Brides place and when Christ grants this Pattent of Power 〈◊〉 Bride he seems to have respect to the time of the Whores 〈◊〉 for though it is but for a Thousand Years certain 〈◊〉 is a little season uncertain 't is very probable this litâ—â—â— season may be 260 years to make up the Thousand 1260 〈◊〉 ballances the Lease Satan granted the Whore and the 〈◊〉 is said to be loosed after the Thousand years were ended it 〈◊〉 not follow it was just after and this little season seems to 〈◊〉 uncertain that Men might always be on their watch 〈◊〉 prepared for the coming of the Great Judge there is a 〈◊〉 Rom 5. 10 19. importing That as by one mans disobedienoe sin 〈◊〉 into the VVorld and Death by sin so by the Obedience of one 〈◊〉 shall be made Righteons which is directly applicable to 〈◊〉 case for as the world became dead by Satans Rebellion so 〈◊〉 are raised to life not all by Christs Victory All Rise 〈◊〉 for the Text saith The Rest of the Dead Lived not again c. 〈◊〉 plain without all contradiction that the Life and Death 〈◊〉 hinted are of a Civil Nature and that it is only the Life 〈◊〉 Death of Power and Dominion and this Daniel wonderfully confirms saying as to the Rest of the Beasts their Dominion was 〈◊〉 but their Lives were prolonged for a season and time Satan and his crew are overcome and their Dominion is taken aâ—â—â— but still like the conquered Canaanites of old they live for season and time which plainly implies the Death is not Literal this Rest of the Dead answers to the Rest of the Beasts exactly All the world are supposed to be Dead those that Rise are said to Live and those that rise not are said still to be Dead where Truths are weighty and have long been hid as this has Tautologies and Repetitions are not only excusable but necessary and therefore yet once more the Pencil shall go over it least I should not make good the Title fully explained The Rest the other or remaining part or number of the Vanquished Slain or Dead Lived not received no Power or Dominion Again after their Vanquishment or Death or Again received no power or dominion again as formerly after their death or defeat in the first battle in Constantines time but still lie dead without the life of Power and Dominion during the space of a Thousand Years all which time Satan their Generalission lies in the Ineurabile for Non est medicabile vulnus as formerly but when the Thousand Years are ended They live Again then Satan being loosed these dispersed Canaanites are headed by him and attack the Israelites Camp and the issue is Fire comes down from Heaven and consumes them These are plain words as Truth always requires and I hope easily to be understood In the Explaining of things Eloquence and fine words are not so much to be consulted as Perspecuity When the Thousand Years are ended the Wicked Satannical defeated Troops live Again and receive Power with Satan for a little season but till then They lie Dead The Text saith But the rest of the dead lived not AGAIN until the Thousand Years were ended This is the First Resurrection 'T is as plain as the Sun in the Firmament that this Resurrection is of a Civil Nature being only a Resurrection of Power and Preferment and that it belongs to Gods Church or Good and Holy Men the Members of the Church Regenerate and yet in one sence it may seem to be Litteral for 't is a Ressurrection from a Bloody Violent and Vnnatural Death for the Dispensers of the Restorative Gospel are not to be Martyred and Butchered by Persecuting Emperors Those 〈◊〉 are drove off from the Stage and a New Series of Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers arise in the going back of the Emâ—â—â— which will be so far from Persecuting her as the former that they will assist the Church in all her Administrations and therfore dividing Death into two parts Death Violent and Death Natural the Church being free'd and delivered from the first this Deliverance may very well be called The First Resurrection the First Death is Persecution Deprivation of Power and Death Violent from these the Church is Free'd and therefore is said to have her First Resurrection Death Natural is the Seund Death and whosoever shall so Adorn himself with Holiness to be a sharer in this First Resurrection or to be admitted as a Member into the Church Regenerate on him the Second Death shall have no power that is the Grave shall have no power ever him but he shall Rise to Life Eternal and in a good measure it may be understood in a Literal Sence for whoever are â—ound True Members of this Church Regenerate when Christ 〈◊〉 come to Judge the Quick and the Dead they shall not Dye but be Changed so in a literal sence the Second Death has no power over them Now should we enquire How this Life of Power and Dominion now in Christs Possession shall be Shared The Scriptures are plain the Text saith And thou O Tower of the Flock to Thee it shall come even the first Dominion the Kingdom shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem The rest of the Flock or other Christian Nations shall have Sister like shares but She as the Heiress and Eldest Daughter shall have the first Dominion But it must not be forgot to be observed That the Priviledges of the Millennium are rather Priestly than Kingly and belong more to the Bride or the Church then the State for the Text saith They shall be Priests of God and of Christ c. and in another place A Royal Priesthood a Peculiar People Zealous of good Works and 't is said The Kings of the Earth shall bring their Glory and Honour into the New Jerusalem of whose particular way and method of Administration I could be very large but this sheet will not give me leave As to single persons if they would have any share in this Life or Dominion of the Millennium they must get themselves cloathed in the White Linnen of Holiness for the Text saith Blessed and Holy are they that have part in this Resurrection c. And as for Nations They must first help to kill the Bear and then they may share the Skin of his Power and sure I am at this moment the Ten Kings are just in a readiness to fall upon the Whore to eat her flesh and burn her with fire the signal from Heaven is just ready to be given them Come Lord Jesus Come quickly But some would willingly know When the Millennium Commences I 'll therefore tell them It will begin with a Septenary-Day of Years known to the Lord and to him that he shall reveagit in which it shall be neither Day nor Night but in the Eveninit shall be Light This Septenary-Day is betwixt Easter and Whitsontide or betwixt the Resurrection of the Witnesses and the pouring
