Lords Ministry and also a part of the three days of his Death was an intimate Time within the three days at large of his state of Death or dying According then to these paralels but especially that of our Lords three days of Death to which the Death of the Witnesses is more eminently paralel'd we may find the intimate part of Time Times half a Time we are upon Observing then our Lords three days we find the half Matt. 28. 1. Marc. 15. 1. Luc. 22. 66. day of the first of the three began early in the Morning with Proceedings against him which were as Legal Judiciary Proceedings by the Priests and Elders in Council they had by a private way examined him in the Night in the Morning as soon as it way Day they held the Council Ecclesiastick and proper to themselves and condemned him as guilty of Death About the third Hour they led him to Pilate that he might be legally and juridically condemned by him as the Roman Governour like delivering over to the secular Power At the sixth hour they began the actual Crucifixion viz. about twelve but after the ninth hour that is our three in Matt. 27. 46. Marc. 19. 34. the Afternoon our Lord died as a Sacrifice between the two Evenings and before that day ended which was the first of the three he was laid in the Earth and there he continued the whole second Night and the Day following which was the Jewish Sabbath and till within the Night of the third Day Matt. 28. 1. Mar. 16. 2. Luc. 24. 1. which was the first part of it and was our Christian Sabbath or Lords day and the first of the Week This is now the Scripture-sense of the three Days of our Matt. 12. 40. Lords being in the Grave or Heart of the Earth and so by Proportion we are taught to understand the three days and half of the Witnesses lying dead viz. a part of each first and last and the whole of the middle The very precise Time of the Night at which Christ arose is not indeed revealed but it was a part of the Third Day ' ere he rose For it is well known the Night going before and the Day or Light coming after according to the order of Creation made the Jewish day although therefore we know not the very Moment yet it is most agreeable to believe In the very first part of the Night as soon as Christ had lain long enough to fulfill the Prediction He arose for early in the Morning while it was yet dark the Women coming John 20. 1. to embalm him found him risen It is very plain then the intimate time of the dying sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ entred at the second half or the Morning of the first of the three days and grew more intimate and was more fill'd with that transaction by the second fourth part of that half for the Evangelist Mark says it was Marc. 15. v. 25. the third hour viz. our nine of the Clock and the Jews crucified him intending the whole proceeding before Pilate to his Crucifixion at the third fourth part or the sixth hour which is our Noon after some short debate with Pilate They led him away bearing the Cross to Golgotha and then he was lift John 19. 49. Matt. 27. 45. v. 46. Marc. 13. 34. up to the Cross and the Heavens were cover'd with blacks as at his Crucifixion soon after the last fourth part or the ninth hour which is our three of the Clock He gave up his Spirit and was speedily after entombed I do not intend to pursue this Paralel too close or too minutely nor to rely too hard on History to give the motions of time exactly enough but I rest securely on Prophecy that there was a sufficient agreement between that and the Event at every just Time The Idolatry and Tyranny or Usurpation of the Beast was risen by the Morning of the second 180 of the first 360 about 617 eleven years after the Vniversality given by Phocas when the Star fell and received the Key of the bottomless Pit It was further advanc'd and strengthned by the first Council of Lateran 649 against the second fourth of this 180 years viz. 659 To answer the third fourth viz. 717 it was promoted so much further that God who justly weighs all such Motions sets up 18 years after viz. at 725 or 726 the Pillar of intimate Time 666. Between the two Evenings or within the last fourth part viz. 787 at the second Councel of Nice the Beast overcame the Witnesses were slain and so they lay dead for two whole Days or twice 360 years till 1517 when after the half day begun The first motion to a Resurrection manifested it self which could not be till they had continued dead such a part of this last half day as suffic'd to fulfill the Prophecy that says their dead Bodies should lye three days and a half in the street of the great City And without laying too much weight upon Particles of Time it is out of measure certain the Power of the Beast the Idolatry and Tyranny of the Man of Sin within due distance of the time signified by this Prophecy and of which History near enough to Time gives some very remarkable watch-word or rather loud Voice were at an elevation every way adequate to the suffering dying state of the Witnesses according to the Predictions that went before concerning both in this Symbol or Exemplar of that great Proto-Martyr the chief and supream Witness the faithful Martyr Jesus Christ and those Gradations or Steps of his dying and rising again so exactly measured out in time within his three days and their three days and a half abating only for the difference of the Paralels our Lord was buried they were not to be so as we shall presently observe Now for the further proving these things I thus Argue Whenever the Beasts Name and the number of his Name began Arg. 1 the Receiving the Name and the number of the Name began also For these are so essentially joyned together as not to be divided and indeed the Name and the Number do not come into Record but for the receivings sake of them and then the Worship of the Image the receiving a Mark in the Forehead or the right Hand began also For all these are here of equivalent Satisfaction to the Beast and they are all along through the after Prophecy joyn'd as of equal Guilt Sin and Danger however then they may denote several Posts and Stations in the service of the Beast as it is indeed a great and wonderful Court and hath a most stupendious diversity of Offices Ministrations Subordinations and Dependencies and as vast a Populace yet all these speak the same Devotion Subjection Vassalage to the Beast in one kind or other and therefore the Priviledge of those who abjure any of these as therein abjuring all is allowed equal by Christ so that
as we shall see presently Now that it so began at Twenty five or six we have a threefold Testimony Of the Apostle Paul that the Mystery of Iniquity viz. the Apostacy as a Womb in which the Man of Sin was curiously form'd as in the lower parts of 2 Thess 2. 7. 1 John 4. 3. Revel 2. 4. the Earth was then at work that it might bring forth the Man at his full growth at 666. The Apostle John assures us Antichrist was then in the World and the supreme Apocalyptes Christ tells us Ephesus the Image of the Apostolical Church had even in the Apostles Times left its first Love when therefore Apostolical Time had doubled it self from Twelve to Twenty Four and was moving onward as at a precise Time from Conception the Mystery of Iniquity began to work at 25 or 26. And it is no wonder the Man of Sin beheld by the Apostle in Spirit when no Eye saw him in this his Embrional Condition in his first Principles was thus remark'd by him For then every thing receives its nature Even as Jacob in the Womb as John the Baptist as our Lord in his Conception is celebrated so this Man of Sin is dated from the conceiving of Sin as well as from the manly State from the Conception as well as from the grown Man till then Iniquity fully accomplishing its Time brings forth Death This Psendo Abrahamite this spiritual Edom and Esau struggled as another Nation in the Womb of the Apostacy while the pure Israelitism without guile lay in the Womb of true Christianity to both which the outward Profession was a common Womb. This prophane Esau is he that sold the Birth-right of the Gospel for a Mess os Pottage and the Heavenly Kingdom for an Earthly Dukedom and wherein he got the start Thus the Number of the Name of the Beast and the number of the Beast or the time of his adult and man-like Bestianism so closely related so closely joyn'd as not possible they should lead two several ways both being the Time of worshipping the Image receiving the Mark the Name and the Number of the Name assure beyond all doubt that they are both one Nature appearing manifestly at one and the same Time and by both mathematical and prophetical Certainty if the Top of the Number be 666 Twenty five must be the Root and Bottom and if the Root be Twenty five from the Resurrection the top must be 666 from that twenty five viz. 725 or 726 and so both from the nature counter-Apostolical under the pretence of Apostolical as also the Root and the top of Time being compar'd It can neither be Mahometan not so early up as twenty five nor Pagan that did not live so long as 725 but must be Antichristian or the Beast And by this wonderful Hieroglyphick of Number God hath surpris'd all defence from Antiquity out of the hand of Antichrist that is not built upon his Word Truth and solid Reason for seeing the Mystery of Iniquity wrought so soon as 25 from the Resurrection all Proof from Antiquity only is but proof for Antichrist taken from the Mystery of Iniquity beginning to work and so not to be for that cause allowed I come therefore now to the second point viz. To see Head 2 where this Pillar of intimate Time this six hundred sixty six can be only duely and proportionably plac'd And we shall find evidently where it is thus to be plac'd That we may then understand this we must consider that there is in Time Times Half Time an intimate Time or Season signified to us 3 ways 1. By the force of the Words us'd in the Chalde in the Dan. 7. 