not markt with the name of this Beast or the number of his name that has not either his name in letters plainly writ or in figures that contain the number that the letters of his name make according to their numeral value for every Greek letter has such a numeral value those that are not thus marked that is profess not themselves of the Faith of this Sacerdotal Hierarchy signified by the two-horned Beast may neither buy nor sell but are excommunicated for Hereticks with whom by the very Sentence of their Synods there is to be no Negotiation Now who this Beast this two-horned Beast or Sacerdotal Hierarchy more particularly is is enigmatically expressed in the following Verse 18. Here is wisdom let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast Here is a dark riddle let him that has skill that way number the number of the Beast For it is the number of a Man that is not so strange a number but that it may be numbred by the Art of man And his number is six hundred threescore and six which is to be numbred no otherwise than by the extraction of the square Root which is 25 * which is marvellously applicable to the City and Church of Rome as 12 the root of 144 to the New Ierusalem And that you may be sure this Sacerdotal Hierarchy of Rome is more specially aimed at in this Vision take another easie sense of It is the number of a Man that is of a mans name For above there is mention of the number of his name And his name will prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lateinos for those letters in their numeral value make just 666. And it is notoriously known that the Fathers of this Western Church of which Old Rome was the Head were stiled in subscriptions at Councils the Latin Fathers and the Eastern Fathers Roman from New Rome and the Eastern Roman Empire in those parts So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that name of a Man of that Man of Sin or Antichrist and 666 the number of this Man that is of his name which is a Cabbalistical device and by the Cabbalists called Gematria From whence we see that the pinch of this Prophetick Vision at last lights more particularly on the Pope of Rome and his Clergy NOTES CHAPTER XIII Vers. 13. Were rent off from the Church and made obnoxious to eternal fire c. That thunder is fire from Heaven is plain as also that the Popes Excommunications are compared to Thunder and that Heaven in the Prophetick stile are the high places in any Polity Wherefore his Thundering Excommunications against Princes is very fitly set out by that phrase That he causeth fire to come down from Heaven as if he thundered against them Which Analogy is still more accurate if we consider what Artemidorus saith of Thunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For thunder and lightning does not unite but disjoyns things that are united So does Excommunication that rives off a member from the Church And there is still a further congruity that Excommunication should be called Thundering and Lightning or fire from Heaven in that it is the Commination of Hell fire of which the destruction of Sodom was a Type which was burnt by fire from Heaven as M r J. Mede has judiciously observed See my Synopsis Prophetica lib. 1. cap. 6. sect 14. Vers. 18. Which is marvellously applicable to the City and Church of Rome c. Concerning this applicableness of this number 25 by way of counter-correspondency if I may so speak to the number 12. see my Mystery of Godliness lib. 5. cap. 16. sect 8. For it were too long and tedious to transcribe those things into these brief Notes CHAPTER XIV 1. THere was mention in the foregoing Chapter of the Wars of the Beast and his marked Soldiers and of his continuance viz. in his entire state to the seventh Semitime of forty two months of years which is one manner of expressing Daniel's time and times and half a time Now in counter-correspondency to those Soldiers and that War in this very first Verse there is exhibited the Lamb and his Soldiers And I looked and Lo a Lamb stood on Mount Sion which is Christ against Antichrist And with him an hundred forty four thousands that is to say an hundred forty four Chiliads or Regiments consisting of a thousand a piece Having his Fathers Name written in their foreheads that is making open profession of Christ and of God his Father against the pretended Holy Father of Rome the Pope as the word signifies Instead of receiving the mark of the two-horned Beast in their right hand or on their foreheads they have the name of God the Father and of his Son Christ marked on their foreheads that you may see whose Soldiers they are And in that they are said to be 144 Regiments it denotes that they are pure Apostolick Christians the square root of 144 being 12. Here therefore the number 144 from its root 12 denotes the Apostolick Church as the number 666 from its root 25 the Church Apostatizing 2. And I heard a voice from Heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and I heard the voice of Harpers harping with their harps This is a description of the Angelical Musick in Heaven where multitudes of Angels praise God and the Lamb the voice of many waters and thunder being symbols of a multitude speaking or singing together But it is further said of this Angelical Quire 3. And they sung as it were a new song before the Throne and before the four Beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that song but the hundred forty four thousand which were redeemed from the Earth This Song of the Angelical Quire which is the Joy that ariseth from the New Nature or the Divine Nature superadded to the Animal Nature and is the same in Men and Angels I mean regenerate men who thereby are made partakers of the Divine Nature as well as the Angels None could learn this Song that is none could know what belongs to the Joys of the New Birth or Divine Life raised in us that state of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost but the hundred forty four thousand redeemed from the Earth that is from the earthy sense and wisdom that savours only the things of this world and of the flesh 4. These are they which were not defiled with women namely with the Daughters of Babylon that famous strumpet the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth These would not submit themselves to the lewd debaucheries of that Idolatrous Church For they are Uirgins For they have so holy and chaste a sense in the duties of Divine Worship that they abhor from every thing that has any shew of violating that loyalty and fidelity they owe to God or Christ to whom alone they are betrothed These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth These are
Grammatical Criticisme or the Rules of Rhetorick and observable Genius of the very stile of this Book of the Apocalypse it self if such an Exposition for so far as the time of Prophecies is already past be not true what Exposition of any Prophecy or of any thing else can be thought to be true And the things that are to come as the Calling of the Jews and the utter breaking in pieces of the Roman Idolatrous Hierarchy sore against their will considering the sweet relish of domineering and imposing upon the world and their obdurate pretence of Infallibility it were a Miracle indeed to think they will ever confesse themselves convinced of those enormous Errours and Crimes that are so justly laid to their charge And being they would fall of themselves did not some Secular Power support them it therefore is rational to conceive that some Remnant of the Roman Empire may stick to them to the last Vial So solid is our Exposition in that part also And concerning the Calling of the Jews I have noted already how generally the Opinion is allowed of and how often intimated in the Scriptures To which I may add that it does not seem probable that they are preserved a distinct People from the rest of the world all this time for nought And then for the flourishing of Peace and Truth and Righteousness in the times of the New Jerusalem so universally over the face of the Earth It is a thing that has been so little done already and so fully and repeatedly inculcated by the ancient Prophets as well as set down so exactly in the Apocalypse that unless a man will question the Truth of Scripture he cannot but admit it to be true From which considerations I hope it will appear that our Exposition of the Apocalypse is throughout true and that I have not rashly called it Apocalypsis Apocalypseos it being a plain and true unveiling of the Apocalypse or stripping it of all those coverings and disguisings contained in the Prophetick stile and whatever other Artifices of Concealment and laying the sense bare and open to the eyes of all that will not wilfully wink that they may not see the Truth And that there may be no distrust of the assuredness of our Interpretation by pretending that others have interpreted the Apocalypse another way I shall give notice here by the bye that I have with all care and diligence perused other Interpreters and the very best of them Grotius