mistaken in this matter and so are all others who have wrote on this Subject which the Reader must of necessity acknowledge if he impartially peruse what I have wrote The liveliest Emblem of Death Resurrection which I know of is a Silk-Worm In its first state 't is a crawling Worm of a greenish colour and the whole business of its Life which may instruct Christians is to prepare for Death for spinning a Noble Coffin it dies laying it self therein and after some time it comes forth of this Mausoleum a perfect New Creature of Whitish colour with Wings and Legs The Death and Resurrection of the Witnesses ought to hold a due Conformity thereto They ought to be in two differing States in two differing distinct Bodies attended with two clearly differing Circumstances The Old Witnesses ought to have no Life no Power no Model or Form at all but their Constitution is to be absolutely dissolved and lie dead dead dead Then the Spirit of Life and Power is to enter into them and give them a New Life Model and Constitution perfectly New in substance and circumstance in all points and respects differing from the former This has not been done yet in any part of the World but in England and here it has been done and is lifted up as an Exemplar for all the World to copy after What has been done in other places has been only a Field of Corn raised up after it has been flatted by some boisterous wind of Persecution this amounts not to a Resurrection it being the same Old Corn not risen but raised But here our Harvest has been cut down and our Wheat cast into the Ground for a New Crop which we can say is not raised but risen one implying help the other none and it cannot be said that ever any one helped our New-Risen-Witnesses to Rise 'T is purely Gods Work and is marvellous in our Eyes England is reaped but wo to the Vintage Wo to all the Constitutions of the Earth For the Angel with his Sickle will cut all down before him And where he pulls down there will he build and where he reaps there he will sow For the Doctrine of Restoration must be spread over all the World God has promised he would make all things New which He will not do but by pulling down the Old Happy England above all the Nations of the World who art first visited by the God of Heaven England Scotland and Ireland are the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh which first have their Lot in the promised Land on this side Jordan But what they did so must we We must pass over Jordan and assist our Brethren to overthrow the Canaanites before we can enjoy our Possessions Reading the Revelations through I observe the True Church or Witnesses to have several Appellations and to wear several Suits of Apparel fitted to the differing Ages and Circumstances they are in In Chap. 7. they are The Sealed Number of one hundred forty four Thousand In Chap. 11. the Two 〈…〉 in Sack-cloth In Chap. 12. A Woman going into the 〈◊〉 In Chap 14. The same Number of one hundred forty four Thousand with their Fathers Name written on their Forehead standing on â—ount Sion being delivered out of all their Calamities And in Chap. 19. as an Army fighting under their General the Word And lastly in Chap. 20. Every one standing in their proper Colours concerted into a regular Body of the Church Regenerate Landed safely in the Millennium Thus Si liccat parvis componere Magna Caius goes to his Diversion to the East End of an Oblong Pool where he chooses several smooth Stones and marks them with a particular mark then slides them over the surface of the Water where they dive many times by the way but at last Land on the Western Shore where Julius going by he calls to him aloud to throw him back his Stones telling him they have such a particular mark the which he doth And this is the state of the Church and Witnesses before and during the Millennium For in their passage they met with many Troubles and Perplexities by the Way but in their Return they are free from all OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CHRIST taking Possession of the Kingdoms of this World as Heir and Conqueror thereof and the Church being brought to bed of the New-Risen-Witnesses these things make such a great Alteration that there is said to be a New Heaven and a New Earth All things in Church and State receive a New Face And things are so turned up-side-down that This State is called by the Apostle to the Hebrews The World to come But it is not well Translated for the Original is not Cosmos but Oceonimia which is Dispensation so ought to be rather Dispensation to come of which we speak The Millennium doth introduce a New Dispensation but not a New Gospel by Dispensation I understand a Publication of all New Discovered Truths and an Errecting up a New Outward Administration suitable thereto Light and Truth breaking forth they ought to be Published and Children being Born they must be Provided for The New Bride must have a New House built for her and it was never known that a King took the Field but he had a Royal Tent pitched for him 'T was the custome of the Warriers of old as soon as their Armies were Mustered to Erect a Pavilion for their General called the Praetorian Tent which being pitched in the middle of their Camp all Commissions and Orders were Issued out from thence and the whole Camp