25. Dan. 12. 7. Rev. 12. 14. Hebrew and in the Greek Originals to express this Line It is indicted appointed Time or Season Seasons half Season Now Season is the most virtual lively point of Time for though all Season must have Time to support it yet Time is only Season to those things whereunto it is especially appointed and gives advantage the very words therefore import Season within Time and thus the Apostle says The Man of Sin is reveal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were in the same Words with that of the three Seasons and half in his own Season 2. The intending and elevation of the Events speak the same for as much as Prophecying in Sackcloth is transcended by lying dead as much as being in the Wilderness so as to be hid from the face of the Serpent exceeds being in the Wilderness only in general as much as changing Times and Laws and wearing out the Saints and scattering the holy People by the Antichristian Prince himself exceed the rude Gentiles trampling the holy Court or the Beasts mere Power of Continuance so does the intimate Time or season of seasons seasons half season transcend the Time at large and in general and therefore all these Notes of Time are first given and then Inward time with this Exaltation of the Effects 3. The Three times and a half pointing and propending towards though not rigidly denoting three years and a half even as twelve hundred sixty days do and as forty two months of Lunar years do they have two great Paralels one of Years the other of Days and both fitted to the very 1260 days of the Witnesses The first of years is that of Elijah declaring that there 1 Kings 17. 1. should not be these years Rain nor Dew but according to his Word Now the Time of this Drought is most expresly affirmed twice that we might take the more notice of it to be three years and six months once by Christ himself a second Luc. 4. 25. Jam. 5. 17. Time by the Apostle James And yet by the History we cannot find that the Drought was any longer than a part of the three years and a part of 1 King 18. 1. the six months for it is said in the third year Elijah appeared to Ahab and Rain ensued accounting then from the latter end of the first year to the beginning of the six months after two years there might be no Rain a part of the first year the whole of the two years nor till the six months began and yet it might be in the third year according to precise account of years as may be easily understood For there may be three full years within a part of the first of the three years and of the six months viz. the latter part of the first year and the beginning of the last six Months comprehending two whole years in the middle That of Days is the instance of our Lords three days in the heart of the Earth which by the full evidence of the Evangelists we know was but a part of the first day the whole of the second and a part or the first part only of the third Now these three days both lay as an intimate part of Time within the three full years and half of our
that so in the Mouth of not only two or three but many Witnesses every word might be establish'd yet it appertains to the Glory of the New Testament the Gospel and Kingdom of the Mediator there should be so great and stupendious a Prophecy peculiar to it as that of the Revelation wherein God and Jesus Christ are for ever to be ador'd and had in reverence of all that approach the Profession of Christianity I say It must be of necessity agreeable to the Excellency of the New Testament there should be besides many Incidental Prophecies so divinely majestick a Prophecy as this of the Apocalyps such a Temple of Prophecies whose Symbols should be so high and lofty its Light more clear and full its Lines of Time in what it pleas'd to give more evident and certain the Doctrines intermingled more spiritual the Promises more heavenly and explain'd the Threats more dreadful and more open that in every thing there may be a Becomingness of All to the Old Testament unveil'd fulfill'd and excell'd in the New And accordingly we shall find all these to the very height taken care of and adjusted we shall see this all along the Iconisms and Figures of Things in the Churches in the several Visions in the Doctrines in the solemn mentions of the Lamb of his Blood so often memorializ'd as an Antidote against the Poison of Antichrist as also the Ministeries of Angels and their most peremptory Abhorrence of all Worship offer'd to them It s only numbred Line of Time till the 1000 Years is so often repeated and ascertain'd that it does in all things illustriously shew it self to be that grand Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to shew to his Servants to the transcendent Honour of the Son by whom he thus spake last of all Who is the Heir of all things especially of the World to Heb. 1. 1. come of which this Prophecy speaks So that to ravish this from the Search and Enquiry of his Church or by Imputations of immodest Presumption to bar from it the utmost Endeavours of his Servants to compare so great a Prophecy and its Events is to take from them one of the principal Props of Christian Faith and Obedience and to devest the New Testament of so high a Glory as this sure Word of Prophecy to which we ought to take heed as to a Light that shineth in the obscure and even squalid Ayr of the Apostasie till the Bright Morning-Star appear and therefore notwithstanding all Prejudices the Apostacy hath rais'd against Researches into it Blessed is he that Readeth and they who hear the Words of this Prophecy That which this Prophecy reveals is the glorious Restitution of all things in the Kingdom of Christ and his Reign with his Saints the Destruction and Consumption of all the wicked so as to be no more as they have been in God's Creation and Earth Psal 104. 35. The Sense in which it reveals is not only Prophetical Doctrinal and Verbal but Real and Eventual and that immediately from the very Beginning of it All the Visions in their own Order each in their Season come quickly or shortly to pass that is begin to come to pass and so go on to their End according to the Types wherein they are imprinted This Revelation begins justly at the Resurrection of Christ conjoyn'd as in one entire Act and Time with his Ascension when all power in Heaven and Earth was given to him at the Lord's Day dedicated by himself to the Glory of his Rising and the Publication of his Anointing by the coming down of Act. 1. c. 2. the Holy Spirit Then could he say Behold I was dead am alive and live for evermore Then he was brought near to the Ancient of Days and receiv'd the Assurance of his Kingdom Then had he Right to be the Prince of the Kings of the Earth though he was pleas'd to stay and to joyn Patience to and with his Kingdom And this was as in the middle Rev. 1. 9. of the Five hundred sixty second Ev. Mor. from Cyrus and in the middle of the last of the seventieth of the seventy Weeks and at the Time the Roman Empire was come to Maturity in the AUTONOMY of Augustus and Tiberius in the Time of which the first Right of his Kingdom began and e're that Empire in its last State ends it shall be set up in Glory For though the Apocalytical Prophecy was not actually given to the Apostle John till some years after yet as Prophecy calls the future so that which is past to the present Time and represents in an entire Frame both together a Priviledge as to that which is past necessarily allowed to History and to a prophetick Frame much more when it hath occasion for it The Period of the Revelation till the thousand years is most evidently those two Apocalyptical Pillars bearing the two answering Inscriptions IT IS DONE IT IS DONE Apoc. 16. 17. c. 22. 6. from whence the Kingdom begins So that this Book of the Revelation is justly to be styl'd the Book of the Kingdom of Christ in its several Offers of Appearance and rending the very Clouds to shew it self in the Acts 1. 7. Dan. 12. 