to Athanasius But he was Bishop of Rome about forty years before the superintendent of the son of perdition was advanced to preside supream in the body of Apostacy Pope Anastasius the second about the year 490 holding the Heresie of Acatius dyed the same death that Arrius did But Cyricius sought to bring in the prohibition of Priests mariages about the year 400 But this doctrine of Devils as the Apostle calls it sprung not up to purpose till after some Centuries of years A thing not to be forgot saith Morney upon this occasion that corruption of doctrine as well as of discipline should meet and march together For Secondly The President over the Apostacy even in his and her Infancy did not only innovate something in doctrine but did much invade the rights of the Primitive Church in point of Discipline His incroachments herein came with such commanding violence that Orthodox Councels could not heal her seeming mortal wounds made thereby For He took away her power of the Keyes and Church-priviledges by rescuing and restoring excommunicate Appellants to him as he pleased and arrogated all her rights unto himself Wherefore these bulworks thus broken down and the Churches defences falling on all sides she was soon by this meanes troden under foot of those Gentiles for 1260 years Revel 11.2.3 And a flood of at first somewhat refined errours formal ignorance filthy but deceitful manners began to overspread by the same meanes and at the same time the face of the Christian World We see therefore some beginings of unsound doctrine were in the ingress of the Apostacy But the breaches in Church Discipline the defence both of doctrine and manners and support of the Church seemed even then irreparable And Thirdly Sundry superstitions the least suspected seeds of the greatest Heresies were liberally sown about the beginning of the Apostacy Damasus instead of Psalmes caused songs to be sung in the Church Abolished the Bible-Translation by the Septuagint Contrary to which the Council of Laodicea Decreed Can. 69. Innocent about the year 406 Decreed That all Persous should kiss the Pax. Leo about the year 442 brought in Auricular confession Decreed that reverence should be given to the Images of Saints upon the penalty of a curse Thus we see That the Doctrine of the body of Apostacy when the Bicorn beast first began to build it was for the most part sound but somewhat corrupt and which is Antichrists undeniable Character carelesly shallow Secondly That he brake down the Primitive Churches wall of Discipline to make his ingress the more easie that he might ruinate her and erect his Apostacy in her place Thirdly That he loaded her and fortified his own City of confusion with sundry superstitions which grew up after into dangerous Heresies Thus he came and this was the manner of his coming when he first came to build the body of Apostacy But Fourthly The great business from about 400 and for a long time after was about Supremacy and to lay a firm foundation for his threefold Decapolity Wise builders seek a sure Rock so these Fatui Structores foolish master-builders must pretend to find a Rock when they laid their foundation upon the sand But where must they find this unfound Rock In the Scriptures and the Nicene Council In the Scriptures they find Tu es Petrus And upon this Rock c. There they find Peter to be the Rock and the Pope his pretended successor to be the foundation of the Church This Fundamental Heresie for so it may well be was so closely followed and so subtilly handled upon Scripture account in that juncture of time that it had almost deceived as I shewed before some chief Fathers of the Primitive church Crediderunt Hieronymus Augustinus Ecclesiam super Petrum fundatam Sed retractantes ambo dixerunt Super Fetram Christum quem Petrus agnovit Both Jerom and Augustine were brought to believe that the Church was built upon Peter But they both retracting said upon Christ the Rock whom Peter acknowledged The rest of the Doctrine of the Apostacy when it began to prevail apparently about the year 407 was sufficiently supersicial and shallow but most of it literally and fundamentally sound and so much the more fit to deceive conform to that coming of the Son of Perdition whom the Apostle foretold saying whose coming is with all deceivableness c. Secondly That deceitful fruitless knowledge brought forth like obedience Not good works but evil reports upon all that was good and wicked practices against the best men which Saint Jorom Saint Augustine and sundry others from their ownsad experience sufficiently witnessed But Saint Jerom calls that new created Corporation of Apostacy The Rabble of Ignorance Neither was there saith he so simple a Scribe in all that ignorant Rabble c. Sure Saint Jerom here overshoots himself For how could Rome then revolting be a Rabble of ignorance seeing her Doctrine was then for the most part though trivial and shallow sound and besides some sincere professors in her she had no doubt her learned Clarkes famed for Religion Saint Jerom doubtless was serious but not censorious not rash in calling the body of that Apostacy A conspiracy or a Rabble of pride and ignorance For they that want as they he complained of appeared to do right and Charitable application in practice though they should have all knowledge or be never so learned are proud as the Apostle speakes knowing nothing Such consent not though they should in words at least in works to the Patern of sound Doctrine and are therefore trivial and shallow both in Doctrine and Obedience And that such superficial Proficients the best of them know nothing appears also expresly in the words of the Apostle 1 Corinth 13.2 Though I understand all knowledge and have all Faith and have no Charity I am nothing Am nothing Ex nihilo fit nihil Little knowledge is he like to have that is nothing though he know never so much He 's nothing that hath not Charity That is He hath no knowledge and as little obedience Both are false both but deceits if his words and workes are without right and Charitable application That 's the depth of good ground without which the deepest Earth is shallow and the greatest knowledge and gifts the greatest deceits What wonder then if sacred Scripture sayes Such men know nothing or are nothing And what wrong did Saint Jerom do to the Senate of Pharisees whom because he had sadly experienced them to be such men he asserted to be A Rabble of Pride and Ignorance seeing the Scripture it self saith Such men are proud knowing nothing And If the greatest knowledge and gifts of such Professors is but Pseudosophia the wisdom of folly or deceit of fools then how great is the deceit and folly of the wisest and most knowing men that wants or seeks not after a meek sober right and Charitable application of what they do know and
devil and therefore called the Devil got by Rebellion so much power for a short space against the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea Egypt and the East Empire as to persecute many precious Saints in those infimous out-places that less regarded the truth of the Gospel in Doctrine and manners But he prevailed not or very little against the Western Churches who were much more sound in faâ—â—â— and manners and therefore called Heaven Rejoyc◠〈◊〉 and ye that dwell in them wo unto the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea c. But Of this I have written at large in my Tract against Chiliasm This first Dragon thus prevailed under his eighth and last head and chiefly under the form of an Arrian against the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea Egypt and the Eastern Empire from the death of Constans to the death of Valens about 18 years Then was he bound as we have shown before sufficiently by Theodosius and his two Sons with a new recruit of chains so strait that he could scarce breath or rather must breath his last Then seeking aid of the second Dragon that Dragon came but did not succour him sad poor dying distressed but destroy'd for ever about 412 the feeble relicts of him Therefore this first Dragon had not then nor long before any free power seat or authority But the Dragon gave his seat c. Therefore that was the second Dragon The first Dragon was Draco devictus a Dragon subdu'd by a woman She overcame him by the blond of the Lamb and the word of her testimony ch 12.11 But this second Dragon overcame that woman drave her into the wilderness killed her witnesses To wit about four hundred and seven ten or twelve when their testimony by which they overcame the first Dragon grew at least in works weak or in the words of the text when they had finished that testimony ch 11.7 ch 12.14 15 17. The first Dragon was an Indigena in the Roman Empire the second an Alienigena from the North Rome Pagan was the last clearest fullest type of the Antichrist predicted by Prophets and Apostles Rome Papal was the antitype or substance shaddowed forth by many types but last and above all by Pagan Rome whose head the first Dragon was as the second was the first head in Scripture order because the raiser up of Papal Rome But before I proceed I must first resell sundry opinions of many Learned writers For some affirm that all Prophesies under the Law were fulfilled at the death of our blessed Saviour or at the destruction of Jerusalem So they cut off the Prophets from giving testimony to the Apostles and the Apocalyps Secondly some affirm that all the Prophesies in the Apocalyps except the Dragons binding for 1000 years whom they also except in vain were fulfilled about 412 at the excision of Rome Imperial Then there can be no second Dragon beast or false Prophet commencing then And then this if not the whole design of the Apocalyps may seem a dream I must therefore take away of necessity these cardinal obstacles in the way of my progress to explicate those intricate Scriptures that are most needful to be unfolded and to make the Plain thereby the more perspicuous And first we shall prove though we have done that perhaps before sufficiently that the Prophets bare clear record to the Predictions prophetick promises and comminations in the Apostles and the Apocalyps and reached even Papal Rome That there were two Dragons needs no dispute Further proof of it might seem superfluous Howbeit even that also will hereby necessarily and irrefellibly appear The world so far as I find never took notice that there were two nor do the Learned Grotius Hammond and others that I see observe it because they stating the period of the Apocalyps and all prophetick Scriptures about the year four hundred and ten when Rome Imperial was translated so exclude both the second Dragon beast and false Prophet with Papal Rome and all modern Sects and so doing must exclude though they would except them the Mahumetans also from being any part of the Churches predicted Antithesis The more literal fulfilling of the Apocalyps in many things they with Mead and many others have learnedly observed which literal fulfilling in many things they find and I confess ended much about the years four hundred and ten or twelve But of many things that relate not to Pagan but to Papal Rome they take little or no notice nor are they misguided but by a general mis-supposition which may necessitate even the most Learned to the same mistakes For their not observing that there were two Dragons which also never any that I find observed necessitates them if not all expositors to the same aberrations Doctor Hammond or as well any other Learned or rational did or might had his suppositions been right very rationally thus argue The Dragon for neither he or any other perhaps supposed more than one ended with the computation of the Apocalyps for ever in four hundred and ten or twelve But the Dragon beast and false Prophet had all one and the same