A Scripture-Line OF TIME Drawn in Brief From the Lapsed Creation to the Restitutution of all Things Discours'd at large upon the 2300 Ev. Morn Dan. 8. 14. And their Collateral Lines From CYRVS to the Kingdom of CHRIST in the New Jerusalem By T Beverley Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 Dayes viz. the Last of the 2300. Dan. 12. 12. We are not of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostasie to Perdition but of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostolick Faith to the saving of the Soul Heb. 10. 39. Printed according to a Calendar 1684. ERRATA THE Errors in this Impression are either small by change of a Letter mispointings sometimes want of Points or of a Parenthesis which it is hop'd the considering Reader will easily over-rule by the sence The more notorious are thus to be corrected before the reading the Book p. 5. l. 6. before the end for 230 r. 2300. l. 4. before the end for as r. was p. 12. l. 23. for shape r. scope p. 20. l. 17. for Revelational r. Revelation p. 36. l. 13. before the end for 2302. r. 2300. p. 63. l. 23. for Kingdoms r. Kingdom p. 66. 16. blot of p. 82. l. 28. blot was Second Part. At p. 66. of the second part some more noted Errata's are mark'd which the Reader is desir'd to mend before Reading IN the Title for XXII r. XVI Sections p. 39. l. 11. before the end for 626. r. 622. p. 46. l. 11. after hundred blot the Comma p. 47. l. 25. for sufferings r. sufferers p. 58. l. 1. blot all of them p. 103. l. 12. after Tribunes blot of the People p. 110. l. 6. after Head blot Com. p. 11. l. 16. after by blot him p. 127. at l. 13. Marg. Argument 2. p. 128 at l. 7. Margent Argument 3. p. 135. l. 16. r. Surd p. 146. l. 23. r. Tempt one p. 151. l. 3. r. Grandiloquence p. 163. l. 11. remove the Colon after Smyrna to after camein p. 175. l. 20. blot the Figures after with In the Preface p. 4. l. 10. after Discourses r. without p. 4. l. 11. after compar'd r. with THE PREFACE TO Those who desire to Hear and Vnderstand the Words of Scripture Prophecy My very Honoured Friends THE Scripture Line of Time which I affirm is that which rises from the excellent State of All Things at Creation when followed an immediate Deordination flowing from the Apostasie and Fall of Man through the Serpents Temptation But by the interposal of the Promised Seed of the Woman That State was borne up from utter Ruine and sinking and a Prospect given of a Restitution of all Things by a new Creation when the Serpents Head should be bruis'd Now of this Restitution all the holy Prophets have been speaking since the Worlds Beginning and they have led along the Course of things to it in the Exaltation of Him whose Name is the Word of God the Alpha and Omega of the written Word till He appears encircled with many Crowns Revel 19. At which That old Serpent the Devil and Sathan is laid hold upon chain'd and seal'd up within his proper Abyss or Bottomless Pit and the New Creation is establish'd in the Kingdom of this Many-Crown'd King Which Kingdom can never be broken nor leaves a possibility of any Succession to it self But it is deliver'd up into the Hand of the Father from which it is receiv'd before which Delivery or Resignation shall be the perfect and final Contusion of the Serpents Head Himself and all his Off-spring not written in the Book of Life being cast with Death and Hell into the Lake of Fire which is the second Death Rev. 20. This blessed State therefore is not a single Sabbath but a Sabbatism of a thousand years that remains to the People of God conjoyn'd inseparably with the Sabbatism of Eternity even as the seventh day Sabbath of the Creation was connected with united in and immediately succeeded by the Christian first day Sabbath or Our Lords Day at his Resurrection This Line of Time I then avow is drawn from that former Sabbath of the First Creation to the Sabbatism of the New Creation as from Point to Point without Ostentation or formal Profession of such a Line yet so that it is all along and especially the Commissures and Joynts of the parcel and particular Lines are ennobled with some illustrious Symbols of the down fall of Sathans Kingdom and of the Glory of the Kingdom of the Seed or of the Teknogony of the Woman as may be abundantly made good in all Instances At what I have aim'd and for what end in the calculation of this Line I have prepared a full Discourse may be seen by the Calendar annexed to this Preface what I have perform'd may be seen hereafter if God permit the Publication of that Preparation upon the whole Line At this Time I have only presented my Endeavours upon that grand Prophetick Line of Daniels 2300 Evenings Mornings which is by the admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom given first entire and so preserv'd as not to be under any such Prejudice from the formidable variation of Copies as the Ages of the Patriarks are and then the parcel or collateral Lines either in number'd Numbers or as I hope will appear on very good Proof rise exactly adequate to the 2300 so that the whole and the Parts demonstrate and assure one another besides I vouch those undoubted and indisputable Lines delineated in the Calendar as far as to Cyrus indisputable I do not mean so much when they began or how much Time they comprehend For so I know there are many Doubts through Difference of Copies or otherwise but in this indisputable that Holy Writ hath taken care there should be an Account of Time so far And this I vouch as an Argument That he who begun a Line from the Creation continued it to Cyrus and defin'd by seventy weeks the space from the word going forth to the Messiah hath every where fill'd it up and continued it to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ seeing he as easily commands Time future by Prophecy as Time past by History and I do find both are certain and definite to that preciseness as to be twice once in History once in Prophecy said to be the self same day viz. the coming out of Egypt Exod. 12. 40. and the Vision of the New Jerusalem Ezek. 40. 1. And that very Charactarism of Ezekiels 390 and 40 days lying on his two sides I look upon as an especial contrivance of the Holy Spirit to mediate between the Historical and Prophetick Pares of Time that being part Historick viz. to the Time of the Siege especially and more or less so to that Vision of the New Jerusalem and of very great Symbolical Importance also concerning the state of the Twelve Tribes till the Times of the Gentiles that entred in Nebuchadnezzars Universal Monarchy were fulfill'd of all which with the answer of all Doubts
