed condition immur'd them within the Temple and at the Altar of Incense cas'd them in Sackcloth and scatter'd them as into a Wilderness so that at length the Serpent himself could not find them and all this from the beginning of the first Trumpets sound at 437 till 1697 more or less 2. Sealing intends Security and Preservation Thus Treasures are sealed up in Safety and defended from violation and rapine thus the Servants of God are safeguarded by their Sealing the Temple being the Secret of Gods Presence their Sackcloth Prophecy arm'd them as by vertue of the Sealing with a mighty power of Miracles and Fire going out of their Mouths to destroy their Adversaries the Church even in the Wilderness is deposited in a place prepared by God for her that she might be fed and all to this purpose That they might though they might suffer in the common Calamity of the several Trumpets yet not be hurt in their true Essential Glory by the Dragon but that they shall Reign when He is Bound nor so shut up but that the Temple shall be opened c. nor be so overcome by the Beast but that they shall Rise again ascend to Heaven in a Cloud their Enemies beholding them with terrour and appear in Mount Zion with the Name of God written in legible Characters on their Foreheads and at last in an innumerable company cloath'd in white Robes and Palmes in their Hands and the Church it self as the Bride the Lambs Wife be admirably Glorious 3. Most immediately and close to the purpose of the present Symboll Sealing speaks Delay and Estoppage from a present Exposal or publick Shew And thus the Symbol of sealing is provided to claspe and indent with the former Symbol of the Seals for the whole Symbol is taken from sealing the Book of Christ's Kingdom Dan. 12. 4. till the end when therefore at the sixth Seal opened the Empire became Christian the manly Birth was caught up to the Throne of God the Dragon was cast down and a Song of Victory sung upon it immediately this sealing followed to stay this Glory and as it were to arrest its Appearance it was therefore hid from hurt because the Glory
God pleases their strong Holds are like the first ripe Figs that fall into the Mouth of the Eater Their Nahum 3. 12. Warlike People are as Women This is a visible Pledge God will be ready with all things else the Tenth of the great City falling and that Turkish woe passing away when his Witnesses shall rise Revel .. 13. 11. Our Duty is to stand still to be in our Station of Subjection to the Powers that are over us and to see the Salvation of God and He that put it into the Hearts of Princes to agree and give their Power to the Beast untill His words shall be fulfill'd will also put it into their Heart to agree to do what shall then be to be done by his Appointment Our right sense of which and suitable Obedience to our Prince will be an Honour to Christianity to our Hearing and Reading this Prophecy and a Safety to our Souls if it should not be as it is most likely to be and we have the Royal Promise it shall be and I much hope it in these Nations even according to this Prophecy to our Concernments in this World And thus I have brought to a Point the Beginning of this Line at 437 which is the Foundation of all and accordingly we shall find the whole going on to 1697. The End of this first Point settling the Epoch or Beginning of this Line of 1260 Dayes ERRATA PAge 20. Line 3. for sixth read seventh p. 23. 6th line before the last for Witnesses read Woman p. 24. l. 15. As every Leap-Year we double February 24 to equal the Suns Year to our Account p. 58. l. 1. blot all of p. 64. l. 14. read Myrtle SECT VI. Wherein The Third Part of Men upon which the Trumpets have their Effects is more fully made clear to be the Roman Imperialness and that the Symbols of the Three first Trumpets do most plainly agree with the History in full Answer to the second and third Enquiry HAving given a general Account of the things nam'd in the Contents so far as is necessary to settle the Beginning of that Line upon the beginning of which we have been so intent it is now necessary to give a more ample Satisfaction concerning the Third part of men both that It means the Roman Imperial Power as also why the Empire being Christian there was such an Effusion or Wrath upon it that so the whole Line may be thereby ascertain'd The first Time then in true order of nature in this Prophecy though not in Place or in the Contexture of it this Third Part is found and made use of is in that Vision of the Dragon Revel 12. 3. Where I think hardly any Interpreter does not think there is a Representation of the Roman Pagan Empire in one Line or other of that Table And indeed when we consider the Prophecy hath the Roman Empire for its great Subject seeing in the Days of that and at the end of that Christ's glorious Kingdom is to be establish'd it is every where where it can be to be suppos'd and seeing here All things agree to it and that the Careir of Time was guided directly to it in the parallel Vision to this viz. of the fifth and sixth Seals upon the Dragon watching to destroy the Prince the Christian Church was to bring forth and to devour it in which Cause so many Souls lay under the Altar and yet that the Lamb was on the Throne from all this we cannot but suppose the Roman Pagan Empire intended The third part then of the Stars brush'd down as it were with the Tail of the Dragon whatever spiritual Signification it hath of the Sathanick Power does also suppose those Supreme Princes and States that the Roman Imperialism dismounted and made tributary stamping upon them with its Legs of Iron according to Daniel The Emblem is lively Dan. 7. 7. and elegant to present their Dominions converted into Provinces subjected to the Roman Dominion So that from hence That Empire Thirding the East and West of the Sovereignties of the habitable known World in the divine Judgment of it is symbol'd by a third part of Nature it self viz. Earth Trees Sea Fountains Sun c. for of the third part of the Stars brought under its universal Monarchy it was constituted And in this very Vision where the Holy Spirit who fore-knew and fore-saw what Interpretations would be made of what he writ and what Interpretations he would have to be made and in what Time and to what degrees of Certainty and Assurance these Interpretations should rise and so from thence what was fit to be laid in the Foundations and what to be superstracted The Holy Spirit that knew all this knew that in the Vision of the Dragon there would be found the Roman Monarchy agreedly so that there would be a fair Conduct to its third part in Dominion and wherever that Imperialness resided whether in the East or the West it was mounted upon the Ruine or Subjection of the third part of the Stars and so the third part became the Figure of the Roman Imperialness not of the whole Territory of the Empire but of the Imperialism or Grandeur of Supremacy And what was most immediately and properly to touch that is according to the most solemn Symbolicks of this Prophecy said to touch and impeach that third part For otherwise the whole Empire is call'd in the Evang. Luke the whole Habitable World and in the course of the Luke 2. 1. four Judgments of the fourth Seal which rang'd equally as it were over the whole Territory and Dominion of the Empire Death is said to have Power given it over four parts of men or over every fourth part with each Judgment signifying the free Expatiation of those Judgments upon the whole Latitude of the Empire and as it were quartering it with a judiciary staff But here the Territory of the Empire with its far and wide Dominion over the Earth was under the Ravage of Death without any touch upon the Imperialisme it self although so many Emperours fell under it and so there is no mention of the third part Revel 6. 8. So in the change of the Empire from Heathenism to Christianity there was no Change upon the Imperiality which continued as high still in the Christian Emperours from Constantine to the Death of the Great Theodosius as it was before the Description therefore is as if Heaven and Earth were concern'd in the Mutation but there is no mention of a third Revel 6. ult The opening of the bottomless Pit darkned the Sun and the Air with the Smoak out of which the Locusts came upon the Earth and they had Power to hurt men universally but Revel 9. 6. because the Imperial Sovereignty was not to be hurt in the very Imperiality there is no mention of the third part but when the Turkish Number was to seise upon the Eastern Throne that had its first Establishment upon the