synchronick Epoche ending as aforesaid Therefore after four hundred and ten or twelve there could be never any Dragon beast or false Prophet much less any of them after that time as they could not be before apply'd to Papal Rome Papal Rome whom the Apocalyps it self thus absolveth must therefore remain free for ever from any such imputation as being any part of the body of Apostacy or of the Antichrist predicted by Prophets and Apostles His and their arguments were those suppositions right are very rational and indeed the very truth Nor did the Learned Grotius Hammond and others as it seems to me much observe That as some Rocks re-eccho the first sounds given three or four times as Trogus Pompeius witnesseth and I have oft observed so some prophesies sound forth several successive transactions in four or five reverberations For example The prophesie in Daniel of the abomination of desolation struck first Prophetically upon the cruel practises of Epiphanes and sounded forth the Jews sad calamities by his merciless persecutions but did not terminate there but sounded forth also the Jews desolations at the destruction of Jerusalem And when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel saith our Saviour c. Daniels dimidium hebdemadis of the same duration and denomination and makes Daniels prophesie of the desolation at the destruction of Jerusalem to be in the third Reverberation The conformity of that half week of years in its duration and denomination to its type under Epiphanes and its anti type under the Apostacy appears from these Texts Dan. 9.26 27. Rev. 11.2 3. The duration of that half week of years under Epiphanes and the Pharisees as in types was 1260 days literal but in their anti types 1260 years The desolations in those types were more literal but in their
last head And Lastly The second Dragon about the year 412 took away the very being of that first Dragon drave the Primitive Church with her Eagles wings into the Wilderness took away her and their chief power into his own hands and gave that power which he took from them and they from the first Dragon to wit the Supremacy therein to the beast secular and Papal For it had been res maximè mir and a minimè credenda a thing most impossible and incredible for the first Dragon to have done it Had he done it he must have had an Art never heard on That could give his Seat and great Authority which he had not And this is the mischief As he had no power to give unto the beast so there was no beast in being to receive it so long as he existed which necessarily implies a double impossibility But the Dragon gave his great Authority to the beast Therefore that was the second Dragon clearly distinct from the first and both from this beast And then it must inevitably follow of necessity That this beast and that second Dragon and the Bicorn false Prophet were contemporary and as the several texts plainly prove synchronize in 1260 years beginning about 412 though that second Dragon was not drawn at first to such complyance as afterwards And this contrary to Doctor Hammonds rational conclusion from a mistaken supposition is signally conspicuous as we clearly see from sundry texts of sacred Scripture and as it hath appeared and will more plainly appear from Church-History I need not therefore I suppose say to any sober or judicious Reader that the text plainly says That he that in Paul's time letted should let till he were taken out of the way the rising up of the Son of perdition But I may say in the words of that Apostle to the silliest Readers or at least to such as have any competent animadvertency and understanding you know that he that letted in that Apostles time the rising up of the body of Apostacy and its spiritual and fecular Heads was the first Dragon or Supream power of Pagan and Imperial Rome you know from those Prophetick texts and from Church-History fully witnessing the performances of those Prophesies that the said first Dragon did not give could in no wise possibly give his power which he had not to the beast Papal not then in being you know that he much more all his power was to be taken out of the way to make way for that beast you know also that the Dragon gave Scripture says it Church-History proves it his great Authority to the beast And you know that Dragon because the first and all his power was taken out of the way before as aforesaid must of necessity be the second Dragon And thus actum est de hac controversiâ this Controversie is fully ended and That there were two Dragons irrefellibly concludent But So wedded is the world to wilful errours that men and Sects nor are Saints free from this fault take little care or pains to come to know these things Haec scire say they quid prodest Quid obest nescire What are we better if we know these things or worse if we never know them They therefore even many that are most studious therein are so indocile to know though plainly proved and though they should be oft repeated these things or to see their own Preservations and chief concerns in the knowledge of them that their progress is therein little their profit less to themselves and others For such slow-bellies are many that they cannot imagine what real use can be made of those things which will instantly appear to be the things of highest concernments and the knowledge of them and how to use them the Conservatory means of all other graces and mercies Hagar her Son ready to dye she distressed sate by a Well in the Wilderness and saw it not Little did she think of such support so nigh till God opened her eyes and she saw the Well Her sight of it was a present means to prevent imminent death and procure life to her and him But if present and after-Ages may see and shun those evils that are worse than death and reap those benefits that may be better than lâ—fe by the knowledge of those things I shall briefly indigitate that and with like brevity conclude the premises And first Most Reformists will needs have the beast secular and Papal to be the Scarlet-coloured beast chap. 17.3 or which is an errour if not the same not much different the seventh Head of that red Dragon or Scarlet beast This gross errour the grand Remora to the right unfolding of many texts is a strong refuge to the Mystery of Iniquity Nor can the expositions of the best Writers upon the Apocalyps and Prophetick Scriptures till this and many like mistakes be removed be otherwise then perplex ravels of intricate consusion Therefore the perfect removal of this mistake as the readiest way to remove many requires my present care Nor perhaps have my pains hither to made the truth so fully irrefellible as instantly it will appear to be Can we but find those seven Heads that were peculiar to the red Dragon or Scarlet-coloured beast and his eighth Head also which was of those seven Then we have all his peculiar number of Heads and so this business is fully ended But five of his Heads were faln before John wrote as we shewed before And one his Imperial Head existed when John wrote There 's six of his seven-Heads And the other is not yet come saith the text and when he cometh he must continue a short space His time was short for a Kingdom divided cannot stand because he was a divided Head For part of it fell from the Pagans and took part with the Christians in the time of Constantius and Constantine His eighth dying and scarce perfect Head was Pagano-arrian in the time of Constantius the second Julian Valens and went into everlasting perdition about 412 ver 11. That is he and that first Dragon under him then perished for ever Here 's all the crowned Heads for all his Heads had Crowns that were peculiar to that first Dragon Then the Sea-born beast Papal assisted by the second Dragon through the false Prophets procurement ascended out of the Sea the Political and Military Deluge which the second Dragon cast out of his mouth having seven successive Heads chap. 13.1 But here 's the Master-piece of exquisite absurdity All Reformist Writers few excepted affirm That the seventh Head of the Scarlet beast the first Dragon was the secular beast Papal with seven Heads which is as good sense as to say That a part of the body of one man is the entire individuum of another person For that Scarlet beast that had seven Heads and an eighth also and the Sea-born beast Papal that had seven Heads were two several individual and clearly distinct persons political Secondly The texts expresly
Churches Antithesis must observe the right Series of the Mystery of Iniquity and know when and how the Apostacy sprang up As also that there were two Dragons and which of the two raised Rome Papal or the body of Apostacy All works or writings against her till this be first done or at least in part discerned are little worth scarce so much as engage Rome Papal against those opposers to small purpose she may till then hold forth her flag of defiance against as trivial impugners all such and say The Scriptures themselves clearing her from their charge charge them with Blasphemy Schism Slander and Apostacy Her walls must stand inviolable she invincible Thus we see till these mistakes be removed no Reformists can undeceive possibly the Papists or their sub-divisions nor be themselves rationally undeceived or be convinced of their errours in Opinions or manners Tum verò barbari barbaros invicem Ecclesiam persequentur in aeternum Then Men Saints and Sects with feral ire and intricate confusion must implacably pursue and persecute each other For if these and such obstacles to true peace multiply or are not removed then in Chaos infandum tetus confunditur Orbis present and after-ages must ever inherit inextricable Labyrinths of all dreadful and they inemergible miseries Men saith the text shall seek death and shall not find is and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them For Their torment was as the torment of a Scorpion when he striketh a man Mistakes in Opinions and manners were to those men the cause of such torments worse than death as in its due place will appear from those texts But these mens miseries must far exceed theirs and death it self be much more desirable than their condition if these and many like errours in Opinions and manners be not removed Thus the evils of these and like mistakes until they be removed are its evident both great and many But if these and many such errours are or shall be sufficiently refelled and men be thereof clearly convinced Then Rome Papals walls and the walls of her sub-divisions as the walls of Jericho fell at once flat to the ground are become like Cobwebs which the wind scatters Then torments greater than the pains of the stings of Scorpions may begin to cease from men and miseries worse than death discontinue But we shall dissolve though we have done that perhaps sufficiently this Knot of manifold mistakes in its due place by proving a two and twenty quadripartite disparity betwixt the first and second Dragon Betwixt both and the Sea-bornbeast Papal and betwixt all three and the false Prophet with two horns Till then let no Reader trouble himself with idle excogitations of mind nor me with many words For I perhaps have given the judicious Reader full satisfaction at present and so shall oft afterwards till I prosecure those premises in the sequel I should not spend time to mention too many having no mean thoughts of their own parts that tell you The Dragon is only because so called the Devil individual as some upon such solid grounds assert Transubstantiation from Hoc est corpus But I commit this Chaffe to the wind till afterwards I was unavoidably put upon it before I could proceed to the following Epochaes to remove those mistakes aforesaid And Secondly to refel their opinions that hold That all the Prophesies before Christ were finally fulfilled at