continuance is measured out by the time of the six Trumpets that is to say in the exercise of these three distinct Powers under the Name Christian the one Imperial and Magistratical the other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical in the two Horns and branches of it pretended unto of Divine Right and Institution or whether it be more diffusive in a Collective Body of Church-Rulers and as more particularly it is expressed to last twelve hundred and sixty Prophetical dayes that is to say years in the 11 12 and 13 Chap. of the Revelations and by comparing what is spoken and described in the foresaid Chapters with Chapter 17 concerning this Constitution and Face of the Christian Church and State that was fore-seen to rise up out of the dissolution of the Heathenish Roman Empire and the driving into the Wilderness the Spiritual part of the Church made up of those who are said for the heavenliness of their Principles and Converse to be those that dwell in Heaven chap. 12. vers 12. and chap. 13. 6. It seems very plain that upon the Disputes that was likely to arise in the Christian Ecclesiastical State and Government upon the bottom of the Papacy and Rule in the Church by one universal visible Head under Christ here upon Earth as one of the Horns belonging to the second Beast by Daniel called the Little Horn mentioned single because he was most Potent and for a long time was able to uphold his Authority without any considerable cruelty and division that was visible But in process of time the separation and division happened as John in mentioning of the two-horned Beast did fore-tell there would alwayes be within the bowels of the visible Church of the outward Court-worshippers a more and a less corrupted and backsliden part the one of which compared with the other would or might be likened to the earthly Jerusalem in the temper it was in when Christ was upon Earth for persecuting the Prophets and killing the Heir himself when he came amongst them As the other might be to Samaria and the worshippers of Jeroboams Calves after that he had headed the ten Tribes in their defection not only in the Civil State but from the Purity of God's visible Worship kept up according to God's Ordinances This latter being the lively resemblance of the Papacy and all that acknowledge the Papal Authority as the chief Ruler and Head of the visible Church throughout the several States and Dominions of the Christian Empire the other figuring out the Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her Children distinguishing her self from Popery on the one hand and from them that dwell in Heaven as the true Citizens of the Jerusalem that is above the Mother of all those that are Heirs according to the Promise on the other hand accounting the one Babylonish Antichristian and Heretical and the other Schismatical and Erroneous Fanatical and Blasphemous And because the Woman as the Apostle calls the earthly Jerusalem which was amongst the Galatians in his dayes as being in bondage with her Children to the Law and worldly Rudiments that perish in the using Touch not taste not handle not as Objects of Divine Worship which feed most the outward senses doth make a very fair shew in the flesh having the Form of Godliness but denying the Power of it and withdrawing from and disowning the Children of the Promise that are of a more heavenly birth and of the free Woman Therefore we shall find this sort of Professors described by John in his 1 Epist 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us and not have made a manifest distinction of themselves from us that is to say from being followers 1 Thess 2. 14 15. of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus that are the Circumcision in Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh For which cause sake the Thessalonians in adhering to the primitive pattern which shewed it self in those Churches did suffer the like things from their own Country-men the Jews among whom they lived as those Churches of God in Judea did from the Jews there who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and chased out the chiefest of the Apostles from amongst them and they pleased not God and are contrary to all men forbidding under pretence of too much familiarity with the Heathen and prophane World that the Gospel should be preached unto the Gentiles whereby they might be saved every way filling up their sins and bringing wrath upon themselves to the uttermost This is the Woman which John saw in Rev. 1. that was drunk with the blood of the Saints ver 6. and with the blood of the choicest Martyrs of Jesus at which he wondred with great admiration as little expecting to find what he saw or to reade that name written upon her forehead which he did of Mystery Babylon the great the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth with whom the Kings and Inhabitants of the Earth commit Fornication and have been made drunk with it For at last her false unchaste whorish spirit to her Lord and Husband is discovered and made manifest by the open rejection of him in his Members and by the Combination and Conjunction which she is found in with the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast and his Adherents under the Papacy thereby to make War with his Witnesses and slay them and expose their dead bodies to shame and reproach in the streets of this earthly Jerusalem who for her exceeding Apostacy and fierce Enmity against the true Temple-worshippers is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified and though she have strengthened her self as one that sits upon many Waters and who is the City that reigns over the Kings or chief eminent Persons men of Name of the Earth which the Children of the earthly Jerusalem are yet sayes he God determines to bring her to Judgment and in order thereunto the Instruments he will employ therein are the several Potentates and Kingdoms that have given their Power to the Papacy who at the time appointed shall find it their Interest to agree and become of one mind in hatred of this Whore or unchaste Spouse of Christ that sitteth upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues and shall therefore combine together to make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put it into their hearts to fulfil his Will in this Judgment which they are to execute as Nebuchadnezzar formerly did upon the earthly material Jerusalem in his days until which be fulfilled they shall agree and hold together giving joyntly their Counsel Authority and Strength in support and maintenance of the Beast that is the first and chief Horn of the two-horned Beast which is the Papacy And how to give a right interpretation of the things in