The Contents of this Treatise are given in Tables annexed to each Part. 1 Part Before the Apostacy in 10 Sections 2 Part During the Apostacy to the last End in 16 Sections A CALENDER OF THE Whole Time contained in Scripture ennobled with the Events of each Part of Time distinguish'd by the true Year of the World according to Scripture the Years before Christ till the Incarnation then the Year of Christ and of the Resurrection to all which is applied the Julian Period  Year of the World Year before Christ Year of the Resur Julian Period TO the perfect Creation and first Sabbatism 1 3987  764 765 To the Flood containing the History of Abel and the Patriarks of the first Roll of the Gyants the Translation of Enoch the seventh from Adam The Ark prepar'd by Noah an Eighth and the Destruction of the old World 1656 2331  2420 To Terah's Death containing the History of Shem or Melchisedeck as he is after known to be with the Patriarks of the 2 d. Roll Of Babel the space of 427 Years 2083 1904  2847 To the going out of Egypt containing the History of the sojourning of Abraham and his Seed of the Promises of Sodom and the â—gyptian Bondage and Deliverance the space of 430 Years 2513 1474  3277 To the building of the Temple begun containing the setting up of the Tabernacle of Testimony the Conquest of Canaan the Time of the Judges of David the space of 480 Years 2993 994  3757 To Solomon's Death containing the Building of the Temple and his illustrious Reign his Fall and Repentance 36 Years 3029 958  3793 To Ezekiel's Vision of the New Jerusalem containing the History of the Kings of Judah the History of the Defection of the ten Tribes and their Kings of the two great Witnesses Elijah and Elisha the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple the Captivity by Nebuchadnezzar the space of 390 Years 3419 568  4183 To the End of the Captivity containing the Continuance of the Captivity Nebuchadnezzar's Victory over Egypt Ezek. 29. 17. and Babylon's Fall the space of 40 Years 3459 528  4223 From Cyrus to the Sanctuary cleans'd and to the King of fierce Countenance and understanding dark Sentences broken without hand a Line of 2300 Evenings and Mornings or 2300 Years with its collateral Lines which now follow being also inclusive of the Daily Sacrifice taken away     From the Words first going forth by Cyrus to its compleat being gone forth by Darius Hystaspis and ultimately at Artaxerxes Longimanus's seventh year the space of 75 Years 3534 453  4298 From thence to the Incarnation containing Antiochus's Tyranny and other Troubles the space of 453 Years 3987 1 Yea. of Christ  4751 To the Resurrection containing the Birth private Life publick Ministry and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ to his Resurrection 33 Years 4020 33 1 4784 To Alexander Severus's Death the ballance of Time between the Resurrection and the Apostacy containing the History of the Universal Preaching of the Gospel the space of 202 Years 4222 235 202 4986 To the Apostacy or the beginning of the 1260 Days * Or Time Times Half TIme containing a Vindication of the Gospel by the most rational Apologies constant Sufferings of Christians till the Christian Empire and then the Christian Empire till the taking away the Daily or pure publick Worship the space of 202 Years 4424 437 404 5108 To the End of the first time and Beginning of the second or first of the two Times during the Fall of the Western Empire containing the rising of the Beast at 475 his Fall as a Star from Heaven at 606 his manly Age at 666 from his Conception Anno Domini 59 to that manly Age 725 of the space of 360 Years 4784 797 764 5468 To the End of the second Time or first of the two Times and the Beginning of the third Time containing the Range of the Mahometan Locusts or Saraoens and the Beasts Promotion to a settled Age or of Consistency the space of 360 Years more 5144 1157 1124 5828 To the End of the third or second of the two Times to the Half-time containing the Cavalcade of the Turkish Horse-men and the Beasts declining Age the space of 360 Years more 5504 1517 1484 6188 To the End of the Half-time or to the seventh Trumpet containing the State of the Reformation and since to the Expectation of the Witnesses Rising about 1697 ten Years hence the space of 180 Years 5684 1697 1664 6368 To the End of the last Seventy Five Years of the seventh Trumpet containing the seven Voices and the seven Vials and ending in It is done It is done at 1772. 5759 1772 1739 6443 After this follows new Time or the SABBATISM of the Creation viz. The cubical thousand Years of the glorious Kingdom of Christ     AN EXPLICATION OF Daniel's Grand Line of Time or of his 2300 Evenings and Mornings as given in his four last Chapters In these following Sections SECT I. Of the Vision of the Daily taken away and therein of the 2300 Ev. Morn or the Vision call'd the Vision of the Ev. Morn in general On Dan. chap. 8. THE Vision of the 2300 Evenings and Mornings dates most exactly and precisely the Time from the very Beginning of the Persian Monarchy or the First of Cyrus to the cleansing of the Sanctuary at the new Jerusalem and the breaking of Antichrist without hand or by the stone cut out of the Mountains without hand at the Kingdom of Christ Dan. 8. 14. 25. The order of the former Visions duely consider'd gives great light to this For first there is in the course of Ezekiels Visions a long allotment of Time till the New Jerusalem and a peculiar Sanction of the prophetical Cypher of Time or of a Day for a Year Ezek. 4. 6. That gives full scope aed room to those Monarchies to run their Time as in the Image and the four Beasts in Daniel's two precedent Visions 〈◊〉 2. c. 7. The former of those two or the Vision of the Image gives only a general Appearance of so many Monarchies or Kingdoms or rather of a Monarchy universal shifting from one People and their Kingdom to another and all adverse to the Kingdom of Christ for that could not appear while they were in Play From hence arises such a Line of Time as necessarily is requir'd for four Monarchies to display themselves but because they may be shorter or longer in their duration they give no certain measures only as that there is no History of Action elder than Moses's of the Creation appearing in the World it is an Argument of weight against the World's Eternity so on the other side the daily matter of History arising from many other Kings and Kingdoms and particularly of the Romans assure us the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come because while that lasts the grand foretold Kingdom of Christ cannot
Peculiarity of Expression The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13. 8. and the corrupting and annulling that Supreme Point of Christian Religion and the Service founded on it and regulated by it according to its own Purity Simplicity and Transcendency free from idolatrous Defilements is a Cardinal Point of Antichristianism and a most proper Sense of taking away the daily Sacrifice of which I am often to make mention and desire that from hence it may be carried all along with the Notion of the daily Sacrifice though mentioned but this once even this Sacrifice of Daily or Eternal Vertue The sealing Prophecy and Vision is not only the Ratification and confirming all Prophecy by finishing of it as Christ Joh. 19. 30. declar'd It is finish'd so far as was requisite to that coming of Christ into his Mediatory and Redemptory Kingdom but signifies also the sealing of Prophecy at that present Time so as thta the second Coming of Christ into his glorious Kingdom Rev. 6. 1. c. Rev. 7. 1. c. Rev. 10. 4. c. should not at that Time be but run through that course of sealing first during the Time of the seven Seals then during the Time of 144000 sealed then during the seven Thunders sealed under which Sealing we yet must remain these next following Ten Years Then all Things shall be finish'd spoken of in that yet sealed Prophecy for the Glorious Kingdom of Rev. 16. 17. ch 21. 6. Christ till those two words of Finiture are pronounced It is done It is done Yet notwithstanding This The most Holy is Anointed in his Resurrection made Lord and Christ the true Messiah Acts 2. 36. Act. 13. 3â— even by Him who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Covenant of Grace in his Blood and the Sacrifice of himself He Confirms for one Week viz. the First half week by himself For so it begun to be spoken by the Lord and then it was confirmed by them that heard him Heb. 2. 