ease in their Possessions and had rather things should run on in the old corrupt Account than to have a New and Just Reckoning But since these things must of necessity come to pass for Gods Prophecies are not Poets Fables they may as well fend off the Blow by a due Provision as to encrease their Misery by an unexpected stroke The Ark is open and they may enter in if they please and prevent being destroyed by the Deluge This Prophecy now no more remains a sealed Book God has opened a door and no man shall shut it This Mystery which has been hid from Ages is no more a Mystery being now clearly revealed and so it will stand to all Generations Great and Marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Just and True are they Ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear and glorifie they Name for Thou only art Holy All Men shall come and worship before Thee for they Works are made manifest Of the Death and Resurrection of the WITNESSES THe Death and Resurrection of the Witnesses is a Truth almost of as great Importance as the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour They being the Counter-part of that Great Scene All the Empires in the World are interessed in this Great Truth 'T is the Pole-Star by which they ought to steer and in not observing it they run great hazard of splitting their Vessels I therefore take the liberty of addressing my Enquiry into this weighty Affair to our present Powers as before which may give them much Light in all their Counsels and Consultations 'T is well known what Alterations and Changes the Birth of our Saviour made throughout the World how it overthrew all the then-existing Powers upon Earth and what Method there was used to do it This is but the same thing acted over again in another part of the World That by a simple Birth and This by a complex Birth The same Methods of Conquest will be used viz. Nothing but Predication and Vociferation And we that live at so great a distance for us to have the same Scenes renewed and the same Actions re-acted amongst us is a singular kindness from Heaven Hitherto we have taken things upon Credit and Hearsay But now we our selves shall see with our Eyes and hear with our Ears the wonderful things of God To have things brought to our own Home is a wonderful Condescention for which we cannot be too thankful to Heaven And since we know on what Rock the Eastern Nations split This is a Blazing Beacon for us and we shall be doubly guilty if we split on the same I cannot err in my Enquiry so long as I take Christ along with me for my Guide For He is the Way the Truth and the Life The Grand Pattern of all things in Heaven and in Earth These Witnesses are his Body which ought to be conformable to their Head in all things Christ saith Except a Man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now Christ is a Man and to fulfil all Righteousness He ought to be born again But our Nicodemus's will say How can that be He is in Heaven and cannot enter a second time into the Womb of Mary 'T is true but He has a Body here below his Church which is himself and this may be renewed or born again and ought to be so before it can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven or the Millennium which is a Shadow of it We are to come from strength to strength from an imperfect Dispensation to a more perfect until we come to God in Zion Christ Racks off his Truth from Vessel to Vessel till it be perfect Spirits till Man becomes an Angel whose place he is to supply Now what reason his Church has to be purified and made clean is plain The Sun is coming to the Tropick her Lord is to make her a Visit and she is but in a filthy pickle to recive Him In her long Voyage from the East she has contracted a great many Pollutions passing through many polluted Cities and Countreys over-whelmed with Superstion and Idolatry There is the greatest reason imaginable that she should wash her self in the Waters of Purification that being found without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing her Lord may take delight to dwell with her In the Scriptures there is mention made of The Times of Refreshing from the presence os the Lord and of the Time of Restitution of all things which can only be meant of an Accidental Change and not a Substantial as some would have it The Times of Restitution are Accomplished by Changing all things chengeable by making every thing New which can be Renewed or in the Scripture-phrase by SHAKING those things which can be SHAKEN that those things which cannot be shaken may REMAIN Now before I can well proceed further I ought to divide the things of this World into Two Classes viz. of Changeable and Vnchangeable and this will tell me not only When God has renewed all things according to his Promise but How For his Work will of necessity fall in the Changeable Class as it has done in every Dispensation hitherto Christ in one place is said to come with the Clouds which may very well be understood in the Changeable Class in which all the Thunders and Tempests are formed But the Vnchangeable Class is the Firmament which is to Remain or not to be moved And the Instruments He will use in changing all things changeable will be the Church Regenerate or New-Risen-Witnesses and this by a New Predication as Soldiers of the WORD with their Swords in their Mouth Predication and Vociferation are the only Artillery the Lamb uses to beat down the strong holds of Satan But as to Those Two Classes The Immutable I divide into Seven Heads and the Mutable into Five as follows Things Immutable to Remain 1. Religion or the Worship of that God which made the World being an indispensible Duty is Immutable Under this Head I mean the Christian Worship 2. Truth Being the Attributes of the Immutable God are 3. Justice both Immutable and must remain to the end of the World 4. Power or Government without which the World would be a Chaos and therefore Immutable 5. Pleasure and Pain Being the two great Wheels on which all Humane Actions run And I can by no means consent to his opinion who saith Men must live without Pain in the Millennium 6. The Common Effects of things Natural and Moral As of the four Elements That Fire will burn Water quench c. That Industry Piety and Frugality will advance single Persons Families and Kingdoms and that Luxury Sloth and Profaneness will always have the contrary Effects What accidental Alterations or differing Effects the said Causes may at any time have come not into this Account 7. Eating and Drinking Marrying and Giving in Marriage Buying Selling Building and Planting will continue to the End of the World Necessity making them Immutable