and Ribera for as for some Modern Buffoones rather and abusers of the Apocalypse than serious Interpreters of it no sober man will think-himself obliged to take notice of them and in those two chefest Chapters as to the Controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and us whether they are not to be proved from thence Idolaters I mean the thirteenth and seventeenth Chapters of which I have made a Joynt-Exposition in my Synopsis Prophetica I have shewed how absurd and impossible both Ribera's and Grotius his Interpretations of those Chapters are And in Grotius his Exposition of them who yet is now accounted the Chiefest Interpreter and most accommodate to baffle the true and genuine meaning of those Prophecies I have noted near fourscore such flawes as I should be loth any one should be able to find one in my whole Exposition of the Apocalypse besides his absurd mis-timing of the Visions which would show though otherwise his Expositions were more tolerable that they were nothing to the purpose And that they are mis-timed I have abundantly demonstrated in my Synopsis Prophetica Book II. Chap. 2. So that there is the greatest assurance imaginable of my Exposition of the thirteenth and seventeeth Chapters of the Apocalypse as you may be fully satisfied by the reading of my Joynt-Exposition of them Synops. Prophet Book I. Chap. 12 13 14 15. And if this Bulwark of my Joynt-Exposition stand impregnable as most certainly it will none that perceives the force thereof but will easily admit of the rest of our Interpretations as solid and true And thus much briefly of the Truth of our Exposition of the Apocalypse Now the usefulness thereof which I proposed in the third and last place it is exceeding considerable First against Atheists and those that believe neither Angel nor Spirit for there being a deduction of things foretold from the beginning of the Church to the end of all so natural so solid and so true and every way unexceptionable to any Rational Man this is the greatest Evidence desirable to evince a Divine Providence over the Church and the Affairs of Mankind and consequently the existence of a God as also of Angels the Ministers of his Providence which is all along inculcated in this Book of the Apocalypse And particularly it is asserted in the beginning of the Book that this Revelation was made to S t John by the Ministry of an Angel And that this can be no imagination of S t John 's as the prophane Hobbians and Spinozians would be ready to suggest out of the Principles of their stupid and incredulous minds but a real thing the Book it self is an ample Testimony and plain demonstration it being out of the reach of any man by his own natural wit or fore-sight to write a Book of such comprehensive Prophecies and so continuedly true to say nothing of the manner of writing it the very Wit and Artifice thereof which seems to imply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stile and Wit is not the Stile and Wit of a Man but certainly of an Angel Nor does the Apocalypse only support the truth of Natural Religion which is the belief of the Existence of a God and of Spirits or Angels good and bad and of a Blessed Immortality after this life but it is a most special and extraordinary confirmation of the truth of the Revealed Religion of Christianity and the most assured Argument and most lasting and satisfactory of the Apotheosis of Christ that the Wit of Man can excogitate or his heart desire For reading this Book and comparing it with the History of the Affairs of the Church and of the Nations so far forth as they have had any thing to do with the Church or the Church with them he may as it were see with his own eyes and feel with his hands the Truth of our Religion in the veracity of our Great Prophet and Saviour and in the exact completion of the Predictions he has communicated to his Church as hitherto Which standing Miracle is of as much weight with the Intelligent for the confirmation of their Faith in Christ if not more than if they lived in our Saviours time to see his Miracles or conferr with the eye-witnesses of them And it is an extraordinary glorious priviledge of the Christian Church to have such a Book of Prophecies as these and peculiar to her above all Religions else in the world that ever was and so easie and naturally applicable to the events predicted And
shew how nauseous and loathsome thou art to me in a torrent of Reproof as a sign of my disgust against thee and upon thy impenitence at length being weary of thee as concerning God it is said before his bringing the deluge of water on the Earth that it repented him that he had made man I will spew thee out from my self who fill all things and exterminate thee out of Being by a deluge of Fire that shall put an end to this Terrestrial Scene of things and the Laodicean Church shall be no more 17. But in the mean time that I may faithfully admonish thee Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have néed of nothing whilst thou considerest that Peace and Plenty that Power and Rule and security from Enemies which thou enjoyest and the purity of Doctrine and Worship free from Superstition and Idolatry and the abundance of both Natural and Divine Knowledge and clear understanding of Prophecies by reason of their completion now and skilfull Interpretations of thy Predecessors and Universal Freedom from all persecution I tell thee notwithstanding all these thou art mistaken in thy condition And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked in that thou art destitute of the Glories and Treasures of the Inward Man and art ignorant of the mysteries of Regeneration and of the Spirit of Life in the New Birth and art content with a covering but not of my Spirit whereby thou dost but add sin to sin 18. I counsel thée therefore to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich Gold refined in the fire and so pure that it is transparent like glass New Jerusalem Gold which is the New Nature or Creature mine own Image And the price is thy sincere endeavouring and breathing after that state that thou mayest possess those durable Riches which shall not be melted when the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth and the works therein shall be burnt up namely at the Conflagration And white rayment that thou mayest be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear And buy of me white rayment that is groan in thy self O spiritless Laodicea and desire to be cloathed with thy Spiritual Tabernacle from Heaven that being so cloathed thou mayest not be found naked and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear at the last day And anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see Clear thy judgement and understanding by a diligent purification of thy Soul from all corruptions of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in my fear that thou mayest see and have a right discerning in all things 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent As many as I love I chasten and I have a love to thee even for thy outward resemblance of thy deceased Sister Philadelphia and therefore I chastise thee with sharp reproofs to bring thee to an inward sense of things and shall further afflict thee by outward straits and distress to awaken thee For thine Enemies Gog and Magog by reason of thy remisness in Religion security and neglect of the Interest of my Kingdom will grow upon thee and at last encompass the Beloved City Be zealous therefore and repent thee of thy dead formality and remisness in the affairs of my Kingdome that so thou mayest recover the Philadelphian love and fervency 20. And do not complain of difficulties Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me I offer my aid unto you and solicit you ever and anon by good monitions and suggestions and if you obey sincerely my dictates and succours of Light and Grace I offer you and by this your sincerity open me the door I will sup with you I will communicate my Nature and Spirit unto you You shall feed on my flesh which is meat indeed and drink of my blood which is drink indeed and that saying shall be fullfilled in you I in my Father and you in me and I in you If any man love me and keep my Word my Father will love him and will come to him and abide with him 21. And that I may the more effectually rouse thee up out of this dead formality and tepidity out of this dulness and lethargy I add further To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne You shall not only enjoy Me and my Father in this life but if you will stand to the conflict and so attain to the state of the Spirit of Life and real Regeneration into the Living Image of my self I will exalt you to the same happiness with my self your bodies being transformed into the Image of my glorious Body and so fitted to ascend into the Throne that he has given me whose Throne is Heaven as Earth his footstool Nay you shall sit with me in my Throne and judge the Apostate Angels at the last day This is a great and stupendious promise but you ought to consider that he has promised it who is the Amen the true and faithfull Witness and the Beginning of the Creation of God and therefore both will and can bring all his counsels purposes and promises to pass Even so Amen 22. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches NOTES CHAPTER III. Vers. I. Whose condition is notified in their name c. Namely by way of allusion to the Lapis Sardius whose vertue is to exhilarate the mind of him that wears it and make him couragious and is an Amulet against witchcraft and poyson Which may intimate the comfortable doctrine of Iustification by Faith and the defeating the poyson of that cup of Fornication in the hand of the Whore of Babylon that the Sardian Church is not infected with that poyson of Idolatry as being out of the reach of that inchanted Cup of the Whore Sardis also signifies Canticum Laetitiae which sutes well with the Ioy of the Reformed Churches at the rising of the Witnesses signified by those Harpers with the Harps of God in their hand ch 15. But being the Sardius Stone is in Hebrew called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odem which sounds near to Edom and by the Latines termed Carnalina this insinuates the defectuousness of the Sardian Church and her Carnality in several points of Doctrine and Practice Concerning which see my Exposition of the seven Churches Chap. 7. Vers. 7. And discovers its nature and condition in its name c. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Love of the Brethren and indeed consequently the Love of God and all Men these Vertues are so nearly linked together when they are sincere and in a due degree See my Exposition of the Seven Churches
and night in his Temple ever thankfully mindfull of the Evil they are delivered from and the great good they enjoy In vertue of the former sufferings of the true Apostolick Church under the Antichristian Tyranny shall the Church in these dayes here described enjoy peaceably their Religion and make their addresses to God continually in safety in his Holy Church which is his Temple And he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them For these are the times of Iehovah Shammah Of the Tabernacle of God amongst Men the times of the New Ierusalem 16. They shall hunger no more nor thirst any more They shall not be false-fed nor hunger-starved by deceitful Teachers that cannot impart to them the bread of Life nor raise the Spirit of Life in them by their Ministry as being devoid of it themselves whereby their thirst may be satisfied Neither wall any Sun light on them nor any heat There shall no Political Power whatsoever tyrannize over their consciences and by their persecution force them as was usuall under Antichrist to a sapless senseless heartless nay grosly Superstitious and Idolatrous Religion against their own judgement and inward sense of things 17. For the Lamb that is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters that is Christ himself by his Spirit and by true Spiritual Guides and Governours to whom he has communicated his Spirit shall feed them that is guide and govern them and shall lead them unto Living Fountains of waters shall conduct them into and guide them in the Dispensation of Life the renovation of their inward Man into the Living Image of God And God shall wipe all tears from their eyes They shall be no more calamitous by the wrongs and persecutions of bloody Tyrants whether Spiritual or Temporal For the true Apostolick Church shall then be an impregnable City or Polity of it self the New Ierusalem as it is described in the 21 Chapter of the Apocalypse This is the sense of this transition from the six first Seals to the opening of the last and reaches from the beginning of the corrupt part of the Pergamenian Interval to the end of the Laodicean NOTES CHAPTER VII Vers. 2. One of whose Titles is the East This is D r Hammonds sense upon the place and it is I think not only ingenious but true For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the East is with the Cabbalists the Eternal Wisdom of God that is the Eternal Word which is Christ. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very word in the Text the same that occurrs Luke 1. vers 78. whereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day-spring from on high has visited us which is there understood of Christ as also Zachar. 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and chap. 6.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecce vir Oriens nomen ejus And Jerem. 23.5 he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also chap. 33.14 All which places not only the Christians but the Iews understood of the Messias So plain is it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Oriens the East or Day-spring is a Name or Title of Christ. And though in those places of the Old Testament it is translated Germen a Branch as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most ordinarily signifies yet being it may also signifie light or shining and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what sense soever is a Title of Christ and yet does usually signifie the East that the word here may be allusively used to signifie Christ is to me abundantly rational See Doctor Hammond upon Luk. 1. v. 78. CHAPTER VIII 1. ANd when he had opened the seventh Seal there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour This is spoken in allusion to the custome in the service of the Temple where though in the former part of their Service while the Sacrifices were offered the Temple rang again with their loud Musick yet in the time of Incense all were silent and in their tacit devotions 2. And I saw seven Angels which stood before God and to them were given seven Trumpets This he saw during this silence or at the beginning thereof 3. And another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of the Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne Things thus represented in Heaven prefigure things here on Earth and these Ceremonies of the Temple the Devotions of the Christians whose prayers are here represented as coming up in remembrance before God Which is expressed in this Judaical way or Ceremony of the Temple by the giving to this Angel as to a Priest much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne answering to the Altar of Incense overlaid with Gold that stood before the Sanctum Sanctorum 4. And the smoke of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand that is the desire of the true Church who are of one mind with God ascended up before God as Incense out of a Priests hand and was known and accepted with him Their prayers in all likelihood were in general for the preservation of the Church and suppression of both the old and new growing abominations of the Empire 5. And to the end that you may know what the will of God was in order hereunto it is further added And the Angel took the Censer and filled it with the fire of the Altar and cast it into the Earth and there were voices and thundrings and lightnings and an earthquake Which things betoken the wrath of God to be poured upon the bloody persecuting Roman Empire against whom the souls of the slain under the Altar had called for vengeance chap. 6.10 The great tempests and commotions that should befall it are thus expressed in the general and as an effect of the foregoing groans and cryes of his aggrieved people 6. And the seven Angels that had the seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound And therefore those Tempests and Calamities will now more particularly be described in the several soundings of those Angels that have the seven Trumpets 7. So the first Angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood that is a thundring hail-storm with fire whereby is signified the furious Invasion of the Barbarians into the Empire And the mention of blood seems on purpose to be added that there may be no mistake as if this storm was to be upon trees and grass and not upon men though it follows And they were cast upon the earth and the third part of trees was burnt up and all green grass was burnt up Which the mention of blood shows not to be understood of earth trees and grass that bleed not but of the men of the
