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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25568	An answer to several remarks upon Dr. Henry More, his expositions of the Apocalypse and Daniel, as also upon his Apology written by S.E. Mennonite, and published in English by the answerer ; whereunto are annexed two small pieces, Arithmetica apocalyptica, and Appendicula apocalyptica ...	S. E., Mennonite.; More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1684 (1684)	Wing A3379; ESTC R10256	245,076	439

even those that are poured on the Sun into the Air or on the River Euphrates they all touch the concern of the Beast that rose out of the Earth as you may see by the Exposition of the Vision And the first Vial poured on the Earth in this sense reacheth them immediately it inflicting so noysome and grievous a sore on those that are the marked slaves of the two-horned Beast especially their Interest being so much concerned in the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore that Cup of Intoxication and Dementation through Envy Malice Rage and Fury as it is said ch 11. v. 18. upon the Rising of the Witnesses and Doxology of the Elders And the Nations were angry which answers to the effect of the effusion of this first Vial the noysome sore on the marked slaves of the Beast that Cup I say is really the pouring forth of this first Vial which is a grievous plague indeed Impedit ira animum And Quos Iupiter vult perdere eosdem dementat prius So that by the Remarker's leave these are no sorry conceits nor the Expositor's private opinion but the opinion of worthy Interpreters before him b But the Remarker's is a groundless conceit to apply that which belongs to the times preceding the Rising of the Witnesses to the Vials which come after their Rising as is most plain to them that do not wilfully wink against the Truth Wherefore the War of the Hussites c. is such a business as the Albigensian War and if justifiable to be referred to the War betwixt the Beast and the Saints ch 13. v. 7. c Nor has the Remarker any evasion out of this evidence of truth but by an unworthy vilifying of the Protestant Reformation which undoubtedly was the Rising of the Witnesses and most certainly was a very illustrious Atchievement of Providence and quite wiped away that foul face of things which Custome and Law had established before and is described in the Idea of Antichristianism and therefore it is most wretched Ingratitude to undervalue so great a Bounty of the Divine Majesty towards his servants like the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses and Aaron by whose conduct they were delivered from the bondage and Tyranny of Pharaoh Nor was the Pope's Supremacy onely rejected and some gross corruptions here in the Church of England suppose reformed but all gross corruptions nor were there any left that can be a just cause of Separation from our Church But the cavil now forsooth must be because they retain still Political Government for Popish leaven in matters of Religion which is reformed to the pattern of the Times that were symmetral is plainly outed from our Church and continue in the same worldly state and station the terms for Political Government as if all Political Laws and Orders though they were made and managed for the support of the Kingdom of God and the purity of his Worship were worldly How freakish is this But how outragious to make the Reformed Churches merely for this cause to continue Members of the Beast This is such a wild Imagination that it is more becoming those Dreamers St. Iude describes that despise dominion and speak evil of dignities than any sober Christian d And lastly as I remember I noted before the Spirit of life entring into the Witnesses has not a Spiritual sense but Political And the Genius of Prophetick Iconisms and of the Apocalyptick Prophecies is rather to adumbrate the External and visible state of the Church than the Internal There is onely one thing remaining in this Remark at the beginning that I may seem to have slipt over viz. That the effect of the first Vial namely that rankorous sore does not seem to be imputed to the effusion of the Vial but to the Rising of the Witnesses But I answer that it is sufficient that this sore rages in the time of the Vial-Angel For here are seven distinct Times allotted to the seven Vial-Angels as there are seven distinct times allotted to the seven Trumpet-Angels and what happens in the said allotted times is attributed to the Angel to whom the time is alloted whether the Angel contribute any thing to it or no. Nor does any one imagine that the Locusts and Euphratean Horse-men were blown out of the fifth and sixth Angels Trumpets but that those things happened under the times allotted to them And the Rider of the red Horse under the second Seal he is said to take peace from the Earth merely because in his time there were such killing and slaying one another And it is something Idiotical to think otherwise of these things But supposing there must be some real activity in this first Vial-Angel for the inflicting this angry Aegyptian boil there is not the least absurdity in