the Days of Cyrus while that Worship remain'd to be Gods Worship from which impure Pessundation that Holy Worship was most wonderfully vindicated and the Time of his Tyranny being in the most intimate part of it in literal or natural Account near the Time of Antichrists 1260. Days at a day for a year and near the whole 2300 in the whole of it and being broken by an immediate Hand from Heaven without an earthly Hand as Antichrist shall be He is made a most notable and eminent Type of Antichrist and so with Relation to Him and his Time a Line is drawn from Cyrus to the cleansing of the Sanstuary polluted by Antichristian Gentiles and to the breaking of Antichrist without Hand Antiochus standing all this while in open view as a Type and his Time as a Typical Line of Time And yet while his Time will serve a Typical End It is not exact enough to either main Intention to be the principal Thing to be measured by that Line of Time And for the making good these Assertions I shall now apply my self to the solemn Proof of these two Propositions 1. That the 2300 Days are a definitive Line of Time from the beginning of the Persian Monarchy to the very End of the Monarchies and till the Supream Monarchy of Christ and so are to be joyn'd to the end of the last Line and thereby to the several Lines from the Creation that altogether may reach that End 2. That the Vision principally intends Antichrist in every Part wherein Antiochus stands as a Type For the Proof of the first Assertion I use this first Argument Argu. 1 There is a plain Concatenation or Connexion of this Vision with the former as following orderly upon or after it For that purpose and to make it known it is so Daniel tells us This Vision appear'd unto him after that which appear'd c. 8. v. 1. unto him at the first Now that this was not intended as any Date of the Vision is very plain in that It is more particularly dated by assigning it to the third Year of Belshazzar whereas the first was assign'd to the first year of the same Belshazzar and so must needs be after the first Vision even as Belshazzars Third Year must be after his First These words therefore cannot but be of further Importance and signifie to us This Vision comes after the Former in a just Order and promotes the scope of it and adds further Light to it Now it is most evident the four Beasts intending four Kingdoms and Antichrist the little Horn with his Time Times and half a Time and then his being destroy'd and the Kingdom of Christ succeeding are the Principal Objects of that Vision and therefore they must be so of This. And in some notable Instance thereof It must exceed the Notices of the former and what can that be but in the Notices of Time Wherein it is so particular as to 2300 Evenings Mornings for to shew it one Line of Time It is in the Hebrew 2300 Evening Morning not 2300 Evenings Mornings although for Arguments sake with Ordinary Language and in Agreement with the sence we may express them in the plural Number and it is also call'd the Vision of the Evening Morning as so many Evenings and Mornings combin'd into one from the Monarchy of Cyrus the Persian to the Monarchy of Christs Vniversal Kingdom The Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy goes on General Argu. 2. through the Grecian Monarchy and so to the End and the Line of Time runs parallel with the Vision therefore the Line of 2300 Evenings Mornings must reach from the Beginning of the Persian Monarchy to the Monarchy of Christ which is the known and most undoubted End of the Four Monarchies and of all Monarchy but under him This Argument consists of these three main Propositions 1. That the Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy 2. That it runs on through the Grecian Monarchy to the End 3. That the Line of Time runs Parallel with the Vision SECT II. That this Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy and the Proof of it THat the Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy I give these undoubted Reasons It is most apparent in the very Portal of the Vision it was Reason 1 given at Shushan the Pallace by the River Vlai a River of Persia whither the Prophet was visionally convey'd out of Babylon to shew the Translation of the Monarchy from the Babylonian to the Persian Prince The Babylonian Monarchy was yet standing the Prophet a Subject of it in principal Place for he continued in his Preferment in Babylon till Cyrus the Persian He must therefore Dan. 1. 21. be resident at the time of the Vision in Babylon and not a Runnagate from it and his Loyalty but was prophetically and visionally set down at the Pallace of Persia to shew where the Visions Date was to commence viz. from the Persian Monarchy If this were not enough the Exposition of the Vision begins Reason 2 with the King of Persia and where the Exposition begins the Vision begins neither of these can be contested The Vision crops off the Babylonian Monarchy The Head Reason 3 of Gold and the first Beast like a Lyon does not under any Symbol or Representation appear in it The Monarchy was now indeed just expiring in Belshazzar's Third which Scripture counts upon as his last Year and whereas the former Visions were deliver'd to us in the Language of that Empire that thereby All People Tongues and Languages which take care by one means or other to have knowledge of the Imperial Language might have notice of them The Holy Spirit returns in this Vision to the Hebrew Tongue peculiar to the Church of God in the Old Testament But the Monarchy was not yet fully expir'd nor was the Image in all succeeding Ages to be bereft of its Head while therefore the Image and the Iconism of the four Beasts compleating the Image stood in the Eye of Prophecy Nebuchadnezzer is the principal in the first Monarchy with the Heart of a Man after his Eagles Wings were pluck'd importing his sober Acknowledgments of God upon the Humiliation into which his Frenzy dejected him even into a state among the Beasts but he seems to have risen out of Bestianism it self by abasing himself before God Dan. 4. ult The Beast in the Revelation To shew the Monarchick Power of the Image translated into that of the Beasts Kingdom survived whole and entire in him is resembled with every one of the Beasts himself being the fourth and to assure us he is the very fourth he hath neither in Daniel nor the Apocalips any shape peculiar to him but what in the Apocalips is compounded of the Three as it were to say All the Three existed in him as in one Image Revel 13. 2. The principal Reason therefore of omitting the Babylonian Monarchy is because The Prophetical Type of the four Monarchies being fully satisfied and replenished