is plain that the measuring belongs to the men not to the place This space therefore of ground answers to that space of time which is comprehended in the Ephesine and Smyrnean succession of the Church And the correspondence is admirable betwixt the Smyrnean succession and the Thysiasterion when so many Martyrs as so many Holocausts were sacrificed in testimony of the Truth of the Christian Religion the space where the Altar of Holocausts stands falling in with the space of Time of the Smyrnean persecutions 2. But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not For it is not commensurable to the Rule of Gods Word and the Apostolick Faith and Practice but contrary or repugnant namely that time of the Church which is comprised in far the greatest part of the Pergamenian succession and all the Thyatirian in which they are said to offer things sacrificed to Idols and were in some kind or other become Idolatrous never go about therefore to measure them for they are incommensurate to the Rule and point-blank contrary thereto such is the outward Court. For it is given unto the Gentiles and the holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months that is a kind of Paganochristianity instead of pure Christianity shall visibly domineer for forty and two months of years that is 1260 years which is the same proportion of Time to the commensurate Time of the Church under the Ephesine and Smyrnean succession and a little further that the proportion of the outward Court has to the inward Court which proportion is as 1260 to 360 that is the outward Court contained the inward three times and an half in quantity 3. And I will give power unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes cloathed in sackcloth The works of darkness were numbred by months the Moon being Ruler of the night but the works of Righteousness by dayes of which the Sun is moderator But by dayes are understood Prophetick dayes here that is years a thing known and usual in Prophecies By these Two Witnesses are understood all that bore witness against the Idolatries and disorders of this time of Apostasie and they are said to be cloathed in sackcloth to denote both the sadness of heart they are in to see such times and also to signifie the low and mean condition of such Holy and Apostolick men in this wicked time of Apostasie But all these mournful Witnesses are said to be two though never so many partly by reason of the Types in the Old Testament to which they allude Moses and Aaron Elias and Elisha Zorobabel and Ieshuah who show'd their Zeal for the purity of Gods Worship against the Idolatry in the Wilderness in the Baalitish Idolatry and in the Captivity of Babylon There may be also an allusion to things in this Division into two viz. to Magistracy and Ministry to the Old Testament and the New or else to the People of the Iews such as are kept out from our Religion by the gross Adulterations of it and to the Virgin Company of Christians 4. Those are the two Olive Trées and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth A description of the two Witnesses in the sense above declared with a particular allusion to that in Zachary chap. 4.11 where by the two Olive Trees upon the right side of the Candlestick and the left is understood Zorobabel and Ieshuah those faithful Servants in the Babylonish Captivity and the time of the mournfull Witnesses is the very time of the Whore of Babylon 5. And if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their Enemies The allusion is to Moses and Elias who did really bring down fire upon their Enemies but here it is to be understood Mystically of the fire of the Spirit Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts It was the Word of the Lord to Zorobabel who was a Type of these Witnesses and an helper of Gods People in the Babylonish Captivity And it is said of the Man in Esdras coming out of the Sea And he shall destroy them without labour by the Law which is like unto fire In which sense I would understand that which followes And if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed by the power of the Spirit in conviction and prayer these are the weapons of their warfare 6. These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their Prophecies namely in the dayes of their mournful Prophecy their prophecying in sackcloth This is figuratively spoken by a Prophetical Metalepsis or Zoopoeia of the second kind attributing that to their activity or it may be oral denunciation which is only a consequence of their condition they being put out of power and place in Church and State The allusion is to Elias his hindering it from raining three years and six months in Ahab's time which time exactly answers to 1260 dayes the time of these mournfull Witnesses But the rain that is here hindred is the sound Apostolick Doctrine and Heavenly influence thereof which hinderance is a consequence of these mournfull Witnesses being put out of power and place And have power over waters to turn them to blood because their Apostolick preaching of the Gospel of meekness and peace does not take place And to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will that is as often as occasions offer themselves * For particular occasions answer in analogie to particular acts of will in this Prophetick Zoopoeia and indeed all the ten plagues of Aegypt came upon the Roman Empire because these Witnesses to the Apostolick Truth are not heard it having become a Land of Aegypt to the true Israelites the pure and Apostolick Christians How the plague of Frogs of Lice of swarms of Gnats and Flyes murrain of Beasts Boyles and Ulcers Hail and Locusts in a mystical sense interpreted fell upon this mystical Aegypt as it is called in this Book of Prophecies as a necessary consequence of these Witnesses disgrace affliction and deprivation of power and office were easie here to show if it were not too long for this short Explication we are upon 7. And when they shall be * a finishing their Testimony that is performing their witnessing to the Truth against all the Impostures and Idolatries of this Spiritual Aegypt The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit that is either out of a pit of the Earth or the abysse of the Sea and so it will signifie either the two-horned or the ten-horned Beast shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them shall oppose them and overcome as to the power of this world and kill them so that they shall be politically dead all of them and some as it happened to the Waldenses and Albigenses and others be slain in a natural sense
to the Opinion even of the Ancient Fathers As the Empire was healing into the Image of old Paganism again and became a Beast it grew actually divided into several Kingdoms which therefore is as much if not more express than the Crowns upon the ten horns of the healed Beast Chap. 13. vers 1. And therefore the more needless to mention the Crowns here 13. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the Beast that is shall be of one Paganochristian Religion whereby the Empire had again become a Beast and shall give their power and strength unto the Beast being ready by force of Arms if need be or by what other Power or Authority they have to maintain this Beast in its beastly that is in its Idolatrous condition and Pagan-like Superstitions 14. These shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them namely at the last by that patience and truth that is found in his followers For he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings So already by right and his Father has decreed that at last he shall have full and quiet possession that all the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful The great stress lies upon chosen and faithful For many are called but few are chosen But those choice ones that are said to be with him are stout Soldiers that will follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes never leave him for any persecution whatsoever but be firm and faithful unto him be their patience never so much exercised by sufferings 15. And he saith unto me The Waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues Even all the Nations and People in the Roman Empire 16. And the ten Horns which thou sawest upon the Beast viz. under the seventh head that is the Paganochristian head be it Pope or Emperour for the Supreme Power Paganochristian be it lodged where it will is the head of the healed Beast or of the Beast that was and is not and yet is These some of them at least shall hate the Whore that is the Idolatrous Hierarchy and Church of Rome particularly And shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire The making of her desolate and naked is the stripping her of her wealth and revenues and bestowing of them upon better uses And the eating of her flesh may partly have the same signification Flesh signifying wealth with the Onirocritical Interpreters But it may also signifie carnal Ordinances and Institutes Superstitious and Idolatrous which are the fulsome flesh of this Whore And the eating this flesh of hers and burning her with fire is the abolishing of these grosly Superstitious and Idolatrous Rites through the spirit of Truth and Zeal which is likened to fire This has been done in its measure in the Reformation when so many Kingdoms and Principalities forsook the Church of Rome but may be further that is more extendedly fulfilled under the fourth and fifth Vials Politically understood 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fullfil his will It is easie enough to conceive that by Gods connivence at these times of ignorance as the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles it might be permitted to the Pseudoprophetick Beast through the officious assistance of the Powers of darkness to do such Miracles and use such wayes of imposing upon the ten Kings as would certainly enough determine them to the Idolatrous Religion of the Empire But that they were thus certain to be deceived is the fault of their own lapse and of the after-consequences of it not any injustice in God who no otherwise here is said to put in their hearts to fullfill his will c. than in Exod. he is said to harden Pharaoh's heart from letting the people of Israel go And to agree and give their Kingdom to the Beast the same that was hinted vers 13. and so to be understood Until the words of God shall be fulfilled For Dan. chap. 7. it is plainly said of the little Horn which there takes upon him to change Times and Laws that they shall be given into his hands for a Time and Times and half a Time which therefore is a Time determinate by God But then it presently follows But the judgement shall sit and they shall take away his Dominion to consume and destroy it to the end And that little Horn is the Whore of Babylon as I have proved Synops. Prophet lib. 2. cap. 14. sect 12. 