allowing it viz. That as an evil spirit from the Lord haunted Saul when his Melancholy fits came upon him so this first Vial-Angel may commissionate some spirits upon the envy and the anger the Bestians had conceived against the Risen Witnesses to actuate them with more than ordinary rage and madness against them and so infatuate their counsel by this distemper This I hope will take away all scruple touching this first Vial. Vers. 3. The second Vial is made to synchronize and in substance to be the same with the first the first being supposed to be the envious raging at the Reformation by the enemies of it and the second the Reformation it self in rejecting the Pope's Autority c. Ans. This second Remark is a mere calumny For the first Vial does not synchronize with the second because the first viz. that exulcerated Rage of the marked slaves of the Beast began presently upon the Rising of the Witnesses while the Reformation was but fresh young and tender and not so thoroughly established but was capable of quick Reciprocations of affairs as it happened here for example in England Queen Mary so suddenly succeeding King Edward But after this there was a more full settlement and firm establishment of the state of the Risen Witnesses so that through many Provinces Principalities and Kingdoms which are so many Seas the Pontifician party was hopeless and helpless those Seas becoming by the effusion of the second Vial as the bloud of a dead man For they were all dead to the Emissary fisher-men of the pretended successour of St. Peter nor a live Fish to be taken for their game The perfect Revulsion of these great Parts of the Pontifician Iurisdiction from those that his power still did actuate and enliven and the hindering them from reuniting for a due time till they were turned into the congealed bloud as it were of a dead man this was the effusion of the second Vial and plainly distinct from the first and such as to which the first might well contribute For the marked slaves of the Beast being dementated with wrath would necessarily doe such things as would excite the other party to use all possible care and

from the Whore of Babylon by Mr. Mede is a thing not to be overlookt or slighted nor this use of numbering the same time one while by days another while by months to be contemned it stearing us off from such mistakes Fifthly It is well known to them that concern themselves in these Speculations that the artifice of concealment is a thing driven at in the frame and contrivance of the Apocalyptick Visions as well as certainty of Revealment as is noted in Book 1. Chap. 2. Synopsis Prophetica and the usefulness thereof there intimated And it is obvious to conceive that disguising of the duration of the Medial-Visions under so many variations of a Time and Times and half a Time of 42 months of 1260 days of three days and an half must needs contribute something to the obscuring of the Visions and make them not lye so open and obvious to every eye but gives a pleasant exercise to the sagacious and intelligent to find cut the mystery and to reduce all to the ancient Authentick measure Sixthly But there is yet a farther usefulness of the varying of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months or 1260 days and that a notable one For forasmuch as neither the Greek nor Hebrew though they have the dual number expresses the word Times by it what assurance have we but that Times in A Time and Times and half a Time may signifie more Times than two and so it will not be seven Semitimes but nine whenas seven is the sacred Number the Apocalypse seems to affect But that they are seven and not nine or more the varying of them into 1260 days or 42 months does fully assure us and that by A Time and Times and half a Time is understood Three prophetical years and an half or seven half years Of which Seventhly There is this farther notable use For though I have made it plain in my satisfying the former Query That these variations of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days was never intended for a more accurate computation of the predicted Event from some certain Epocha to a month much less to a day yet it being known by those variations that Daniel's Number is seven Semitimes and that those seven Semitimes are seven Prophetical half years or seven Spatia semestria by virtue of these Notices and by Iohn's measuring the Temple of God c. chap. 11. that is the Inner Court and leaving the Outer Court to be trod under foot by the Gentiles for 42 months from these Indications of St. Iohn and from the proportion the Outer Court bears to the Inner the precise Epocha of the Duration of the Medial-Visions is certainly to be collected For as the Outer and Inner Courts are two steady and unalterable proportional Terms understood in their full settled extent or magnitude so there can be no scruple but that the third proportional Term viz. 42 months offered by the Spirit of Prophecy is to be understood as to this use in its full apparent extent for a steady and determinate Inference of the fourth proportional Term for a timely discovery of the enterance of the Apostasie For no