times are brought all the concurring and fore-running Symptoms and Characters thereof Secondly That the time of the End that is to say the fore-toldof day in which Christ is to judge the World in Righteousness so as to make up his Jewels on the one hand and gather them as his precious Fruits into his Granary and to kindle an Oven of his fiery Vengeance to burn up the VVicked root and branch and gather together the Tares to be burnt in unquenchable fire is at the very doors and ready to open it self upon us as the day of Redemption to the Good and Terror and Amazement to the Wicked Thirdly That this Day shall begin with the Rising of the VVitnesses clothing those that then shall be in the World with such a Ministry of Power and Glory as shall qualifie them to discharge their several Witness-bearing Duty before specified with great applause and good reception from the World God permitting none to stand before them that make resistance or opposition which shall be as a necessary fore-running dispensation for Christ's Personal Manifestation and Rule on Earth a thousand years but by these Savioxrs that thus shall be brought up upon Mount Zion as a Stone cut out without hands New Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness shall be constituted and the four Monarchies utterly broken to pieces and destroyed and the Kingdom of Antichrist and the Beast brought to final ruine and destruction The very mentioning of these three Particulars without alledging particular places of Scripture will bring them to your mind which teach and speak expresly concerning the truth of them and the matter of fact it self as to what progress and course this witnessing-work hath made from Judea where first it was lighted step by step into all Nations and Kingdoms all the World over who have been acquainted with these VVitnesses and have seen their Light shining in these Golden Candlesticks and can give an account how from time to time they have been put out and removed from one place to another till atlast the bodies of these two Prophets are found dead in the streets of the earthly Jerusalem and spiritual Egypt and Sodom if they might be suffered to be put into their Graves and surely it is not without great wisdom that these Witnesses are called Two considering the two distinct Ministries of Christ which they bear witness unto and how each Ministry hath two out of whose mouth it receives its Justification But further That this Testimony is upon its finishing point let us enquire whether the last slaying of the Witnesses declared by the sight of their dead bodies Rev. 11. fit to be put into their Graves be not already before out eyes The right opening and understanding whereof is of great use as a key to many other most considerable and difficult Scriptures These two Witnesses as they justifie Christ's second Ministry the knowledg of him in spirit are the Saints in their invisible Church-state fled into the Wilderness from the violence and rage of Persecution which Satan stirred up against them by the visible Church and Powers of the Civil Rule Government called in for assistance How these Witnesses are two we have shewed being the two Orders of Believers which Christ's Mystical Body hath been ever consisting of though rather mystically figured out than appearing as they are in the truth and brightness of their proper Glory as Heirs of the Spirit of Promise in the single and double portion thereof These in their Spirit Nature and Principles have been disowned persecuted and slain by the visible Church as much as in them lies by exposing of them to the utmost of bodily sufferings and harms and this from the time that the visible Church hath degenerated grown Papal and been defended by the ten horns of her Civil Government in the Western Empire of the World and the sharpest and most bitter Enemies to these two Witnesses are the Reformed part of the visible Church who declare their ripeness to be rejected by Christ and have the flood of the Papal Power and Tyranny let in upon them as they hate and reject the heavenly Seed and spiritual part of the Church and can find opportunity to go back again into Conjunction with the Corrupt part of the visible Church to hinder the growth of that which is Spiritual rather than to go forward and become one with it So that it might be made appear in the whole progress the Gospel hath made from East to West the Reformed part of the Church never lost ground nor was swallowed up again by the Papal till it self first took up its stand as to going on forward and refused to be more Spiritual and Heavenly being fiercer enemies hereunto than any other whatsoever And the greatest demonstration of this is given in the last act of this Enmity that hath been acted and is yet in acting to the last slaughter which is to be made of the Witnesses in order to expose their dead bodies in the open streets of this Earthly Jerusalem where they are as spectacles to be seen three dayes that is years and an half by them of Peoples and Tongues and Kindreds and Nations headed by the Papacy who shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in their graves by the Inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem who were willing enough to do it as exceedingly joyed at the sight of their dead bodies but shall rather chuse to quit those dead Carkases in way of contempt from any further prosecution of them and instead thereof apply themselves with the strength of their whole Party to strengthen and besiege the earthly Jerusalem in whose streets the dead Carkases of the Witnesses are to lye in a way of open reproach to be gazed upon and shall make a gathering against it as Zach. 14. 