of Ground or an Inch of Power but what is given by him He therefore who has received from him the First Fruits of Power and Empire in England who has been preferred before all the Monarchs of the World being constituted his First Delegate He I say who has Received First ought to pay his Homage First and to Erect such a Monument of Gratitude as may be a Pattern to other Nations to all Generations I speak not so much of a Glorious City as a Tent Colledge or Tabernacle to shew the way and make a beginning And was it a City the thing is very feasible for if every little Village can rear a Church sure a whole Nation can quickly build a City In this Tent Colledge Tabernacle or City let there be built as for the Prophets of old a little Apartment for each Prophet putting a Bed a Stool a Table and Candlestick there and a sufficient Number being Annually chose out of all the Counties by Lot let them Twelve times a Year issue out and heal the Nation When this is done Righteousness will quickly cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea We shall have no dark Corners or barren Mountains but every thing will be full of Light and every thing will flourish and be green like the Paradice of God Indeed the Advantages of this most Excellent Administration are inexpressible and is worthy of the Great Contriver God Himself Then we shall know what the New Moons and the Sabbaths mean for Earth will Eccho to Heaven and we shall in a manner have a Sun Moon and Stars here below keeping due time in their Motions and Circulations with them above What the Sun is in the Heavens or the Heart in Mans Body the same will this City be in every Nation But Jerusalem in Palestine is to be the Head for to Her the great Stream of Promises belong The Text saith And Thou O Tower of the Flock to Thee it shall come even the First Dominion The Kingdom shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem Jerusalem will be the Royal Seat or House of Christ Kingdom for The Name of the City shall be THE LORD IS THERE That is He will be there in a most Glorious manner but not Personally His Name is called Wonderful Counseller 'T is extreamly probable his Presence will be there after the manner he was in the Temple of old viz. Oracularly And since I am come to the City of Ezekiel it will not be amiss to observe the position of it and of the division of the whole Land which is exactly like a Man For there are the Lot of Five Tribes above and Seven Tribes below and the holy Portion for the Priests and Levites in the middle and this City in the upper part of the holy Portion answering the Heart exactly the holy Portion below answers the Belly and Intrails which are esteemed holy And the Princes Portion lies on both sides the holy Portion East and West like two Arms. to guard and defend it And 't is said They that serve the City shall serve it out of all the Tribes of Israel This seem but Reasonable for this City being the Heart supplies the whole Body with Salutiferous Juyces The Preachers do issue out Twelve times a year to heal them and there is the greatest Reason in the World that the whole Tribes should serve it by Administring such Conveniencies and Necessaries as are suitable And that the Inhabitants of this City are Preachers tho' the Text be silent yet is a thing without all contradiction For the Waters that issue out first to the Ancles then to the Knees then to the Loyns and at last to be like a River not be passed over these Waters I say do plainly manifest that the Gospel and Preaching is meant hereby and their Salutiferous Virtue does confirm the same And another Prophet is more apposite to the thing saith he In that Day Living Waters shall go out of Jerusalem half of them towards the former Sea and half of them towards the hinder Sea in Summer and in Winter shall it be Here is the exact Method and Administration pointed at and the Continuance of the same saying In Summer and in Winter it shall be Now 't is not possible to spell any thing out of this so clear an Expression but the Gospel and Preaching The Apostle to the Jews levels the whole of his Discourse to this New Dispensation for as it were rejecting the former he saith Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of Laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment These all seem to be the matter of the last Dispensation and therefore he leaves them and designs to speak of something higher implyed by the succeeding Verse And this we will do if God permit And he makes Christ to be the chief Administrator in it saying For unto the Angels he hath not put in subjection the World Dispensation to come of which we speak And afterwards he tells them But ye are come unto Mount Zion and to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels To the General Assembly and Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant And to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel This City is of a Heavenly Nature ministring in Spiritual things in which the General Assembly of the New-Risen-Witnesses do convene The Latin Version is Conventum Concionem implying a General Assembly of Preachers and their Names being written in Heaven answers to that Conscript Number which John mentions stood on Mount Zion and we cannot suppose that Heaven is meant thereby But this as I have before