is summ'd up in Ev. and Mor. And all this we may conceive least the 2300 Ev. Mor. should be misapplied to that part viz. of the Daily which is proper only to the whole So then if the Line be commensurate with the Vision it must begin with the Persian Monarchy and not with the daily taken away for That in whatever sense expounded was not till long after in the same manner If the Vision goes on to the great visional End in Daniel viz. the breaking of all the Monarchies in Antichrist and the Kingdom of Christ appearing in the Sanctuary cleans'd it cannot be applied to any taking that was begun and ended long before that End as all takings away of what kind soever that have been thought of did and most particularly that of Antiochus except that taking away by Antichrist which therefore is the only taking away here to be understood And from every Particular of this Discourse it undeniably appears These Ev. and Mor. are not mere Natural Nycthemers but 2300 Ev. and Mor. importing so many Years for a less space of Time could not contain so great a Vision and its Charge If a Line of Time were given applicable only to the Time Argu. 3 of the daily Sacrifice taken away there would be some certain Time fix'd when that taking away was to begin according to all Usage in this Prophecy The 70 Weeks are dated from the going forth of the Word the 1335 from the taking away of the daily And in the Apocalyptick Prophecy we shall find some certain Epoch of each numeral Line but there being no Epoch to these 2300 Ev. Mor. but the general Epoch of the Vision one and the same as we shall find with the seventy Weeks That must be the Epoch Seeing the Answer And the Sanctuary shall ba cleans'd Argu. 4 and the Exposition of the Vision touching the King exercising the Tyranny Broken without hand gives the full End of all Tyranny on the Saints and of all taking away their daily Worship as it was under Babylon continued to be taken away at that Time and after by Antiochus last of all by Antichrist it is plain according to Scripture-Usage The End is principally intended which such a course of Time is to attain As the complemental End of the 70 Weeks making an end of Sin c. is chiefly pursued in the next Vision The end of Wonders and the State of Blessedness in the 1335 Days of the last Vision and here the Sanctuary cleans'd and Antichrist broken is the main Intention and from the present Vision at that NOW given to those Ends there would be 2300 Ev. and Mor. So that the taking away the daily does not spread it self upon the whole 2300 Ev. Mor. and so end with them but e're all such Things as a tyrannous taking away the daily Worship of the Saints would be at an end it would be so many for the Vision indeed spreads it self upon all the 2300 being for those many days but the taking away begun but at its own Time as we shall see and ended at the 2300 ending so many from the Time of the Vision and so was unto them that is whenever it began it reached to the end of the 2300 of the whole Vision e're the Sanctuary was cleans'd That these 2300 Ev. Mor. are a Line of Time of so great Argu. 5 comprehension as from Literal to Mystical Babylon's Fall from the Restoration of Literal Jerusalem to the New Jerusalem may be argued from several extraordinary Notes of Honour upon this Line and the Vision of it 1. The very drawing it out to so great and unusual a length is unparallel'd in all the Scripture so that if it were not great in its Beginning as that State of Things would admit great in the End as that State of Things imports and great in its subordinate Lines it could no ways answer the Magnificence of so great a Number especially when the prophetical Abbreviation of Time was come into use by so peculiar an Ordination of God in Ezekiel Even this does sufficiently argue where it begins whither it tends what space of Time it spans Cypher or short-hand was of Old in prophetick use a Week for seven Years Gen. 29. 27. c. 41. v. 26. Numb 14. 34. fourty Days for forty Years in the Wilderness seven Ears of Corn for seven Years seven Times for seven Years Dan. 4. 22. But God declar'd and promulg'd it as the Law of Interpretation of prophetick Time Ezek. 4. So we understand seventy Weeks Weeks of Years without controul or 490 Years Dan. 9. 24. Now if contrary to so many Instances of the prophetical Usage of such Abbreviatures it should draw out Years into their full Length or Number of Days How could we understand the Divine Mind in it especially on no greater occasion than Antiochus's Tyranny as shall be after argued Prophecy that amasses Time by giving Years in Days cannot rationally be suppos'd to wiredraw Years into Days But this is not All There are fourty Days for fourty Years 390 and 40 Days for so many Years seventy Weeks for 490 Years 1260 Days for so many Years and Months proportionable But 2300 Ev. Mor. taken for so many Years is very august and speaks a divine Zeal to grasp that great End of putting down all Rule and Authority and Power and Christ taking his Power to himself and Reigning yet not so as to diminish from Government but to perfect it to its highest Ends under himself and his Supreme and Universal Monarchy To grasp this I say within so great a Line given from the very Time in which it was given This great Number is given by the divine Numberer 2. For Jesus Christ the Lord of this Prophecy hath the peculiar Title of Palmoni to which whatever sense we give it Dan. 8. 13. admonishes us to enquire for something extraordinary and if we rest in what is every way nearest The wonderful Numberer it comes exactly to the wonderful Line and the great Secrets to be found in it 3. Gabriel the heavenly Envoy upon all Declarations of the Kingdom of Christ as Dan. 9. Luc. 1. is employ'd in its Exposition 4. Daniel's extraordinary Title Son of Man allowed him only in this Vision as bringing to him the glorious Appearance of Christ of which Glory Ezekiel being more often an Eye-witness Cap. 1. Cap. 10. Cap. 43. 2 3. is more often call'd Son of Man For if the Learned Dr. Lightfoot's Account of this Title as a Chaldaism were good Daniel who was the more eminent Chaldean should be oftnest invested with it On the contrary He only in this Vision is so stiled but Ezekiel often and they alone enjoy it under the supreme Son of Man of all the Prophets and Daniel never but here shewing the high pitch this Vision makes and its close approach to Christ's Kingdom from which his other Visions do but derive or are but preparatory to it Nor is Daniel's Attention and