2. as to battel so as the event of it shall be the taking of the City and the utter ruine of that part of the visible Church distinguished from the other by the Name of Reformed which when it happens will be a Fourth sign and by conjecture this work is already begun and materials for this Siege are not only in readiness and the Design laid and the Parties agreed that are to undertake it but the open Defiance to the Battel is given and both sides fixed in their resolutions to abide the issue which will not exceed the term of three years and an half before it be fully decided Upon which decision that according to Dan. 2. 43. is to happen between these two parts of the visible Church immediately after they find they cannot pitch upon the way of piecing up together against those that dwell in Heaven though it be both their interests and that they earnestly desire and labour it Nay this Mount of Olives on which this second pair of Witnesses or visible part of the Church Reformed are that shall Zach. 14. 4. cleave also in the middest as not being able to hold longer together
of Divine Glory which Christ's Man-head is exalted unto in which he is according to his Man-head He that is above all one with the only begotten that is in the Father's bosome and hath the highest and clearest sight of God beyond that of Angels themselves It is that all Regenerated ones that are made heirs of the Spirit in the single portion thereof are built up and are Temples of the Holy Ghost an everlasting Habitation of God through the Spirit And because the same Jesus that after this first pattern of humane Perfection which is in him gives only the Witness that he is a meer and perfect man and in the exalted and more heavenly state of Manhead which he also hath as he that God the Father hath sealed and admitted to the sight of his own shape and very similitude hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than the Angels and must also give the Witness of what he is and in what Glory he lives as he inherits the Spirit in this double portion thereof Therefore by the same new creating Power which he is intrusted to administer as he gives the Holy Ghost he produces this second sort of new men and adopted Children heirs according to the Promise upon whom Christ poures out his Spirit not only by the measure and pattern or Rule of the first Creation but above it and beyond it according to the proportion that his own glorified Manhead hath obtained it in its highest exaltation admitting them into the same bosome of the Father with himself wherein he is as the only begotten into which bosome and most intimate vision of God neither do the Angels nor first sort of Heirs and Children of the Son's Kingdom ever arrive but is reserved to be dwelt alone in by this Seed of Abraham God's friend that are made Christ's peculiar Possession consisting of a select number of his choice Favourites and Friends that he Redeems from amongst all other men to make as the first fruits of his Creation to God and to the Lamb who are joynt-heirs with him of the double Portion and co-habit together with him in his Father's bosom where they see and Inherit his Glory in the Naked and Primitive purity which it hath in the Breast of God himself Experiencing as well what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when it is God's Name poured out above measure as well as by measure that which Paul had some taste of whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell upon his being caught up into the third Heavens to the hearing of things impossible for him to utter in his Bodily state nor others to receive And if thus we understand the third Heavens as indeed we ought then the finding out the other two next below them will not be difficult since the second Heaven is that wherein are the Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect upon the laying down the Body and the first that Presence of Christ and knowledge of his Name which he vouchsafes unto his Church and particular Saints in the converse they have with him here below in the Body which Paul doth also call a Heaven Phil. 3. 20. where he sayes Our Conversation is in Heaven meaning by the walking with Christ in Spirit as well as being and living in it whilest we are here in this World in which Christ is able and doth appear to our Bodily sensual part before its change and putting on that which is Incorruptible as it must do and Christ's manhead thus considered as it makes this threefold Heaven was lively represented and described by the form of building God caused the Ark to be built up in Gen. 6. 16. where the directions that are given do require Noah to make it of lower second and third stories or heights one above another like the outward Court the Body of the Temple and Holy of Holies or inmost part of the House which God commanded also in Solomon's Temple and both not without signifying this great Mystery in the glorified manhead of Christ by the Spirit and Presence whereof he makes a threefold Heaven and way of converse with the Sons of men under the threefold degrees of Light and Glory that from his Face and by the Spirit of his Mouth are given forth and hath answerable Hearers and Receivers 1. That Administration of the Light of pure Nature the effects whereof upon the hearts of the Receivers produces healing and restoration of the wound made by sin and renews a like frame of Spirit in man as to the kind of it wherein he was at first Created and is still exercising his first mutable and wavering Principles that in time of tryal fail and so end in Apostacy and Death through the weakness and fault of the Vessel not of the Liquor or Oyl which is poured out into these Lamps that in his own Nature is Incorruptible but