7. Justice of its Claim and yet retiring it self till the very moments appointed by the Father and sworn by himself In which Regards this Prophecy is call'd A Book both in Daniel and here in the Apocalyps on all occasions So that the thousand Years are properly within this Book as the Book of the Kingdom There is also beyond the thousand Years a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little Space as it were the Revel 20. Hour of the thousand-years-day of the Lord or of the Son of Man in which the natural Apostacy of Humane Nature shews it self in the lukewarm Laodicean Church and in Gog and Magog as at a blush but the whole of any State either 1 Cor. 15. of Church or Nation below immediately is swallow'd up in Flames and Death and Hell with their whole Propriety shut up within themselves and the Kingdom resign'd to God ALL in ALL. The Passage or Conveyance of this Apocalyptical Time is through the seven Churches comprehending the whole Time within themselves as also Symbols proper to the Prophecy as peculiar to the Christian Church and then the whole Time begins again and runs in seven Seals seven Trumpets seven Voices as unseal'd Thunders seven Vials as so many Conduits Tubes or Pipes of the whole Prophecy under the Conduct and Government of the Lamb with seven eyes and the guiding Operations of the seven Lamps the seven Spirits of God that is of the Divine Spirit in its sevenfold Operations And in all I understand the sabbatical Number deriv'd from the first Sabbath and terminating in the last great Sabbatism of Christ's Kingdom continued with the Sabbatism of Eternity Thus the Prophecy is divided into two Systemes or Complexes of Visions The Systeme of the
the silence of any such Voice moves Enquiry Why there is no such Voice and every Visum or Thing to be seen in both sorts of Seals the Voic'd or the seemingly silent Seals are to be judg'd of as they have Relation to the Kingdom of Christ especially because we shall find the three last Seals without Voices have something to supply the want of the Voices of those four Living Creatures 3. As to the Time and its Space that is measur'd out by these Seals seeing no Line of Time is expresly given with them it is impossible to be found out but either first by some of the Visa or things seen at the opening of these Seals that are so certain as to be necessarily agreed in and thereby measuring from them on each side of them to take the whole Course or secondly by the having good Assurance what are the Visa of the first and last of these Seals that thereby we may know when they begin and when they end by the most undoubted Accounts of History or thirdly by observing if there be any Light concerning the just middle Point of their Time or lastly by some other Line of Time that may how much larger soever so as to comprehend it yet set Limits to it in its Beginning Middle and End by some certain Line of Time that must end just before it and some other Line of Time that must follow it and that all taken together can answer that whole Line And all these ways I shall use to come to the exact Measure of the Space of the seven Seals and what Measures of Time are and ought to be allow'd to them Let us then examine the Importance of every Seal first by what it discovers of the Kingdom of Christ upon the joyning of the Visum or thing to be seen and the Voice together or remarking upon the No Voice and the equivalent Supply with the Visum or thing to be seen and then collect the Time of these seven Seals The Visum or thing to be seen of the first Seal is as is Seal 1 hardly controverted by any The riding out of Christ on his white Horse with his Bow and the Right of a Crown conquering and to conquer This then was the Aim of Christ to obtain his Crown in the first place by the pure and holy Arms and Power of his Gospel in the Vniversal Perfect Ministry of the Apostles and till the Effect of that was tryed he makes shew of no other whatever farther Aim Christ might have if his Gospel was not submitted to Thus is Christ riding out prophesied of of Old Ride prosperously because of Truth Meekness and Righteousness Ps 45. 3. And upon this Horse he rides out with final Victory Rev. 19. whose Name is the Word of God This then was then the State of Christ's Kingdom the making an Universal Offer of it self to Jews and Gentiles by that high Ministry of Persons immediately guided and infallibly inspir'd and accomplish'd with the Gift of Tongues and Power of Miracles to make the Publication of that Decree Thou art my Son This Day have I begotten thee Ask of me and as I have set Thee upon my Holy Hill of Zion by thy Resurrection so I will give Thee the Heathen for thy Inheritance and the uttermost Ends of the Earth for thy Possession And if they will not submit Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel Psal 2. 6. The Apostolical Voice deep and loud as Thunder royal as of a Lyon the first Living Creature Come and see is a farther Assurance That this was then the State of Christ's Kingdom in this free and universal Offer of it self It bespoke the World therefore in the Language of the rest of that Psalm Be Wise now O ye Kings Be Instructed ye Judges of the Earth Serve the Lord with Fear Rejoyce with Trembling Kiss the Son lest He be angry and for breaking his Bands and casting his Cords from you He break you at last as a Potters Vessel with a Rod of Iron or as the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shivers the Image of which the next Seal gives a Type Now this Appearance of Christs Kingdom and the most Holy declar'd Annointed in it was absolutely necessary to make known the thing seal'd and to be unseal'd and that the End might be known by the Beginning and the whole Compass of the Time of the Seals by Both. For nothing could make all these more known nor the stay the sealing had on this Kingdom from appearing more manifest than this its offer to appear at the end of the last half week in the Apostolical Preaching and yet Prophecy and Vision concerning it seal'd up so that it could not bring forth this Kingdom till its just Time constituted by the Father and the Oath of Christ himself and that in regard of the Obstinacy of the Body of the Jewish Nation and of the World of the Gentiles Immediately upon the refusal of this King upon the Holy Seal 2 Hill of Zion He began to use his Rod of Iron and sent out the Red Horse of War the Visum or Thing to be seen under the second Seal joyned with the Voice of the Gospel Come and See but abated and weakened not a Voice of Thunder Whereas had the Kingdom been accepted the Thunder should not only have continued but multiplyed into Thunders and Voices and grown lowder and lowder to introduce the Kingdom But the Antichristian Kingdom upon the True Kingdom rejected work'd on and enervated the Voice though it was still Apostolical Come and See As the Voice of an Ox as if it self were Falling a Sacrifice at the Altar deploring the slaughter then coming upon the World So this second living Creature The State of the Kingdom therefore was as retreated in the Gracious and Merciful Offer The Voice was not so Grand and Sounding but instead of it He that sat on the Red Horse of War had a Great Sword given him and It was Given to Him that He should take Peace from the Earth and that Men should kill one another This certainly was especially verified in those Desolations of the Jews under Vespasian and Titus and those succeeding War-like Emperours Trajan and Hadrian under the first of which the Destruction of Jerusalem was so dreadful and bloody till the last ruines by Hadrian That no Time nor History was ever deeper dyed in Blood nor could this be without dismal Recoyls of the Great Sword upon the Empire it self within the Bowels of which it was continually sheath'd insomuch that Hadrian in his account of the final Wars with the Jews omitted the usual Preface in his Letters to the Senate Ego quidem exercitus valemus We and our Army are well This he suppressed as not agreeing to that Season of so great loss of Blood to the Romans This was a very affrightful appearance of this Kingdom and of great Evidence