did not appear to be hurt during the time times half a time according to the Oath of Christ immediately therefore in pursuance of the former Symbol the Servants of God are seal'd the Worshippers worship not in an open but reserv'd Temple the Witnesses do not enjoy but prophecy and that in Sackcloth the Woman flies to her close Receptacle in the Wilderness and even in pursuance of this same Symbol the seven thunders are seal'd as we shall see Cap. 10. And all this to that very purpose that the Beast may have his time times till the Morning of the half-time when in Declaration of the Right of Christ even then to take the Kingdom because the half-time was entred as the third Day was in the Morning of Christ's Resurrection the Thunders began But that the Beast might have his whole half-time also the Thunders were again seal'd down For were not the Kingdom of Christ thus under Seal its Brightness would immediately consume the man of Sin and his Bestian Kingdom as will be seen at the end of the 1260 Days viz. Ann. 1697 in the first appearance of Christ's Kingdom and more fully at the Appearance it self 75 Years after Let us now inquire when this sealing had its Efficacy and we shall find it hath its Efficacy distinguishingly as to the fixing its Epoch or Beginning at the first of the first Trumpet and so on during the whole Time of the first and second Trumpets until the falling of the Star in the third Trumpet So that the Trumpets and the sealing necessarily begin together as they ought For we find it is thus expresly determin'd to the first of the first two Trumpets for nothing that was hurt in those two first Trumpets viz. the Earth nor the Sea nor any Tree was to be hurt till the sealing past And why was it so but that the Seal might have its defensive Vertue on the sealed which Defence was certainly as early as the hurt else it could not defend It is expresly continu'd all the first and second Trumpet by naming the Earth Sea and Trees for all these were hurt in the two first Trumpets But the Fountains are not nam'd nor the Sun c. not because the sealing did not continue for we find the express mention of it rising within the Time of the first woe Trumpet Revel 9. 4. as of a thing suppos'd to have continued all along But because the Spirit of God would lead us to the new date of Time viz. the Beasts forty two Months negotiated by the event of the third Trumpet or the Imperial Star falling which Star as all History knows fell at 475 immediately on which the Beast in prophetical Account succeeded as the eighth King So that then in the very space of the third Trumpet those Months began and the fourth Trumpet ran upon that new Line of the forty two Months concurrent with the 1260 Days and so forward till Both end at 1697 the one as Time of the Moon or Months the other as Time of the Sun or Days by which we know also when the 1260 days began viz. by computing and adjusting the Lunar Time of forty two months to the Solar Time 1260 days If the months began so famously at 475 The days that both may end together within time times half a time must begin thirty eight Years before or at 437 as hath been before intimated so as to be plainly understood but shall be fully proved Now because of all this the Spirit of God comprehends only what pertain'd to the first two Trumpets within the express security of not being hurt viz. the Earth and Trees of the first Trumpet and the Sea of the second Trumpet till the Servants of God were seal'd Revel 7. 2 3. shewing plainly that then the Efficacy of the sealing began where first the Earth and all green things were hurt in the first and the Sea in the second Trumpet and as it were to hint the Beasts forty two months falling within the third Trumpet and so going on in the fourth There is no mention of the securing the Fountains nor the Lights of Heaven until the Servants of God were seal'd which the Beast could not yet surrogate for being in his Infancy till a Star fell to the Earth Revel 9. 1. which by all Count was at the Time Phocas gave Universality to the Bishop of Rome Then Rome seems to be again enlightned not long before the Mahometan Hegire when the Locusts came forth and therefore then Divine Judgment pursues by three woe Trumpets because then the surprise of the Kingdom of Christ by the cheat of Antichrist reigning more appear'd But after another concurrent date of Time viz. the Five and five Months of the Locusts Revel 9. 15. 10. given new in the fifth Trumpet the sealing is there mention'd again and in the sixth Trumpet where the Hour Day Month and Year of the Horsemen began there is a parallel Symbol of Secresie and Security with the sealing viz. the true Worshippers crying out from the Altar of Incense where they were hid Revel 9. 13. within the first of which viz. of the Locusts fell in the Beasts intimate Time or Season with his Number 666 as shall be shewn Revel 13. ult Now by all these the Spirit of God does interpoint and distinguish the beginning of the Lines of several Times that fall in with the great entire Line of the 1260 Days and notes when they began which new Lines do some way or other note when that great Line began and when it shall end viz. by the Proportion those other Lines however beginning after hold to it all joyning with it when they are once begun and by that Proportion The Beginning must be 437 and the end of it 1697 as shall be shewn upon all of them Wherein also the Time remark'd with the Voices of the seven Thunders seal'd will admirably shew it self at 1517 when the last 180 Years or Half-time began at which Time the Division of so many States from Rome first appear'd also And the End of all at 1697 will declare it self So strongly although requiring strict Attention and Observation hath God secur'd the fixing of this Line both in its Beginning and End as shall be all along by Gods gracious permission to proceed made evident I shall but just salute the Third Enquiry and finish the first Point discours'd viz. its Beginning And because it joyns in assuring this Beginning I must as I say salute it And this Third Enquiry is to Research what is the meaning Enquiry 3 of this Grand Apocalyptical Symbol the Trumpets Now from the general Use and universal Signification of a Trumpet as an Alarm to War and the dismal consequences of it these Trumpets certainly signifie the same as appears by the course of the Trumpets for every Trumpet calls to some War and the seventh to the Battel of Armageddon They are therefore so many loud Sounds of the Indignation of God upon those