is suffered to leak out by these broken and frail Vessels Secondly The Light of pure Nature and right Reason fixed and made incorruptible through Faith and Regeneration whereby the former frailty and leaking of the Vessel is perfectly cured without changing the fashion of it any further than what is requisite to bring it into subjection and obedience to a supream Judgment and Will given as its guide and surety to sustain and influence the actings thereof throughout The Third is the Light of Divine Love which he that dwells in dwells in God and is in the Light as He is in the Light beholding divine beauty in its original where it is most attractive and binds up the Judgement and Will of the beholders into its own likeness most willingly and irresistably transforming them into the thing beloved This is the Love which casts out fear and all torment in the cleerest evidence and greatest assurance that the Creature can possess And by this Love it is when not seen that Faith works and the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father that Spirit and Presence of the Son that is sent into our hearts which we are knit into by an inseparable union and the Soul is formed thereby into the likeness of him that doth beget in either of the two last degrees of Light and quickning before-mentioned Both which do beget that Seed of Life in the heart that is immortal the Princely prevailing conquering Seed of Believers that are the true Israel of God to whom all the Promises are sure this is wrought by the coming of the Son in Spirit into the Soul there to beget and form his own likeness in our Understanding and Will the making us know him that is true and that we are in him that is true either according to this lower or higher birth of himself of which he calls us to partake and so become Witnesses thereof in our selves and unto others This then is the knowledge of the Truth which we are to understand doth make the Adopted Children of God free with another and better kind of
and way answer but to the outward Court thereof and the Worship appertaining thereunto The former have the true inward Circumcision of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God The latter are those who at best have but the Circumcision of the heart in the letter which labours to shew it self in such outward Circumcision of language and practice as may serve to keep up a shew or form of Godliness in the sight and to the well-pleasing of man whilst they are at an utter distance even in their hearts from the very life and power of Godliness that springs up from the new nature that is found in the true Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and answer to the inward Court Paul takes notice of this in his time Gal. 4. where he distinguishes between an earthly Jerusalem that is in bondage with her Children under the Covenant of Works or Dominion of the Law and a Jerusalem above which is free and is the Mother of all that Seed of Abraham who are Heirs according to the Promise These are described Rev. 12. by the Woman clothed with the Sun that hath the Moon under her feet and upon her Head a Crown of twelve Stars This figurative description shewes the Glory of the City Jerusalem as it is above inward and in spirit who with her Children is in freedom under the Covenant and Dominion of Grace The same is also signified by the inward Court appointed to be measured by the Reed of God in distinction from the outward Court which is not measured but abandoned and given up as it were to the power of the Gentiles to be by them troden under foot and defiled 2. In this same space of time falls out the impregnating of the Woman or her growing Great ready to be delivered of a Man-child The principal care of the Apostles and other Teachers who succeeded in their Spirit in the Primitive Church described under the representation of the seven Churches of Asia and the Angels or Officers appertaining to them was to be doing what had the most conducible tendency to the hastening and forwarding this birth of the Man-child which the Dragon opposed diligently watch'd to hinder resist and if possible to devour as soon as born 3. The seven-headed Dragon's lying in wait and managing the battel against Michael and his Angels about the aforesaid birth must needs contemporize with the two fore-mentioned Particulars All the three do therefore fill up the first space of time or age succeeding the Apostles measured out by what is contained in the six first Seals and was fore told to John as that which should happen both to the Church and World until the Womans flight from the Dragon after this great battel in Heaven and retiring into the Wilderness there to be nourished of God her appointed time These three are the immediate Antecedents of those things which have been shewed to contemporize under the seventh Seal and six Trumpets that is to say the distinguishing between the inward and outward Court with the Worship and Service appertaining unto each Secondly The impregnating of the Woman And then Thirdly The battel hereupon arising in Heaven or within the Primitive Church and continuing a long time till at length the Man-child comes to be born Then the Dragon loses his credit and authority in the Church His subtilty in accusing and laying false imputation on the Brethren the truly pure and spiritual part of the Church is detected Hereupon he is cast out into the Earth confined as it were to the outward Court and the Worshippers and Service belonging to it as the only matter for him to work upon for the increase of his Kingdom by the number of Hypocrites and Apostates drawn by him out of the true Church They were in truth never of it though for a while they were in it At length they find it their interest to make a Separation from it being sensual and not having the Spirit they can no longer endure those that have it and that shine forth daily more and more in the Life and Testimony thereof The old Dragon became hereby necessitated to manage and prosecute the War with the earthly Weapons only of worldly Power and Government in a way of outward force and compulsion exercised by the power of humane Laws and of the civil Sword This Power and Sword the corrupt sensual and malignant Church founded and consisting in the worshippers and service of the outward Court getting into their hands or engaging it on their side by mingling Interest with worldly Governours committed Whoredom like Tyre with all the Kingdoms of the VVorld upon the face of the Earth Isa 23. 