1. c. To which the Body of the Jewish Nation being so heinously Enemies first in cutting off Messiah then in resisting all the Ministry of his Apostles and persecuting them to the Death The Flood of Desolations returned upon them by that very Roman Power People and Wing of Idolatrous Abomination and Desolation that they invocated for the Death of Messiah and so they remain and shall remain desolated till the End of that Indignation during the Times of the Gentiles till that City spiritual Sodom and Egypt in which our Lord was Crucified shall be burnt with Everlasting Burnings and the Captivity never be returned till the Captivity of the Old Jerusalem the bloody and filthy City be returned which shall never be for the New Jerusalem shall come down from Heaven and constitute a Holy City below Ezek. 16. 54. This Richest Line of Time laden with the Redemption of Remark our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ invites us to it self with admiring and adoring Thoughts and commands the World to Kiss the Son with a Kiss of Homage and Obedience Great Occasions derive agreeable Names Daniel is therefore suitable to the Vision call'd a Man of desires or belov'd expressing the infinite Love from which Redemption flows and which it begets in us back to God and Christ with vehement Passions of Desire And he is not only call'd so in this Vision but ever after it to shew the Honour put upon him by it Dan. 10. 11. 19. And as this Vision stands in this Prophetick Line of Time it ensures it to us For as at the fulness of Time treasur'd up in it Christ came against all contrary Appearances against all the Indisposition of the World to receive him and the Indesert of so Divine a Condescention He came according to the sure word of this Prophecy Determining him as to the very self same day in comparison of which the Transfiguration before the Apostles as Eye-witnesses was less sure according to this he came and did not tarry and though his Transfiguration remonstrated his Right yet it was in private His Decease as a Cloud receiv'd it and though vindicated by his Resurrection yet the sitting down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High was on the Throne of his Father He shall sit on his own Throne The Father will shew him whom the Heavens yet contain and Hide the Transfiguration was an earnest of it and does assure it yet we have a more sure Word of Prophecy unto which if we take heed and pursue its Conduct as a Light in the dark and obscure the fuliginous and dusky State of the Apostacy it will bring us to that bright Morning Star as the Wise Men were by a lesser Star led to this Morning Star even to him who Matt. 2. as the King of his whole Church is to be acknowledged with those Presents of Gold Myrrh and Frankincense Whatever most speaks Royalty Dignity on his part Love and Obedience on ours and he will return it a Thousand Fold by shewing himself and exalting us to the Mountain of Spices Cantic 8. ult SECT VI. Brief Remarques on Daniels last and largest Vision are made from part to part c. 10. c. 11. c. 12. THis last and longest of Daniels Visions I shall most briefly pass over Because the chief Things in it that concern the Kingdom of Christ have either been already given and are here recollected with some Explanations or the Line of Time to Christ is just Travers'd especially to introduce the End or else when it comes beyond the Weeks the Death and Resurrection of Christ Things are gone over again in the Evidence and clearness of a New Testament Prophecy yet sundry things of greatest Use and Remarque to the fuller understanding of what went before and is to follow will arise to us This last and longest Vision measures more particularly and distinctly the whole space of the 2300 days abating the two or three first years of Cyrus and so brings down Time to the End so as that from the sealing of Prophecy at the End of the first half and the last of the seventy Weeks Lines of Time are given the First implicitely along the Time of the sealed Book to be open'd in its seven Seals in the Apocalyps Or in express Numbers viz. the 1335 which just at the end of the seventh Seal begin in the Trumpets and continue until all Finished or IT IS DONE IT IS DONE and so arise to One thousand three hundred thirty five years This Vision according to the Pleasure of the infinitely wise Spirit of Prophecy varies from the precedent in this That it is rather Enigmatical in vail'd and covert Expressions then Iconical or by way of Imagery The first Vision was perfectly Dan. 2. an Image whose Anatomical Distributions by the Head the Arms and Breast the Belly and Thighs the Legs Feet and Toes distributed Time The second Iconiz'd by four Beasts had
Voices had now prepar'd for the Vials and the Thunders then were unseal'd for the Vials pouring out Rev. 22. 10. And this agrees with the sealing Vision and Prophecy at the very cutting off of Messiah altho there was a Time of farther Tryal of the Jews the last Half-week yet it was then indeed seal'd the Jews having rejected and crucified their King who yet even by Pilate's Inscription in Hebrew Greek and Latin This is the King of the Jews by his Resurrection Ascension and sending down the Spirit was Anointed But till the End of the Indignation The Prophecy of his Kingdom was seal'd from its Glorious Appearance altho this Sealing had several new Sealings after some partial and momentary Discoveries of the Kingdom which are most necessary to be here understood and carried all along It is most evident It was here seal'd and answerably in the Revelation c. 5. It was a Book seal'd with seven Seals when Christ took it at his very Resurrection and though the opening the first Seal was a Publication of his Kingdom to the Jews and Gentiles and he went out conquering and to conquer c 6. 1 2. after the opening the first Seal yet it could not then appear for there were six Seals still upon it Now these Seals carry most evidently as we shall see a Course of 400 years from the last half week when the sealing was complete in the final rejection of the Jews For the first Seal opened and the Gospel not received by the Jews the rest had greater Force of Sealing which Sealing yet was determinately made at the very Death of Christ and the Indignation upon that Parricide And though these Seals carry a Course of Time yet condecent to the Type of the great secrecy of the seven Seals There is no express Line of Time drawn till the Kingdom of Our God is celebrated as come after the sixth of the Seals opened and the Rev. 12. 10. compar'd with c. 6. 12. c. 8. 3. 4. seventh also opened as compleating that whole Vision of the manly Birth Caught up to the Throne and the Dragon cast down Revel 12. in Theodosius the Great 's last Victory over Heathenism as we shall see in those Visions But then immediately at the sixth Seal as it were by way of prevention of the Kingdom of Christ breaking out at the seventh The 144000 were first sealed and this was such an c. 7. obscuring Christs Kingdom under the Apostasie That the Lines of Time were according to the Decency of the Type concealed till the Thunders uttering their Voices and the Book opened Apoc. c. 10. c. 11. without which Apocalyptick Lines these Numbers of Daniel could not be understood So till the End viz. the seventh Trumpet finishing all and the Kingdom of Christ proclaim'd there is a continuance of this sealing in some Degrees even till the Thunders unseal'd Chap. 14. But yet there are convenient Notations of Time along the Seals For every Event upon their opening leads us demonstratively enough from Time to Time and that general Character of this First space of Time of the Seals after Christs Resurrection is most significantly imprinted by that Motto Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased Dan. 12. 