a Line of Time in the Cypher of Time Times half a c. 7. Time applyed to a little Horn of the fourth Beast The third pourtrays Three Beasts and makes a little Horn of the Third of them a Type to the little Horn of the fourth Beast of the c. 8. former Vision and the Veil of a Type being thrown over There is a Line of 2302 Days drawn out by the Action of the Type * Antiochus Epiphanes bearing some Resemblance both in Action and Duration of Time naturally and not prophetically understood to that Anti typical little Horn It is drawn I say to the Kingdom of Christ rising on that little Horns Ruine at the End of the 2300 Ev. Mor. The State of the four Monarchies in the fourth of which the Kingdom of Christ breaks the whole Image is much the same in the main in this Vision as in the former The Antichristian King is guilty of the same Blasphemy against the God of Gods or the Lord of Lords and King of Kings as in the former Visions against the Prince of Princes and the most high and lastly the same Date of Time Times half a Time is applied to him yet notwithstanding there are some peculiar Things which this Vision carries all along upon the whole Line of the 2300 Ev. Morn by way of farther Explication as also of the excellent Vision of the seventy weeks and of the Word going forth before it which Vision of the seventy weeks most resembles this Vision in this that it is rather a prophetical History than Imagery The prefatory Description of Christ hath several Magnificencies of Presence like those Revel 1. and also Dan. 7. wherein the Divine Nature of Christ appears in his Mediatorship But in this they differ from the Majesty of Christ as on his Throne wherein Ezekiel's Visions exceed and for the sake of which He is so often honour'd with the Title Son of Man so peculiar to Christ's Kingdom and wherein Daniel came nearest in the Vision of the Sanctuary cleans'd and the Corrival to Christ's Princedome broken without hand at the end of the 2300 Ev Morn All which shall be then fulfill'd in the State of the Jews restor'd of the New Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 20. 4. and therefore there he is peculiarly call'd Son of Man as before noted To shew it measures the same Time as that of the Ev. Mor. Daniel is much in the same manner affected It begins in its very Date near the Beginning of the Persian Monarchy it runs most evidently to the same End And having now made these general Remarks upon it I come to observe what is most particular in it in the way of a short Elenchus or Table of it 1. It is peculiar to this Vision that tho Christ calls to mind in it His supreme Assistance to His at the first Year of Darius who to distinguish him is call'd Darius the Mede and of the Seed of the Medes at the very Entrance of Cyrus's Persian Monarchy yet his third Year is the critical and precise Date of it for then that wonderful and unexpected stop upon so Royal a Decree by the divine Permission was made Ezr. c. 3. compar'd with c. 4. shewing the leisurely Progresses of the divine Kingdom and as is most probably conceiv'd Cyrus in his third Year making foreign Expeditions Cambyses or Artaxerxes his Son was left Viceroy upon whom the Enemies of the Jews gain'd so far that though they could not plainly command a Cessation yet by Sleights and Artifices They eluded the Decree and frustrated the Work all the days of Cyrus But Cyrus being dead in the days of the proper Reign of Artaxerxes or Cambyses the Son of Cyrus the Adversaries of the Jews writ to him and obtain'd his Edict against the Progress of the Building And in the Reign of Ahasuerus in the beginning of his Reign wrote they also an Accusation and still prevail'd Now by Ahasuerus I understand the Counterfeit Smerdis Ezr. 4. v. 5 6 7. whose Reign being very short it is said In the beginning of his Reign And by Artaxerxes I understand Cambyses who reign'd indeed before Ahasuerus yet the Sacred History intending a fuller Account of the whole matter gives first the general Account that all the days of Cyrus the Work was frustrated then takes in Ahasuerus first because his Reign was short and then gives the true Series of Things in Artaxerxes who was first in the days of Cyrus possess'd against the Jews and suffer'd an artificial Impedition of them When he came to Reign he laid a Prohibition on their Building When Ahasuerus began to Reign after the Death of Artaxerxes the Jews upon that change attempted to revive their Work but on Letters to Ahasuerus by their Enemies were still prohibited At the Reign of Darius being twice discouraged they lay still till arous'd by Haggai and Zechariah the Prophets and confirm'd by Darius in a new Enterprise they begin the Work again That which justifies this as the True Order is That the History expresly tells us upon the Letter to Artaxerxes The work ceas'd and that it ceas'd till the second Year of Darius the Persian all the Days of Artaxerxes Cambyses all the short Reign of Ahasuerus or the Counterfeit Smerdis Under Artaxerxes then it began to cease and till then the Cessation continued And thus often Sacred Story postpones that on which it intends to place the full and largest Accounts and therein directs the true Order yet As here Artaxerxes is postpond to Ahasuerus although before him And of this Delay of the Building the Space otherwise unknown is made known in this Vision by the one and twenty days Resistance Christ found from the Angel-Prince of Persia against whom Michael the Angel-Prince of the Jews stood with Christ Now these twenty one days viz. days for years for what could twenty one days Resistance signifie to such a stop of the Building if naturally taken Daniel observ'd a symbolical Fast three weeks of days a day for a year as Ezekiel observ'd on each side so that it is true The weeks of days do distinguish those weeks of days from the seventy weeks of years and yet they are a Type of twenty one days for years also so that here we have an Explanation of so much Time as the stop of the Building amounted to as so many years of the Persian Time as was before explain'd of the Word going forth and it justifies that Account so far towards 75 where it is possibly most needed 2. Here we have also the Intimation of the whole History of Esther as pertaining to the Decree of the Jews Destruction and Deliverance compris'd in the short Note of Christ's speedy dispatch of this Vision to Daniel and returning to sight for the Jews with the same Angel prince of Persia who Zec. 3. 1. as Sathan stood at their right-hand to resist them and this Reason to believe That Ahasuerus was Xerxes