17. Yea this Beast with two horns so influenced encouraged and back'd the ten horn'd Beast that he became thereby fixed and engaged in his Mind as well as Power to continue and carry on the War forty and two months longer against the Woman and her Seed and to blaspheme God his Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Thus in brief Heads have we seen how the two first great Sections or Divisions of time in the third Age are filled up to wit the space from John's receiving the Prophecy of them in the Isle of Patmos to the end of the first battel or war made in Heaven and as the issue of that the catching up of the Man-child unto God and to his Throne and the Womans actual flight into the VVilderness and from thence to the rising of the VVitnesses which puts a period to the suffering season alloted to their Prophesying in Sack-cloth And as to the third and last Section of time it is that which is measured out by the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and the pouring out of the seven Vials which begins with the beginning of that Trumpet and continues till the Whore be judged Babylon sunk and the whole Kingdom of the Beast for ever ruined and destroyed This makes way for the marriage of the Lamb to be celebrated here on Earth and so for the coming on of the Kingdom of Christ into the actual exercise of a visible ruling Power and universal Empire over the whole VVorld for a thousand years Having thus had a view of the distinct periods of time together with the matter of the Prophesies which were to be fulfilled in and under each of these distinct Revolutions it will yet much prepare and help our understandings rightly to discern and look into the Mysteries of this most excellent Book if once we can but arrive at a satisfactory opening and interpreting at least in some chief particulars the things which are signified under many of the Figures and Allegorical Expressions made use of throughout the whole Prophecy For Example Let us consider these The seven Churches and the Angels of them The Throne in Heaven The sealed Book The Woman The Dragon and his Angels Michael and his Angels The Man-child The throne and seat of the Dragon's
Power and Authority The outward and inward Court The Floud issuing out of the Dragon's mouth The distinguished Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea The 144000 sealed Virgins The Palm-bearers The Remnant of the Womans Seed that keep the Commands of God and have the Testimony of Jesus The seven-headed ten horn'd Beast The Beast's Image The two horn'd Beast The false Prophet The Whore Mystical Babylon The great City that rules over the Kings of the Earth The Number of the Beast's Name The two Witnesses their hidden or obscure Prophesying in Sack-cloth their glorious Appearing and Prophesying in Power and in a Wonder-working Ministry like to that of Moses and Eliah The Kingdom of the Beast and his ascent out of the bottomless pit The slaying of the Witnesses at the finishing of their Testimony or perioding of their Sack-cloth-Prophesying and their lying Dead in the streets of the great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt The Witnesses rising and ascending up into Heaven The coming of the Wrath of the Lamb The sight of Heaven opened with the Temple and Ark therein contained The Harvest and Vintage The marriage of the Lamb The coming down of the new Jerusalem out of Heaven to be as a Tabernacle of God amongst men on Earth all the Kingdoms of this World becoming the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ The Charge given John by him that was dead and yet liveth for evermore the Amen or everlasting Truth of God Rev. 1. 18 19. was to write First The things which he had seen in the description of the fulness and excellency of Christ's Person exhibited to him vers 12 17. Secondly The things which are or the state of the Church in his time as it had for its chief places of abode those principal Cities in Asia by name expressed chap. 2 d. 3 d. together with the Representation in them as in Type and Figure of the state of the Universal Apostolick Christian Church which was to continue under the seven distinctions of time contained under the seven Seals under the last whereof six of the Trumpets were as 't were included There was that also found in those seven Asiatick Churches that did typically represent the decrease and sinking down of a great Party in the visible Christian Church into the Apostasie foretold in this Book of the Revelation until the very time of the rising of the Witnesses Thirdly and lastly John was Commanded to write the things which shall be hereafter or which were to succeed that present state in which the then seven Churches were at that time respecting as well the Corruption and Apostasie coming upon the face of the Primitive Church as the continuance of it with countenance and support from worldly Powers till the sounding of the seventh Trumpet These things that shall be hereafter when time shall be no longer or when the Mystery of God shall be finished and all persons and things shall appear plainly and manifestly as they are amount in general to the Constitution and Concerns of that glorious state of the Church which is to be from thenceforth for evermore To proceed then to the Explicating of many of the chief Allegorical Expressions in this Book of Revelations 1. By the seven Churches in Asia let us understand as in type the state of the Christian Church characterized and described as Brightman intimates under the distinct periods of time held forth by the things done during