Addressed themselves thereto in all their Affairs of Concern and Moment The WORD is in the Field Riding upon his White Horse and his Army of White Linnen Followers are Mustered but there is no Tent Erected for the Lamb there are Muster-Masters but no Quarter-Masters and every one bears his own charge in the War this ought not to be the Apostle saith No man goes to War at his own Charges 't is a shameful thing that the Generalissimo should lye out in the Field there was never any Army yet but had some Head Quarters In all the Dispensations that have hitherto happened There was some principal place appointed for God and Religion Moses built God a Tabernacle and Solomon a Temple and it has been the confusion of the World that Christianity has had none appointed for it in this last Dispensation The Christian Dispensators having no peculiar Lodgings appointed for Them fell into the Baudy House of Rome and so She that was at First a Pure Virgin became a Prostitute and is now that great Whore of Babylon which must be turned out of doors to make Room for the True Bride This Great Neglect of not making due Provision for Gods Servants will cost the World dear for all that Irregular Building that Vile Mixture of the Sons of God with Men is to be pulled down and Men must do what they ought to have done before They must build a
within The Inward Powers being purified and set to rights the Outward Powers fall in of course and so the whole Creation quickly recovers its Native Beauty Therefore the first Act of Soveraignty which Christ will exercise will be to purifie the Heart there he begins his Reign of the Millennium If he should come in Person and be in the Air accompanied with an innumerable Company of Saints and Angels as some imagine Alas what would this sight do It would surprize us and we should gape for a little while but it would quickly wear off for we have the glorious Body of the Sun Moon and Stars and all the Beauty of the Creation without us but they have but little influence over us one small Ray of God in the Heart is more than all the Outward Aypearances whatsoever Satan therefore being a cunning Adversary when he came to conquer the World observed the Heart to be the chief Post and made his first Attack upon it and having conquered it and placed his Black Guards there he quickly became Master of the whole World But Christ comes to destroy the Works of the Devil to heal where he has wounded and to build up what he has pulled down and to raise the Creation out of that confusion in which Satan by a long Mis-rule has put it The first Act therefore of his Reign is to regain the Heart and that being secured all the rest come into due subjection And this consideration brings me to my Text. There has been a continual War fince the Creation berwixt Christ and Satan but in this Book particular mention is made of Three Great Battels if the last may be called one In the first Satan is thrown out of Heaven in the second he is thrown out of Heaven Earth taken Prisoner and bound and in the last he is thrown into Hell But this last is not so much a Battel as a Siege or Assault Satan in allusion to Ahaziah sending some of his Captains of Fifty to attack the Saints Camp and Fire comes own from Heaven and destroys them all At the First Battel or at least at the Mustering and Raising his Soldiers Christ was 〈◊〉 a White Horse and at the Second upon a White Horse and 〈◊〉 White-Linnen-Followers and at or after the last upon White Cloud But before I proceed any further I must note Christ's Wars are always of a two-fold Nature by the Word and Sword the Word first proclaims them and then retires into the Rear and the Sword in the Van leads the Armies was Lieutenant As for instance in this Second Battel First the Word gets upon the white Horse and proclaims the War raising an Army of white-Linnen-Followers which are his own Peculiar Army And these are nothing else but Preachers proclaiming a New Dispensation as is self-evident by their Swords being in their Mouths instead of their Hands and of being cloathed in Fine Linnen instead of Steel And tho' the Word's Garments are dipt in Blood 't is of the wicked Soldier 's and not of he own drawing These I say march at first in the Van proclaim the War and bid Defiance and then draw off into the Bear then comes up the Sword or Lieutenant or the Angel in the 〈◊〉 who is the Champion or Goliah of the Word who like him having first summoned the Fowls of the Air to a Treat presently fall on upon the Dragon or Satan and his Armies and Totally Routs them and when he has Routed them then comes up the Word in the Rear and compleats the Victory Preselyting the rest of the World by Preaching for the Text saith The Remnant were stain by the Sword of him that sat upon the Horse whose Sword proceeded out of his Mouth 'T is plain the Angel in the Sun or Constantine the second doth the Rough Work and is the Great Executioner He levels the Mountains and forces open the City Gates that the King of Glory may come in the VVord is nothing but the Word Preached and not a Person as some would have as is plain by the Sword in his Mouth which is the Sword of the Spirit Not by power or by might but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Things standing thus the Forces of Satan who is Prince of this World being Routed and himself their Generalissimo taken Prisoner he 's not ransomed or bailed since none will be accepted but sent to Prison for a Thousand Years So All the World become the Kingdoms of the ord and his Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords The whole Earth is his now as well by Conquest as by Right of Inheritance all the Inhabitants of the Earth become his Vassals and lie Civilly dead before him The whole Race of Mankind are All concluded under Death their Power and Dominion which is their Life not only devolved on him as of Right the Usurper being Expulsed but also by Conquest by force being taken from