Originals of the Old or New Testament and according to the very Design of Prophecy it is Appointed Time Appointed Times Appointed Half Time or Season Seasons half a Season and so in that first Distribution of Time according to the Motion of the Sun and the Moon the great Luminaries of Heaven it is used Genes 1. 14. for Design'd and Appointed Times and this is very necessary to be layd in the Foundation For accordingly it will follow The measures of this Season Seasons half a Season must be found out by observing the measures of the other Notes of Time wherewith they are joyned for that Character of Season it self speaks high and notorious Designation of this Time Times Half a Time and that most remarkable Season of which after-use is to be made arises from such a Designation and not an immediate Definition of the Space But then secondarily Because a Year and a Day are the most natural and ready Measures of designed Time and so may in that forenam'd Scripture be the Explanation of Seasons Gen. 1. 14. or remarkable and signaliz'd Times as they are immediately added to Seasons and because in all probability seven Times passing over Nebuchadnezzar under his Delirium Dan 4. 23. mean seven Years since they cannot mean Days or Months or less than Years nor more we may first consider Time Times Half a Time as three Years and a half and that with Authority because they are diversifyed into other such Extents of Time or Spaces as we shall see that point to so much So then the signification of Time Times Half a Time is taken from that first most known and honourable Account of Time the Suns Motion from Point to Point in its annual Circle This is a more honourable Circulation than that of a Day because the Sun more knownly varies every day from the Point from which and the Point to which it daily moves which makes the change of the Year to those several Seasons so that although as Solomon tells us The Sun riseth and goeth down and hasteth to the place where he arose distributing Day and Night to the World yet he neither sets nor rises two Days together at the same exact Point but veres towards one of the Tropicks although therefore a Day of the Suns being with us is the most noble measure of Time next to the Year yet it cannot deserve the Name of a Time of a signaliz'd Time as a Year doth both because it is not so exact to a Point of Revolution and because it is not so full a Year excelling a Day in being the greater and ampler and so the most perfect known and generally observ'd Circle for a Season comprehending that of a Day above three hundred sixty five times within it self and is the Suns perfect Emensuration of its way from one end to the other end of the Heavens and of its Visitation of the whole Earth with its Beams A Year must yet more excel a Month than it does a Day because the Sun hath the Government of the Day and of the Year but the Moon the much more ignoble Planet and Governess only of the Night gives to the Months their Character and Measure and tho there are twelve Points of the Space the Sun emensurates in a Year viz. the twelve Signs in the Zodiack and the Suns first Touch upon Aries to its gliding off from it to the next Sign may be call'd a Solar Month yet neither is it the proper Month which is defin'd by Lunations nor is it any Circulation of the Sun with it self or with its own Motion or with its great end of encompassing the World with its enlivening Beams there is no space therefore that can properly merit the Name of a Time or Season in the first place but a Year first and then a Day Times absolutely so call'd must needs also be most properly two Times for the first Plurality or more than one is two and the more so because it is set betwixt one Time and half a time for that Number which exceeds and removes from Unity first is two and that which is bounded by half a Time in its remove from one Time can be no more than two for if it had proceeded to more than two and had not been stop'd or cut off as the Hebrew significantly It had been three Times Half a Time therefore as it refers to the Beasts Time must be Time decurtated or cut off at the middle as the Garments and Beards of David's Servants half'd by Hanun in Disgrace and Dishonour to the Beasts eternal Infamy and in recompence to his surprise of the Churches Peace and Purity at its half Hour as shall be noted Apoc. 8. 1. Time then as One denotes Beginning as One is the beginning of Number Times as Two denotes Increase and Consistency as it is a progress of Time from One and settles in the first even Number Half speaks an endeavour of Motion to be continued but surpris'd and cut off at its middle Now these Time Times Half a Time might signifie only the three Years and a half they first import but that they must signifie more we shall find very full assurance when therefore we shall have reason'd that it must be more than three Years and a half it will then appear most reasonable that each Time should have its most perfect Circle And if a Year be the perfectest Circle of Time then a Year of Years must be the most perfect and full Circle beyond which there can be nothing but a Repetition or Multiplication of the same again and again so then the Time must be a Year of Years the two Times must be the same Circle twice told and the Half Time the same Circle attempted the third Time and clip'd off at the Semicircle which is the Account of this Character of Time Times Half a Time and which is the first and as will appear the most comprehensive of the Characters of this Line and tho there may be other Revolutions of the Heavens and of the Sun particularly known to learned Astronomers containing greater numbers of Years and there is a more perfect Number also of Years viz. the thousand Years given us in this Prophecy as we shall see afterwards yet there is none so fit to the present Purpose as Days and Years nor so full as a Year of Days and then a Year of Years or of prophetical Days most agreeable to Prophecy every way I come now to the second Character of Days A Day then Character the Second is the first most known and observable date of Time as it was first in use to measure Time by The Evening and the Morning were the first Day assoon as Time began A Day Gen. 1. 5. c. then is the Time in which the Sun performs his Motion speaking as the Scripture does to general Apprehension without regard to strictnesses of Philosophy whether the Motion be of the Sun or of
Usage by Pharaoh argued against their Deliverance by Moses All the Disaffection in the Age to Interpretation of Prophecies or its insensibleness of them can no more disprove them than Christ's coming as a Thief upon Sardis at an Hour it knew not shall be disprov'd by the Sleepiness and Unwatchfulness of that Church Let us then with Resolution Constancy of Obedience Strength of Faith Labour of Love Patience of Hope wait for and come to the end of these ten days and from them to the 1335 Days where Blessedness shall certainly be But if we should say We may dye before those Ten Years are come to their Period and there is no Probability or Possibility we should live to the seventy five beyond or the 1335 of Blessedness I answer The Saints of God living on Earth shall receive their share in all the Glories of his Kingdom and the several degrees of it and they that dye hoping waiting desiring praying shall be rais'd in the very same posture of Soul wherein they died so that they who by a general Faith and Obedience waited and came in Daniel's Time and ever since viz. by earnest Prayers Come Lord Jesus Come quickly shall be blessed even as they who by particular Faith and Obedience wait and come at the Time it self And in the mean time the Souls of Saints above the Spirits of just men who shall be perfected at that time celebrate in Heaven all the Advances of Christ's Kingdom even as they pray for it as the Souls under the Altar cry How long Lord c. so they rejoyce at every Rising of Christ's Kingdom so do the same Souls Rev. 12. 10. So Rev. 14. 3. They that sing that new song harping with their Harps So They Rev. 15. 3. So they Rev. 19 c. Such is the universal Song of Triumph of the Palm-bearing company Revel 7. 10. Let us not therefore despond but be abundant in the work of the Lord knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Why should it be thought an incredible thing that God Remark 6 should draw in his Word the Plot of Future Time to so great a Period as the Kingdom of Christ That all Futurity is within the Grasp of Infinite Omniscience cannot be doubted Known to God are all his Works from the beginning to the end The Scheme of all that hath been before it was or that shall be is always with Him as if it just now was in all the circumstances and Life of a present Appearance in whose Eternity All present past to come are all one The whole Table of Time is always before Him Does it then pertain to the Prerogative of Omniscience that Future Things should be known only to himself It does so indeed any further than he is pleas'd to reveal them But He that challenges the false Divinities of the Heathen that they could not declare things to come hath certainly given Isa 42. 