seven Churches that is proper and particular to the Church wherein the Churches as Symbols sustain the whole Prophecy which is worthy the Spirituality and Clearness of a New Testament Prophecy so to Order and of great Grace Elegancy and Condecency to God's great Regard to his Church The Second is that which embraces the whole State of the Church but propp'd and supported with such Imperial Events as most nearly related to the Church adorn'd with such Symbols such Notes of Time such Events as agree to those Times whereby History both Common and Ecclesiastick may be adjusted to and concerted with both and the Truth of the Prophecy and its true Interpretation justisted before and by all the World And this is that Systeme or Complex of Prophecies that first by the Seals runs through the Roman Empire till the sixth Seal Pagan and Christian in the sixth and seventh Seals in those things wherein the Kingdom and Church of Christ are most interessed until the Empire was blasted in the first Trumpet and true publick Worship also by the 1260 Days of the Daily taken away entring The Imperial City was thrown like a Mountain into the Sea in the second and in the third Trumpet when the Roman Empire expiring in the West was surrogated or new founded in the Beast succeeding in his forty two Months and so the Prophecy goes on in the other Trumpets till it comes to the Kingdom of Christ in the seventh Trumpet in its just Succession to the last State of the Roman fourth Monarchy according to all Prophecy And this till the thousand Years runs through the Voices of Preparation into the Vials and the Vials prepare to the thousand Years glorious Reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then this is the only true proper Division of this Prophecy into its two Systemes of the Churches and then rise the Seals Trumpets Voices Vials in another Systeme supporting all things relating to the Church by Imperial Motions Mutations and Times And in the latter Systeme all these Tubes of Time are each Sett of them and each of each Sett so united one to another that they can neither be disjoyn'd from their immediate sequence one upon another nor mov'd out of their order so that the Trumpets follow the Seals the Voices the Trumpets the Vials the Voices and each Seal Trumpet Voice and Vial follows immediately upon its foregoing Seal Trumpet Voice and Vial and every seventh comprehends the following Sevens the seventh Seal the seven Trumpets the seventh Trumpet the seven Voices the seventh Voice the seven Vials and each precedent Seventh hath some grasp on all the following Sevens So the seventh Seal comprehends the Trumpets the Voices the Vials the seventh Trumpet the Voices and Vials the seventh Voice the seven Vials so admirably is this Prophecy united and interwoven And to other Division than this of the second Systeme of Prophecies I can by no means subscribe as of the Prophecy divided into the sealed and open Book-prophecy or the Prophecy of the Empire first and then of the Church For that remarkable part of the sealed Book-prophecy viz. the palm-bearing Company by peculiar Right pertains to the open Book or that must be so if there were such an open Book-prophecy and much of the open Book-prophecy allowing such a one must needs pertain to the sealed but indeed there is no such Thing as an open Book-prophecy in that place where it is said to be open'd for the Book was no sooner open'd but it was eaten and so absconded assoon as open'd till open'd by the Voices c. 14. as shall be farther clear'd nor is there any Prophecy of the second Systeme but pertains properly to the Church as within first the Pagan then the Christian then the Bestian State of the one Roman Empire and lastly of the Vniversal Empire and Kingdom of Christ. Now in this Order apocalyptical Both Visions and Times in the first Systeme run through the six Churches In the second through those four Sets of prophetical Tubes Seals c. 6. c. 7. c. 8. to v. of Trumpets c. 8. v. 8. to the end of c. 11. of Voices c. 14. of the Vials c. 15. c. 16. and so laying these Chapters together the order is most exact except that in c. 7. There is an Anticipation of the Triumph of the New Jerusalem from v. 9. to the end In c. 11. there is a Collection of the whole State of the Apostasie during the six Trumpets into one Body together as it consists of the Sufferings of the Witnesses and the Tyranny of the Bestian Apostasie excepting some close Intimations in the very Composure of the Symbolisms of those Trumpets for the great Reasons hereafter to be given that refer to the same Apostacy and begin at the first Trumpet And then in the twelfth and thirteenth Chapters the extravasated Account of the Dragon watching the Woman and her manly Birth the Dragon cast down and the manly Birth caught up is to be reduc'd within its most proper Channel viz. the fifth and sixth Seals And this prepares for the right understanding of the Beast mention'd ch 11. as deriv'd from the Dragon c. 13. arriving his Number 666 which belongs to the six first Trumpets and it is there fitly set to prepare for the Vision of the Lambs Number c. 14. And as to the Chapters 17. 18. and 19. they are most evidently the Progress of the History of the seventh Vial and the full Relation of its Effects To prepare for which an extraordinary Description of the Woman or Great City reigning over the Kings of the Earth opposite to the Woman in the Wilderness is prefix'd and on her occasion a more perfect Portraicture of the Beast and of his ten Horns or Kings is given in preparation to the Judgment executed on all c. 19. And then the Milennial State being drawn up c. 20. it is carried on to the end of Apocalyptical Time as it reaches into the complemental State of Eternity which the Prophecy briefly absolves and then returns upon its more proper Subject or the 1000 Years of the New Jerusalem c. 21. c. 22. Now this Order began with the Preface to the Churches Vision of the first Systeme c. 1. and then the Preface of the second Systeme and lastly a Postscript returning especially c. 4. c. 5. c. 22. 16. to the Vials as given by the first Angel of the Vials This Order is I say the whole entire natural Order of this Apocalyptical Prophecy which is contriv'd indeed suitable to the Secrecy and Mysticness of the Prophecy so as often symbolically to declare when these Prophecies would have the clearest and most efficacious Discoveries in the Church viz. after the Half Time when the Thunders had utter'd their Voices and the Book open was shewn in the hand of Christ. That was the just Season for the Discovery of the Apostacy in the suffering of the Witnesses and the Tenthly Fall of the City and then after the seventh Trumpet