them Now the first thing this Mighty Conqueror doth as is the custom of Conquerors He has a respect to his own Trusty Followers and Servants who assisted him in his Conquest to them therefore in the first place he saith Rise and Live That is He Invests them first with Power and they being the first of the Civilly Dead which receive any Power are said first to Live and Rise and this is called the First Resurrection which truly and really is so in a double sence because they are the first Receivers of Power and because 't is the first time that ever Holy and Good Men were so Solemnly Advanced they being to this time not much better than Civilly Dead always labouring under the death of Perfection Tribulation and Affliction Now as to The Rest of the Dead the Text saith They lived not again until the Thousand Years were ended That is The 〈◊〉 of the Conquered received no Power which is Life till the Thousand Years of Satans Imprisonment is ended as the 〈◊〉 and Holy Men do Rise and Live in Christ so the Wicked at dead in or with Satan for Imprisonment is a Civil Death and Christ will let the defeated vanquished or dead crew of Satan to have no Life or Power whilst his Saints Reign and He gives his Saints the Church Regenerate or New Risen Witnesses a Royal Lease or Pattent of Power for a Thousand Years and 〈◊〉 they may have no Rival but be undisturbed all the time 〈◊〉 their great Adversaries to their good behaviour during 〈◊〉 time and here is the greatest reason for this immagiâ—â—â—â— For after his defeat in the last or rather in the first 〈◊〉 by Constantine this cunning Quack healed his Wounds and 〈◊〉 Again creeping into Heaven or the power of Empire in 〈◊〉 of the Church which Power he has Usurped for 1260 〈◊〉 therefore sufficient caution is now taken by binding him 〈◊〉 he Live not Again as before and that he may not palm upon the World any more Whores laying them like changlings in the
out of the Spirit from on High which Invests them with Power and is the great confirmation of the New Administration or of Christs Reign It really Commences at Their Resurrection for Christ after his Resurrection said He had received all Power both in Heaven and in Earth but the Charter of Power is not Ratified and Sealed till the Septenary Day is ended and that is at Pentecost when the whole World will be fully satisfied and ser to their seal that God is True An Infant for the first week is in a state betwixt Life and Death as it were almost as much Vegetative as Animal and that is the reason of this dark day mentioned by the Prophet for the Body and Life of Christ is the grand pattern of all things both in Heaven and in Earth the Regenerate Church or New Resen Witnesses are his Body and they must be conformable to the Head whatever circumstances attended the Single Birth in the East will of necessity attend the Complex Birth or New Risen Witnesses Inter Iberos in the VVest this I could make out in the east minute manner but is not so much my present business further confirmation of this dark Septenary Day is the Cutting own the Tree of Monarchy seven times passed over Nebuchadâ—â—â—â—er before he would acknowledge Lew is guarda ti that the God of Heaven was the only Soveraign Monarch and disposes the Kingdoms of this World to whom he pleases All this time Monarchy was as a Beast in its Infantile State rather Animal than Rational during this Septenary Day there are bands of Iron and Brass upon the Stumps of the Monarchical Tree that it shall not grow the seed is some time hid in the ground before the blade comes up and these are the true reasons of the Darkness of our present day But in the Evening it shall be Light That is Men may think that the Corn being hid is dead and that the Tree of Monarchy being cut down will not sprout again but when they see the Blade Rise up and the Branches sprout out they are then of another mind this enlightens them and makes them acknowledge that this Darkness was only the common effect of Nature which conceives her Children in the dark the operations of the Womb are always in the dark But some may ask Why should Monarchy Expire in the VVest and there have a new Commencement more than in any other place This is easily Answered Empire is Fellow Traveller with the Sun and must return with him The whole Earth seems to have as great a right and title to Power as it has to Light The Sun never stops till it comes to the VVest and Empire accompanies him in all his Course The Punicks the Sons of Cham put in a Caveat and would have stopp'd this Traveller inviting him to have lodg'd in Africa but they might as well have stopp'd the Sun their Fathers Prophecy and Curse putting in a Bar condemning them to perpetual Servility The Gospel was published in the East and is to be restored in the VVest otherwise the Sun goes down at Noon There is to be a Repassage or Return both of Empire and the Gospel and after some Refreshments they will set out very gloriously and will also have other Companions of a Royal Family The Kings of the East I mean who are to go back with them The Fulness of the Gentiles being come they are to return home For They both together the Sheep of Both Folds the Twelve Apostles and Twelve Tribes will be concerned in the Administration of the New Jerusalem But the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost will be the Sign for them to return for this took their Power away in the East and was the Sign of Dispersion and it will give it them again in the West and be the Sign of their Reversion and Conversion too The Blood reverts not till it comes to the Toes and the Stone fell on the Feet of the Image and so goes on regularly breaking to pieces all before it When there is to be a general Renovation the Extream Parts are the most proper to begin in But it may easily be discovered through the whole Oeconomy of this World God in all his Methods has a respect to Nature which like himself is most perfect in all her