18. And the Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth that is which reigned in S t Iohn's time over the Kings of the Earth whereby it is manifest that Old Rome is understood not New Rome or Constantinople For no Polity seated upon seven Hills but what was there reigned over the Kings of the Earth in S t Iohn's time The sense therefore of the Verse may be clearly delivered in this short Paraphrase The Woman which thou sawest riding on the Beast whose name is Was is not and yet is is that great City that now ruleth over the Kings of the Earth namely Rome whose Inhabitants though flowing successively are accounted one and the same City because included within the same reputed walls and buildings as that is accounted one and the same River that flowes betwixt the same banks though the same water does not continue for a day together Therefore the Ruling Power Ecclesiastick or Hierarchy of seven-hilled Rome in Italy as the two-horned Beasts name is Latinus in the other Vision chap. 13. is this Woman that rides the Beast that was and is not and yet is and most principally concerned in this Vision which contains as it were the Arraignment of her person described from her Quality or Dignity being Queen or Empress as it were of the whole Empire signified by the Beast she rides on and from her Gorgeous Apparel and from her Palace or Chief Place of her Residence seven-hilled Rome But the Crime or Charge against her is the corrupting of the whole Empire with Idolatry and Cruelty murdering the Saints of God and Martyrs of Iesus Her doom or condemnation is very copiously and pompously set out in the Chapter following And this I think is a very easie natural and coherent Exposition of this Seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalypse and such as cannot but abundantly satisfie any unprejudiced Reader But whoever will take the pains carefully to peruse and throughly to understand the eight last Chapters of the first Book of my Synopsis Prophetica amongst which is my Ioynt-Exposition of this Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters of this Book of the Apocalypse I hope be he never so much prejudiced if he will speak his own conscience he will confess that I have made out with evidence even mathematical and undeniable demonstration that the sense
death is the death of this body Wherefore it is here a seasonable monition Fear not them which kill the body but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell which is the second death infinitely worse than the former 15. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life that is in the Book of Life of the Lamb as a faithful Soldier and true Member of his Kingdom was cast into the lake of fire and underwent the same doom with the Apostate Spirits which implies that those which were found in that Book of Life were adjudged to the enjoyment of Eternal Life to reign with Christ for ever in Heaven in the Kingdom of his Father as he promises in his Epistle to the Church of Laodicea NOTES CHAPTER XX. Vers. 4. And I saw also those that had not worshipped the Beast c. That the beheaded and these are two distinct sorts of persons methinks is plainly enough insinuated in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those who had not worshipped c. David Pareus supposes an Ellipsis which he would supply thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so secure is he that two several sorts are meant If this be not the sense why is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been sufficient without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Text should have run And besides why is it said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they lived again if both the Beheaded and the Not-worshippers of the Beast were of the same kind But indeed Interpreters do generally understand them to be of two sorts though otherwise they cannot hit it among themselves about the sense of this place the one sort Martyrs the other Confessours And I add surviving Confessours who with their Successours survive the Cruelty of the Beast and his Image See my Mystery of Godliness lib. 5. cap. 15. sect 6. CHAPTER XXI 1. ANd I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth One would think upon the Conflagration of this Earth immediately mentioned before But this is but the artificial embellishing of the outward Cortex of this Book of Prophecies in this place * by a Lemmatosynechia as it is called in my Synopsis Prophetica For the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away namely the former Heaven and Earth or World in the sense of the Prophetical stile according to which they denote a Polity which therefore intimates here that the Tyrannical and Idolatrous Polity of the Beast and the false Prophet which is the great Whore or great City of Babylon was now abolished as appears by Chap. 19. vers 20. And there was no more Sea no unquiet multitudes of the wicked who are like the raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Tumults War and Bloodshed was under that Polity that is cast into the Lake of Fire Chap. 19. vers 20 which was the Reign of Antichrist But now the Reign of Christ is at hand who is the true Melchizedec King of Salem or Ierusalem King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace This Vision therefore goes back to the second Thunder 2. And I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem The truly Holy City not pretended Holy Church and the New Jerusalem not that Old Prophet-killing Jerusalem which is also spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt the Roman Hierarchy where Christ in his Faithful Witnesses were persecuted to death This sight therefore of the City Ierusalem is exhibited as a Polity succeeding the great City of Babylon and in opposition thereto Coming down from God out of Heaven which shows it is a Polity here upon Earth and of Divine Institution and to be setled after the utter destruction of the Whore of Babylon by a Council truly Holy and truly Oecumenical being persons of pure and upright Spirits and without all worldly interest and moreover inspired extraordinarily by the Spirit of God This is the meaning of this descent of Ierusalem from God out of Heaven all things then being to be ordered by that Wisdom which is from above when as the Constitution of the City of Babylon was from that Wisdom which is from beneath and is earthly sensual and devilish Prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband Not as a Whore to commit Fornication with the Kings of the Earth as Babylon did This Constitution of things is setled under the second Thunder after which immediately follows the Millennial Reign of Christ and is described in the following Verses 3. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people And God himself shall be with them namely by his Spirit whose presence shall sensibly and feelingly be acknowledged by all the Inhabiters of this New Ierusalem For this is the Reign of the Spirit or the Reign of Christ in the Spirit of which the Apostles of old witnessed Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost But in the City of Babylon instead of being taught and guided by the Holy Ghost they were forced to follow their blind Guides that led them into all manner of Superstition and Idolatry and gross Disobedience to the Laws of God and Christ unless they would be persecuted and barbarously murthered And be their God that is their Protector and Defender from all manner of Evil As it follows 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes This Reign of Christ in the Millennium will be with that equity goodness and sweetness that no mans heart that is good shall need to be oppressed with grief or express his grief by his tears And there shall be no more death no more bloody massacrings of the Faithful Witnesses of Christ or burning them at the stake with fire and fagot as was done under the Tyranny of the Great Whore neither sorrow for the loss of Friends thus barbarously and inhumanely murthered nor crying no clamours against gross injustice and cruelty or crying out for the tortures that are inflicted on poor innocent men for keeping a good conscience towards God Neither shall there be any more pain by noisom and wearisom imprisonments or what other hardships they are put to for the testimony of a good conscience For the former things are passed away The bloody Whore or false Prophet with the Beast are now in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone And Babylon the Great like a milstone sunk into the bottom of the Sea never to rise again Such is the state of the blessed Millennium when it comes nor shall Gog and Magog prevail against the Holy City in the Laodicean Interval 5. And he that