4. which was so notably fulfill'd in the Apocalyptical Ministry it self and after that especially during the Three following Seals in those Gospel Voices of a yet continuing Apostolical Ministry though inferior to the Apostles and daily growing flatter but still saying Come and see All labouring to have then proclaim'd Christs Kingdom For so Come and see imports all along c. 6. till the Fifth Seal Christ having now commanded the sealing of the Book with that Latitude not to the End but to the Time or whole Current of Time to the End The Two Angels on either Bank attending Christ the Man in Linnen upon the Waters of the great River Hiddekel as in the Preface c. 10. v. 4. These two by divine Ordination from that very word The End start this Question Vnto how long the End of these Wonders viz. That End until the Time of which Christ had just now signifyed The Book was seal'd To this Christ is pleas'd intending to reveal this Course of Time to his Church by Daniel to return an answer in the very sight of Daniel by lifting up both his Hands to Heaven and swearing by the Eternal Being living for ever to whom all Time is but as the Drop of the Bucket That there should be Time Times half a Time for the scattering of the holy People or the Revel 12. Womans being in the Wilderness which is the Apocalyptick Comment on it and when that was accomplished According to the Correspondent Oath in the Revel c. 10. All these things should be finished in the Days of the seventh Trumpet Now it is most observable Christ gives an answer by this Oath not of the Time from the End of the Weeks or at his Resurrection but from the Time of the Seals opened confirming that sealing the Book to make a Line of Time in its unsealing For who can think Time Times c. were together with the Seals seeing those three Times and Half are so plainly given after the Seals But because the Divine Spirit knew that neither could the Cypher of Time Times half a Time be truly discypher'd but by it self and that the Half Time would open in some appearance of the Kingdom and that this very Oath that now Lett out this Time would be revers'd upon it at that very prophetical Juncture Daniel is mov'd by the same Spirit as not enough intelligenc'd by this Oracle to desire a further Divine Responsal I heard saith he but I understood not and therefore I said Lord what the End of these things Upon which Christ declares first a second sealing and discharges Daniel from farther Attendance in this matter after this last Oracle given him v. 9. which is again repeated v. 13. Go thy way Daniel saith Christ that is the way of all Flesh or Dye at thy Time till Thou stand in thy Lot at the end of the Days Not the Book now but the Words referring to the Thunders Vtterances and the Words within the open Book are seal'd or stay'd from an immediate coming to pass till the very Time of the End much farther promoted viz. to the Vials And then Christ is pleas'd to give first this Emblem of the Time of the Vnsealing in these Words Many shall be purified and made white and tryed or refin'd viz. by the Voices and by the Efficacy of Divine Truth then breaking out but as is discover'd in the Vials The wicked will do wickedly and will not understand by so great a Thunder of Truth and therefore it is so eminently noted of them in the Vials They Repented not but blasphem'd and in proper Application to the same Time it is said He that is Vnrighteous and Vnjust let him be so still and He that is Righteous let
at an Hour this Splendid secure Symbolical Church thinks not of except the few undefiled Names and they of it that overcome who have Promises of greater Glory with Christ then this outward but this Church in its own Name hath the Honour to make a Line of Time from the Reformation to this Day and shall till that sudden coming of Christ upon it when such a State will be at an End There have been Societies of Christians that since the Reformation Arg. 10 have subsisted only upon the Principles of brotherly Love whose Door hath been attempted to be shut upon them as not allowed Churches of Christ or not in such a way of Worship who have had little outward strength who have yet kept the word of Christ and not denyed his Name in a strict adherence to his word only who have Enemies even of the Reformed who are relaps'd down to the same Pitch the Apostacy was at when styl'd the Synagogue of Sathan in the Church of Smyrna not receiving indeed the Beasts Number of 666. but too far link'd with the Corruptions of Antiquity after the Empire becoming Christian soon Antichristianis'd who though for the present at least seem irreconcileable with the Apostacy advanc'd to its Number yet have great Indignation against Philadelphia and its Members These shall at the Kingdom of Christ appearing come and worship at this Churches Feet and be forc'd to acknowledge Christ lov'd it whose Crown of Honour it is that it hath kept the Word of Christ's patience embrac'd the Purity of Christianity in a low and mean State and therefore the Glory the Kingdom the New Jerusalem shall crown it when the Hour of Temptation comes upon all the rest of the Earth and detects the Vanity of their Religion even of their false or defiled Christianity and the Church-state of those who have not overcome the Impurities of them who call'd themselves Churches Christians Reform'd and were not so but did lye This Church is not yet come to its proper space upon the Line of Time nor can do till the Witnesses rise out of their Sackcloth and the Kingdom of Christ be proclaim'd at the seventh Trumpet And how excellent a Type of all this is the Church Philadelphia There shall be a most perfect happy and glorious State Arg. 11 of the Church before the Resignation of the Kingdom to God and the Father during the thousand years the very first Recidivations from which shall be spew'd out of Christ's Mouth and the whole of Church-States drawn up into Eternity of which Loadicea is a clear Emblem viz. of the Recidivation and spewing out in that last State Now from All this it is most evident The Church of Ephesus may have place from the first preaching the Gospel till the cruel Persecution of Dioclesian into which last and most cruel One All the Christian Blood shed from the Resurrection sunk down as the Blood from Abel to Zacharias upon the Generation of the Jews in the Time of our Saviour and was requir'd of it therefore here Smyrna began to compleat the Churches Sufferings in being faithful unto Death and receiv'd the Crown of Life in the Symbol of Constantine's Christian Empire and so down to Theodosius the Great all which Time the Church continued pure although it began to be check'd by a Synagogue of Sathan Thus these two Churches contemporiz'd with the Seals Pergamus and Thyatyra ran along with the six first Trumpets under the Apostasie and Bestian Tyranny till in the latter part of the sixth Trumpet Thyatyra eluctated into the Reformation then several of the reform'd Churches settled into the Sardian state and draw the Line of Time with the last 180 of the 1260 Years in Conjunction with Thyatyra still existent tho' not intitled any longer to bear this Line and with Philadelphia not yet come to bear the Line of Time which last shall bear the last 75 Years from the Witnesses Rising and the Kingdom of Christ proclaim'd till the New Jerusalem and its thousand Years settle upon it and that new Cube of Time begin at the End of which the Laodicean Church no sooner begins but ends and an Amen is set to all Time by Eternity receiving it All which makes apparent There is no Inconsistency but a high Condecency in these seven representative Churches bearing a Line of Time contemporary with all Apocalyptical Time which ought to be shewn Hereby we see The Excellency of the Christian Church Remark and of our Union with it and Freedom from Schism depends not upon the Greatness the Antiquity the Primitiveness of Churches but upon the Divine Apostolickness of the Doctrine Worship Rules of Holy Life truly Christian Discipline wherein we unite with them The overcoming that evil of leaving the first Love that Christ had against the very first Church of Ephesus not made diminutive as in Pergamus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 small or few things Thyatyra was more as to the Excellency of true Christianity than being of that Church The not mingling with the Synagogue of Sathan in the Church of Smyrna gave the Inculpableness and Honour to it and its Members The not being of the Apostate Church when it call'd its self Catholick in Pergamus and Thyatyra but keeping to the Truth of the Gospel constituted the true Church when the Proselites and Disciples of that Apostacy were the Proselites and Disciples of Balaam and the Children of Jezebel The few undefiled Names and Overcomers in Sardis tho' a Reform'd Church were of greater Estimation with Christ than the whole Church besides some of whose rigid Zealots of its Splendour and Power Uniformity of Rites it is to be fear'd made the Synagogue of Sathan and Philadelphia tho' of little outward Power or Splendour yet holding fast the Word of Christ and not denying his Name and keeping the Word of Christ's Patience is preferr'd much before it and honour'd with the New Jerusalem from which Blessed State Laodicea abating and growing cool All Church-states in this World are so distasted by Christ that He spews them out of his Mouth and receives only the Overcomers to his Throne and his whole Church into Eternity SECT X. Of the Third Line of Time in the Grand Line of 2300 Even Morn or of the Seven Seals from the Resurrection shewing it extends to a space of 400 Years Apoc. Cap. 4. cap. 5. cap. 6. cap. 7. cap. 8. I Have now finish'd the first Real and General Line of Time that runs from Stem to Stern from the Beginning to the End of Apocalyptical Time I come now to the second giving of the same Lines which is not uniform and entire as the former of the Churches but made up not only of various Parts as that was of seven Churches but of various Representations of each part as Seals Trumpets Voices and Vials and each of these comprehends its following Order viz. the Seals the Trumpets the Voices the Vials under the Seventh of each former as hath been already clear'd