his death or at the destruction of Jerusalem And Thirdly to remove the mistakes of all Papists and many Protestants affirming That all Prophesies both before and after Christ expired if not at the destruction of Jerusalem at the translating of the Empire in four hundred and ten or twelve They except only and that to as little purpose the Mahumetans For If all Prophesies before Christ ended at his death or at Jcrusalems destruction And if all in the Gospel and in the Apocalyps expired as aforesaid in 412 Then Non erit locus there cannot possibly be any place for these twelve ensuing Intervals or Epochaes commencing then and synchronizing from that time for 1260 years Then all these twelve Epochaes and their transactions and the Scriptures themselves that hold them forth must like the five foolish Virgins stand withour and not be admitted to express the mind of the Spirit of truth yea then the Scripture Canonical must be dis-membred and part made as Apocryphal or which is worse perverted to prefer Hereticks and promote errors in opinions and manners Then the faithful industry of the best Writers must be but labor irritus pains herein taken to no purpose Then Papists Heathens and Hereticks cannot possibly be convinced of their errours in Opinions and practices nor any true peace hoped for from them or any Professors of different perswasions For these causes of highest concernments I have taken this pains to break the hardest Rocks of obstacles the confident and long-continued mistakes both of Papists and Protestants and to prove That the Prophesies before Christ even in Genesis extended beyond the destruction of Jerusalem For the type Primitive and Jewish Church whom Pharaoh expresly called the Dragon persecuted had the Sun Moon and twelve Stars her Lights and Guides and adumbrated prophetically the Gospel-Church Primitive who had also the Sun Moon and twelve Stars her Lights and Guides and was also persecuted by the Anti-evangelical Dragon of Pagan and heretical Rome in the Antitype I have also perhaps sufficiently proved against the Opinions of all Papists and many Protestants that the prophesies in Daniel reach Rome Papal and her secular Head in the fifth Reverberation wherefore these mistakes impregnable obstacles against Mead and all Reformist Writers being thus fully removed my way is levigated and my aggress made plain without any material obstacle to treat upon the ensuing Epochaes which come next to be handled The Synchronick Epochaes of the second Dragon Beast and false Prophet are thus held forth The second Dragons duration is in Apocalyps 12.14 a time tames and an half The Sea-born beasts continuance is in ch 13.5 forty two months The false Prophet's Epoche is in Daniel 7.25 a time times and the dividing of a time The times in all those texts are the same and make a threefold Synchronism of 1260 years to the three Heads of the threefold Decapolity of the grand Apostacy which duration and therein this second Dragons is 800 years above the first Dragons proper Epoche and that irrefellibly denotes two Dragons For The Epochaes of the first Dragon and of Primitive Rome Pagan or otherwise heretical were proper or improper His and her improper Epoche ab Urbe Conditâ until Rome Imperial was made tributary to Alaricus in 407 was about 1159 years Or until it was taken plundred and burnt by Alaricus in 412 about 1164 years I call this duration of time His improper Epoche because it were improper to count the Chaldaean or Greek Epochaes in Scripture predicted from the first constituting of those Kingdoms For
she might flee into the Wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time times and half a time from the face of the Serpent ver 14. The times in both texts are exactly the same and make a twisted or double record That the Epoche of the Churches abode in her place prepared of God was to be 1260 years Into the Wilderness That is into an obscure sad desolate and distrest condition both in temporal and spiritual respects Into her place prepared of God Having here proved the Epoche by the double testimony of two texts we shall refer this place prepared of God but a little further to a fitter place where we shall shew what this place prepared of God was where the Gospel-Church was to be preserved for 1260 years The seventh Epoche IS of the death of the Witnesses And when they shall have finished their testimony their Primitive testimony in 407 and not their 1260 years Prophesie in Sackcloth the beast saith the text that cometh out of the bottomless pit the second Dragon shall overcome and kill them shall cast them out of their primitive power and capacities temporal and spiritual and kill many of them corporally And their dead bodies shall lye in the street of the great City called spiritually Sodom c. That is their dejected condition shall be visible and obvious to the frequent view of those spiritual Gentiles of that threefold City of Apostacy And they of the Peoples and Kindreds c. those Gentiles aforesaid shall see their dead bodìes their persecuted and despised state three dayes and an half That is Three times and an half chap. 12.14 Or 1260 dayes Annual or years chap. 13.3 That 's the Epoche both of the death of the Witnesses and of their Prophecying in Sackcloth And so Their type Eliah and the Prophets of Israel finished also their as it were primitive testimony against the wickedness of Ahab and Israels Apostacies And when they had finished that primitive testimony Jezabel Ahab and the false Prophets killed them for 1260 dayes literal That is Killed many or the most and persecuted all for 1260 dayes Therefore they that escaped death corporal fled with the persecuted Church as into a Wilderness into the secret subterfuges of obscure latency for 1260 dayes literal So long also did her and their type-surviving Witnesses as well they might and had most just cause Prophesie as in Sackcloth in great obscurity and contempt And just so long was rain literal restrained to wit for 1260 dayes literal But after those flying persecuted type-Witnesses had finished those 1260 dayes of their type-type-death and Prophecying â—n Sackcloth they were not killed we find little of that in that grand exemplar or Patern So when the Gospel-Witnesses St. Basit Ambrose Athanasius Jerom Chrysostom and others had finished not this Sackcloth Prophesie of 1260 years but their primitive testimony about 407 against the fast approaching defections of the primitive Church And when she and her revolting children repented not then did the Beast that came out of the bottomless pit the second Dragon kill the Witnesses And the Sea born-beast and false Prophet-Papal to whom that Dragon gave his power the Supremacy therein prosecuted though they seemed gentle for the first 805 years the killing of them for 1260 as in the Patern literal dayes Annual Therefore they such as escaped death corporal fled with the persecuted Church into the spiritual Wilderness into the secret subtersuges of obscure latencies for 1260 as in the type literal dayes dayes Annual Just so long was rain restrained in the type literal in the Anti-type spiritual rain To wit for 1260 as in the Patern dayes literal Annual dayes or years And therefore the Gospel-Witnesses such as were killed by the death of persecution but not corporally or totally killed Prophesied as well they might and had most just cause for 1260 as in the Patern literal dayes Annual in Sackcloth th it is in great infirmity affliction obscurity and contempt for 1260 years Wherefore when they had finished for that 's intended in the text their primitive testimony about the year four hundred and seven or ten then the second Dragon somewhat assisted even at first by the Beast and false Prophet overcame and killed them as aforesaid for 1260 yeas But after that Epoche of their 1260 years death and Prophecying in Sackcloth they as their type were not are not to be killed There was no such thing in the Patern nor shall be in the Anti-type of it Nor is there any ground that I find for it in Scripture but abundantly sufficient for the contrary For we may add to this of it self full evidence That it plainly appears to be a matchless piece of absurdity That the Witnesses should Prophesie in Sackcloth 1260 years because they should be killed many killed and all persecuted so long by the Dragon Beast and false Prophet who were to continue in power so long And then when the Witnesses should have finished that 1260 years Prophesie and the Dragon Beast and false Prophet should cease to be in full power the Beast out of the bottomless pit scarse in being himself or not in such full power should overcome and kill them the second time for 1260 dayes immediately after he for who else should kill them had first killed them for 1260 years before The futility of this absurdity the Paterns which are more then one sufficiently resell But that is also fully done in the sequel by many perhaps undeniable demonstrations From what already appears we plainly see that the Epoche the twice repeated three dayes and an half in the 11th Chapter of the death of the Witnesses is 1260 as in the Patern of days literal of dayes Annual or years and runs exactly paralel with their Prophecying in Sackcloth succeeding their Primitive testimony about the year 407 and not their Prophecying in Sackcloth 1260 years after it But to come nearer to the matter we shall having shewn the duration of the death of the Witnesses here distinguish The death of the Witnesses was ab extra vel ab intra external or internal Their external death is threefold Corporall civil spiritual Corporal chiefly from the Dragon civil from the beast spiritual from the false Prophet in all Papal Sects To wit By Papal fulminations excommunications rash censures slaunders c. These external deaths for brevity I but briefly hint But Secondly their death internal is more properly spiritual because its the death or decay of spiritual Graces whiles the lusts of the flesh of the eyes and pride of life seem to live and judgment mercy and faith to dye in the souls of Saints and whiles they manifest that internal death of Graces by outward correspondent fruits and practices So the Church of Sardis had a name that she lived and was dead And how dead None of her Members were killed that we read by any corporal civil or spiritual death as the witnesses were externally But her death was