sate on the Throne said Behold I make all things new A New Heaven and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And he said unto me Write For these words are true and faithful that is what I have told you will certainly come to pass There will be such a blessed Millennium as here has been hinted at 6. And he said unto me It is done The thing is as sure as if it were done already This is a farther confirmation to him of the truth of the things affirmed And this earnest and repeated assertion of this Truth is no more than needs it being foreseen how incredulous not only those would be whose interest it is that it were false the Idolatrous Hierarchy I mean of the Antichristian party but even those that were it not for the carnal sluggishness of their Natures might easily conceive it were their Interest that it should be true I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I comprehend all within the compass of my Providence and Power Therefore never distrust but that what I have told will come to pass These things reach into the Laodicean Interval In the Epistle to which Church Christ calls himself the Amen the Faithful and True Witness and the beginning of the Creation of God And what follows belongs to the last Judgement of all the Eternal Reward of the Good and the punishment of the Wicked I will give unto him that is athirst of the Fountain of the water of Life freely He that does seriously desire and endeavour to obtain Everlasting Life according to the wayes prescribed in my Gospel I will give it him freely He need not buy it by large summs of money or what other gainful conditions imposed upon him by that Merchandizing City of Babylon touching whose Merchandizing it is said Coelum venale Deusque They set Heaven and God himself to sale for money 7. He that overcometh the flesh the world and the Devil shall inherit all things He shall be an Heir of God and joynt-heir with Christ in the glorious Kingdom of his Father and this certainly comprizeth all that heart can wish And I will be his God and he shall be my Son And if Sons then Heirs as I said before Heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him that is be made partakers of his Heavenly Kingdom and Glory according as he has promised to the Church of Laodicea To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Where Throne plainly implyes a Kingdom 8. But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyars such as the great City of Babylon abounded withall shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Which therefore undoubtedly is the Conflagration under the last Thunder which plainly shows that from the second Verse to the ninth is a brief description of the affairs of the Church from the second Thunder to the last or to the end of the world Now as after a brief mention of the destruction of Babylon chap. 16. vers 19. there is a large description of her and her destruction in the two following Chapters viz. chap. 17 and 18. so here after a brief intimation of the emersion of the New Ierusalem into Being there is a full and glorious description thereof from this ninth Verse following of this Chapter to the sixth of the next 9. And there came unto me one of the seven Angels which had the seven Uials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying Come hither I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs Wife It is likely it was the same Angel that before shewed him the Judgement of the Great Whore Whose destroying was in order to the Lambs Wife taking place And therefore the showing him the Lambs Wife was to show him the main end of the effusion of the Vials and therefore a fitting office for one of these Angels to do 10. And he carried me away rapt in the Spirit to a great and high mountain The height of the Mountain denotes the height and power and dignity the pure Apostolick Church is then arrived to And shewed me that great City as being the Church Catholick spread far and wide the holy Ierusalem as being the truly holy Catholick and Apostolick Church not a City of Idolaters and murderers descending out of Heaven from God as whose constitution and institutes are not the carnal invention of men but the pure Laws of the God of Heaven and the living Dictates of his Spirit 11. Having the glory of God not as the Pharisees in the old Ierusalem that sought Glory one of another but were strangers to that Glory that is of God the Glory of true approved Wisdom and unspotted Righteousness And her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a Iasper-stone clear as Crystal The Luminary of this City which was instead of a Sun for the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Luminary or that from which the light proceeds not the Lumen dispread from the Luminary is likened to a most precious stone a Iasper-stone clear as Crystal By which I conceive is understood the Holy Ghost whose Holiness Purity and Illumination is set out by this Iasper-stone clear as Crystal But the Natural Sun it self is not without its scum and spots wherefore this is the most proper symbol thereof And the Times of the New Ierusalem are Regnum Spiritûs as the Cabbalists call them 12. And had a wall great and high namely for the security of the City And had twelve gates and at the gates twelve Angels and names written thereon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of the children of Israel The number Twelve is sacred in the Holy Scripture for the twelve Patriarchs sake and the twelve Apostles The former are mentioned here the latter vers 14. and both concurr in this New City of Ierusalem it being the time when Iew and Gentile shall accord in one Faith and be one sheepfold The twelve Angels may signifie either the safety of the City by the guard of Angels For if God by his Angels keep not the City the Watchmen wake but in vain or else the Pastours under these twelve Angels who have occasion to admit Converts into the Church from all quarters of the world as it follows in the next Verse 13. On the East three Gates on the North three Gates on the South three Gates and on the West three Gates Three towards every quarter as Grotius and others would have it in token that the Converts are to be admitted to the profession of their Faith in the Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost at their Baptism Nor does this season being Regnum Spiritûs superannuate
bring the Glory and Honour of the Nations into it The best Spirits and the most Noble and Considerable Persons of all Nations will flow in to them and be proselyted by them be admitted Citizens of the New Ierusalem and Members of this truly Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church of Christ. 27. But for so may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie there shall in no wise enter into it * any thing any person that defileth or is of a scandalous conversation neither whatsoever whosoever worketh abomination that is committeth Idolatry though the Whore of Babylon would admit none but such or maketh a lye No Legend-mongers nor obtruders of absurd and impossible Doctrines such as the Artificers of Babylon forged for filthy lucre-sake no such may be admitted to come into this City whose Gates are pure Pearl But they only who are written in the Lambs Book of Life as breathing after a Life sutable to his But the description of this Glorious City is not yet finished it reaches further into the five first Verses of the following Chapter NOTES CHAPTER XXI Vers. 1. By a Lemmatosynechia as it is called c. Lemmatosynechia is an Apocalyptick Scheme or Figure whereby as the word signifies the Cortex or outward Letter of the Text is held together or continued in such sort as if there were a real connexion and dependance of one part upon the other when as in the inward sense there is no such matter An elegant instance of this is to be found Chap. 16. vers 18 19. where upon the mention of the great Earthquake it is presently said And the great City was divided in three parts as if that Division had been a diruption caused by that Earthquake when as what is meant by that great City were three distinct parties before A like example of this figure is also Chap. 11. vers 7 8 9. where the two Witnesses are said