Operations Now Nature circulates the Light and the Blood circulates and so ought Empire and the Gospel So following Nature I cannot Err and therefore do positively conclude that Empire and the Gospel will set be cut down and be dead as it were and then rise again in the West And whatsoever things were acted in the East at the Publication of the Gospel at the Natural Birth are to be re-acted in the West at the Restoration of it at the Spiritual Birth the Birth of the Church Regenerate or New-risen Witnesses because there ought to be a due Analogy betwixt the Head and the Body The Birth of the Infant-Church occasions one Day to be neither clear nor dark but a sort of Crepusculum But the Evening of this Septenary Day is approaching and the Light shall break forth abundantly I have in some private Letters to Friends prov'd from uncontestable Arguments raised from the true and genuine nature of Death and Resurrection That the Witnesses are already risen and that the whole World have been mistaken in the Nature and Quality of this great Truth which I am able to make good against all the Learning in the â—niverse and design to do it in a little time publickly I have little more to say as to the Subject of the Millennium at present only this This glorious Day dawns with the Loss of 〈◊〉 to the Wicked for therein consists their Power which must be taken from them all Power and Dominion belonging to Jesus Christ He that has Wisdom let him calculate Eight Days make up the Day of Circumcision but Seven Days of Weeks betwixt the Pascha and Pentecost What I have writ on this Subject is suited and adapted to the economy of This World and whoever calculates Prophecies if they do not first state and calculate the Nature of This World and fit one to the other they do but reckon without their Host God takes particular care to suit all his Changes and Dispensations to the State of This World And a literal Resurrection hears too many Absurdities in the Front to be consistent therewith Many have been the Mistakes of Men about the Milleneium And at present the subject lies under such prejudices that it the very sound of the Name Men shrug up their Shoulders and throw it aside saying with the old Monks Graecum est non parest legi But this is unmanly and discovers their Ignorance Sloth or Vice more than any thing else Men are unwilling to vex themselves by looking into a Doctrine which will turn the World upside down and untwist all the Constitutions upon Earth This is a dismal prospect to those that are at
in the Earthquake were slain of Men seven Thousand and the Remnant were afrighted and gave Glory to the God of Heaven Now though the Witnesses are already Risen which the more Judicious may easily discern by the Characteristicks before hinted and so my labour of Proof might seem to be spared yet to satisfie others and to make the Copy agree with the Original I find my self obliged to compare them one with the other in the ensuing Explication The Time of Harvest or of finishing their Testimony to cut down the whole Earth being Come There are Two Angels with Sickles One is commanded to cut down the Harvest the other the Vintage Now the Corn is always Ripe before the Grapes and where should the Angel begin the Harvest but in a Corn Countrey We have only Corn England Scotland and Ireland the Grapes are beyond Sea where the Vintage is to be gathered 'T is plain therefore That 〈◊〉 Angel should begin his Harvest first in these parts I think 〈◊〉 not mention when our Harvest was Gathered in England there being now so many on the Premises who helped to get it in By Harvest is meant Constitutions Civil and Ecclesiastical and a Reaping is a Cutting them down Now 'T is plain they have been all Cut down in England as well the Vine of the Church as the Cedar of the State First Monarchy and Episcopacy were Cut down then they Returned and Cut down the Republick and Presbytery and all other Models growing on that Stock These were but Pangs of a New Birth and though they now are both upon the Stage and exist together yet 't is but upon sufferance They are but Trespassers upon the Premises The Promises the Power and Government belongs to the New Birth the Heiress of which they are at present but Guardians An Infant that cannot go must have some body to look after it and who more proper than its own Parents the Old Witnesses But they are certainly civilly extinct Their Cutting down and being Reaped is an undeniable Symbol of Rejection and Abolition The Lease of Old Power being Expired the Head of Monarchy was Cut off and the Head of Episcopacy too and the Head of the Republick and Presbytery had they had any would have been cut off too for Heaven designed to shew some signal Tokens of Abolition The House of Power and Symbol of the Old Dispensation was Burned This was a true Type of the last Conflagration but more particularly of the Expiration of the Old Dispensation when the Harvest is Cut down the Stubble is usually Burned A New Aera Commencing 't was fit there should be New Habitations and God himself designing to Visit the New Powers 't was fit a Purgation by Fire should be used There was an Harvest in our Saviours Time which was nothing else but a Cutting down all the Constitutions of the World as the effect has plainly declared And this is the Second Harvest and will have the same effects This Harvest then being first got in in these Countreys there was reserved some of the Good and Best Wheat for Seed to be thrown into the Ground to raise a New Crop This has been done and it comes up Green and Kindly and is in a very Hopeful and Flourishing Condition not Rising BARE GRAIN but with a New Body such as God has been pleased to give it but of this more hereafter The Old Witnesses observing the time of the Beasts power Expiring made an Attack upon the Whorish Retinue and drove them out of all Power and Dominion This is THEIR DEATH and they ought to Dye first the Time of their end