as to the State of the Church all along these Seals past There was a plain Appearance of it in the Apostolick Voices till just the Entrance of the fourth Seal From that Time these Voices ceas'd which had so far as supported by the Characters of Imperial History declar'd to us the Times and States of the Church as before drawn out in the Labour and Patience and Sufferings of the Ephesine Church while those Apostolical Voices lasted although there was such a Leaven of the Apostacy hid in it that it was charg'd to have left its first Love one great Instance of which was in Victor's Excommunication of the Asian Churches upon the score of the unwritten Ceremony of keeping Easter at all much more unwritten as to Criticism of Time which made that so great Fewd The Fifth Seal so plainly opens in the Sufferings of the Seal 5 Christian Martyrs as to assure us This Prophecy as also other Scripture-prophecies and Notes of Time are for the sake of the Church and not of Heathen Empires and States yet by the Course of the Seals we may easily know at what hour of the Empire it was as by referring to the peculiar foregoing Church-prophecy we know under what Symbol of the Church it lies and from both That it was the last and cruel ten Years Persecution or ten Days Tribulation begun by Dioclesian while the Christian Church was under that peculiar Symbol of the Church of Smyrna That it was about the Time of Dioclesian the Current of the former Seals and the immediately following Desolation of Heathenism under Constantine assure us That it was under the Symbol of the Church of Smyrna its peculiar Character of Sufferings and ten Days Tribulation make out as also in that there was no longer any Apostolical Voice but the Voice of Souls that were gone out of martyr'd Bodies it signifies the Synagogue of Sathan near an height and from that very occasion of the Tombs Relicks Memories and Veneration of Martyrs and Trust in their Negotiation out of the Body for those they left behind in it growing much higher However God graciously accepts this Suffering Church and lays no Imputation upon it but only on the Sathanick Synagogue He seems to have more respect to the Souls Complaint than to the Survivers of that Church He appoints them white Robes but as unconcern'd in Mediations for any in this World they are commanded to rest and there is on their Instance a Signification of a new Roll of Martyrs under Antichrist when the whole Number of those of the first Resurrection should be compleat over whom the second Death should have no Power This Seal then is the very Joynt betwixt the Kingdom of Paganism falling but not yet fallen and that short Appearance of Christ's Kingdom in the Christian Empire till Theodosius the Great The Army of Martyrs had not yet overcome by the Word of the Testimony which they held The Kingdom of Christ was not yet celebrated with that Doxology chap. 12. But there was nothing came between this Cry of the Souls and that Kingdom although speedily surpris'd by Antichristianism into which Pagan Demonolatry was first transplanted on this very occasion of Martyrs Sufferings compleated within this Seal especially And thus we have the State of the Kingdom of Christ in the Church within this Seal assur'd by one of the most famous Monuments of Ecclesiastick History The sixth Seal is that great Seal opened by which the Heathen Seal 6 State of the Roman Empire was demolish'd and which carries most abundant Instruction of this whole Time of the Seals and also of the Kingdom of Christ in his Church during that Time 1. That Heathen Idolatry that had seated it self as in the Heavens and from thence reach'd down it self into the Earth and in the Deep is as by an Earthquake remov'd from below and as by a Tempest above is dismounted and deposed from thence so that here Sathan as the Dragon was cast down from Heaven as by Lightning according to the Vision chap. 12. 2. The Emperours or Kings of the Earth and all its great Men lay'd aside their Greatness even to their Imperial Purple and Diadems as particularly Dioclesian the Arch-Persecutor and Maximian with him mov'd not so much by any thing as by a divine Terror by the Fear of him that sate on the Throne and of the Lamb. And this is given as a lively Type of Christ's glorious Appearance in the Destruction of his Enemies Who will be able to stand in that Day of his Wrath What Mountains Dens or Caves will then open to receive affrighted men 3. From hence it plainly appears What was to be open'd by Christ's opening of these Seals even no other than the glorious visible Kingdom of Christ and not his spiritual Kingdom only As an eminent Assurance of which He declar'd himself in the preaching of the Gospel and a Crown was given to him as an Acknowledgment of his Right though to obtain it he was to go out conquering and to conquer Here then in this Christian Empire beginning at the sixth Seal and so going on in the seventh Seal to Theodostus's Victory over all the Remains of Heathenism after Julian in the Senate Magistracy and People of Rome gather'd to a Head in Eugenius and Argobastes This Kingdom appear'd as in an Emblem and earnest of it self and so it is celebrated chap. 12. with Praise and Triumph as in Heaven though even there surpris'd 4. Here the State of Christ's Kingdom in the Church is solemnly declar'd and also as in the Christian Empire In the Church to shew the high towring Synagogue of Sathan There is no Voice of the Church but of an Angel crying to the four Angels not to hurt c. a certain Indication of bad Symptoms appearing at this in it self happy Change 2. There was a pure Church and Kingdom of Christ yet publick and visible but upon the Retreat for it was just now retiring and about to be seal'd that is under that over-growing Synagogue 3. This Kingdom of Christ in his Church was to have abating the general Unhappiness of fallen sinful Man a more quiet and illustrious State than heretofore viz. in a Christian Empire for till the whole Time of sealing the Servants of God was past the four Angels that had the four first Trumpets were commanded to hold the Wind that no such Hurt could be done upon the Empire as was after to be done when they sounded This was Smyrna's Crown So that tho' God had determin'd the Period of the Blood-guilty Roman Western Empire as Imperial yet it was kept off till it became Pagan-Antichristian a new Paganism Then God gave it in Wrath after a Time an Antichristian King its former Imperial King being taken away in Wrath first 5. The precise Time of Sealing that is of covering all the True visible Glory of Christianity in the Christian Empire is hereby set viz. until the First Trumpet For till all was sealed no