to be slain as it were at the ending of their witnessing and their dead bodies to lye three dayes and an half unburied where the three dayes and an half are set at the end of the One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes as if they were the latter end of them when as they in truth commence as high as the One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes and the same time with them But the Parable runs smooth in the outward Cortex as if they were distinct and the death of the Witnesses for three dayes and an half together occasioned by their One thousand two hundred and sixty dayes prophesying See also Chap. 19. vers 5. But as eximious as any is this present example of a Lemmatosynechia the mention of a New Heaven and a New Earth being immediately made upon the burning of this Natural Earth Which therefore in the Cortex implyes that the destroying of that gave occasion of making a New Heaven and a New Earth when as they are not Natural but Political as both Grotius and Doctor Hammond acknowledge and the Text will extort it from any one that reads this twenty first Chapter considerately Vers. 27. Any thing any person c. It is usual with S t John to put the Neuter Gender for the Masculine as Joh. 6. vers 36 38 40. See Grotius upon the place CHAPTER XXII 1. AND he shewed me a pure River of Water of Life clear as crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb What this River may signifie that in Amos may be a Key to Let Iudgement run down as water and Righteousnesse as a mighty stream Again touching the uttering of Divine and Holy Doctrines it is said of God Ecclesiastic 24.25 He filleth all things with his Wisdom as Phison and as Tigris in the time of the new fruits He maketh the Vnderstanding to abound like Euphrates and as Jordan in the time of Harvest c. Wherefore this River of water of Life from the Throne of God is the faithfull and effectual Administration of Justice and pouring forth Holy and Wholesom Doctrines and Monitions in the demonstration of the Spirit by them that are in highest Authority in this City of God which Authority is understood by the Throne of God and of the Lamb who in right of his Father is Supreme Governour over all and the immediate actuator of his Vicegerents 2. In the midst of the street of it that is in the midst of the Forum of the City or broad open place where their meetings were to serve God consult of their Affairs and administer Justice And of either side of the River which ran from thence through the City was there the tree of Life that is Trees of Life else how could they be in rowes on this side and that side the River By which Trees according to the Prophetick stile must be understood Men and that not of the meaner sort but Grandees in Church and State And being they are called Trees of Life it intimates a state quite contrary to that of the wicked Iud. 12. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead c. beside that it signifies that the Life of the Lamb is in them Which bare twelve manner of fruits and all worthy the profession of the pure Apostolick Faith and yielded her fruit every month of the year So uncessant are they in the bringing forth the fruits of true Faith which are good Works Here seems to be an allusion to the description of the Righteous Man Psalm 1. He shall be as a Tree planted by the Rivers side c. And of these happy times of the Messias in the expected Millennium is that Psalm 72.7 understood In his dayes shall the Righteous flourish like a Palm Tree as it is elsewhere said or like a Cedar in Lebanon The sense therefore is That by the free current of Justice and the countenancing pure Doctrine from the Higher Powers which the Throne of God intimates Holy and Good Men both in Church and State will be in Authority and Esteem to manage the Affairs of Christ's Kingdom obliging all unto them by their Christian Goodness and Equity which is the constant Fruit which they bear And the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the Nations that is the People of those several Nations which are then brought under the Empire of Christ Which is an insinuation of the gentle but effectual Healing Discipline which will be in this Philadelphian Interval Those are the leaves of these Trees to heal the sores of the People by gently drawing away the corruption whatever may be remaining in them 3. And there shall be no more curse no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No more furious Papal Anathema's or Excommunications to depose Kings and Princes and to involve the Christian World in blood But the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it that is Christ shall be in it The meek Empire of the Lamb of God shall obtain after the Tyranny of the bloody Antichrist or two-horned Beast who wore the
New Jerusalem doth not begin at the destruction of the Beast nor Synchronize with the thousand years but succeed them Which how false it is three or M r Mede's four arguments will give us to understand For the first of them though it be too hard for R. H. to answer yet I will decline as less firm For the marriage of the Lamb Chap. 19. vers 7. preceeds the seventh Vial but the marriage Chap. 21. vers 2 9. does follow the said Vial. But R. H. his answer is That the first marriage is with the Spouse in grace the second is with the Spouse in glory which is pointblank contrary to the text Chap. 21. vers 2. where the New Ierusalem is said to descend from God out of Heaven and his Tabernacle is said to be with men c. M r Mede's second argument is from Chap. 20. vers 9. Gog and Magog their besieging the beloved City at the end of the thousand years c. Here R. H. answers That this beloved City is not the New Ierusalem but that the beloved City is the Church in the state of grace the New Ierusalem the Church in the state of glory whereby he intimates were it not so they would be one and the same City But it is impossible the New Ierusalem should be any other than a state of the Church upon Earth if you consider vers 2 10 24. besides many other considerations which would be too long to mention here The third argument is from Chap. 16. vers 17. compared with Chap. 21. v. 5 6. where IT IS DONE implyes that the same time is indigitated that is the certain bringing in the New Ierusalem that holy City upon the destruction of the City of Babylon that City of Murderers and Idolaters But here R. H. harps still upon the same string that by the first IT IS DONE is meant the finishing of the last Vial and the full state of grace and by the latter IT IS DONE that the state of glory was to begin which Answer how extravagant it is I have already noted The fourth and last argument is from Chap. 21. vers 10. where the Vial-Angel as we may so call him that had shewed S. Iohn the condemnation and destruction of the Whore the City of Babylon shows him the New Ierusalem as a City that should succeed in its place To which R. H. returns this answer That the New Ierusalem does not succeed the destruction of the Beast and Babylon immediately but that there is first the thousand years then the insurrection and destruction of Gog and Magog after that the last judgment and the lake of fire for the cursed and then the New Ierusalem for the blessed For which he has no reason but that they are writ in this order which is so gross and fallible that no Interpreters rely upon it alone And these many Synchronisms of M r Mede so firm and solid are a demonstration against this dull Hypothesis and yet this is all the force of his answer But let me ask him a question or two If this New Ierusalem be a state in Heaven why is it said to come down from God out of Heaven Chap. 21. vers 2 10 And why are the Kings of the earth said to bring their glory and honour into it vers 24 And how comes it to pass that the trees on this side and that side of the River of this New Ierusalem that the leaves of them are said to be for the healing of the Nations Chap. 22. vers 2 shall there be any sores or maladies in Heaven Synchronism VII The Palm-bearing multitudes out of all Nations The seventh Trumpet or space from the destruction of the Beast This Synchronism M r Mede confirms by these two arguments First because these Palm-bearers immediately succeed the Sealed company that Synchronize with the Beast Synch 4. Part 1. Therefore the Beast expiring they must succeed the Beasts expiration partial at the beginning of the seventh Trumpet total at the beginning of the second Thunder The second argument is that these Palm-bearers are the Citizens of the New Ierusalem by comparing Chap. 7. vers 16 17. with Chap. 21. vers 3 4. And the New Ierusalem Synchronizeth with the seventh Trumpet To the first R.H. answers That these Palm-bearers immediately succeed the time of the sealing of the Virgin company not the race of the sealed Which is a wonderful weak cavil if we consider the end of their sealing viz. That they should be kept safe in all the dangers and difficulties they were to grapple withal and preserve their Virginity still against all