intimated for their Security in opposition to the Jewish Genealogies which are kept so strictly on Earth And for the Ministration of Angels God has always used them to Minister to Those which shall be Heirs of Salvation And no doubt but they will be imployed in a more especial manner in this most happy Dispensation This New Jerusalem can by no means be Heaven for Isaiah after having brought in God making a New Heaven and a New Earth he brings in the Children of Israel building Houses and inhabiting them and planting Vineyards and eating the Fruit of them which are things inconsistent with Heaven And 't is said The Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory into it which they cannot do into Heaven For Heaven needs no Glow-Worms to enlighten it And to represent any Church-state which is past there 's too much Beauty and Symmetry in it for that It must needs therefore presigure something to come And if it be
City-Administration For God shall create upon every Dwelling-House of Mount Zion and upon all her Assemblies a Smoak of a Fire by Day and the shining of a flaming Fire by Night and upon all the Glory there shall be a Defence The Sun it self is to be ashamed when God reigns in Zion before his Ancients gloriously The Political part of this Worlds Oeconomy being screwed up to the Harmonious Pitch of the Natural there 's a Non-plus-ultra and we can go no further Nature is the utmost Bounds and is the Handmaid to that Eternal Bliss which is to be revealed in the presence of God for ever The Prophets are so full in their Descriptions of the Glory of this Administration that to come up to any tolerable measure of its Commendation I must transcribe them all and then fall far short of it too For to describe the Beauty of Nature is in a manner to describe GOD Himself who is the Fountain of it which is impossible But there is one of the Prophets put the Old Dispensation and the New in a Ballance his words are these Before these Days there was no hire for Man nor any hire for Beast neither was there any Peace to him that went out or came in because of Affliction for I set all Men every one against his Neighbour But now I will not be unto the Residue of this People as in the former Days saith the Lord of Hosts For the Seed shall be prosperous the Vine shall give her Fruit and the Ground shall give her Encrease and the Heavens shall give their Dew And I will cause the Remnant of this People to enjoy all these things This is a most gracious Promise and that God may be as good as his Word he binds Satan up all the time of this Oeconomy for should he still be loosed things would go on as formerly nay worse but being overcome in this last Battel God promises that neither he nor his crew shall Live Again as formerly when Defeated by Constantine but that they shall be as Drones without Stings and lick up the Dust of the Earth and lie prostrate at the Feet of the New Jerusalem or Church Regenerate for the whole time of this Dispensation The Rest of the Dead lived not till the Thousand Years were ended Then he and the rest of his impudent Dead Vassals will attack this City and Fire comes down from Heaven and destroys them But during his Imprisonment She Rules as a Queen and as the Soveraign Empress of the whole Earth but in an Hierarchical and Spiritual manner and not in an Imperial For Christ was a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck During this Reign there will be no more Appeals to Rome but to Jerusalem for there the Court of the General Assembly of the First Born will be held every Regenerate City sending yearly their Members to serve in this Heavenly Parliament God doth not abolish the Old Jewish Priesthood of Aaron nor the Babylonish one at Rome but puts a far better and more Excellent One in their room and this the Apostle hints all along in his Treatise or his Epistle on this Subject to the Jews he mentions a Rest to the People of God which is nothing else but the Millennium and HE the Heavenly Melchisedeck is supream Administrator in it as Aaron was in the Old Dispensation of the Jews He makes a Comparison all along betwixt one and the other and prefers one in a high degree before the other by all which it may be plainly understood Christs Reign is after a Spiritual Priestly manner and if it had not it had never been put so much in opposition against the Whore and as for the Temporal Power He delegates that to whom He pleases and disposes of it so thorough the whole time of the Millennium that no King or Potentate in the World shall be able to disturb or hurt his True Church The Bride has a Husband invested with all Power in Heaven and in Earth and is sufficient to maintain her against all Whorish Beastly or Satannical Usurpations whatsoever and He will use all his power to Cherish and Caress her to compensate her Sufferings under former Usurpations during his Minority He disposes his Power so that the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour and lay it in her Lap this is but their Duty and as I may say a Tythe to this Royal Melchisedeck who to requite their kind Protection and Kindness to his Spouse Blesses them as Melchisedeck of old did Abraham and this bringing their Glory and Honour into it stands in direct opposition to that Evil Treatment and Barbarous Affronts the Kings of the Earth of Old put upon her who butchered her Servants as Sheep for the Slaughter for which vile Indignities He now takes Revenge and casts the Beast and the Whore into the Burning Lake Men may raise many Mountains of Difficulties against this New Jerusalem But hear what God saith Who art thou O great Mountain Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a Plain And He shall bring forth the Head-Stone thereof with shouting crying Grace Grace Joshua is brought in by the Prophet standing before the Angel in filthy Garments and Satan at his right Hand and the filthy Raiment is taken away and he is cloathed with Priestly Raiments and a Miter set upon his Head Joshua here is