and many others consubscribing with Jerom to those express texts of sacred Scripture Thus we see that the temporal fall with the time of it of Rome Imperial then partly Pagan partly Orthodox and partly heretical is signally apparent from sacred Scriptures and from the testimonies of the fittest unfolders of them 'T is true may some say Honorius who dyed about the year 427 never or scarce at any time came to Rome after 407 but left that City to the Bishop thereof to the day of his death But Valentinian the third Reigned after Houortus for about thirty years Therefore Rome did not fall forever in 410 nor so fall temporally but that it recovered contrary to Jeroms Hammonds Morneyes and many others testimonies and contrary to the Records of sacred Scripture upon which chiefly they ground their assertions to be the seat of the Empire for some time after four hundred and ten or twelve I answer whether Valentinian resided constantly at Ravenna or came sometimes to Rome I exactly observe not in History But Morney and many other Authors affirm that Ravenna was after 412 the place of residence to the Supream Powers secular in Italy To wit to those few following and but reputed or so stiled Emperours To the Kings of the Gothes and of the Heruli and to the Exarchs of Ravenna If Ravenna was Valentinians place of residence or he sometimes but a stranger at Rome Then was Rome no more the seat of the Empire under him But Secondly suppose Valentinian had resided at Rome all the time of his Reign yet had not Rome therefore been the seat of the Empire but at best but the Metropolis of the Kingdom of Italy For the Nations of the Empire were rent from her And Constantinople was then the Supream Imperial seat of the remaining Nations Thirdly Were it that the Nations were not then rent away from Rome and admit Valentinian had reigned in her all his time yet his Government had been little more then titular because Leo Magnus then Bishop of Rome ruled Rome and all that the Emperour should rule after the Law of his own arbitrary will For Rome was then no more Imperial but Papal and Pope Leo was of such repute that what he spake was so approved that it was not lawful for any no not for the Emperour to dissent in the least thing Therefore what ever Valentinian did or could say or do it signified nothing without the condesent of Leo Magnus that ruled as it were alone both the City Country and might regulate Valentinian himself as being but one horn of the wounded and then scarce healed but after Decadiademick Beast Papal For Leo Magnus was Anti christs Eliah for false miracles as it were the Pseudo prophetick mouth in his time of the Bicorn beast that deceived those that dwelt upon the Earth by means of those miracles which were given him to do c. For Fourthly Attila and his Armies that Flagellum Del and scourge of the world marched towards trembling Rome to reduce herinto ashes Then the two if I may so call them Emperours of the East and West conjunct or both together durst not look upon his Army But Leo alone went forth to meet him treated with him and terrified the said Attila with an apparition of a Clergy-man shaking a two-edged sword at him and threatning to destroy him and his Armies if he condescended not to Pope Leoes demands Attila affrighted forthwith retired with his Army And so Leo saved Rome and all Italy from the sword So when Genserious spoiled Rome purposing to have burnt it there was no Emperour to interrupt his Armies â—o scarce so much as the name of a King to oppose him But the same Leo prevailed with him to spare the City Her Bishop ruled in and over her Rome was never any more Imperial no scarce regal but Papal Never Imperial but in name for a little time ever in deed Papal after 412. Therefore Rome after 4.2 was no more the seat of the Empire but subject to the Bishop thereof and both he and it for a long time were subject to Ravenna even then when but an Exarchate of the Greek Empire The nine Emperours after Valentinian were but Augustuli not worth the naming therefore I omit them And Valentinian though he reigned much longer than they all may be reckoned one of them They all bare little Rule Leo at that time Ruled Rome and all Italy and therfore it s signally apparent from the performances of those Prophesies in the 17 and 18 Chapters as we find them faithfully recorded in History That Rome Primitive but Apostate in manners oft adumbrated by Babylon in those Chapters fell temporally about the years four hundred and ten or twelve according to the manifold predictions of those Scriptures and the Glosses and Paraphrases of the fittest and ablest expounders of them that is that Rome fell like a great Milstone cast into the Sea finally about 412. from all power as Pagan and from ever being any more the Supream Seat either of the Heathen or Christian Empire And Secondly Her Apostacy or Spiritual fall and the time of it is no less apparent First from Scripture Babylon saith the Text is fallen not fallen only Temporally as aforesaid but Spiritually Fallen also For it follows And is become the habitation of Devils the hold of every foul Spirit and a Cage of every unclean and hateful bird vers 2. This Apostacy and that temporal fall as the cause and effect are so contexed in those Texts that they cannot possibly but be contemporal as aforesaid which also the testimony of a Cloud of Writers witnesseth Therefore that Apostacy began must needs begin much about the time when Rome fell temporally about the years four hundred and seven ten or twelve Did the Pagan and heretical parts only thus fall I answer They that never stood never fell Prosternatus humo non habet unde cadat They did not could not so fall Spiritually as to be chiefly if at all intended in those Texts But the Faith of the Church of Rome was once famous throughout the world Rom. 1.8 And she not like Sardis famous for a name that she lived lived famous for utility in all good works according to Gospel-Rule But a falling away was to come and Rome the Metropolite-head with her body some few no doubt excepted then fell or began to fall from the utility of the Orthodox Faith though not much at first from the Doctrine of it This faith of inutility or the practice of that Apostacy is most in use almost every where This Apostacy was then when those Primitive Apostates began to fall Temporally so grand and general That the Spirit of God useth a grandure of words to express the greatness of it His words in the Evangelist are these And after these things I saw another Angel come down from Heaven and the Earth was lightned with his Glory And he cryed mightily with a
Right Honorius being Childless might expect to Succeed as partly by Conquest in Italy over all the Empire She by earnest entreaties perswaded him to spare the sad remains of that City and to depart out of Italy spoiled already This was not no doubt her single Design but her Design driven on and owned by the Senate and by a better Council at Ravenna He hereupon having received further supplyes of Monies for himself her and his Army marched with her into Spain to subject it to himself Hereupon his Souldiers slew him because he had left Italy and therein quitted a certain Fruition for a doubtful event which without much difficulty and no less danger they could not expect prosperous Thus he left near Conquered Italy and taln Rome drunk with the blood of Martyrs and drunk at that time with her own blood to the then new-born Beast Secular and Papal whose first Head was then wounded with the stroke of a Sword as it were unto death Revel 13.3 12 14. to wit By the Sword of this second Dragon prevailing at the same time under Pharamond in France and under Alaricus in Italy He prevailed not only against the Primitive Church Imperial Rome and the then falling and dying first Dragon all which letted and should let till then thus taken out of the way the rising up of Papal Rome and of the Sea-born Beast her secular Head but he prevailed also and might easily prevail against that Secular Beast and wounded as it were unto death in the day of his birth and when but beginning to rise out of the Sea his first and best Head For Rome Ruled over the Kings of the Earth And the Senate with an Emperour Ruled both her and them But the besieged Senate Ruled Rome with great grief and no great Power without Bishop or Emperour And in that feeble and afflicted Senate did this Sea-born Beast all wounded as it were unto death in the day of his birth by the Sword of this second Dragon rise up For the City saith the learned Hammond was divided into three parts so her Antitype was to be near the day of her Dissolution Chap. 16.19 One part was Pagan another Heretical and the third part Orthodox but grosly Apostate in manners Concerning the Heretical part I observe little But the Pagan or Heathen part was for Number and Power most prevalent all the time the City was besieged until it was taken For Attalus a profest Heathen was so high in Power and Favour with the People that he would be Caesar aut nullus and not be joynt Emperour with Honorius So was Symachus Lieutenant of Rome a Pagan And such was the Senate for the most part which appears in that they sent the said Symachus Legat to Honorius at Ravenna to Request that the Heathen Rites might be Restored Thus it appears plainly that the Heathen part was the greatest in that afflicted Senate of besieged Rome But that major part was no part of this Beasts wounded Head which was after healed but the last part of the first Dragons last and dying Head which was never healed but then went into lasting perdition Apocal. 17.11 For after two years siege and as I rather compute the time in 412 were those Pagan Senators and Imperial Rome numbered and finished Then came her and their Plagues in one day Death Mourning Famine Fire Chap. 18.8 which those Barbarians with barbarous hands had chiefly inflicted upon those Heathen Senators and Citizens that had invited revocated and consided most in them and that to their utter and final excision But the flying Senators and others that fled to the Sanctuaries of the more Orthodox but Apostate in manners found thereby a bare and hard exemption from imminent death And these thus scarce escaped Senators and perhaps some others in somewhat like condition were the visible original of the first Head of this Sea-born Beast weak and wounded to be a witness to the truth performed as was thrice foretold in three sacred Texts of Scripture in the same Chapter Apocal. 13.3.12.14 Here the Scissers of eternal death and final excision parted the last dying Head of Pagan and Imperial Rome from the first at first sick and deadly wounded Head of Papal Rome And I saw one of his Heads wounded c. and his deadly wound was healed vers 3. wounded by the Sword of this second Dragon Healed began to be healed when Atholphus remitting Rome and most of Italy into the feeble hands of that wounded Senate made them Temporal Lords over Rome Italy and other Nations over which that City for some time after claimed some Jurisdiction Then also their Bishop began to be partly by the said Donation partly by the Senates Assent partly by his own Usurpation prefer'd to the largest Superintendency Thus this Papal Superintendent Spiritual began to be suted with a fit Power Secular For these near slain but surviving Senators were Primitiae Papales Papal Romes first Fruits and though at first most feeble her first Powers Secular Because they and they first allow'd sufficiently their own Bishops Supremacy over all Bishops and Churches if not over all Kings and Councils For so soon as Athaulphus had remitted Rome and Italy to that wounded Beast his Bishop faln Romes Bishop Innocent the First returned but no Emperour with him to Rome and Ruled as by principal Authority both Spiritual and Temporal that reviving Beast and likewise Rome and Italy which that second Dragon in Athaulphus as one chief Head of him had given to that almost dying Senate And the Dragon gave began early to give his Seat Power and great Authority to the Beast He continued in giving his power in several Conquered Nations for about 200 years space but I may not digress from the matter in hand to insist upon so long a subject To shew when and how he began to give his Power the Supremacy therein to that Beast is sufficient at present Innocent immediately after his Return claimed and laboured much more hard than any had done before him to obtain Universal Supremacy over all Bishops Churches and Councils as plainly appears by his own practice witnessed and by his own Letters and those very many recorded by Augustine Osiander and others For the Emperours absence was Innocents advantage to augment and exercise a more uncontrouled Power And Honorius a good Prince and Orthodox but of no great Capacity to Govern came no more to Rome to Reside there to the day of his death For the Romans at least some of them are said to hate Honorius because he left Rome and went to Ravenna therefore he remained there And his Successors some having the Title of Emperours but scarce the power of Kings made Ravenna the place of their Residence Rome was never more Imperial but ever after Papal The Senate and Bishops of Rome in the absence of Honorius and as by his Authority acted many things to further their own Designs and in Defence of the