the force solicitations and persecutions they should find under the six first Trumpets For these sealed ones are the Souldiers of the Lamb. Now compare this true and undeniable Hypothesis with vers 14. which speaking of these Palm-bearers saith These are they who came out of great tribulation c. Could these then immediately succeed the sealing and come off victoriously before the conflict What a shameful cavil was this To the second he answers That these Palm-bearers are not any men upon Earth but the Souls of Martyrs in Heaven while these Companies were sealed on Earth And that the New Ierusalem is after the general Resurrection and that therefore the Palm-bearers cannot immediately succeed the sealed company by their being Citizens of that City But as for this latter supposition how absurd it is I have shown already And as for the former he says it without any ground and against the natural tenour of the Text which compares the great and innumerable companies of the Apostolick followers of Christ after the expiration of the six first Trumpets with that smaller and more definite number of the sealed under them Besides R. H. is to consider that the Apocalypse is a Prophecy of things here upon earth not a description of what is in Heaven and also how harsh a thing it is to make such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus abruptly to skip from Earth to Heaven in a moment And how ill these things cohere a man may observe from his Paraphrase Chap. 7. vers 9. But lest any saith he should be discouraged from suffering for the cause of Christ because they be not sealed and secured from suffering c. Which in brief is Lest any should be discouraged from suffering by their not being secured from suffering Which implyes that the encouragement they want to suffer is their being secured from suffering and consequently that they are to suffer and not to suffer at once which is very bad sence nay I may say a gross contradiction Such an unfortunate Paraphrast does R. H. prove while he thus profanely sets himself to abuse the holy Oracles of God And thus I have showed throughout how slight R. H. his allegations are against M r Mede's Synchronisms those against the Antimedial and Medial Synchronisms being of no force at all but mere whisles and for the Post-medial his objections are not such
yet lapsed into those gross Superstitions and Pagan-like Idolatries And lastly for the first six Seals though the Sealed Book-Prophecy respects the Fate and Affairs of the Empire rather than of the Church yet the first Vision viz. of the first Seal namely the Heros on the White Horse I doubt not but it is Christ more particularly guiding and assisting the Apostles and other Agents for the enlarging of his Kingdom in those Times by sending of the Holy Ghost and enabling them to do True Miracles one of the greatest whereof is this Apocalypse written by S t Iohn and the mention of a Bow and a Crown of which the Right was given him denotes him aiming at the possession of the Imperial Crown the making the whole Roman Empire his Church or Kingdom which causing such great mutations in the Empire the fate of the Empire may very well be conceived to be concerned therein The three next Seals how exquisitely they fit with those Times of the Riders of the Red Black and Pale Horses the Exposition makes good and they are in a manner merely touching the Affairs of the Empire though useful also to the Church to know where or in what Times they were and what to expect next But the fifth Seal exhibiting the Souls of the slain under the Altar martyred or sacrificed for their bearing Witness to the Christian Truth is hugely congenerous with the sharp throes of the Womans Child-bearing and the Affairs of the Empire are here also concerned great Calamities being to come upon it for the effusion of this Innocent Blood And lastly that great Earthquake under the sixth Seal which brought the confusion and subversion of the Old Pagan Religion as the Fate of the Empire could not but be concerned therein so also it doth fitly fall in with the Victory of Michael over the Dragon and his casting him down unto the Earth So agreeable are the Primitive Times of the Church to all these Antemedial Synchronals And what is still more admirable we may further observe how exactly the Ephesine and Smyrnean Interval of the Church agree with those Times and with the said Antemedial Synchronals of the Sealed and Opened Book For as in the first Seal the Heros on the White Horse is brought in earnestly aiming with his Bow and Arrow at a Crown the Right of which is given to him so the first Interval of the Church viz. the Ephesine has its name from a Paronomastical Allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies an earnest desire after a thing and in the Smyrnean Interval which with the Ephesine equalizes the Time of the Fight of Michael with the Dragon till his Victory over him under the sixth Seal and is the Interval of the Ten noted Persecutions of the Church it is said to the Church in that Interval Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the Crown of Life that is the Imperial Crown Constantine turning Christian under the sixth Seal at the expiration of the Smyrnean Interval so called from the bitterness of Persecution in that succession of the Church But the great Encomiums of the Church in those two Intervalls answer handsomly to the Inner Court of the Temple and Altar which is said to be symmetral and allowed and the Altar there to the many Martyrdoms of the Primitive Christians sacrificed for the profession of the Christian Faith in the Smyrnean Interval of the Church So wonderful an harmony is there of these Antemedial Synchronals of all sorts with the History of those Primitive Times and with one another So that it must be mere stupidity or obstinate perverness that hinders any one from assenting to the Truth in this point We have seen what a fit and effectual Key the Interpretation of the Angel has been for the opening the true meaning of all the Antemedial and Medial Visions of the Apocalypse Which since they concern things past the sense of the Visions is the more assured and certain to us But the Postmedial Visions being all of them in a manner to come the sense cannot be so precise fixt and certain But thus much is manifest out of the Interpretation of the Angel that they are to succeed the Rising of the Witnesses or the expiring of the seventh Semitime of the forty two Prophetical months of the Beast which seventh Semi-time or seventh Semiday or Half-day by the Interpretation of the Angel reaching to our Times or the Times of the Reformation it is evident that the Reformation is the Rising of the Witnesses After which immediately succeeds the seventh Trumpet within which in gross or at large are contained The Millennial Reign of Christ The Ligation and Incarceration of Satan The Palm-bearing Company The time of the New Ierusalem or of the Lambs Wife And this is so firmly proved by M r Mede's Synchronisms that there can be no doubt but that those glorious and happy times of the Church upon Earth are yet to come which is the main scope of the Postmedial Visions But in our Table of Synchronisms things are delineated more distinctly and particularly and it mainly differs from that part of M r Mede's Table in that I have divided the Seventh Trumpet into Seven Thunders and placed the Seven Vials under the First Thunder For in that they are the Seven last Plagues that they should belong to the last Wo-Trumpet there is all the reason in the world And that the Vials must of necessity follow the Rising of the Witnesses I have elsewhere sufficiently demonstrated It remains only that we briefly note the Reasonableness of the order of the Postmedial Visions in my Table and the Congruity of those that are set down as Synchronizing one with another all which I have referred to the order of the Seven Thunders And that we also observe how the expiration of the time of the Beast and his destruction and so likewise of the Whore at the Rising of the Witnesses is to be understood only of the Entireness of their Kingdom or Rule And that according to that analogy all the rest of the Synchronals are to be understood namely as there is but a partial destruction of the Kingdom of the Beast and the Whore so there is but a partial and imperfect advance toward the Millennial Reign of Christ and the New Ierusalem c. This being premised we will take notice of the order of the Seven Thunders and what Visions Synchronize with them As with the first Thunder Synchronizeth the effusion of the Seven Vials as the Seven Thunders with the Seventh Trumpet and the Seven Trumpets with the Seventh Seal With the Sixth Vial synchronizeth the Harvest and also the Preparedness of the Spouse of the Lamb. Whereby the conversion of the Iews is intimated to be under the Sixth Vial as also in part at least by the Sixth Vial it self And if this be not the time of their conversion there appears none in the Apocalypse for them And R. H. himself is very