be a Prince without a People so that though the Gentiles forty two months are necessary before the Beasts forty two months yet they are not necessary to be a distinct time after for the Beasts Power necessarily supposes them they serve therefore not only the Grace of the Type as was said but the Secresie of the Prophesie both which require these numbers should be given entire and parallel even as Adams years of Life ran along to his Death with the common Line of Time to the Flood though it was necessary only until the Time of his Begetting and after that the Line was set upon a succeeding Patriarke and so in the whole Roll every ones Life though it did not support the Line yet corroborated it after the Paidogony or Begetting and so concurred with it to the last even thus the Gentiles Fourty two months support the Bestial Line till the Beasts rising and concurr in it with the Beast while they last and when they are ended there is no alteration because the Bestian Times include to the very last of them the gross Gentilisme of them that dwell on the Earth and the false Prophetisme into which the other Beast sunk down as into a proper Character after the Beasts 666 as Apoc. 19. v. 20. He is called and c. 20. v. 10. But further than this the Beasts forty two months have a certain Epoch viz. at the Year of our Lord 475 in the cessation of the Christian Empire in Augustulus Compare 2 Thess 2. with Revel 17. 10 11. For the Christian Emperours being the sixth King but none of the seven Heads was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or he that letted or with-held as the Empire was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the thing that letted or with-held that the eighth King that was yet of the seven Heads could not succeed for an after King cannot succeed till the former is gone off the Stage especially where God holds the Line of Succession firm so that by adjusting the forty two Months of the Beast as lunar Time to the 1260 Days of solar Time we find thirty eight Years difference and seeing All the whole Line must end with the 1260 the Time of the Beasts forty two Months beginning exactly agrees with 475 thirty eight Years after the 1260 Years of the Witnesses Sackcloath at 437 and All end at 1697. And because we have spoke much of the Intimate Time of the Beast or of his Season Seasons Half-season within time times half a time we have the Pillar of that Time erected Revel 13. 17 18. when his first Season was well or about eighteen Years enter'd viz. at 666 when his Name or Nature was come to his Number and when he was come to his Age of 666 from his Conception which by searching the Root and as the Vnderstanding and Reason of a Man searches Number we find to be Twenty Five by the consent of all Arithmetick as the Time of his Conception when the Mystery of Iniquity like a Womb was at work for him who as a man of those Characters 2 Thess 2. was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Beast and from Twenty Five after the Resurrection or Apocalyptical Epoch the first visible Variation from the Apostolical Twelve both in Time and Nature when it became the Base of another Doctrine Kingdom the Root of another Name the Apostacy conceiv'd and wrought within the Mystery of Iniquity not openly but secretly and as in the lower parts of the Abyss out of which the Beast comes as a Womb at 725 when the War concerning Images began and continued till all that refus'd that Worship were anathematiz'd by the second Council of Nice I say to that 725 when Leo Conon the Grecian Emperour was struck by the Thunderbolt of Excommunication interceeded just 666 Years from twenty five Years after the Resurrection and if by the three days and a half by themselves as also by many other Circumstances leading us to the three days of our Lord's Death we ballance Time we shall find the Proportions for as Christ died in the last fourth part of the first day and rose in the first fourth of the third day so was the Condition of the Witnesses Begin their 1260 days at 437 and at 707 began the last fourth part of the first Day or Time viz. the last 90 of the first 360 as Christ's Death began at the sixth Hour or at twelve the last fourth part of the Nycthemer and was perfected by the end of it to his Burial so the Witnesses from 707 to 797 the end of the first day lay dead in the Street of the great City But it did not become the Type they should be buried and so to 1517 then their first motion to a Resurrection began and their compleat Resurrection at 1697 even to admiration answering the last half day And lastly because Imperial Revolutions as being under the eye of all History most livelily represented by their Emblems and fixed upon their just Rests of Time must needs strengthen Prophecy concerning the Church of God when one joyn Hand in Hand with the other there is therefore the Fall of the Western Empire given by the Divine Apocalyptical Prophecy to the Fall of the Eastern Empire or the taking of Constantinople by such wonderful Types and Figures of the gradual Impressions on the Western Empire Apoc. 8. v. 7. to the end by such Images of the Mahometan Saracens as Locusts c. 9. to v. 13. and of the Turkish Horsemen to the end of the Chap. and with such a Relation to the Antichristian Idolatries and their Impenitency therein adorn'd with such Notes of Time as the five months and five months to the Locusts and the hour the day the month and the year to the Horse-men call'd for by the Voice from the Golden Altar of Incense within the measur'd Temple when the Daily of publick Worship was taken away as makes the Line out of measure excellent and adorable as given by the Holy Spirit to the killing the third part of men or taking Constantinople 1453. Behold then as at a Review the admirable Structure of it and the great Instructions arising from its order of Repetitions upon these short Particulars 1. The intimate Time of this Line is especially most solemnly appointed and design'd and the whole as united with it for it is made and constituted not without an Oath Dan. 12. 7. to be Time Times half a Time and therein Season Seasons half a Season and it is cut off not without an Oath at the end of intimate Time though the whole of the Time Times half time be first supposed to run out at large and the whole both of Time at large and intimate Time also cut off for ever at that end Apoc. 10. 6. 2. The whole of this Line and of the last seventy five Years is measured by even Indictions or Fifteens of Years the use of which Rising in the Reign of Constantine became well known by
third part of the Stars in the East and West the third part of men are said to be kill'd and thus the third part was under the force Rev. 9. 18. of every one of the first four Trumpets because every Trumpet was in an order or series to the destruction of the Western Empire in the three first of them and upon the Remains of Senatorian and Consular Power in the last of them All which I look upon as a fair Resolution of that part of this Enquiry As to what remains why so severe a Procedure upon a Christian Empire If it had been the Pagan Empire that had been under this Pursuit it had not been strange but it looks so unreasonable upon a Christian Empire as to call in question the whole frame of the Exposition Hereunto I therefore offer these two Solutions It having been decreed long ago by the determinate Counsel Solut. 1 of God and sworn by Christ himself that the Accomplishment of the Wonders of his Kingdom should be delay'd after the Seals of the Book open'd for the Time Times and half Time of the Beast or Antichrist the Roman Empire did no otherwise pass into Christian but that it Antichristianiz'd at the same time gradually and insensibly covered the former Paganism with the disguise of Antichristianism worshipping Maozzim and a God their Fathers had not known but Idolatrously and so on the other side it degenerated true Dan. 11. 38. Christianity into a kind of Paganism whereby they intitled themselves to the Blood Paganism had shed even as the Jews by the Murther of Christ did to all the Blood shed from Righteous Abel c. This went forward even from Constantine by silent and deaf steps but by the year 437 when the Trumpets first sounded the Measure was fill'd up and the Talent down weight and then the Imposture of suppositing the Kingdom of Antichrist for the true Kingdom of Christ was compleat so that the Vengeance of God arose and chased down that Empire that was call'd Christian but was now indeed become Antichristian God that changes Times and Seasons and the States of Solut. 2 Kingdoms giving them as he pleases had destin'd to the Beast the Seat and Power of the Western Empire and the Eastern as a kind of tributary Commendam for forty two Months does by these Judgments void the Room for him by taking away the Western Imperialism first in its seventh King that he the Beast might succeed into his forty two Months Then taking away all Consular and Senaterian Power so that it shined not the third part of the day nor of the night that he as the falling Star might inlighten Revel 9. 