the seven Seals which reach to the sounding of the seventh Trumpet 2. By the Angels of the seven Churches are to be understood not only or principally the Officers or Persons ministring but rather the Light of the Gospel in its distinct measures and degrees administred according to the nature of the times and seasons which the things done under the first six Seals did occasion For upon the rejecting of that there was caused a gradual and successive removing of each Candlestick out of its place and the Church sinks down at length into an universal Defection and Apostacy as to the visible part of it This renders it in its concluding and final state so naucious and loathsome to God that he resolves to spue them out of his mouth and reject them for ever To confirm this we find each Church to consist of two very different sorts of Members one that are spiritual prepared with spiritual senses or eares to hear what the Spirit sayes to the Churches the other though they have the name and credit of Church-members yea and in process of time the greatest visible Power and Sway in it saying they are Jews or right Heirs of Promise yet are they not so but do lie They are indeed of the Synagogue of Satan They came out from the spiritual and better part of the Church as no longer able to joyn and go along or keep pace with them in their heavenly Life and Conversation Being sensual and having not the Spirit they separate from the true spiritual worshipper seeking their upholding and maintenance in this or that Form and Way from the Powers of the World And having once got worldly Power and outward strength and force on their side they resolved to persecute and make War upon the better and more spiritual part of the Church with earthly Weapons and by compulsion of the Civil Sword 3. The Throne in Heaven described in the fourth Chapter is the Seat which God hath made for himself in the Creature-being of Christ the Mediator as his own Sanctuary from whence to issue forth all his Authority and Power decreed to be by him exercised whether in Heaven or on Earth in the capacity of Head and universal King over all the works of God's hands He that sits on this Throne is the same that chap. 19. is cloathed with a Vesture dipt in blood and whose Name is called the WORD of God He is said chap. 5. vers 6. to have seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth and this by his being made flesh and by his Death and Resurrection in which he shewed himself the true Sanctuary which God pitch'd and not man This had been in type from the beginning a most glorious high Throne Jer. 17. 12. designed from all Eternity to be the Throne and the place of the soals of his feet whose Name is the WORD of God in order to dwell in the midst of the Children of Israel for ever and bear unto their sight and enjoyment the clear and compleat vision of the invisible God 4. The Book chap. 5. written within and on the backside sealed with seven Seals as it is part of the Vision given to John is a description of the inward and hidden meaning of the matter of this Prophecy whether as to that which more especially concerns the Affairs of the Church or that which more generally relates to the Affairs of the World and the Empire thereof The seven Seals with which it
or Priests with Christ or both that is joynt or co-heirs with Christ in the dignity and perfection of his Manhead in one or both of these Considerations of it This is intimated Isa 43. 10. Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant Christ whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me or be one in Judgment and Will with me and understand that I am he Before me there was no God formed nor shall be after me And they are called Witnesses not only because they know and believe him and are one in Spirit with him as he is a glorified earthly man and a man also that is Michael God's fellow but as they Prophesie in Sack-cloth or in a suffering state not loving their lives unto the death rather then cease to be Witnesses and to bear their testimony to the Truth when called thereunto under the greatest contradiction of sinners 9. By the Woman chap. 12. clothed with the Sun c. who being with Child cried travelling in birth with a Man-child and pained to be delivered is meant the true Sarah or spiritual Womb of Christ's dead body Rom. 7. 4. which lawfully discharges us from the Covenant of the Law or obligation to act singly by the activity it gives that we should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we may bring forth fruit unto God as quicken'd into a life and activity much more excellent There is therefore set before the eyes of our Faith the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in-Christ Jesus risen from the dead for us hence-forward to be conformed and live unto as that birth of manly perfection which shines forth in him who was crucified indeed in weakness but was raised in power or a man of Power in whose hands all Power in Heaven and Earth is intrusted And those who become one in conjunction of Spirit with him by the new and everlasting Covenant are with him caught up to the Throne of God in the one or other capacity before intimated of the two sorts of Citizens that by the new birth are members of the Heavenly Jerusalem and of the remnant of the Womans Seed that keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus The great Contest and Battel which happened between the Witnesses on the one part comprehended under the name of Michael and his Angels and the Serpent and his brood on the other was as the one were Friends and the other Enemies to the Cross and Death of Christ and as the Judgment Opinions and Practises of the one or other made void or else established and advanced the Mystery and Efficacy of the Cross and the Law of it which those that observe and follow peace will be upon them as on all the Israel of God In this Quarrel the Witnesses do fight under the protection and blessing of Michael their Head as the other do under the support and encouragement of the Old Dragon