being Come but This Retinue returns with New Vigor and again Assaults the Witnesses driving THEM out of all Power and Dominion This is the Witnesses Death and there is great Insulting and Rejoycing over them because they had Tormented them so much before and many Gifts are sent and much Rejoycing there is at their Re-settlement but they who were their Friends prevailed so much that they should not be Buryed in hopes they would Revive the Text saith They suffered them not to be put in their Graves this argues their Death was not Literal and that the Tree was not pulled up by the Roots only cut off by the Stumps that there might be a new Ingrafting They lie thus Civilly Dead expulsed out of all Employment and Power in the Streets of the Great City which is Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was Crucified This City can by no means be meant Rome as some would have it for it was never known that Jerusalem was called Rome and 't is plain Jerusalem is meant hereby Now Jerusalem was a Friendly City belonging to Christs Kindred and Nation and so ought this City in which his Body or Witnesses are to be Slain and no City in the World can claim such a Title as Lond n being the very shadow of it in a Line directly drawn as also doth answer the same in all other Respects of Kindred and Affinity to the Witnesses and though it be the Chief Protestant City yet in a Spiritual Sence Rome almost in a Literal it may be called 〈◊〉 and Egypt nothing hinders this In this City therefore for Three Days and a Half They lie Thrown out of all Power Spiritual and Temporal and some of them were really and Literally cast out into the Street this was in the last Persecution just before the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience when the Spirit of Life from God entered into them and they stood upon their Feet and Great Fear fell upon them which saw them And they leard a Great Voice from Heaven saying Come up hither and they Ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them This was a grievous sight to their Enemies they had taken all care imaginable not only to kill them but to keep them dead But their Death was their Victory as of old their Saviours was for now they rise again to the Amazement of them all Alas Their care extended no farther than to the Old Witnesses with whom they had fought and who had tormented them so much And when they see New Witnesses standing in the Court of Heaven they stand amazed as if they had seen a Spectrum These we know and These we know say they But who are Ye These New Enemies they never dream'd of There 's no Feeing the Soldiers to say they are not risen for they are seen of all the World These then as soon as they appear being the First Fruits of God and to the Lamb all other old Fruit becomes intollerable to Prophecy A sudden Hurricane arises And the Text saith There was a great Earthquake and the Tenth part of the City sell and in the Earthquake was slain of Men Seven Thousand It should not be of Men tho' this Version is so this favours a literal Death too much Other Versions have it the Names of Men or Men of Note The Latin
Version is Capita Hominum Septies Mille which rendred right is The Heads or Principals of Seven Thousand Men But the Greek is nearer to the point being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The NAMES of Seven Thousand Men being 't is only a Name that is slain it frees the Text from a literal interpretation And every Name is a Captain and has under him a Thousand Men. Any one that consults the Originals will find these things true And the rest but not these were afrighted and gave glory to God What a Disturbance and Earthquake there was is well known caused chiefly by the Seven Patriarchs Falling and by their Fall Seven Thousand of their Party These represented the whole Body as Julian the whole Papal Constitution And 't is fit there should be a Specimen of all the Condemned and Rejected Powers at the Rising of the Witnesses that they might be Triumphed over and all Fall together The Rest gave Glory to God That is they thanked God for their Deliverance tho' others repined and murmured In this curious Scene the Wisdom of God cannot be enough admired As Idolatrous Julian of old was suffered on purpose to make a Three year and half 's Parenthesis in the Christian Empire that the Jews might build their Temple and so the Epoche of its Desolation might be the more Illustrious So Papal Julian was admitted to make much the same intercalations on purpose that the Epoche of the New-Risen-Witnesses might be the more conspicous There was none to reach them an hand or to call them to Heaven So God made their greatest Enemies to do it even Rome it self And when he had done this he had done the business for which he was raised and presently flies away like a Whirlwind being intollerable to Prophecy For though the Lion and the Lamb may the Whore and the Bride must not lie down together These things I doubt not but will be very satisfactory to many especially to those who seek for Truth with a Resolution not to Reject it when they have Found it The Scene lying so near I know is a great prejudice to Truth Things that lie Abroad and a great way off Men sooner believe than what is done at Home And therefore they had much rather these Witnesses should rise in Piedmont Germany or France than in England But this cannot be for the Gospel is the Blood of the World which never reverts till it comes to the Toes and these Nations may be called the Feet or Toes of the Universe And these New-Risen-Witnesses are to Convert and Proselyte the whole World and therefore the Extream Parts are the most proper places to begin in I know many would have the Witnesses Rise in Piedmont Germany and France but they are under great Mistakes as to the true and genuine Nature of Death and Resurrection as I shall fully and to the satisfaction of all the World make appear as follows All who have wrote