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
against whom the Sounds are Directed These two first Trumpets then as beginning at 437 summon the Barbarian Nations to fall on on all parts of the Empire as they had began to do by the vertue of the Angels preparing themselves to sound About this time Gensericus the Vandal-King took Carthage the Hunns over-ran the upper and lower Pannonia now called Hungary Thrace and Illyricum the Brittish Provinces soon after fell into the Hands of Strangers and Barbarians Thus the Glory and Greenness the Flourish and Verdure of the Roman Empire was universally blasted by the Hail and Fire mingled with Blood of the first Trumpet running every way At the same time no Green of true Christianity was unblasted by the Apostacy and Rome it self as a great Mountain burning with Fire was thrown into the Sea that is it had been indeed taken under Honorius in the preparation to Sound and immediately recover'd But now at the Second Trumpet it was made the Ball of War in a continual Taking and Retaking for many years after so that the Flames of War from several Parts of the World and the People of it compar'd to a Sea congregated about it and in the midst of the fearful Broil the Imperial Starr Augustulus the last Emperour fell From hence therefore we obtain the clear Agreement of Time with the Symbol of the First three Trumpets as their Blast fell upon the third part of men the Figure of the Roman Empire in Agreement with the Dragon or Roman Emperours drawing down the third part of the Starrs with his Tayl. Revel 12. 14. Where all Interpreters understand that Imperial Power Now at the very time of the Barbarous Nations coming like the Gentiles into the chief Residences of the Christian Religion is the Symbol of the Apostacy of the Gentiles treading the Holy City and Court and the Dragon Rev. 11. 2. c. 12. 13. 14. persecuting the Woman just now taking her flight into the Wilderness fairly made out both as to Similitude and Time But that the Ministration of the Trumpets may answer the Ministration by the Servants of God in his Church at the Seals opened besides this Semblance of the Trumpets with War Holy Writing leads us to another viz. the Sacred use of Trumpets in the giving of the Law Exod. 19. And they were instituted by God to call the Congregation of the Servants of God together which was now not into Publick but in Private at the Altar of Incense There was also the Feast of Trumpets on the First Day of the Seventh Month joyn'd with the Reading of that Law upon which follow'd the Solemn Fast on the Tenth Day Levit. 23. 23 c. and Numb 29. 2. Thus by these Trumpets the Witnesses began their Prophecy and Testimony for the Commandments of God and Doctrine of Jesus and in Sackcloth and Fasting These Prophets and Watchmen blew the Trumpet according to the charge laid upon them Ezek. 32. v. 1 c. And according to this Blowing the trumpets the Camp the Congregation the Woman the Church made its motions in the Wilderness according to Numb 10. v. 1 c. So admirably does this Symbol agree with the Gentiles forty two Months of treading the Holy Court with the Worshippers at the Altar of Incense with the Witnesses Prophecy in Sackcloth and the Womans Flight into the Wilderness as on Eagles wings in regard of Divine Providence as well as of the Roman Eastern and Western Empire Apostatizing And how fitly does the whole Apocalyptical Time answer the Jews Feast of the Passover at the Resurrection of Christ united with the Feast of Weeks at the giving of the Spirit and John's being in the Spirit when he receiv'd the Revelation and then follows the Interval of the Seals opened like that Interval of Feasts till the day of blowing the Trumpets and the Fast or Sackcloth after which follows the Triumphant Feast of Tabernacles so celebrated Numb 29. by the Ennumeration of every Day 's Services like the cleansing of the Sanctuary by the solemn Observation of it at the restoring Jerusalem Ezra 3. 4. in Image of the New Jerusalem and Nehemiah 8. after the Feast of Trumpets with Olive-branches Pine Myrrh Palm-branches ver 15. like dwelling in a Garden of Eden and in Resemblance of the Palms Revel 7. 9. and as a prophetical Emblem of the Paradise of God Revel 2. 7. c. 22. 2. compar'd according to all which the Prophet Zechar. so distinguishly proclaims in that wonderful Prophecy of the Glory of Christ's Kingdom Zech. 14. this Feast of Tabernacles v. 16. and as if it were the entring a Caution against understanding that as the True Feast of Tabernacles Nehem. 8. 4. A solemn Fast follows as it were irregularly upon it Nehem. 9. to shew the True Feast of Tabernacles was not yet come but a long Mourning to intervene And how excellently do the seven Thunders uttering their Voices agree with the Trumpets sounding so long For towards the latter Time of the sixth Trumpet and at the last 180 Days beginning the Gospel Law was given in these Thunders like those of the Law Exodus 20. v. 28. Thus all things concurring even to Miracle or a Demonstration of the Almighty Wisdom and Power of God I cannot doubt I have fix'd upon the true Epoch or Beginning of the Line of 1260 days at 437 and so upon the end of it at 1697. Let it then be certainly apprehended by all that love Christs Remark on the whole Kingdom what God hath so determin'd shall come to pass and that He the Lord will hasten it in its own Time He will work and none shall let it The Israelites went out of Egypt to a Day at the 430 years end of their sojourning and no sinful Exod. 12. 41. unsensibleness that God would deliver them by Moses or their other sins could interpose Christ wrought Redemption at the very night of the Fulness of Time viz. at the middle of the last half Week and no unworthiness of the Age could Dan. 9. 27. hinder it though never so great so nothing shall hinder the Rising of the Witnesses and their Ascension at the 1260 days Revel 11. 9. Ten years hence no though there should be Three dayes and a half not only signifying the intimate Time as hath been declared but a Blush a Recollection a drawing the whole Time past again in little at the end For no Appearances how great soever shall surprise the Divine Decrees upon Time Nullum tempus occurrit Regi There may be a deep Reshrouding Christianity at least in some Parts The Israelites slavery sate closest upon them when their Redemption was so nigh We see what a change was begun 1517 by those seven Thunders when all was one Night piece and the Voice so little from Man and wholly from Heaven much more at 1697. We see how at this day the Turkish Power that hath been so long the Terrour Scourge and Woe of the World call'd Christian Falls when