23. Instances of his own Prescience and Demonstrations of it to his People Hath he not done so in all Ages by his Servants the Prophets Is he not as Liberal to the Ages of Christianity to the state of things under the Gospel of his Son whom he hath constituted Heir of all things and put in subjection to him the World to come of which we speak Or is the Glory of Divine Truth so great that even as immediate Appearances the Power of Miracles and extraordinary Revelations have ceas'd since the full Settlement and Sealing the Volume of Truth in the Gospel so Prophecy needs not now This indeed hath much of Reason yet even as all Truth is compriz'd in that Volume so are the Grand Revolutions pertaining to the Christian Church in the same Volume and therefore whatever God hath done for the former World the very same hath he summ'd up in the New Testament When therefore we have besides the Interspersion of Prophecy in several places of it a Book wholly Dedicated to Prophecy Blessed is he that heareth and readeth the words of this Prophecy Have we not reason then to expect the course of things to the very end in it But does not the Prophecy it self say The Things were shortly to come to pass So that what is to be found in it pertain'd to the primitive Age the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Time when Christianity was well settled and till Pagan Rome became Christian It is true indeed The Divine Revelator Jesus Christ our Lord does say the things were shortly to come to pass that is to begin to come to pass They were then upon motion but as a great Army is said to come immediately when the Avant-Corriers are coming or come although the whole Body and Rear may be considerable distances off so this whole Series and Chain of Events in the Revelation come quickly although the first and the last part differ so many Ages Is it not clear and visible that there is the Beginning of Things and the End of Things in every mans Apprehension plain and evident that is from the Resurrection and to the Day of Judgment and why then should we not believe there is the Middle of Things also Why should we imagine Prophecy hath made such a Leap over the Between Lying Times seeing they were very great Did it not behove his Church and Servants to know of so great and wide spreading an Imposture as Mahometanisme Was it nothing to it Christianity should be in so low and dark a state as it was from the lowest Fall of the Western Empire to the Ruine of the Eastern Empire in both which the principal Residences of it were and so long space as from 666 to 1453. But still it may be said If such a Prophecy be it does not become us to pry into it it is the Ark of secret things that do not belong to us Why then does Christ say Blessed is he that heareth the words of this Prophecy Why doth he command him that hath Wisdom and Vnderstanding to count the Number of the Beast Why doth He in explication of the Seven Heads say Here is the Mind that hath Wisdom Why had Christ the Revelation to shew to his Servants But was it not all one as if they had not been reveal'd since the Revelation was not pretended to be understood in former Times I answer we do not know what was understood the Apostacy so cover'd and muffled all Things and does yet so darken them The universal prejudice against the Explanation of this Prophecy is I doubt not the effects of this Apostasie But that there hath gone a stream of Light from hence to the Servants of Christ by the Witnesses in every Age is to me out of all question and that it hath discover'd the Things most necessary to that Age although the Light hath been not only clearer but the knowledge that such a Light hath been more certain to us since the last Age and Half and shall be every day clearer and clearer When
now the Church was indeed out of view by the Apostasie introduc'd by the Gentiles the Beasts people under the other Beast so that the False Church hid the True as in a wilderness The Gentiles crowded the True worshippers into a clos'd Temple The Daily was taken away The witnesses were in Sackcloth where then could the True Church be seen All was scatter'd no Body of a Church appear'd but the Antichristian to this state things grew more and more under the Regnancy of the Beast till the Woman was fled from the Serpent himself All this is then to be accounted to the Beast serving the True Church by Gods overruling Hand so far as that it was out of the Dragons reach who was deceived thinking to strike the True but the False lay bleeding In the mean time Satan however in his Serpentine and draconick Nature jealous of any thing of Christ even in his own Kingdom first persecutes the Empire by the Barbarians where He knew the woman very lately was by her bringing forth the Manly Birth He struck at it by way of distinction in his own Aym but finding He could not reach it by the rude strokes of the Barbarians but the Eagles wings had convey'd it away and finding that those Barbarous Nations setled by degrees into the Antichristian Christianity and so help'd it forward into the wilderness He then resolved to be sure of it attempted to swallow it by the Mahometan Flood But This neither distinguishing it nor succeeding because the Bestian Earth drunk up the Flood not only receiving it upon it self but maintaining the name Doctrine Profession and Church state of Christianity so far as is necessary absolutely to Antichristianisme and its Kingdom so drunk up the Flood by setting it self against the blasphemous monstrous Mahometan Imposture and with a deadly hate because Mahometanism is no less against Antichristianity than Christianity so the Serpent disappointed is wroth and as so necessitated determines now to sift for his Ends by Draconism refin'd into Beastianism Heathenism guilded with Christianity but pointed and edg'd with Antichristianisme which is a compound of the Dragon and the Beast And because this Antichristian state allowed such a thing as a Christian Church tho but it self only He can make war only with the womans seed And to the purpose and as we say with a Vengeance He makes War with the womans seed who keep the Commandments God and hold as witnesses the Martyry of Jesus that is by the Beast whose History immediately follows cap. 13. and to whom the Dragon deputed his power and seat even Great Authority which Delegation the other Beast that spake as a Dragon viz. the False Prophecy received and managed for him the Grand Beast until He came to his Image and Number and so the Dragon and the Beast continue together till the Beast is taken and cast into the Lake and the Dragon and all his Draconism bound Chain'd and Seal'd up by the Kingdom of Christ appearing Rev. c. 19. c. 20. v. 1. And this is the True History of Draconism as entred into Bestianism by which it plainly appears the scattering of the Power of the Holy People or the state of the Woman in the Wilderness is wholly owing to the Beast and his Bestianism whose are Time Times Half Time and that the Dragon and his Persecution were wholly defeated by the Bestian Apostacy conveying the Church from the Serpent till He wrought by the Beast and made over his Power to Him in revenge upon the Womans Seed it self being still safe Now how admirable is all this according to the Symbols the Beast still in all appearance and semblance secures Christ on the Throne while it supplants his true Kingdom and Power for how could Antichrist's Kingdom stand if Christ were not in Title upon the Throne But how could it stand if Christ did indeed reign No it presently falls then or rather vanisheth away Again the Wings of the Apostatiz'd Empire while they convey the true Church out of all ordinary Visibility yet secure it in the Name and Notion of a Church the Beast's Earth thus helps it for a Christian Church is his Claim and Title to his Kingdom but it must be hidden for a true Christian Church visible destroys his Kingdom Thus all things even to Astonishment at the divine Prophetick Wisdom have a Harmony in Truth greater than that of the Spheres in Imagination Mahometans and Pagan Infidels by subverting Christianity necessarily overthrow Antichrist's Kingdom also it is in indispensable need of Christianity so far as a Pretence goes but the Brightness and native Glory consumes it while Christianity under a false mask supports it true Christianity scorches it to nothing as will be seen at the Vial pour'd into the Sun true Christianity and the Church therefore must be hidden and in the Wilderness and its Seed persecuted as if not of the Church that false Christianity and the false Church may reign in its Absence under its Name and Appearance Thus while the Dragon persecutes in his Aim and Intention the Christian Church the Apostacy pretending it self the Vniversal Church conveys the true Church into a Wilderness and so befriends the Notion of a Church while it conveys it out of sight the Dragon by the Beast makes War with the Seed and scatters them that they could not possibly be found in the Body of a Church not but that the Church was truly visible in the single Witnesses however anathematiz'd but it could not be reach'd in a Body even by the Serpent himself for it was not in a Body and yet the Notion of a Church was dear to the Antichristians for They and the Beast usurp'd it At this Time therefore according to this Prophecy it could be no Argument against the Church Where was it or It was not visible in a Body for it was not to be visible in a Body but in the Suffering scatter'd Seed So that it was hid from the very Serpent And yet even to the end of the 1260 Days there is a Mahometan Draconism levelling at Christ Christianity and the true Church but falling almost wholly upon the false Church and the Antichristian King and his Subjects who is therefore always principally concern'd to drink up this Flood and so helps the true Church by his Earth There is nothing at the present I can think necessary to add to this Explication of the Apocalyptical Dragon but that the whole Vision Rev. 12. to v. 13. is presented as in Heaven so that the Assumption of the manly Birth the Joy upon the Dragon 's casting down upon the Kingdom of our God being come c. is given as in Heaven and is reserved also in Heaven till the glorious Appearance of Christ and there is no more but such an imperfect cognisance of those great Things upon Earth as was given by the Christian short Empire to be expected till that glorious Kingdom of Christ at the end of the Beast's Reign which may