their Head 10. By the Old Dragon we are to understand the Spirit that rules in the Children of disobedience who is for the present Head and chief Ruler over the World as managing the universal Scepter thereof by Christ's permission The Ensigns and Characters of this Empire according to Scripture phrase is seven heads and ten horns intimating the nature as well as perfection and universality of that worldly Power which is exercised by the Old Dragon in waging war against the Woman and her Seed This War he is capable to manage either as an Angel of Light and a false Prophet in the Church or as an universal Monarch and Governor in the World In the first Capacity as this Dragon transforms himself into an Angel of Light and Minister of Righteousness he works with all Power Signs and lying Wonders As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses and Aaron in their Commission so do the Serpent's Seed in Sheep's clothing and Christ's own likeness resist the Witnesses in their Testimony and oppose the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem by pretending a greater Friendship to Christ and conformity to his written Law in all their words and actions than the true Seed of the Woman having indeed the form of Godliness but denying the Power and Spirit thereof After this manner did the Dragon and his Angels in the Primitive Church fight with Michael and his Angels to prevent the birth of the Man-child and to keep up the Credit and Authority of the Law and their following after Righteousness in the Principles and upon the terms of the first Covenant in opposition to the Ministry of the Spirit according to the Promise and Tenor of the new and everlasting Covenant This battel continued in the Primitive Church about four hundred years and came at last to this issue Satan was cast down out of Heaven upon an evident discovery of his deceitful workings and lying wonders in the Teachings and Inspirations which came out of his mouth as a false Spirit and Prophet so that he was not able singly this way to bear up any longer against the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit of Truth in the mouth of the Saints but found himself necessitated to resort to his earthly and worldly Weapons the Power of the Civil Sword that so joyning both his Interests together that of the Magistrate and false Prophet he might grow up into such a formidible posture as is mentioned Chap. 13. 4. where it is said Who is like unto the BEAST or able to make War with him This posture the Apostle John beheld the Dragon putting himself into when the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arose out of the Sea and the two-horned Beast out of the Earth Both of these together do become the Seat or Throne to which the Dragon gave up his Power and Authority The first of these two Beasts receives him as the old unclean prophane heathenish Spirit they that are meant by that Beast are still the same in Principles as before only outwardly baptized into the name of the Christian Profession or Religion when Christian Religion became the Religion of the Roman Empire Thus was that Beast healed of its former Wound when Paganism was destroyed and pull'd down And because the bare name of Christian Religion or out-side Profession thereof without something of real Reformation and Power of inward Principles was not of credit or authority enough to advance Antichrist's Kingdom therefore the Ministry of the Law or first Covenant even the knowledge of Christ according to the flesh as it is capable to serve the Serpents Seed for a cover and vail of their enmity against the Cross of Christ and Power of his Resurrection doth spring up over the head as it were of the first Beast This second Beast or branch of Antichrist's Subjects and Kingdom with two horns like the Lamb but speaking as the Dragon chuses rather to joyn Interest with the first Beast than to suffer the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem to come out
Faith as the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus This is that perfection which by conformity with Christ in his Death and fellowship with him in his Resurrection is in a most eminent degree attainable before our dissolution and the putting off our earthly Tabernacle It shall be so far attained by the Power and Glory of Christ that is to be revealed in us that it shall not much fall short of a very Transfiguration And the state of the then glorious Church will be no less than an Heaven upon Earth in the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness This glorious state of things we look for and therefore are or ought to be hasting a-pace unto the coming of that Day of God Yet when I say until we experience this kind of perfection in Power in us that which is perfect is not yet come my meaning is not that the incorruptible Seed and Principles of this very perfection are not already seated and rooted in the inward man and in the Spirit of the Mind so soon as we are regenerated and that Christ is formed in us dwelling in our hearts by Faith Thus it is that we are all glorious within Thus the Kingdom of Heaven is within us liken'd to the hidden Treasure which when a man hath found in the field he keeps it concealed till he hath sold all that he hath and bought that field Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of that Glory which doth not yet appear is not unfitly expressed when it is called a light shining in a dark place that is in our bodily and sensual part which continues so for a long time after our new birth But those that are all glorious within must have their time of manifestation and be made all glorious without also The outward-man of the heart and the outward Court of the Temple must come to be measured and be of account and estimation in the sight of the World Then the whole body shall be full of light having no part dark as when the bright shining of a Candle doth give thee light This is the Perfection which is near us even at the very door ready to be testified and witnessed unto after another