the proper Epochaes of all Empires or Kingdoms recorded in Scripture are chiefly the durations of their Dominions over the Church and people of God Howbeit it concerns us here to take notice of this improper Epoche of the first Dragon because the Apocalyps indigitates it ch 17.10 11 where John saith five are faln and one is and another is not yet come and mentions his eighth Head also which was of the seven The duration of all which successively made that improper Epoche aforesaid But Pagan Romes proper Epoche was but about 460 years beginning when the third the Greek dominion which Daniel mentions ch 7. began to fall And when the Jewish Church about 56 years before the birth of our blessed Saviour fell under the jurisdiction of Pagan Rome Both these Epochaes both the proper and improper of the first Dragon or of Rome untranslated ended about the year four hundred and ten or twelve Then his seven Heads and also the eighth which was of the seven finally expired For the rest of the thousand years of this Dragons binding and that little season of his relaxation after them had not after four hundred and twelve any relation either to his proper or improper Epochaes Because he more literally bound though but in part for above an hundred years before four hundred and twelve was so long in being and never after And that time from the beginning of his being bound to 412 was part the last part of both his Epochaes But there then remained above eight hundred of his thousand years after four hundred and twelve in which eight hundred years time upwards that Dragon was not in being nor ever after For that Decacerastick red Dragon of Rome Pagan was never in being after four hundred and twelve nor ever can or shall be in future being Therefore he was bound for about eight hundred years after four hundred and twelve not literally but metaphorically or not otherwise then with the chains of eternal death That is the first Dragon subdu'd by the power and Authority of the Primitive Church-representatives was bound in part and more literally by their legal institutions and civil ordinances in the time of Constantius Constantine and their successors till about 412. To wit for about one hundred and twenty years which was all the time he was in being after he began to be bound but he was then bound totall but metaphorically for above 800 years by a privation of his being so long but indeed forever That is there was a cessation from him of his accustomed cruelties in the Christian world for above eight hundred years after four hundred and ten or twelve till about the year twelve hundred and twelve when he was loosed not literally but metaphorically loosed for not he but Simon Earl of Montsord commissioned from the Pope and the King of France re-induced Dioclesians bloudy practices and persecuted the Church after the manner of the first Dragon therefore As John the Baptist was said to be Eliaâ— because he came after the similitude of his zealous comport So the Dragon is said to be loosed in those bloudy renovators of that first Dragons cruelties But having treated upon this subject at large in the sequel where the seeming disparities in the compute of those thousand years are reconciled and the confident mis-conceirs of the contrary minded fully refelled I need not here insist upon it The improper Epoche therefore of the first Dragon ab Urbe conditâ until his Metropolis was taken plundred and burnt and his then late Empire translated in 412. was about 1164 years And his proper Epoche was but 460 years ending in 412 also which proper Epoche being shorter by eight hundred years then the proper duration of the second Dragon demonstrates irrefellibly two Dragons I proceed to the fourth Epoche The daration of the threefold City of the grand Apostacy THat the tenfold body of the Churches Antithesis Rome Papal was for matter and form threefold and had three the foresaid three heads synchronizing in 1260 years is from sundry texts sufficiently proved And therefore that tenfold City until it should begin effectually to discontinue must have with them the same Epoche For if these three heads of it were to continue 1260 years Then this City their threefold body must by a necessary individual continuity have the same Epoche But Secondly their and this Cities durations are in these two texts thus terminated It is done Rev. 16.17 There shall be no longer time ch 10.6 These two texts intend a time and thing The thing intended is this threefold City And the great this great City was divided into three parts c. ch 16.19 The time intended is first The duration of that City Secondly the Period of that duration The duration of it is necessarily imply'd It s Period is positively exprest And first Its duration is imply'd from its period in both texts It s period at the beginning of the seventh Vial is thus eâ—prest It is done ch 16. It s period at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet is thus exprest There shall be no longer time ch 10. No longer time that is the more entire duration of this threefold City or Mystery of Iniquity should be no longer than the sounding of the six Trumpets For the duration of that threefold City and indeed of all these twelve Epochaes is commensurated by the spaces of six Trumpets sounding and terminated with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet For when the sixth Angel was about to end the sounding of his sixth trumpet then the Angel of the Covenant sware by him that liveth for ever and ever that there should be time no longer But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finished c. Should be finished That is the City of God begun to be adorned as a Bride for her Husband should then begin to be free'd effectually from her former too careless contempt of things sacred of highest concernments or from treading them as it were under her feet And free'd also from the punishment and effect of that profaness to wit from being troden under foot of the Gentiles And those Gentiles this threefold City or Mystery of Inìquity should then begin as they shall be more by degrees daily convinc'd of their own wickedness and folly to abate their enmity and embrace Unity of sound Faith and Manners Secondly It is done that is the duration the more entire duration of this City should be done at the period of the sixth Vial or at the beginning of the pouring fourth of the seventh Vial. That is This City should stand all the time of the six Vials pouring forth all the time of the six Trumpets sounding and all the time which is one and the same time and thing of the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie for 1260 years For as we have proved that the six Trumpets sounding and which is all one
the Witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie run parallel in the same Epoche So the six Vials and this Cities duration synchronize with both which is plain from their temporal periods For The period of this threefold Mystery of iniquity in the tenth Chapter is thus exprest There shall be time no longer And its period in the sixteenth Chapter under or at the beginning of the seventh Vial as the former was under or at the beginning of the seventh Trumpets sounding is likewise thus exprest It is done And what is done The answer is made in the next verse but one And the great City was divided into three parts c. That is this threefold City was done ver 19. The scope and almost the express words of both texts is the same shewing That this threefold City or Mystery of iniquity should at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and pouring forth of the seventh Vial begin vigorously to be made manifest and the Mystery of God her Antithesis to be compleated that is The true Church should then begin more vigorously and visibly to expatiate and appear to all Sects and Nations For those periods It is done Time shall be no more are terms of expression that are synonymous in sense and are in both texts a twofold sacred record that the duration the more entire duration of this threefold City should be 1260 years synchronizing with the six Trumpets with the six Vials with the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie and with all the rest of these twelve Epochaes Thirdly the duration of this threefold City is commensurated which are also the Epoche of the death of the Witnesses by three dayes and an half Rev. 11.9 11. In which texts the two former texts are more fully explained and the same period of this threefold City the third time repeated And first We see that the two Witnesses were to lye in that City dead for three dayes and an half ver 8 9. Therefore the end of those three dayes and an half was the period of the Witnesses death and of the duration as will appear of that threefold City For After three dayes and an half saith the text the Spirit of life from God shall enter into them ver 11. Therefore the end of those three dayes and an half must be the period of their lying dead in that City and the period also of that Cities duration For The same hour saith the text the tenth part of that City fell ver 13. And fell not to but from Apostacy in manners to pursue sincere truth and peace in Theory and practice or to use the words of the same text shall then begin to give Glory to the God of heaven that is Shall then begin to give Glory to God with greater vigour and visibility of true obedience then formerly And these three dayes and an half of the duration of the death of the Witnesses in that City and of that City till it should begin to fall as aforesaid are also conterminated as the same period the third time exprest with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet vers 13. And the seventh Angel sounded c. Therefore these three dayes and an half of the more entire duration of this threefold City and of the death of the Witnesses therein synchronize with the six Vials the six Trumpets and the Witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie in 1260 years For those in this Chapter twice repeated three dayes and an half are the same three times and an half chap. 12.14 the same forty two Months chap. 12.2 And the same 1260 dayes in the next verse which being 1260 dayes annual are 1260 years For the durations of the death of the Witnesses and of this threefold City were pre-signified in Scripture both by three dayes and an half artificial or 42 hours and by three dayes and an half Annual or forty two Months as we shall fully and that so soon as we shall first lay down these twelve Epochaes instantly shew The Fifth Epoche is of the Gospel Churches grand revolt FIfthly The Gospel-Churches profligation and defection seems to retain the same time For We find her in Heaven holding forth though at last more remisly her primitive integrity of an Heavenly conversation till about 407 Rev. 12.1 And till then from about 292 in the Heaven of high Power and Authority in the Roman Empire For She casting the first Dragon from his seat there sate sole Regent in his Throne of power Her Eagles exalted both her and themselves into that Heaven ver 7. to the 12th But a falling away was to come and the Church fell fell from Heaven fled into the Wilderness for 1260 dayes Annual 2 Thess 2.3 Rev. 12.1 6 14. Therefore the Church fell from Heaven though not totally and finally in a twofold respect First in reference to her Heaven of high power Secondly In respect to her heavenly conversation Her fall in conversation caused her other fall She fell in part from her former Heavenly conversation Therefore She fell as the effect of that cause from her Heaven of high Power and Authority Her fall in conversation was Spiritual Her fall from Power was temporal In reference to both she according to those texts aforesaid stood in Heaven And in reference to both she fell from Heaven The manner of her fall from both is plain from her Patern or Prophetick type Lament 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to the Earth the beauty of Israel c. So God covered her the Anti-type-Church with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven to the Earth the beauty of Gospel Israel For She like the Church of Ephesus left her first love forsook her first works works of Judgment Mercy and Faith and remembred not scarce yet remembreth from whence she fell Thus she fell first in her conversation from Heaven therefore God sent the second Dragon with a flaming Sword who cast her as were our first Parents out of Paradise out of her Heaven of power and Authority and drave her into the Wilderness for 1260 years chap. 12.1.6.14 Many Expositors call that falling away in conversation that grand and general revolt of the Gospel Church from Faith and Obedience Howbeit it was in her true members though much inwardly chiefly in outward appearance and practice The gradual aggresses of the Churches defection from about 340 to 407 we shall shew afterwards The sixth Interval THe sixth Epoche and this of a different denomination more fully proves the former is of the Churches abode in her place prepared of God which is twice recorded in two several texts of the same Chapter And the Woman fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 dayes which being as we shall instantly and irrefellibly shew dayes Annual are 1260 years chap. 12.6 And there were given to the Woman two Wings of a great Eagle that