be no Vacuity Rex nunquam moritur where God holds the Succession and its Law firm and so it is to the very Kingdom of Christ Just then when the Christian Emperour deceas'd tht Bestian Emperour succeeded and that was indisputably at 475 and then his forty two Months of Duration succeeded and it was a large Time as Prophecy draws them out and they are still current they must have been yet a long time ago begun for there was the sixth King in Being when the Apostle wrote signifying his Time then in spending The seventh had no long time That end of things the Apostle declares Ch. 18. c. 19. c. 20. c. 21. is beyond all Controversie upon due yea but small Consideration not yet come Therefore this eighth King must have been long upon the Throne and now near the end of his forty two months For he came at the very first of them He came then though as an Infant Prince a Prince as in the Cradle yet then he came Humane History is not more competent to declare the Time when Antichrist was born than the Jews could pronounce aright when the Christ was born yet some chosen Observers there were of the one and of the other some or alarming Indications The Father Jerom sounded it aloud or rather by Inspiration before hand proclaim'd it but God hath judg'd it he hath declar'd it and there can be no incertainty in it When the short-liv'd Christian Emperours and their Empire dyed in the West then it was The true Seat of the Roman Empire being at seven headed seven hill'd Rome was by a wonderful Operation of Providence quitted by the Dragon to be the Seat of the Beast the Christian Emperours resided elsewhere most for still that was the Metropolis of the Bestian Empire Constantinople did but borrow the Name by a secret of Providence of Nova Roma as useful for some Types of Prophecy when the Christian Western Empire was cessated then the Eighth King succeeded his Fourty two Months then began I come now to the second Head of this Discourse The Head 2 Kingdom of Christ must come immediately after the Beasts Fourty two months ended The Law of the Succession requires it it must be then immediately proclaim'd It does not appear all at once no Kingdom does so But its Preparations are seventy five Years So great so glorious an Empire so just so even and cubical in its Thousand Years must have an honourable Preparation And it is but short in comparison During this time all sorts of warnings are given by the seven Thunders unseal'd Revel 14. all kind of Justice done upon Offenders by the Vials c. 16. The Beast hath a kind of dying Life as an outdated Usurper not yet executed but that hath lost his usurped Empire and then Lak'd for Ever This Succession of the Kingdom of Christ is dated by Prophecy to the end of the 1260 Days For then the Witnesses rise go out of their Sackcloth are array'd in a white Cloud Ascend to Heaven they cannot Ascend in Sackcloth but for 1260 Days Sackcloth was their Shrowd it is then certain the 1260 Days End It is certain also the Kingdom of Christ is then proclaim'd for when the second woe past away the third comes quickly No delay and the third woe Trumpet brought it and the first Sound or Report is The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ therefore lastly the forty two months must end with the 1260 days for Christ abated nothing of them by his Kingdom overhastily as is to be shewn and the Beast was to have so many for his Reign The 1260 days and the forty two months ending together Head 3 and the forty two Months beginning at 475 they must be adjusted one to the other as one being Time of the Sun the other as Time of the Moon For as in all Languages and parts of the World Days must and do signifie most properly the Time measured by the Sun so in the eastern and most especially the Jewish and Scripture Language Months signifie only and solely the Time as measured by the Moon and are call'd Novitates Newnesses or Times measured by each new Congress of the Moon with the Sun or new Moons so that however another way of speaking hath prevailed with us a Month of the Sun is as improper as a day of the night or a day measured by the Moon so that if words can signifie as they are always in Scripture us'd to signifie Months must signifie Time according to the motion of the Moon And further as hath been already shewn the Symbol is of the peculiar use in this Prophecy to semble Time of the Night of the Moon that the True Church hath under its Feet and as shall be more seen in a great Remarque upon the Mahometan Moon Because therefore days months years as they are within this Line of Time must all lye within Time Times half Time and equal 1260 days or years There are twice Forty two Months that knitting one within another will supply the shortness to 1260 Days or Years of the Forty two Months either of the Gentiles ending thirty eight years sooner or those of the Beast beginning thirty eight years later than those 1260 Days And as the Moon could be no Moon if there were no Sun to lend it Light so the Sun on a body prepared and moving to it as the Moon casts a Light like that of the Moon certainly and without fail In the same manner there could be no Antichristian months or Church if there were not a true Church and its Seed the Witnesses cloth'd with the Sun of Righteousness all those 1260 Years which cast those Months And if there be such a body as the Antichristian Church moving to the Christian Church as that does it must needs derive Months from its Days equal one to the other And it is most apparent that waving Scriptures round Number Unto the exactness of considerably less than a Years difference the Time of Forty two prophetical months adjusted by the strictest Accountant to the time of 1260 prophetical Days measured by the Moon 's motion from one new Conjunction with the Sun to another will be as 1222 Years to 1260 Years so that if the forty two months of the Beast begin at 475 the 1260 days beginning at 437 they will both end necessarily at 1697 which is the thing that ought to be shewn so great an Exactness so surely arguing the true Calculalation of this Line I hope all will agree cannot be bychance I request then I say a strictness of Account which to avoid both longsomness and perplexity in this Discourse I do not give but by so strict Account two mistakes will be escaped which may arise from a general apprehension of this Matter For it will then be found the Calculation is not to be made by accounting the Time of a Synodical Month to twenty nine days so many hours c.
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