number given for such or such an use if that use do not require it nor there be any thing intimated that way For the three days and an half respect the Vision of the Witnesses not the measuring of the Temple and 42 months Conculcation can abate of its full significancy by any prophetick Synecdoche or Numeral Diorism much less can it doe so when the use it serves to requires the contrary as here it does or else the measuring the Inner Court and the offering this third proportional Term to infer a fourth is to little purpose But taking this third proportional 42 months in its proper full extent as the Outer and Inner Court is taken in theirs which are as 7 to 2 it will necessarily infer 12 months in the full extent which therefore is precisely 360 prophetick days that is 360 years for the commensurate Time of the Church before the Apostasie came in And this I think is no contemptible use of the variation of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months or 1260 days And Eighthly and lastly Though the variation of Daniel's ancient and Authentick measure into 42 months and 1260 days be not to predict the entire Event of the Medial-Visions to a precise Prophetick month much less to a Prophetick day yet these variations of Daniel's seven Semitimes into Months and Days have no contemptible use in that they are fitted for the punctual setting down the particular progresses and spreadings of the predicted Event which one Day nor one single Prophetick Month could contain We need instance but in that one example the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses which began with Luther The right Epocha of the Medial-Visions being found from whence the seven Semitimes are to commence the Event is not to be expected till the seventh Semitime be entered into But then if we would count in a natural and accurate order we might say for example That Luther appeared first upon the Stage the fourteenth day of the second month of the seventh or last Semitime That Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown on the twenty sixth day of the third month of the last Semitime and so of the rest as we find in History For still as any fresh Provinces States Principalities or Kingdoms or any Rulers and Grandees in them which were Pontifician before received the Gospel or any Evangelici before oppressed were advanced into Autority the Witnesses slain before do in these revive and ascend into Heaven and obtain rule and government For the suffering Evangelici and the reigning Evangelici are conceived but as one body though the succession be for many Ages And this I think is one considerable use of varying the phrase of a Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days and takes them in both together But now which I also noted in my Letter to a friend In whatever Month or Day there is an example of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses there their mournfull Prophesying ceaseth from that Time in that place As for example here in England A. D. 1559 which is the 26 th day of the third month of the last Semitime the time when Queen Elizabeth was advanced to the Crown and several Evangelical Grandees in Church and State to high Dignities and Employments Upon this Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses their mournfull Prophesying ceased here and so it was at other times and in other places The close Affinity and Connaturality of the things predicted do plainly evidence this to any one that does not wilfully wink against the Truth In the mean time I think I have made it abundantly plain that though the varying of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days was not to

letter of the Vision chap. 11. vers 7. Nor does the prohibiting to buy and sell imply that Death of the Witnesses for 1260 years together there being no intimation of the extent of time in the business Whence there is a necessity that the three days and an half which is the three times and an half equivalent to 1260 days must denote the Time of the Political Death of the Witnesses that the 42 months War and the Beast's overcoming the Saints chap. 13. vers 5. both the victory and war may be expounded accordingly as equal to and coincident with the three days and an half or three times and an half and to the 1260 days Whence we may understand that this Answer of the Remarker is most miserably forced weak and far-fetched e The Expositor's fifth Reason is That being the Witnesses have lain slain in a Political sense so long and have been so often slain even many hundred thousands of them in a natural sense before the end of their mournfull Witnessing it is unconceivable what persecution or oppression in these last three years and an half different from what they had endured before should befall them or more worthy taking notice of that the former should be omitted and these by the karcases lying three days and an half in the street be represented The answer of the Remarker here is very slim and lank to this fifth Reason he acknowledging the persecution and oppression for these three days and an half nothing comparable to the severities of that in the 1260 days