internal and more properly spiritual Her Graces were dead or ready to die Therefore their fruits her works differing little perhaps in true appearance from dead works were not found perfect though their doctrine might be so sound and profession so strict that from thence she might be famed or have a name that she lived chap. 3.1 2. For Hypocrites judge of spiritual life by outward forms and empty verbal professions and not by obedience conform to Gospel-rule This inward death of the witnesses properly spiritual was presignified sometimes by sleep like death sometimes by death real and literal And first By sleep like death we read That a deep sleep and an horrour of great darkness the Sun going down fell upon Abrabam Gen. 15.12 Abraham as a Prophet suffered this passive prophesie as the vision of outward affliction and inward darkness and desertion which was after fulfilled literally upon his seed after the flesh in literal Egypt and likewise upon his spiritual seed in Egypt spiritual where such an horrour of great darkness and deep sleep fell upon them that the text saith expresly they were dead And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City called spiritually Sodom and Egypt c. they were spiritually dead because dead in spiritual Egypt and the means of their Resurrection from that death was by the Spirit of life from God entering into them that is their Graces were dead Or sick dying Graces They did not awake unto Righteousness but slept a sleep like death in sin and disobedience They held forth a Righteousness inconform to Gospel-rule such as some Sects Heathens and Hereticks hold forth and might dream that to be true obedience scarce thinking upon true Righteousness in practice which we shall after shew what it is Had Abraham not slept yet that horrour of great darkness that fell upon him had been sufficient to hide all things from his sight that he could see little or nothing and do as little But besides that darkness a deep sleep fell upon him so that he might seem dead in that sleep buryed in darkness yet Abraham was not dead all that time So a lasting Lethargy like death and a deep sleep of insensibility and spiritual security was to fall upon his spiritual seed the Gospel-Church and her Witnesses for 1260 years yet neither they nor she could be quite dead all this time but should retain some inward sick secret but living Graces all the time of their lying as dead in that threefold City For Secondly I sleep saith the Church but my heart waketh Cant. 5.2 She slept after the similitude of her Patriarch Abraham a deep sleep like death but was not dead The Members of her body both for action and understanding hands feet head were exceeding drowsie or in a deep sleep but her heart awaked She was not dead but lived by some weak sick but living inward Graces An inseparable sign of such a deep spiritual sleep is the difficulty to make her or her Members know that such a Lethargy lies upon them with a great impugning unwillingness to be awaked Secondly that inward spiritual death was also prefigured by death literal For the drybones were the whole house of Israel not so much legal as Evangelical And those bones were dead Ezek. 37.3 11. For the Witnesses the subordinate heads of the Church could not be dead but the Members of the same body must be much more dead Secondly I might here shew that Jonah our blessed Saviour presignified prophetically not only that outward threefold death aforesaid but also this inward and spiritual death of the witnesses towit Jonah by a seeming death and our Saviour by a real death The durations of both which three days and an half artificial or 42 hours are exactly conform as prophetick types to the duration of the death of the witnesses to wit three days and a half that is three years and a half or forty two months of days Annual which are 1260 years as we shall more irrefellibly shew in the sequel The Eighth Epoche IS of the treading of the Gospel-Church and her witnesses under foot by those Gentiles the spiritual Gentiles of this threefold Mystery of Iniquity whom we finde fitly described in the 8th and 9th Verses of the 11th Chapter to wit the Spiritual Ethnickes Gentiles in practice by profession Christians of Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual And the Holy City the Gospel-Church and her witnesses shall they these very Gentiles tread under foot for forty two moneths saith the text chap. 11.2 That is they shall persecute convitiate rashly censure and contemn the Gospel-Church and her witnesses and her and their testimony for forty two moneths Here needs no Daniel to read the sins of the revolted Church too easie to be read in her just punishments And what were the Gospel-Churches chief sins She and her Saints trod under foot contemned sleighted neglected at least too much substantial knowledge of the truth true obedience and the witnesses of both and perhaps under a blind pretence of minding things plain and most necessary espoused a trivial shallow superficial knowledge of the truth with like obedience And where read you this Her just punishment renders it in Capital Letters she for treading under foot or not promoting and advancing with due diligence things most sacred profitable and honest was given into the hands of the Gentiles to be troden under foot forty two moneths And what those forty two moneths are the very next Verse tells you expresly That they are 1260 days to wit days annual or year swherefore the Epoche of the thus treading under-foot of the Gospel-Church and her witnesses which also imports their death fully shews both the time and manner of it is the same with the former All synchronizing The Ninth Interval IS of the Witnesses sackcloth prophesie And I will give power to my two Witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in sackcloth Rev. 11.3 Our blessed Saviour and his Disciples prophesied as in sackloth to the legal and Jewish Church a Rebellious and gain-saying people for 1260 days literal predicted by Daniels half week of years He also wept over Jerusalem for the then chiefly spiritual desolations of Zion we have also shown that the Prophets in Ahabs time while Rain was restrained prophesied as Proto-types in great affliction and sorrow as it were in sackcloth for 1260 days So their Anti-type the Gospel-witnesses were to prophesie also in sackcloth in great sorrow and affliction for 1260 days to wit days annual or 1260 years which the ensuing Epochaes and sequel of this Treatise will also fully shew The Tenth Epoche is of the six Trumpets sounding THe six Trumpets sounding and the witnesses sackcloth prophesie though of different denominations are the same thing and the duration of both the same time Lift up thy voice saith the Lord to the Prophet like a Trumpet shew my people their transgressions c. So
manifest to themselves and others The signal congruity betwixt the seven Vials and 7 trumpets and that in all their transactions and in the series and places of their transactions shews plainly that both contrary to the opinion of many that are contrary minded run parallel and import if not all together for the most part the same times and things One and not the least of the Plagues of those six Vials and not the Plague of one particular Vial but of all the six is the restraint of spiritual Rain The duration of which is the next and last Epoche we shall here insist upon The Twelfth Epoche IS of the restraint of spiritual Rain And in handling of it I shall exert that promised Epitome of the series or the Mystery of Iniqnity by shewing some of the chief transactions of those twelve Epochaes for 1260 years I shall here also shew what that iniquity and those sins are which shut Heaven that it should not Rain And what that obedience to God and right to man is that shall open Heaven and bring down plenteous showers of temporal blessings and spiritual Graces upon all Churches and Nations The restraint of Rain in type was 1260 dayes literal Rain literal dayes This restraint of Rain was of spiritual rain for 1260 dayes annual That is for 1260 years That 's the Epoche of the restraint of Rain spiritual Rev 11.3 6. as 1260 dayes literal were in the type the restraint of literal Rain Luke 4.25 James 5.17 These have power to shut Heaven that it Rain not saith the text in the dayes of their Prophesie ch 11.6 And what the dayes of their Sackcloth-prophesie are the third verse expresly tells you that they were 1260 dayes to wit dayes annual that is there should be a restraint as in the patern of literal of spiritual Rain To wit of spiritual graces in a great measures or 1260 years No true Grace-figuring-rain fell in the Patern for 1260 dayes which shews the grievous restraint of spiritual Graces figured by Rain which should be in the Anti-type for 1260 years that is there should be rather a continued decay then any vigorous and visible return of frugiferous Graces for 1260 years Apostate Israel had water to keep them alive for 1260 dayes but no rain to refresh the Land That went daily back became more barren nor were the hearts of the people turned back to obedience till about the end of those 1260 dayes 1 Kings 18.17 So it seems Gospel revolting Israel was to be preserved as it were alive by some secret sick Graces for 1260 years but not raised to a fertile life so long or not until the spirit of life should first raise her Witnesses whose three days and an halfe of their Spiritual death is as a second record of confirmation the same Epoche with those 1260 years of Rain restrained So long the Land of Gospel revolted Israel in some sort also dead did or should decay daily inGarces grew unnatural growing seeds and became terra tota dehiscens a most barren dry Land all parched into cracks and ClyftsofSchisms full of errours and evil manners And yet a people fondly pleased with the opinion that they have repented whiles their hearts according to theintent of this Prophesie are not turned back from the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and pride of life which threefold covetousness is Idolatry the grand Idols of Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual and threefold