upon this Subject hitherto have supposed a Wounding and a Healing an Imprisonment and Releasing a Deprivation and Restoration of Power in the same Numerical and Identical Body of Men to be a Death and Resurrection which alas doth not rise up to the true nature thereof at all Though the Witnesses Death and Resurrection are not natural and literal yet they ought to hold a most exact and strict Analogy thereto and this Analogy falls exceedingly short thereof These are only accidental and not substantial Mutations in the same Body and no accidental or circumstantial Mutation will do the business No a Transformation will not do the thing for no Man will say Nehuchadnezzar died and rose again No Increase or Decrease or any other accidental Alteration in one and the same subject can possibly reach the Heighth of Death and Resurrection A repairing an Old House makes it not a New One. There must be an absolute pulling down to make it Death and an intire New Building from the Foundations to make it a Resurrection Death makes a substantial Alteration 'T is a total Dissolution of Parts a melting down the Bullion and not a sodering the piece In the Resurrection there must be a substantial Newness A Body that is said to rise again must have nothing of the Old Body in it but be absolutely New both in substance and circumstance And a Body that is said properly and truly to be Dead must be absolutely dissolved and must undergo a circumstantial and substantial Mutation A Truth of this weight cannot be made too plain Now neither the Witnesses in Piedmont Germany France or any other part of the World whatsoever except in England have passed such a Test as this The same Witnesses Persecuted and then tollerated Wounded and then Healed Depressed and then Re-established does not come up to the Heighth of Death and Resurrection Because these are only Alterations in the same Body and the same Body ought not to be in the Resurrection The Apostle saith Thou Fool thou sowest not that Body that shall be The Body is to dye and to be dissolved and receive an absolute New Body New in substance and circumstance before it can be said to have a Resurrection If it rise with its Old Body it may be said to be altered or changed but not risen 't is only BARE GRAIN an Old House repaired a Piece sodered together but nothing else There is a vast difference betwixt Corn raised up and Corn that is Risen one implying help the other none the Stone comes out of the Mountain without hands The one is only Old Corn tho' it be raised from the Ground but the other is absolutely New Men have hitherto called accidental alterations in the same Subject to be a Resurrection and so have made their Witnesses rise only BARE GRAIN but the Grain ought to rot in the Ground and receive a New Form and Body such as God shall please to give it before it can be said to have a True Resurrection This has been done in England to an Iota and answered the true and genuine nature of Death and Resurrection in the most minute circumstances For the Old Witnesses and their Constitution hath been killed melted or cut down like the Corn and some of it has been cast into the Ground and 't is risen up with a New Body absolutely New both in substance and circumstance there is nothing of the Old Way or Method in them but in Temporals Spirituals a Fundamentis they have all things New And the Name of Witness is stamped all over upon them All the Nation will witness what I say to be true I lay stroke upon stroke because Men have been miserably mistaken about this Great Truth and I had rather undergo some Reflections than not be plain so weighty a Truth requiring it If the French Protestants should be restored to their Lands and Livings and be priviledged to exercise their Old Methods in Religion this can never mount to a Resurrection and therefore the Learned Jurieu is much
Swore to and under CRONOS All The Tempestates or Species of Time what soever are comprehended Having Swore his Death so solemnly one would have thought The Angel would presently have fell upon The Aged Monster But He gives him a little Respite coming in with a BUT or an Exception which Semper firmat Regulam But Saith He In The Days of the voice of The Seveath Angel Reckoning These Days from the very Time when He shall Begin to sound c. Did I Say He gave him Respite He gave him none but killed Him then and Raised Him again to life The Oath flew both Him and his Issue TIME here is of a Complex nature and may rather be suposed a She Monster And being Pregnant The Angel rips open the Belly and lets the Young live out all their DAYS which had otherwise perished in The Womb of Their Parent But Though These POST HUMES live yet Their life is only a Reprieve after Condemnation for They are not to propagate Their Death being really swore to in the Death of their Parent This BUT limits their Life which is during All The Days under the Sounding of the Seventh Angel Some Pious Men amongst us understand TIME here in a Relative and Restrictive sense affirming that The Angel means no more than that some of the same quality or sort should be no longer than the Beginning of the Angels sounding which Interpretation though acidentally true yet falls much short of The Angels Oath being only a part of his plain indubitable sense For nothing is more plain than that the Sense extends it self farther even to the END of the Days and consequently to The END of the world The Text at the very entrance confirms this making The Hysteron the Proteron or Puting The Days before The Beginning plainly implying thereby That we are to include All The days under The Angels sounding before his Oath of Time being no longer can take place We cannot suppose that God would send so Extraordinary in Embassador to The world on such a slight Errand as to acquaint them That when The Sixth Hour was past it would be Seven a clock or that The Time under The Sixth Trumpet should last no longer than The