of the mournfull prophesying of the Witnesses but discreetly letteth slip the main question why so gentle a persecution in comparison and of so small continuance should be noted in the Vision and one more than three hundred times longer for duration and more bloudy rude and barbarous for all manner of cruelty should be omitted This he wisely declines to say any thing to it being such as to which nothing can be said f The Expositor's sixth and last Reason is this That whereas it is said vers 7. And when they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them that unless his sense be admitted there is till the end of their prophesying neither any war nor any overcoming nor any killing of the Witnesses which is point blank against the truth of History What says the Remarker to this His former Answer says he is an Answer to this if it need any For this is a different war saith he from the former being not to destroy but to silence and subdue And yet this is notified and the other omitted What will not one say that is wedded to a fond opinion But the Vision does not onely omit the forty two months war against the Witnesses and that continued slaughter either Political or Natural above three hundred times of longer continuance than this slighter distress of three days and an half but does naturally import that there was no war against the Witnesses till they had finished their 1260 days witnessing if we adhere to the cortical sense as the Remarker does which is point blank against the truth of History For the Text saith And when they shall have finished their Testimony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bestia illa ascendens so Beza which S. Iohn had his eye upon That Beast ascending out of the bottomless-pit shall make war against them c. Which implies he came out of the pit just upon the finishing their Testimony when they had said their say to assault them c. As it is said chap. 13. upon the wrath of the Dragon against the seed of the woman and his resolution of making war against them that S. Iohn saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Beast ascending out of the Sea which implies the first appearance of him And the very words When they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast shall make war against them does plainly and naturally imply he shall not war against them before but that then coming out of the Pit or out of the Sea he will presently set upon them He that can shut his eyes against such plain truth I pray God he may not become blind for ever Pag. 291. Whereas it is supposed there hath been such evident proof that the Vials follow the Rising of the Witnesses the contrary I suppose hath been made sufficiently evident whereby the fansied Mathematical Evidence that the Reformation must be the Rising of the Witnesses comes to nothing And the change by the Reformation was not so vast and stupendious as it 's here said to be but that it 's sufficiently prophesied of by the second Vial which does very aptly signifie it it consisting chiefly in rejecting the Pope's Autority with some corruptions which were incident to the owning of it Ans. This last Remark is nothing but a Triumph before Victory he supposing he hath produced such Objections as do enervate the Expositor's arguments for the placing the Vials after the Rising of the Witnesses whenas in truth all his Objections are as weak as water and as tender as any Cobweb as I have manifestly shewn nor is there any unprejudiced eye but will easily discern it and consequently that the Reformation begun by Luther is the Rising of the Witnesses is no fancy as the Remarker reproachfully calls it but a solid Truth and even of Mathematical Evidence and clearness And whereas he would lessen that Illustrious passage of Providence the Reformation which of a truth was very glorious and stupendious by saying it consisted chiefly in rejecting the Pope's Autority with some corruptions incident to the owning of it I say here in England for example not onely the Pope's Autority was rejected but all the corruptions of that Church that can be properly called Antichristian and such as are described in the Expositor's Idea of Antichristianism From the imputation of all which he has solidly and impartially vindicated the Church of England at the End of his Synopsis Prophetica as any one may fully understand that reades that Vindication without prejudice So that the Constitution of things as to the worship of God is reduced to the state of those times that are Symmetral before the Apostacy came in This has the ineffable goodness of God by his Providence brought to pass but that we have made no better use of it of whatever party we are lyes at our own doors And a sad reckoning I fear will fall to their share that grumble and murmur against so laudable a constitution of things under which they may live an holy innocent and Apostolick life here and hereafter arrive thereby to eternal glory The works of the flesh saith the Apostle are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Sedition Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and the like of which the Apostle tells us that