root of all evil They Nor are true Saints free from the same faulr turn to a form not to the power of godliness get faces like faces of men Hair like the Hair of Women but retain teeth of Lions Rev. 9.7 8. And what 's repentance If it be not some sound shallow carelesly shallow Doctrine in a fruitless form they know not what it is They place repentance in the strict pursuit of their own Seers blind prescripts And why were not the hearts of legal Apostate Israel turned back till about the end of 1260 dayes Because they turned their backs upon obedience and their faces from repentance all that time That time was the Interval the Epoche of type Israels grand Apostacy And 1260 dayes annual or years are the Anti type duration of the Gospel-Churches grand defection from faith and obedience But this fully confirms it to wit because we find here the same duration of 1260 years to be the Epoche of the restraint of spiritual Rain of spiritual Graces figured by Rain which necessarily infers for what can Earth without water bring forth the Churches and her witnesses defection at least in part just so long Therefore these 1260 years were to be that time wherein Gospel revolted Israel and true Saints too much should turn their backs upon obedience and faces far from works worthy of repentance That time wherein self-seducing Professors retrograde by going forward and run into perdition whiles they seek to shun their own ruine But they have been busie as he was here and there whom the disguised Prophet personated About what In seeking things that belong unto their peace to wit according to the common careless blind custom of formal Professors But never did they know little did they ever think that they were only busie all that time in turning their backs upon obedience and faces from repentance A man would think they verily believe that their blind zea lous endeavours are a perpetual pursuit of true repentance and things that belong unto their peace whiles they thereby turn their backs upon both Little did the blind Syrians believe they turned their backs upon Dothan when they went forward with their faces wards Samaria Little did the Pharisees think they did by all their devout endeavours hide the things that belonged to their peace from their own eyes And as little does the Anti-christian world believe they take a wrong course whiles they by their proud and profane contempt of things profitable put felicity far from them and exile peace They well content as the Parisees were with their wonted knowledge will not know these things what profit cometh say they by knowing of them This is not the course that such Professors take to obtain the Rain of righteousness but the ready way though they will in no wife see it to shut Heaven that it rain not Eliah prayed and endeavoured earnestly that the hearts of apostate Israel might be turned back which was not done till about the end of those 1260 dayes of Rain restrained Then their hearts were turned back from halting betwixt two Opinions and from dead idols to serve the living God That was done in a shadow and so less permanent But it may seem more then probable that the hearts of revolted Gospel Israel about the end of those 1260 years restraint of spiritual Rain shall begin to turn back from halting not betwixt two but many opinions to a permanent unity of true faith and manners That Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual may then begin
think any man can imagine they could be the true Church Wherefore if they could not possibly be the Saracens nor Monks and Friars nor possibly be the true Church Then I conceive with submission at least unless any can give a better account of them they were if I may so say a Semi-Papal body of Apostacy Formalists in Profession Papists in Practice that sprung up about the year 1417. when the fifth Angel might begin to sound And that they might have some footing or beginning in those Victorious Taborites whose Victories had been more happy had they not fought against their Superiours Howbeit they were to be some relief to the Church and many amongst them though perhaps not of them might chiefly intend that though the most might do it for seditious and self-ends For I partly shewed before That there is Antichristus adjuvans and Antichristus destruens Antichrist in some respects helping the Church And Antichrist seeking to destroy her And First Antichrist seeking to destroy her And the Dragon the second Dragon cast out of his mouth waters as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood Chap. 12.15 That is that he might destroy her For gross Hereticks such as the Arrians then were and the Mahumetans are and all sensual carelesly-ignorants and loosly-inanimadversive Professors constitute Antichrist sensual and their design is had they power to do it to destroy utterly the Church and Saints But Secondly There is Antichristus aliquando adjuvans Antichrist sometimes and for self-ends helping the Church And the Earth saith the Text helped the Woman c. Ver. 16. That is The Earth men minding Earthly things and her son the Bicorn-Beast whom she brought forth She I say her son the Papal Apostacy then new sprung up affecting for the said ends a fruitless formal though somewhat literally sound Doctrine and Profession helped the Woman and swallowed up the flood which the second Dragon cast out of his mouth to destroy her That is She helped her by converting through deceit his Nations and Military Forces to the unity of the Church of Rome And he deceiveth saith the Text those that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do c. Chap. 13.14 And these Locusts no doubt were a new Progeny and a principal part of Antichirst adjuvant that helped the Church as the Earth had done against the Floods of the second against the swelling Floods of the loosed Dragon To wit Against those Church-persecuting Papists that revolted from being some shelter to her as formerly to work by all wayes and means to destroy her They helped her I say not as their Predecessors did the second Serpent's by swallowing up this Food of the loosed Dragon nor by killing his Military Forces But they being commanded not to kill them tormented saith the Text those men to wit those Church-persecuting Papists that had not the seal of God in their foreheads for five moneths which are one hundred and fifty years That is They tormented those true-Church-destroyers by abating their power by alienating their proprieties and assuming to themselves their Church-Revenues And so the Text saith expresly And to them it was given that they should not kill them but that they should torment them five Moneths Chap. 9.5 And if they did thus bend the Forces of their Superficial Fruitless Formal though their Doctrine was somewhat Literally sound Knowledge and Profession against the true Church and Saint-Persecuting Papists it was the best service they could do for want of better to the true Church and Saints then ready to perish by the unbridled rage of the loosed Dragon Nay say some these Locusts were the Saracens And this Opinion seems part of their Smoak For when I pray did their Apollyon ever see the Mahumet-Saracens so much favour true Saints How came they so quick-sighted to see the Seal of God in their foreheads who bound them as these Locusts were by a Law that they should not hurt any green thing the servants of God when were they commanded by any command either express or implicit to spare or protect true Saints and to torment the Papists their persecutors Boniface we read received them into pay to invade Sicily to war against Christians and by that means against Saints But when did Saints and Saracens so comply Such Doctrine may well serve to teach Christians to fall in love with Mahumetans and turn Turks And how should a proud trivial contented knowledge joyned with a covetous blind Profession bear better light But many men Learned Religious say these Locusts are of our Opinions as in many other things that those Mahomet-Saracens were these Locusts More 's the misery and the greater pity that such men either Learned or Religious should so mislead or be misled Or it may at least serve to shew as a means to humble them the more the instability and weakness of some able and sincere witnesses of the truth Here we may mark with admiration how appositely the wise and Almighty hand frames Similitudes in Sacred Scripture For what Creature did God ever make that loves like the Locusts to live in dark Clifts and Smoak ascending from Subterranean fires in which places I have seen them like Bees about to swarm in great abundance And what Professors love to live in the Smoake of a fruitless blind zeal formal Worship and a Superficial though somewhat sound Doctrine than these Locusts do Smoake is insufferable to all Creatures living except to Locusts Nor can any men in the least Moral or ingenuous endure a smoaky empty ignorant proud barren Profession but only Locusts and Hypocrites The Vulgar observation though that may be true that these Creatures live but five moneths in the open fields I voluntarily omit But these Locusts in the Text were to torment men saith the Text expresly for five moneths Vers 5. And they had power to hurt them saith the second Text for five moneths Vers 10. Five moneths counting a day for a year make just one hundred and fifty years And these Locusts if we count from about 1417 when they most probably might begin to about 1567 continued in chief power to torment the Saint-persecuting Papists for five moneths of dayes Annual or about 150 years For Zisca alwayes Victor Signally beat the Imperial Armies in eleven battels about the year 1417. And after his death Procopius and his Confederates beat them in two Battels about the year 1424. But what are they or their Armies to these Locusts 'T is said Castra sequentes vix pietas sequitur Little Religion attends Armes Howbeit Procopius and Zisca their Leaders might be men of much valour and piety but the major part of their Armies as will appear seemed to have some Lions teeth like these Locusts After those battels these if I may so call them Modern Formalists though many true Saints might be amongst them expatiated and prevailed against the