Beginning of The Seventh Such a Message would be very unworthy so Great a Courtier And was his Business to tell us That The Time in the sixth Hour would not be The same for quality with That in The Seventh This would not add much to the Dignity of His Office In short TIME Ends not as is vulgarly supposed when The Angel BEGINS to Sound But at the Expiration of the whole Days under his Sounding And the Angels Chief Errand is to point out to Men The PERIOD of The world And The END of Time And Methinks I hear Him Speaking to The world after This manner YE Sons of Men Take Notice The Old Glass of Time viz. of 1260 is just run out And I Am Sent to Turn it And I Here Turn it in The Presence of you All And do Swear By The Living God who Liveth for ever and ever That It shall never be turnd more But when The Sands are run out or when The Days of the voice are Ended Reckoning Them from the Beginning of his Sounding or Tuning of his Trumpet Then The Glass shall be broke and TIME of whatsoever Denomination shall never be Measured more but be swallowed up in the Great Ocean of Eternity Two Things The Reader must Note First That That TIME which The Angel swears the Death of is of a Simple and indefinite nature and that The Time which He Excepts is of a Complex nature Because there are Days in it Secondly That The Angel is Seven year in sounding viz Betwixt The Second and Third Woe These things being premised Though there may be so me seeming difficulty when to Commence The Excepted Time and when it Ends or Expires Yet really There will be none at all For We are to Begin These Excepted Days Not when The Angel has sounded or done sounding But when He Begins to sound Not When The Clock has struck all But at The very First stroke of Seven The Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quum futurum est ut Clangat That is When He shall First begin or be about to begin to sound The very Tuning his Trumpet or his Preparing himself to sound comes into The Account 'T is usual to say T' is Seven a Clock when it has struck Seven But This is our Errour For it was seven at the First stroke at that very Instant when The Sixth Hour Lapsed or The Second Woe to The True Church Ended The Reign of a King Commenceth Not from the Time of his Proclamation But From The Exact Time of His Predecessors Death There is no Interregnum Time being not discontinued So The Reign of Christ Commenceth from the very moment of the Angels Beginning to sound which was in The Later part of 1688 When The Witnesses Rose The Spirit puts an Emphasis on The word beginning God being unwilling that Men should be ignorant of the Exact Epoche of Christs Reign Because it is The Index which points out The Final Day of Judgment Now In The second Place How long These Excepted Dayes will Last or when they will Expire and Time be Finished is alike plain and manifest For The Sands In The upper part of the Glass will be no longer in runing than in the lower part The Lease of The Bride If The Indentures be compared will be found to be cut out of the Same sheet of Time with that of the Whores Now The Whores Lease was for 1260 Years or Time Time and halfe a Time under the Sounding of the Sixth Angel And The Brides under the Sounding of the Seventh will be the Same viz 1000 for The Millennium and 260 for The Little Season In which Satan shall be Loosed which Ballances exactly Then Time shall be no longer The Turning the Last Glass or the Angels Begining to sound Is the Finishing of time Inchoate And Its vacuity or Expiration of the 1260 Years Is the Finishing of time Consummate These things must needs be very plain The Sounding of the Seventh Angel Is the worlds Passing Bell Judgment then begins and They are Destroyed which destroy the Earth and in the End are thrown into Hell when the Quick and Dead will he judged These Last 1260 Years being the Dawn of an Eternal Day to the Godly But the Dire Crepusculum of an Eternall night to the Wicked These Days Began in the Latter part of 1688 But had no Solemn Commencement 'till An. 1689 ' when The Man whose NAME is The Branch was Crowned King Now would The Inquisitive know what the Last Year of the Seventh Angels Sounding will Issue in Let me tell them T is very probable 't will Terminate in a Most Glorious Appearance of Christ Pouring down the Spirit from on High at Pentecost For He is Now Considered under the Following Relations viz As the Son of A Great King or an Heir Adult Claiming All the Kingdoms of the Earth As a Bridegroom come to marry His Bride As a Great General come to Conquer the World whose Name is called The WORD of God As an High Priest or Chief Administrator in His Millennian Kingdom and Lastly As a Young Infant in His Church Regenerate The Pouring out the Spirit so often promised may Refer to all These As He is a King 'T is the Great Proclamation As a Bridegroom 'T is The Marriage Supper 'T is the Sealing His Commission as a Souldier His Installment as He is an High Priest As He is married 't is the Sealing His Bride a Jointure of Power For a Thousand Years and as He is an Infant 't is his Babtizing and Lastly 't is the TEMPLE OPENED not of which The Plagues do Issue forth with a Full Commission to Destroy all His Enimies who would not have Him to Rule over them No Sort of Christians will deny that God hath made to Men a Promise of a NEW COVENANT in the Latter Days Obliging Himself thereby to write his Law in their HEARTS c. Now He never makes a NEW Covenant but He Break The OLD one Nor is it his Custom ever to Introduce a New or Cancel an Old one with out the Greatest Solemnnity After what Manner and with what Solemnity He Broke The old one I have plainly hinted in my Preface to the King The Introduction of the New one there being Two SEDE VACANTES by Cancelling the Old one is but the Reverse of That And That It will be Introduced with a Joyous Solemnity is The Rational Expectation of all Good Men. THE END * O. C. T. Burnet T. Beverly M. Jurieu