having the Key of the bottomless Pit not judicially given but committed to him not to open the bottomless Pit and let out the Smoak not to loose nor draw out at greater liberty and by provoking God to give the Malice of Devils greater scope by the Angel of that Pit raging like a roaring Lyon in a hellish Mahometanism but to lay hold on him to bind him to cast him into the bottomless Pit to shut him up and to set a Seal upon him that he may deceive the Nations no more for the 1000 Years which very Consideration of that so opposite Vision does much inlighten this of the fifth Trumpet we are now upon It remains that we consider now what the Service of the two Witnesses might at this time most agreeably with Prophecy be and as so considering it I look upon this joynt of Time this Proclamation of the three woe Trumpets to be the very entrance of the Witnesses in the second Type of that eminent Binary or Pair of Witnesses and Prophets Elijah and Elisha The Witnesses had now a long time as the Sons of Oyl emptied their golden Oyl by way of preparatory Furniture of those two golden Candlesticks the true Churches of Pergamus and Thyatyra that stood this whole Line of Time before the God of the whole Earth and though we have not the clear and unmixed Records of any such Testimony for that were to lessen the Prophecy besides that the Indignation of the Apostate Church must needs have suppress'd them they must needs have suffer'd more so than under the Injuries of Time but I say it were to lessen Prophecy which says They were cover'd with Sackcloth they were seal'd they were retir'd within the Temple the Church was in the Wilderness through the scattering of its Seed It is not then possible according to the Prophecy there should be pure liquid Remains of their Testimony But now the Antichristians like Sanballat and Tobiah and other the Enemies of the Jews disturb'd their Service and in building with them hinder'd the Operation and infus'd their Venome in some part into the Writings and Discourses of Persons of a much more excellent temper in the main Now the Witnesses therefore as we may in part see by Gregory praised before passed into the Spirit and Power of Elijah and Elisha they began now to have fire proceed out of their Mouths to devour their Adversaries They began to declare the Wrath of God against Idolatry and Antichristian Pride and Blasphemy And this entred as Fire into the Consciences of their Enemies that in this manner they were kill'd as it were by the Sword of Christ's Mouth which he threatens to the Balamites in the Church of Pergamus and herein they imitated the Zeal of Moses and Phincas against the spiritual Fornication and Nicolaitanism of that time and also prepar'd the Servants of God in Thyatyra with a holy Zeal against the Jezebelism and Idolatry and Fornication of that Time also when the Apostacy was increas'd But how can we hope for much of Monument hereof The Prophecy of Gregory is more than we could expect and were it not that he serv'd the Apostacy to many other great purposes we had not had so much of him but God over-rul'd so far Now the Witnesses were coming into the closest time of being seal'd and therefore we have the mention of it reviv'd within the fifth Trumpet They were sed with hidden Manna They were hardly known one to another at the very Time Elijah knew not of the seven thousand Knees that had not bowed to Baal nor their Mouths kiss'd him but thought himself alone How much less then can we now know them And which is very characteristical of this Period of the Witnesses Prophecy and Testimony They have Power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the Days of their Prophecy so that there arises a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord and this endured for the intimate Time of which we are to speak in the next Period of the Witnesses and the Remark of shutting Heaven for three Years and six Months will be of great Conduct to us SECT X. Wherein is undertaken to be prov'd That the Mahometan Sarazens are the Locusts design'd in the fifth Apocalyptick Trumpet and that the five Months given to them comprehend Four hundred-thirty five Years from the Mahometan Hegira at 622 and so reach to 1057. upon Rev. c. 9. v. 1. c. I Pass on from this joynt of Time engraven with the real and substantial Characters of the Angel proclaiming the three Woes the Star falling the Key of the bottomless Pit given to him All which I have explain'd I come now to speak of the Descent of this Star to the opening the bottomless Pit and of that Smoak that issued out upon it and the unexpected Events of Locusts coming out of the Smoak which produce a new Line of Time beginning at 622 and not ending till 1453 but divided by Prophecy into two parts the five Months and five Months of the Locusts and the Hour Day Month and Year of the Army of Horsemen between which will come in the Account of intimate Time and so we will discourse each in their order Antichrist then appearing in the Star fallen to the Earth to shine there as an universal Pastor of which sort the Firmament of Heaven knows none nor can bear any such so he must needs fall to the Earth and the Beast here transmigrated into by the Dragon and beginning to exalt the Woman by carrying his Vniversality in an Image inscrib'd with the Name of the Woman and having receiv'd the Key of the bottomless Pit in place of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven he immediately proceeds to open it and le ts out Error Falsehood Blasphemy the Doctrine of Balam Nicolaitanism Antichristianism spiritual Pride and Tyranny like the Smoke or perpetual Vapour of the Abyss and its open Mouth that darkned the whole Air of the Christian Doctrine and Profession and in this by degrees he ascends higher and higher till he comes to his number 666. But Sathan above him in this bottomless Pit turning every way and moving more ways than one to advance his Kingdom especially over-rul'd and govern'd by God in fulfilling the course of his Judgment so impregnates this Smoke in that time of spiritual drought and of the Heaven shut as Brass and the Earth as Iron a Time specifick for these Locusts as drought is for the natural ones that unawares to this fallen Star there comes a swarm of Locusts out of the Smoke and they prove armed crowned Locusts dreadfully annoying and Tormenting the Antichristian World viz. by the Mahometan Saracens Having thus far then prepar'd to it I come to the main position of this Section the proof of which I am to undertake that these Locusts are the Mahometan Saracens whose five and five Months measure from 622 to 1057 The first Argument I derive from the Style in which
Wither of all the Greenness of Religion For so Scripture Prophecy both designs before-hand for and after derives from it self The Distribution of their dreadful Effects to a five months of Torment upon men like the stroke of a Scorpion while it was a vexation to understand the Report we suppose according to History was their first invading the World in general and hovering over the Apostate Kingdom The swiftness of their Success was so prodigious that it could not but be thought that the Lord uttered his Voice before his Army and that as his Camp was very great so he was strong that executed his Word that the Day of the Lord was very terrible and none could abide it before their Face all People were much pained and all Faces gather'd Blackness The continual Tidings of their Victories and Successes was to be continually tormented as with Job's Messengers or with the stroak of a Scorpion a not being kill'd but a living in pain But when this Army drew nearer into Italy and even to Rome it self in the second five Months when it enter'd the very Gates of that great City they ran up the Walls and enter'd in at the Windows to pillage and plunder and were also perpetually striking with the Tails of not only their false Religion but in Contempt and Scorn of the Antichristian Idolatry and Image-worship it was worse than a speedy Death or a total Conquest the prophetical Death here intended especially when it came to cruel Slavery It was no wonder then men sought for Death that is a quiet State although of being conquered and in Subjection and could not find it it fled from them for God had determin'd them this lingring Torment and not a speedy Death or Conquest over them and even these Locusts could do no more than what was