1. it and grow up to his Regnancy or Number 666. Upon both these Accounts therefore the Eastern Empire was so much longer spar'd first That it was not to be so deep in the Guilt of Antichristianism and Supplantation of the Kingdom of Christ and as it were for his Servant Constantine's sake and then the Room of it was not necessary for the receiving a Successor till the Mahometan Emperour a thousand Years after although it was many Times under dreadful Rebukes of Divine Judgment as also under the Claims and endeavour'd Usurpations of the Antichristian King Having thus far endeavour'd to satisfie the third Enquiry Enquiry 4 there will be the less necessary to add to the Resolution of the fourth for the course of Events is in History most notorious The Event of the first Trumpet was the Irruptions of the Barbarians on the whole Latitude of the Western Empire which thereby was as much blasted as the Glory of Summer is by a Storm of Hail and Lightning mix'd with Fire The Event of the second Trumpet connected with the first was That that great Mountain Rome the City upon seven Hills that had been under so many Emperours Pagan and Christian the Mistress of the Nations that had been under the Pagan Emperours Pagan Mystical Babylon and was now becoming Antichristian Mystical Babylon this Babylon was in the very Beginning of the Apostacy arrested by Divine Judgment for that City which had been so lately purg'd from Heathen Idolatry and was to be the Antichristian City for so long a Time after God erects the Pillar of his Judgment early upon it so that he cast it into the Sea as a flaming Mountain not as Babylon of old burnt but a burning Mountain into the Sea of continual Turmoil and Estuation so that in regard of the Warriors of that Time in their dreadful Disputes concerning it All Waters were turn'd into Blood And yet because it was to be born aloft upon the Beast of ten Horns that it might not be consum'd it burns as in a Sea wherein it was preserv'd though burning often it was taken and sack'd and made in the very literal sense a burning Mountain but it was rescu'd and surviv'd for so it was decreed till its final Desolation and Burning Rev. 18. At the Voice of the third Trumpet the very Heavens of the Western Government were so shaken that the great Star of Imperialism fell like Wormwood into the Rivers and made them so bitter that many died of that Imbitterment of the Waters that became even Wormwood it self Whilst Rome as a burning Mountain in the midst of the Sea made it to boyl even into Blood with a prodigious noise through the Nations and made that Tumult and Commotion in the midst of People a burning Mountain like Etna or Vesuvius may be suppos'd to do the Star falling imbitter'd so deadlily the Inland private State of the Empire that although it was quickly quench'd it self when it fell yet in the Time it was burning as a Lamp which was some time before its Fall into the Water and when it fell it was like a Lamp burning in Water every moment ready to dye and yet not presently extinct that it so consum'd the sweeter Juyces and benign Spirits of Government and Commerce that many Men died that is innumerable Families and Persons were ruin'd and utterly impoverish'd within the Empire both by the loss of the Aspect and influence of such a Star as also by the Confusion its Fall made and the Struggles it had with Death in its Fall and in the Water all which made the malign Effects much greater while the Fire and Water were in contest Now all these Symbols are so very evident in History that there needs no more than the very Appeal to it concerning them and so wonderfully accomplish'd in their Gravity Significancy and Sprightliness as to speak Divine Inspiration What History of that Time knows not These things were so That first all the Glory and Honour of the Empires Grandeur was struck all over as it were at once as with Fire and Hail from Heaven every day bringing the News of Invasions and Revolts every where That Rome was in the Flames and in a Sea and yet by contrary Agencies of the several Interests of Princes like Fire and Water
they are all indifferently and promiscuously by this Prophecy used in all Cases as we may see If then the Number of the Name co-eval with the Number of the Beast was at 725 all the rest must be also at that Time Seeing then it is evident All must begin together If by Evidence from History one was at 725 or as between 725 and 726 we may conclude All the rest were so too But that one was viz. the Worship of the Image we have that so illustrious Icono-Clastick History at that Time Now besides the force of the Allusion between Worship of Images and the worshipping the Beasts Image if we examine it well we shall find both united For as in the worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image to which pattern the Prophecy undoubtedly refers It seems the Worship of an Image made to his Glory even of that Image he saw in a Dream of which he was the Head of Gold or however most certainly his universal Power and Monarchy commanding all Nations was celebrated by the Worship of the Image he had made and therefore the Edict runs in that Imperial Style Unto you it is commanded O People Nations Tongues and Languages But besides this The worshipping this Image is call'd both by Nebuchadnezzar himself and by the Servants of the true Dan. 3. 14. 18. God The serving of his Gods Even thus The worshipping the Image made to the Beast was both a Worship of the Beast as part of that old Image made up of Idolatry and Tyranny a Worship of his Universal Power commanding Nations Tongues and People and also justly call'd a Worship of his Gods represented by Images As worshipping his Image in the last Time of the fourth Beast or Monarchy gives so significant an Allusion to the Worship of Images set up at that time by his exorbitant Power in whom the whole Image and Bestianism shall perish Of all this Leo Conon Isaurus and after him his Son Constantine Copronymus and the Successors of them from 725 or 726 the Beasts 666 until the second Council of Nice are a notable Indication for although we read not of any precedent Decree by the Beast commanding the Worship of Images yet the general usage of so doing made Image-worship as an Idolatrous Colossus to which every one in obedience to this Bestian Monarch paid Devotion And when the Emperour denied thus to worship it was an Offence as high as against that express Lyon-mouth'd Command of that King of Babylon Vnto You c. And in that these Emperours were out of Rome's Diocese and Jurisdiction it was a style like that Vnto you it is commanded O Tongues People and Languages And the Disobedience a Denial to worship the Image of Vniversality made to the Beast in a Monarchy so universal as to be above Emperours And if things were thus with so great Personages as Emperours how must they prevail in general upon Nations Tongues and Languages of an inferiour Character and what must the Rage be against them Whenever the Number was compleat the War so often Arg. 2 foretold that the Beast should make with the Witnesses with the Seed with the Saints must needs be also for then was the Obligation to worship and to receive a mark the Name or the number of the Name carrying the Nature But the 144000 sealed who had not defiled themselves with Women of a Virgin-worship and obedience to the Lamb distinct from the Beast and his Woman of Fornications he carries The Seed who keep the Commandments of God and hold the Testimony of Jesus The Saints and Holy Worshippers in the Temple must certainly remonstrate to this Idolatrous Tyranny and abominate it They are those who neither worship'd the Beast nor his Image nor receiv'd his Mark Name nor Number as is after the mention of this Number often recorded to their Honour Upon this the Beast risen out of the bottomless Pit who was to make War with all these and into whose hand they were given would in his Rage and his Fury make the War that was given to him to make with them And by wonderful Providence without which a Hairfalls not to the ground The Name of the high Feud in this matter is in all Historical Records call'd a War From 725 or 726 or the Beasts 666 Icono-Machia or Bellum Iconoclasticum The War of destroying Images Loade's History And though Leo the Emperour may seem to be the Aggressor and to have begun the War yet because the Cause on his side was just it is in Prophetical Censure the Beast that made the War and Leo Canon is herein a Representative of all the Witnesses Speedily after the War must follow the dying of the Witnesses Arg. 4 for whenever the War began it was given to the Beast to overcome and to kill and this was as was said solemnly declar'd by the second Council of Nice as also by the Excommunication of the Emperour and violating his Rights in Italy from him as in Capital Letters Greek