endeavour to shew briefly what their use and meaning is Wherefore we shall distinguish by their respective works or fruits they bring forth betwixt the sealed and Conscript-Churches and betwixt both and those that have not the Seal of God nor his Name in their foreheads And first The works of the flesh are manifest c. Gal. 5.19 Such works are not sealed works nor deceitful God sets no Seal to the doers of them vers 21. nor are they much deceitful For there is no great deceit or Mystery in the more proper works of the flesh which are manifest Of these I have written at large before and therefore need not now insist upon them But Secondly The practice of Truth-pretending Formalists is Justitia insigillata deceptiva an unsealed half-performed righteousness of deceit It was commanded them saith the Text that they should not burt the Grass neither any green thing nor any Tree but only those Men which have not the Seal of God in their forebeads Ch. 9.4 That is The Locasts as it were by a command from God ver 5. should torment Truth-pretending Church-persecuting Papists that had not the Seal of God in their foreheads with like retaliation as they had persecuted and tormented the Saints of God that had his Seal in their foreheads Nor had these Locusts themselves his Seal as neither Type Egypt nor the Locusts that tormented her had the Seal of the Covenant and the practice of those Papists and these Locusts that tormented them being both alike unsealed was a persecuting practice and a righteousuess not sealed but deceitful shewing that the doers of such rash violence have not the Seal of God Fiat tamen justitia Right must be done to evil-doers and not with-held from the well-deserving To omit either or do both negligently is not the least pe secution as we have seen in Eli and others Such persecution on the right hand or left is though almost universally practised by such as are sealed the practice properly of those that have not the Seal of God in their oreheads Thirdly The practice of those 144000 that were sealed with the Seal of God is Justitia sigillata vera sedvix-manifesta true righteousness through much weakness and many deficiencies not clearly manifest These 144000 were not the aggregate of the whole Gospel-Church but a select part of it excluding the outward Court that was cast out and given to the Gentiles Chap. 11.2 For the son of perdition was to sit as God in the Temple of God yet was not sealed or accepted of Him as a select member of his Church 2 Thes 2.4 The Seal of God is inward or outward 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth who are his And Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity The Lord knoweth who are his There 's the inward and invisible Seal And let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity There 's the outward and more visible Seal of God in the foreheads of his Saints wherewith these 144000 were sealed Primitive Saints were wont to shew their Faith by their Works Jam. 2.18 And so these 144000 especially at first did for a long time But they though sealed with the Seal of God were not like the Church of Thyatira of whom this record is given of God I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patitience and thy works and the last to be more than the first Rev. 2.19 But the works of these 144000 were more and more perfect at first than at last For the Seal of God in their foreheads though it might suffer some decay at the grand Apostacy about or before 412 continued competently visible near a thousand years Tum vetus ipsa dies extenuabat opus Then the impression of the Seal of God in their foreheads was much defaced and their departing from iniquity less apparent Wherefore God loosed the first Dragon out of the bottomless Pit after he had been bound about 1000 years upon the Gospel-Church fallen from her first Love and Works But God hath since greatly multiplyed as he did the Type-fallen-Womans her sorrows not by her bearing many Children but by suffering for her sins her Children to wound her with many Darts of afflicting Calamities and to rend her into Schisms Subdivisions which Balm can scarce heal nor any Art bind up Were any of her sons so dutiful to her so faithful for her as to tell her and declare unto her her deplorable and desperate condition 't were in vain she minds it not but lyes as it were insensible upon her sleepy Pillow seems to have given her self up to inanimadvertency and forgetfulness begins many good works forgets to finish them Torpor corpus totum tenuit sopor animam A desperate insensibility hath seised upon the Members of her Body and a deep sleep on her Senses She is Quasi Ecclesia moritura non mortua as a dying Church only not dead But God shall wipe away all tears from her eyes Ch. 7.17 Ch. 21.4 He hath promised it and will perform it which must be done if ever it be done by his writing the Name of God in the foreheads of his servants her sons So may she be revived in her Off-spring For Fourthly These 144000 in the 14th Chapter are the same Gospel-Church redeemed as it were from death Redeemed from the Earth saith the Text ver 3. Both are the same Church but in different respects and times For the 144000 in the 7th Ch. to the 9th vers were the Church of God fed in the wilderness for 1260 years Ch. 12.6 14. But these 144000 shall be the same Gospel-Church fix't upon Mount Zion Ch. 14.1 That 144000 in the 7th Chapter was Ecclesia sigillata the sealed Church of God But these 144000 shall be Ecclesia conscripta the same Gospel-Church having the Name of God written in her forehead That sealed Church triumphed over Primitive Apostate Rome Ch. 18.20 Ch. 19. to the 7th vers This conscript-Church the same Church in succeeding times should triumph over Papal Rome Ch. 15.2 3 4. Therefore Both differ much in distance of time For that 144000 in the 7th Chapter were sealed long before these 144000 in the 14th Chapter should have the Name of God written in their foreheads And Lastly They differ much though both the same Church in preceding and succeeding times in respect to things For Those 144000 in the 7th Chapter sealed above 1200 years before the Name of God should be written in the foreheads of these their successors were not though so long before them called The first-Fruits But these 144000 in the 14th Chapter though so long after those former are called The first-fruits redeemed from the earth and from among men vers 3.4 Therefore it requires necessarily our serious disquisition to examine For what causes these the conscript Church are called The first-fruits so long after those in the 7th Chapter
and profitable to Man For so their site position and number import We find them not wandering in the Wilderness nor sitting under shadows of Death as they did before when the Woman fled into the Wilderness and her Witnesses were killed for 1260 years Revel 12.6 14. Ch. 11.7 9 11. But we find them situate and built standing no doubt after the Patern of the Lamb upon Mount Sion where Solomons Temple was built and so the Antitype of it Ch. 14.1 For We find their number to be 144000 Ch. 14.1 3. And the quadrate dimensions of Solomons Temple were 144000 Cubits thus cast up It s length 60 Cubits multiply'd by its breadth 20 Cubits makes its product 1200 Cubits which multiply'd by 30 Cubits the heighth of it makes 36000 Cubits whose square is 144000 Cubits And we find this sacred company to be 144000 to stand upon Mount Sion That is To be the Antitype of Solomons Temple or the true Gospel-Church returned out of the Wilderness and turned back to obedience That is To have the Name of the Father of the Lamb written in their foreheads which necessarily infers That this Caetus Virgineus must needs be Chorus Agni the Church of Christ That is The City of God re-built upon Mount Sion To wit upon inviolable Principles of Truth in Faith and Manners For Secondly Both their number and position imports a Quadruplex-conformity in practice For this City saith the Text lieth four-square in 12000 furlongs Ch. 21.16 It s Quadrate Dimensions it 's so easie and evident that it needs no casting up are 144000 furlongs which principally imports That the Righteousness of this Chorus incontaminatus should be of a Quadruplex-conformity or every way conform to that which is Right in it self A righteousness of arduous industry and acquisition directly contrary to the Goldlike-Crowns and deceits of Locusts and Hypocrites Thirdly The Name of God shall be in the foreheads of his servants the inhabitants of this holy City saith the Text Chap. 22.4 And his Name shall be written in the foreheads of these 144000 Ch. 14.1 Therefore these 144000 shall be that City of God I omit for brevity many other comparityes betwixt this conscript 144000 Ch. 14. and the holy City Ch. 21. The Position of the Prototype twelve Tribes about the Tabernacle was in a fourfold figure And their Antitype this 144000 Ch. 14. are of a square number And the holy City Ch. 21. is to be both of a quadrate number and figure And this fourfold congruity betwixt both in their number in the Name of God in the place of that Name and in their quadrate position signally proves that these 144000 Ch. 14. shall be the same City of God Ch. 21. And likewise that the practice of that quadrate polity for such as the Tree is such is the Fruit shall be a righteousness of a quadruplex or fourfold conformity which only or what tends thereunto is substantial and true Righteousness All other is but deceits We have already shown who that Lamb upon Mount Sion shall be Secondly Who these conscript first-fruits that shall attend him are to be And Thirdly We shall further enquire why this conscriptcompany is called The first-fruits redeemed c. Or from what and for what they shall be so redeemed And first from what they shall be redeemed To which I answer They shall be redeemed from doing the works of Heathens and Hypocrites that are contrary to Gospel-rule And from those obscure commixt works of proud careless true Christians that are inconform to Christs Commands and render them though true Saints doubtful to themselves and others whether they be such or not Secondly We shall enquire for what they should be thus redeemed The Text expresly answers this demand in these words These are the first-fruits That is They should be thus redeemed to be the first-fruits or foregoing examples for all Ages to follow To wit To draw the Nations both Heathens Sects and Saints to practise good works conform to that which is right in it self For the works of Hypocrites have no power to draw others to practise sincere obedience because they by their works give not nor can give any good examples for Papists Jews or Turks to follow Nor can careless true Christians corrupt in Manners draw others nor be drawn without those first-fruits for them to run after their examples Therefore All Sects and Nations without these first-fruits and the Lamb for their Patern must remain statu quo prius ever unconverted never truly united but be as they are and long have been Or be if that be possible worse than ever they were Sic subitò deterrima deteriora si sint sequentur Saecula For corrupt careless slothful true Christians cannot run nor draw others to run the ways of Gods Commands They though their Doctrine were most sound they strict and devour their gists great and many have more need to be drawn than power to draw others by their examples Their drawing is rather a drawing back of themselves and a with-holding of others from pressing forwards For the proud covetous careless conversations of such true Saints have no attractive force to good draw forceably to evil Their slothful pains of careless Levity Pride and Avarice are usually fond and rash impugnations of censorious ignorance against the practice of that which is right Therefore the secret and scarce discerned Graces of such true Saints are too feeble to draw others by solid Doctrine or depth of Knowledge which they never seek after Or by good examples which they never give These are no attractive first-fruits though they may in due time be drawn by them But The Righteousness of these first fruits shall be opposite to the works of darkness Justitia manifesta works of Light made thereby manifest and for that cause forceable to draw he Nations Men Sects and Saints to God and to bind the attentive ears of all to hearken and obey by its delicious harmony Nor shall that sacred company serve for Paterns of practice to posterity but be Gnomon judicij vel Norma judicandi the Rule of Right Judgment to all Saints Sects and Professors that pretend to extraordinary gifts of the Spirit of God and to be endowed with power from above above their brethren of present or former times Such may try and judge themselves and discern and be discerned by others in a very large measure whether they be led by the spirit of delusion or by the Spirit of Truth and Sobriety For The Gospel-Church was to be in the Wilderness vailed in great obscurity involved in great distresses and decaying daily in Graces for 1260 years and until these first-fruits her Off-spring should begin to stand upon Mount Sion Therefore all Sects and Professors that pretend to be endowed extraordinarily with Gifts and Power from above before this time expire appear inevitably and may appear to themselves by undeniable Record of Sacred Scripture to be so far Impostors and Seducers of others For if