commanded them and given to them Now their Power the five second Months was more than the first it was not only to torment with their terrour and report but to hurt with a real Presence but it was only to hurt and not to kill as the Turkish Cavalry was to do at Constantinople so they could do no more than hurt they could not kill the Bestian Rome and Empire were to survive them Thus they had five Months and five Months of Action eminent grand Action but seeing they had the space of five Months more in their Fourhundred and thirty years they must be suppos'd to come out of a first Formation and rude Preparations or to be at a distance from the effects of Torment and Hurt upon the unsealed Anticbristian especially Western State And at their latter end of Power a winterly Torpor and Deadness seis'd them and the Turkish Power drove them into a desolate Land and their stink as of an Army of dead Serpents came up that yet in their Time had done great things and so is their Memory at this day And thus History and Prophecy will agree in the account of their Time at least in relation to the Bestian Kingdom besides supposable Interspersions or Truces of their Impressions upon the Earth of the fallen Star or Antichrist The just and natural ensuing Woe upon this first as close Arg. 4 as the two Bestian Times one to another and yet distinguish'd too under the very same Mahometan King or Angel of the bottomless Pit and in the Entail of the same serpentine Religion is a very persuasive Argument of the due Explication of these things in Prophecy whose Situation Connexion and Sequence one upon another even as the Hour Day Month and Year upon their Five Months Five Months and their Vacation or Non-Term of Action is close and inseparable but this will rise into a farther Observation upon that part of the Line in the mean time as a strong support it helps to sustain the Point we are upon The very great fitness of these Locusts under their King Mahomet is every way most admirable to be a Scourge and Arg. 5 Woe upon the Antichristian Empire and their Months or Half-Moon to be a portentous Paraselene or another Moon upon them They are a mock-state every way to them by the severe Vengeance of God an Antichrist to Antichrist coming by Sergius the Monk out of their very Smoak let out by the Key-bearing fallen Star Their King an Angel of the bottomless Pit rivals the Star of the bottomless Pit the Monarchy of the Beast and his ten Horns is mated by the Monarchy of this King and one Vniversality by the other the pseudo or false Prophetism of the one by that of the other the Miracles of the one by those of the other the Superstition of the one and the Cruelty and Bloodiness of the one by those of the other both are sharers in the Roman Empire each hath his Rome one old Rome the other new Rome each of which Imperial Cities are in this prophetick Emblem Thirds of Men. Both aspire to the Possession of Jerusalem as having the promise of Universal Monarchy and Dominion but both mistake the Jerusalem in Bondage for that which comes down from above at which both will be vanish'd Both are Draconick and oppose and stave off the true Kingdom of Christ both oppress the Witnesses and Servants of God but the Beast by single War with them the King of the Locusts in the general and mistaking the false Church for the true and its earthly Glory for the Glory of Christ and so cannot hurt the true Glory both last the one as a Bestian Kingdom the other as a Woe till the end of the 1260 Days Both are to be utterly destroy'd before the Glorious Kingdom of Christ But the latter is a Judgment and a Woe-Trumpet on the former both as it is Christian in Pretence and Profession to which Mahomet is a profess'd Foe and as it is Antichristian Idolatrous and Superstitious for so it is scorned and abused and derided as well as persecuted by Mahometanism Now to ballance these two Antichristianisms one with another and the Interest of Satan in them it is thus to be settled in one Satan is as an Angel of Light falling from Heaven and making use of the Key of the bottomless Pit as if it were the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven in the other he is plainly the Angel of the bottomless Pit and acts as the Destroyâ—r Now the first must be necessarily the most hateful to God because it is the greatest Blasphemy its Moon eclipses the Kingdom of Christ most directly and as it were in the Draconick Nodi surpris'd it when it was to appear at the casting down Satan from Heaven and the manly Birth caught up to the Throne of God upon which Antichristianism as the Finess of Sathanism Mahometanism was provided as a Scourge and Woe of the coursest and thickest of the bottomless Pit and the blackest Appearance of the Angel of it and therefore though Mahometanism shall be finally destroyed and sent back to the bottomless Pit yet Antichristianism shall receive greater
to the taking Constantinople and then going on there remain just sixty years to the Reformation during which Time God expected the Repentance of the other or Western part of the Antichristian World upon so great a Judgment on that Eastern part in which the Western had so great an Interest by such an Union in Antichristianism while the Eastern Horn so earnestly affected and aspir'd to the same Primacy and Universality and also were guilty of much the same Idolatry and Superstition and as the Union was thus near so the claim of Dominion by the Western Horn over the Eastern was very bold confident and impatient of denyal and submitted to at that Councel of Florence 1439 just before this killing the third part of men as it were providentially the more apparently to interest the Western Antichristian State in this Woe by the Greeks which made them one before men as they were always before God Immediately after the severe censure upon the impenitency of the whole Bestian State compar'd with the very worst of the Gentiles in all manner of Idolatry Sorcery of Seduction Sensuality Blood hateful sacrilegious Thefts Cheats Frauds and Emunction of mens Estates on religious Pretences on all these I say follows the divine Portraicture of the Reformation under the next Head Now the Argument confirming this true Motion of things upon the Line of Time as hath been stated is very forcible for it shews the descent of it so many years from that famous date of Mahometanism at 622 so often mention'd and it leads to a Period so very grand in History as the Expiration of the Grecian Monarchy after that The continuing Impenitency of the Western Apostacy and Eastern also as we shall see was so notorious as to improve it self rather than to abate any thing This Impenitency the very essential Character of the Apostacy to its final Destruction draws the course of Time at this present Juncture down to the Reformation or the last 180 years in the mean while the Turkish Woe continues its hour as an Evidence That the 1260 days of the Witnesses Prophecy in Sackcloth are not yet at an end nor are they yet in full sense risen nor can the seventh Trumpet yet have sounded because the second Woe however in this face of Affairs now in the World it seems upon its remove is not yet gone nor shall go till all other things declar'd to come to pass before that shall have pass'd shall be ready to their proper motion also The People of God at the beginning of this Trumpet seem like the Israelites under the Egyptian Slavery when the Conduct of those two Witnesses Moses and Aaron appear'd to them they cry out to Heaven groaning under their Burdens And there are many loud Sounds by way of Return from many eminent Servants of God declaring his Judgments upon spiritual Egypt and smiting it with Plagues in a free publication of the Vials of this Prophecy to be fulfill'd in their Season The Mahometan Woes were the first Plagues and the Vials the last and from this Time especially the Strokes of these Plagues were as often as it were as they would call'd down first by Prayer and then foretold by the Witnesses but much more it shall be done and much more their Duty to do thus in the next State of the Witnesses within the Reformation as we shall then shew By all which by way of Remark we may see God did not leave himself without Witness of his dreadful Displeasure upon the Apostacy and Antichristianism of the Bestian Earth and Prince against whom these two Trumpets sounded the second of which cannot expire nor cease its Sound and Blast till the Tenth of this anathematiz'd City Jericho fall in the full Revolt of its ten Kings till the Earthquake slay the 7000 and the rest give Glory to God in the Conversion that shall be at that time in the midst of a yet persevering general Impenitency and the Beasts forty two Months end as to his Monarchick Power however he survive till the Brightness of the coming of Christ in some low state of Being and Attempt to recover his Power And even as the Grecian Antichristian Empire was now desolated the third part of men kill'd and the Imperial Seat turn'd to the Ottoman Port so in a much higher degree of Judgment Babylon shall then be burnt with a perpetual burning and not only the third part of men but the whole rest of men who have not repented shall be kill'd with the Sword of Christ's Mouth that is so utterly subdued and condemn'd as never to return to Empire any more and the Beast himself and false Prophet who had deceiv'd them cast into the Lake In the time of the second Trumpet Rome had been thrown as a burning Mountain into the Sea where it was not only preserv'd but as it were new cast for a future Glory under the Beast But at that time its Smoak shall ascend for ever and its Glory sink as a Mill-stone not to be recover'd In the third Trumpet many men died but not so many as to rise to a third part of men shewing the Imperial Bestianism Rev. 8. 