manner than those do pretend to who are for the subjecting and keeping under the body but by those mutable and wavering Principles of Perfection which amounts but to that visibility of Saintship which is the subject of Apostacy yet hath hitherto passed for currant Coin Nor would I have it thought that I have already attained the powerful practice of this holy Duty and Perfection but it is much in my desire aim and hope The difficult Circumstances I am in and that I am still more and more every day cast into by God's wise-disposing Providence to the sequestring me from the World and with-holding all sensible Comforts from me so much as he doth make me in some sort confident it is for a good end and that out of love and faithfulness I am made to drink of this bitter Cup the better to help forward this necessary work in me and upon me wherein consists the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God If I may have and enjoy this it would seem a very little matter to me to be in outward bonds banishment want or any other afflictions Help me then in all your solicitudes and cares about me to what will further and advance this Work in me The Lord grant me and mine to be content if he deny us to live of our own and will bring us to the daily bread of his finding which he will have us wait for fresh and fresh from his own Table without knowing any thing of it before-hand Peradventure there is a greater sweetness and blessing in such a condition than we can imagine till we have tryed it This may add to my help even our making little haste to get out of our Troubles patiently waiting till God's time come wherein he will open the Prison doors either by Death or some other way as he please for the magnifying his own great Name not suffering us to be our own chusers in any thing as hitherto hath been his way with us And why should such a taking up Sanctuary in God and desiring to continue a Pilgrim and solitary in this World whilst I am in it afford still matter of jealousie distrust and rage as I see it doth to those who are unwilling that I should be buried and lie quiet in my grave where I now am They that press so earnestly to carry on my Tryal do little know what presence of God may be afforded me in it and issue out of it to the magnifying of Christ in my body by Life or by Death Nor can they I am sure imagine how much I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which of all things that can befal me I account best of all And till then I desire to be made faithful in my place and station to make confession of him before men and not deny his Name if called forth to give a publick Testimony and Witness concerning him and to be herein nothing terrified What then will the hurt be that I can or shall receive by the worst that man can do unto me who can but kill the body and thereby open my Prison door that I may ascend into the pleasures that are at Christ's right hand prepared for those that testifie and openly discover their love to him by not loving their lives unto the death Surely this will prove better than to prefer sin or evil so much as in appearance unto Affliction and the Cross which Christ would have me take up daily and follow him in If the Storm against us grow still higher and higher so as to strip us of all we have the Earth is still the Lords and the fulness thereof he hath a good store-house for us to live upon There is nothing more destructive to us every way then the uncertainty we are in God can and if he think fit will chalk out some way wherein he may appear by his Providence to choose for us and not leave us to our own choice And being contracted into that small compass which he shall think fit to reduce us unto we may perhaps meet with as true inward contentement and see as great a mercy in such a sequestration from the World as if we were in the greatest outward prosperity I know nothing that remains unto us but like a tossed Ship in a storm to let our selves be tossed and driven with the Winds till he that can make these storms to cease and bring us into a safe Haven do work out our deliverance for us I doubt not but you will accordingly endeavour to prepare for the worst March 7. 1661 -62 FINIS ERRATA In the Epistle to the Reader Page 1. line 30. leave out if and now In the Epistle General Pag. 6. l. 9. f. well r. dwell P. 7. l. 30. f. manhead r. manhood the same word is so misprinted all along and to be so corrected P. 8. l. 23. f. their r. your P. 10. l. 39. leave out or would not P. 15. l. 17. f. or r. nor l. 37. r. see him not P. 21. l. 30 31. leave out the fountain of these outward senses his inferiour part to be in his Soul or Spirit l. 37. f. his r. it s P. 23. l. 17. r. much as hearers P. 24. l. 22. f. and r. which l. 23. leave out in P. 25. l. 9. f. of his r. for his P. 26. l. 10. f. are r. seem l. 40. f. duly r. daily f. by r. find P. 27. l. 9. f. other r. one l. 40. leave out not P. 28. l. 6. f. by r. amongst P. 29. l. 7. f. first r. last l. 25. f. perfection r. perfective l. 29. r. to the. P. 30. l. 22. f. his r. Christs l. 28. leave out which P. 33. l. 1â— f. nor r. or l. 23. f. by r. thereby P. 34. l. 8. f. his r. it s l. 28. f. into r. unto P. 35. l. 7. r. witnessing in every respect l. 39. f. their r. the. P. 37. l. 3. f. a r. as P. 38. l. 27. f. our r. open P. 43. l. 14. f. so r. to l. 37. f. Monarchs r. Monarchies so p. 44. l. 8. P. 45. l. 14. f. whereby r. whereby P. 48. l. 25. f. heads r. headship l. 35. f. one r. his own P. 52. l. 23. f. directed r. discerned P. 53. l. 21. f. duty r. duties Many other obscurities through the mistake of words and misplacing of Points have happened in the Printing of this General Epistle by reason of the several difficulties that attended its Publication It being twice taken in the Press and two Presses well furnished with Materials taken away in the doing of it Errata in The Face of the Times Page 64. line 26. for forme runder read former under P. 70. l. 33. f. unto r. into l. 37. leave out or P. 78. l. 36. f. o r. or P. 95. l. 10. f. doubtess r. doubtless