and Latin as it were like the Jews Superscription on Christ All that worship not the Beast nor Received c. are damned Hereticks And this according to the known Blast of Excommunication was both a religious a civil and also a natural Death as often as the Tyranny of the Beast could make it so This Interdict Proscription and Outlawry upon men joyn'd with the Anathema or Curse of Excommunication like casting into the fiery Furnace was the very dying of the Witnesses the dispiriting and invalidating their Testimony so that it was esteem'd not only dangerous as to worldly Concerns but a deadly Sin to hold with them They were cursed even as he was that was hanged on a Tree All detested and abhorr'd them as damned Hereticks hated of God and Men. And when the Beast had this Victory They then cried out Who is like the Beast Who is able to make War with him They then in token of Triumph sent Gifts one to another rejoyced and made merry because of these Prophets who tormented them that dwell on the Antichristian Earth But tho' they died As their Lord did they could not as he be buried His Death was to be so assur'd by Burial but these Witnesses being a successive Body were to continue dying and prophecying as Christ did at his Death viz. in their continual Successions Part of this first day the whole two following days or twice 360 Years joyn'd therefore as two Times till within 1517 the last half day or 180 Years then the first motion to a Resurrection began and could not begin sooner So that when that Resurrection began we may know assuredly Intimate Time was expir'd The last 180 Years on which it was to make an Impression was come and that therefore the twice 360 days were past or the two Times and that some part of the first 360 days or first Time had also past since Intimate Time began so as to come from thence forward to 1517 and so to 1697 which is the
to 1697. We have found the order in which it hath come on very clear brought down by Prophecy in Symbols so justly proportionate to matters of Fact and Events all along History first to the Apostacy and from thence by as unquestionable a Chain of Events during that Apostacy as hath been before describ'd till the Reformation and now we shall find the Reformation as admirably set out and no other things in the whole course of Time answering to each Representation as those Cardinal Points of History do What greater Demonstration then can we have that we are upon the right sense and scope of Prophecy Since such admirable Correspondencies as if we our selves by our own Judgments had been to contrive the one for the other we could not under Veils have desired so much and therefore they can no more be suspected of chance then that the Letters Sillables and Words of the Apocaliptick Prophecy should come out by chance into that exact System wherein we now find them I pray therefore which of these grand Events can by History be contested or what fitter prophetical Symbols could be found out for them or in such a Succession And so we shall find in this particular of the Reformation so recent and fresh in History and all most in Memory at this day and at this day running on so that the Instances of it are most notorious confess'd and even to be admired in the Wonders of Providence that brought it to pass and yet sustain it When therefore the Bestian or Antichristian Kingdom was coming so near its number as that the Image of Supremacy had been made to the Beast at the 606 confirmed to it and Life given to it to speak and to cause c. by the Lateran Councel at 649. come to its very number at 725. The War was between the Beast and the Witnesses represented by the Jeconoclastick Emperours and their Constantinopolitan Councel damning Image Worship 754 but then the Witnesses were overcome by the Cessation of those Emperours and by that Councel of Nice 787 and so they lying dead till their first motion to a rising 1517. While all these things were the Judgment of God in just Degrees and Measures pursued with Vengeance this Antichristian Kindom First by Mahomets setting up his false Prophetism as near the Supremacy given by Phocas as 622 to 606 by the Locusts or Mahometan Saracens ready to enter their first five Months and to strike as a Serpion about the Time of the War with the Witnesses especially at their Death 787 And together with the Apostacy strengthning it self they advanc'd into their second five Months of hurting with the stings of their Tails and when a winterly torpidness seiz'd them then by the Turks as a far greater and more severe as also more continuing Scourge God Executed his Judgments on this Antichristian Empire But the Impenitency still continuing Christ Appears as it were from Heaven in the Reformation and how evident is it that the Reformation followed on such a state of the Latine or strictly Roman World for can any pretend there was after the taking of Constantinople any shew of Repentance Repentance of their worshiping Demons departed Spirits or Images and Pictures of Gold or Silver Wood or Stone which neither hear see or walk nor did they repent of their Murthers those cruel Butcheries of the Saints and Servants of God nor of their Sorceries those bewitchings of Men with a false sensual Religion their lying or magical and Necromantick Miracles ascrib'd to Relicks Images and the Idolized Host nor of their Fornications allowed Concubinacies and Stews nor of their Thefts their pious Frauds and wiping men of their Goods and Estates by Cheats and to false and impious Ends and that this high and avowed impenitency was not only then but hath continued ever since appears too much by the Councel of Trent and the whole Tract of time after the Reformation 1. Let us then consider the Appearance as it were of Christ from Heaven against this Impenitency He the mighty supream Angel of the divine Presence comes down from Heaven though sitting in Heaven in his mighty Administrations 2. He is cloathed with a Cloud his Face as the Sun breaking out of the Cloud and creating a Bow as in the day of Rain These Appearances are as after a Flood not yet removed the Clouds were yet hovering and flying the Rain not yet gon the Brightness watery and yet with significations of Mercy and the Grace of the Covenant That the Flood should be drawn off and return no more to cover the Earth 3. His Feet as Pillars of Fire signifying both the refining and purification of his Servants as also their Vivi Comburin their Death in the midst of Flames as we know how frequent they were at that Time 4. He had in his Hand an open Book the Book of his Kingdom as if he were now ready to publish the Decree of his universal Psal 2. 7. Reign which had been so often stay'd by sealing and now after the Seals opened and the six Trumpets sounding ready to reveal it self 5. As a signal of his unbounded Dominion He sets his Dan. 12. 6. right Foot on the Sea and his left Foot on the Earth as from the Sea to the end of the Earth 6. He cried with a Loud Voice as when a Lion roars when he received the Book He is call'd the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Then he prevail'd to open the seven Seals now as the same Revel 5. 5. Lyon he holds the Book open shewing his just right to the Throne of David the Throne and Empire of the new Jerusalem and roars from his Holy Habitation 7. When he had thus roared seven thunders utter their Voices as in an Eccho or resound of Heaven above to his just 2 Sam. 2. 10. claim and as Hannah prophecyed of old The Lord shall thunder from Heaven on his Adversaries so he on the Adversaries of his Kingdom when he comes to judge the end of the Earth when God gives strength to this his King and exalts the Horn of his Anointed Now all these things were that powerful sound of the Gospel and divine Truth by Luther and the first Reformers like the Angels coming down from Heaven and rouling away the Stone in Preparation of the Lords Resurrection This arous'd Matt. 28. 1. and amaz'd the World then even as the Keepers of the Grave were as dead Men when Christ arose and this was more a dreadful stroke upon the Bestian Kingdom then Mahometanism it self For this was an Arrow levell'd at the Heart of his Kingdom and declared it to be Antichristian an Usurpation upon the Glory of Christ This was a dawn of the most terrifying Appearance of Christ and shaked the very Foundations of his State This accompanied with the Separation of so many Princes and States from that Antichristian Empire was more formidable then all the Assaults of a false and barbarous Religion however