7. did immediately succeed and keep that Imperialism alive according to our Explication of the third part In this sixth Trumpet the third part of men died the Grecian Empire is irrecoverably ceas'd but the Western Empire lives still in the Beast and his ten Kings But the whole Residue of men are kill'd to shew the utter end of Bestianism Eastern and Western also when the seventh Trumpet shall have its full effect In the fourth Trumpet the Sun and the Stars were smitten in their third part The supreme and subordinate Magistrates so that the day shined not for a third part and the Night likewise Yet within a space after the Bestian Star fell from Heaven to Earth and gave a new Light but at that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is done The Beast and all such impure Lights such wandring Stars are deliver'd up to the Blackness of Darkness for ever And as a Pledge of such a Desolation The Grecian Antichristianism so far as not repented of so far as the Members of the Grecian Churches are not Witnesses in Sackcloth is kept up by God in so despicable and ruin'd a condition to this day as a monument prophetical of the last Judgment on Antichristianism within the Number of which I fear all such Impenitents fall All which may serve as a brief Remark on this joynt of Time SECT XIII This Section enters into the Half Time of the Reformation and by the Agreement of the Prophecy with the Event demonstrates the Beginning and End of that Time on Rev. c. 10. HAving thus far travers'd this Line of Time there remains yet the last part of it or the Half Time very great and remarkable in its Dawn but to be much more remarkable in its Setting and Close and it is to be assign'd to the Reformation from 1517
the Earth from East to West and gives Light to one of the Hemispheres and then from West to East and so hastens to the Place where he arose as near as the aforesaid Variation will allow and gives Light to the other Hemisphere as Lord of the Day to the World of both Hemispheres As then on this Account Days are in all Languages expressive of length of Time so one Day was by God made choice of to signifie a Year and one Day by Moses Psal 90. and by the Apostle Peter is singled out to parallel with a thousand Years and Man's Day by the Apostle Paul is us'd to express the whole course of Man's time of judging in opposition 2 Pet. 2. 8. to the Day of Judgment and the whole course of 1 Cor. 4. 3. Judgment is call'd frequently the Day of Judgment as one Day and as it is taken a Day for a Year in this Line of Time so we shall find in the three Days and a half it is taken for a Day of Years equal to a Year of Years Day threfore is a Standard of Time fairly to be accommodated to any Measure of Time the Conjunction it hath with such Measure otherwise given requires when therefore three Days and a half are joyn'd with twelve hundred sixty Days with twice forty two Months and all these within Time Times Half a time there is a fair Reason to understand them of the very same Tenor of Time with what they are so conjoyn'd But as for the accounting a Day for a Year that rests upon that Divine Institution of a Day for a Year first in a Case near and parallel of the Forty Years Commoration of the Church of Israel Numb 14. v. 34. to omit Jacob's old Stile of Time a Week of Years in the Wilderness and after that by the solemn Institution as of a prophetical Key Ezek. 4. I have appointed a Day for a Year so that when there is a concurrence of Prophecy and Things to be transacted that cannot be transacted in so short a space as of Days litterally and naturally understood they must be so understood as we are directed by Prophecy to understand them viz. a Day for a Year even as without Hesitation we compute into Weeks of Years Daniel's seventy Weeks and so into 490 Years Now we shall find such Transactions fitted to the twelve hundred and sixty days that cannot possibly be suppos'd to have their Motion in three years and a half so that they must be Prophetical days or days for years And thus we have settled the two first and most noble Characters of Time A year signified by a time and a day as it is used in the three dayes and a half and in the twelve hundred and sixty days with their most truly Prophetical Indications viz. three years and a half of years in the three times and three days and a half and twelve hundred and sixty years in the 1260 days Let us then proceed to the third Character of Months or the forty two Months A Month then we know is that Space of Time the Moon describes by Night in its progress through the Zodiack Third Character For whatever Hemisphere it moves in it is still Night it rules in which Motion is indeed so full of Variation and Incertainty in its Remove from the Ecliptick Line the Sun 's certain Path that it is said The Sun knows its way but the Moon does not even as the Phasis or figure of the Moon is upon perpetual change even to a Proverb upon the unadjustableness of any ones Humour or Manners Who can saith the Proverb fit a Coat to the Moon and so is excellently adapted to describe the Antichristian Tyranny that changes Times and Laws Not onely by rescinding the truly Christian Laws by mens own Additions contrary to those Laws themselves but also making perpetually changeable even the Counterfeits of them by innumerable new Traditions whereas the Religion of Jesus Christ is yesterday and to day the same for ever Besides that Judaisme and Heathenisme that had so many dependencies on the Moon is the Constitution of Antichristianism and therefore the true Church so distant from it is cloathed with the Sun and hath the Moon under its feet and therein abdicates Judaism Heathenism and Mahometanism that also claims a Kindred with the Moon as the Votaries of the Moon Now this Moon as Governess of the Night as so variable in its Motions and Measures gives no Rule of Time by Motion from East to West but only from one Lunation to another it denominates Months or Moons being certain onely in this to return from one Conjunction of the Sun to another which because it gives a new Phase to the Moon is therefore called in the Hebrew Novitas and the Lunations Novitates or New Moons But I understand No Way that it can describe the Circle of a Year but by its Attendance on the Sun in its Motion by so many new Conjunctions as will most agree with the Annual Motion of the Sun and the nearest This can be brought to by the Natural Motions of the Moon there will be between Ten and Eleven Days betwixt the Motion of the Sun and the motion of the Moon upon twelve Conjunctions call'd therefore Synodical Months of the Moon with the Sun For so many the Sun requires more to the finishing its Annual Course than the Moon needs to its twelve Conjunctions with the Sun And this be spoken of Months as they are most properly to be understood of Lunations For if we would interpret them of Solar Months besides another greater Obstruction or Caution to be entred against that Interpretation hereafter they could be only progressive not Circular and so not agreeable with a day or a year there being more of a Circulation of motion by that most Illustrious Prince of Time in a day than in a Month. And therefore we account a Day the first Circle of the Sun's motion with Light from East to West and so to East again and a Year the most perfect Circle of his motion in going forth from one end of Heaven and in Circuit to the other end thereof with Heat and Influential Vertue in neither of which Solar Months correspond as to any Complement and therefore not so fit Symbols of Time as the Lunar Months which have a circle from one Conjunction to the Sun with another Now these Lunar Months are in conjunction with Time Times Half a Time or three years and a half of Years and with Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years Twice Forty two Months of Years also but the former coalescing or falling into One within the latter as a River that had been a River before may be suppos'd to do into a new Cut or Channel prepar'd to receive the confluence of neighbouring Waters lying in the way of that former River so near that by the great confluence of Waters and the more ample Channel of the new River the old may