the Representative of the Witnesses in Sackcloth or the Suffering Church in the Old Dispensation And Satan seems to be angry that she should be delivered from his Tyranny and stands by and accuses her of all those Backslidings which he has tempted her to and as it were infers from thence that she is unworthy to be delivered But God rebukes him The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee Is not this a Brand pluck'd out of the fire This Rebuke is that Great Battel fought by the WORD and Satan in which Satan is Defeated and the Virgin-Church Delivered out of his Clutches and a Crown or Miter set upon her Head The Text saith They Lived and Reigned as Priests with Christ a Thousand Years That is all the time which Satan and his Accomplices lay under the Angels Rebuke By this Pair of Witnesses Zerubbabel and Joshua is plainly hinted to us how the Millennium will Commence Zerubbabel is to overthrow all the Powers or Mountains of Opposition and so the Church Regenerate is Deliver'd and he is to assist Joshua in the Establishment of her for it is said The Counsel of Peace is betwixt them hoth The Text saith That The Man whose Name is The BRANCH shall rise out of his Place and build the Temple or City I know not how to make Christ come from Heaven Personally to build this Temple I know He is the Root and Off-spring of David and so may be called a Branch but all his Building is of a Spiritual Nature he builds up his Church Spiritually conferring Spiritual Gifts
of their Sufferings in their Foreheads which they have suffered under the Usurpation of the Whore in every Age successively And these Marks confirm and ratifie their Claim and give then a Passo-porto to enter into the Millennium which is the promised Land of the Christians The Witnesses before stood in naked and unfinish'd Lines in Chiar-oscuro as the Italians call it But here they receive their finishing Strokes and stand all in their proper Colours ranged in order successively in every Age during the whole time of Satans Usurpation who after his First great Defeat in Constantine's Time Lived Again and crept into Heaven in the Livery of the Church transforming himself from a dark Angel into an Angel of Light If what I have wrote be considered narrowly 't will be deemed altogether as reasonable to expect that Abraham Isaac Jacob Reuben Simeon Levi c. should all rise out of their Graves and return with their Successors the present surviving Jews into their own Countrey as that the suffering Saints in all Ages should rise out of their Graves and reign Personally with Christ in the Millennium When we give persons or things Names the Name is usually adapted to the quality of the person or thing denominated So here the Old Church being brought to Bed of the New-risen Witnesses they are baptized with a Name which has respect to the Quality of their suffering Natures When the present Jews go into the promised Land Abraham Isaac and Jacob Reuben Simeon Levi c. may be said to go into it because They go into it who are their true and legitimate Off-sping So if the true legitimate Off-spring of the Old Church the old suffering Saints or Witnesses enter into and enjoy the Priviledges of the Millennium they themselves may be truly said to enter and enjoy it The Souls c. are but Patriarchal Names of the Christian suffering Tribes and their Names in their Foreheads distinguishes them from the common Mass and incorporates them into a Body or Nation which Sealed Nation have suffered as much amongst the Gentiles nay more than the Nation of the Jews and are and have been as much dispersed throughout the whole Gentile Body These are the Sheep of another Fold and tho' their Genealogies be not kept so strict as the Jews on Earth so as to make them a distinct Nation yet 't is better and more exactly kept in Heaven where their Names are as well written as the Name of their Fathers on their Forehead here on Earth And they may have as great Assurance of entering and enjoying the Priviledges of the Millennium tho' at present scattered through the Gentile Body as the more distinct Body of Jews of entering into the promised Land For their Covenant is sure having this Seal The Lord knows who are his And when he makes up his Jewels he gives a Copy as it were of their Genealogies to the Angels who going through the four parts of the Earth look for the Seal of their Sufferings in their Forehead and so pick up two of a Tribe and one of a Family the whole making the Regenerate Church or sealed Nation which sealed Nation enjoying the Priviledges of the Millennium as the true and legitimate Off-spring of the old suffering Church The old suffering Church or Witnesses themselves may truly be said to enjoy them they enjoying them in their true Off-spring As well as Abraham Isaac and Jacob c. may be said to go home to their own Countrey their present surviving Successors and true Off-spring entering into the same And tho' the Text saith They yet this word They imports no more than St. Paul's We when he saith WE shall not all dye but shall all be changed c. 'T is plain that by We he neither means himself nor those he wrote to but the Saints of the same Piece or Body which should be alive at the time of the general Judgment The Comparison is easie And tho' I could say much more in confirmation of this Head in relation to the Consequences and many Absurdities which would arise from a literal Resurrection yet I will forbear thinking what I have said to be enough to convince any reasonable Man The next thing to be enquired into is the Nature of Christs Reign which I deny to be Personal since he said when he was leaving the World And lo I am with you always to the end of the World which is plain and manifest must be meant in a spiritual manner that we should have his influential ministerial or spiritual presence but not his personal And in the end of the Revelations The Spirit and the Bride say Come that is they invite all to drink of the Waters in allusion to the Prophet of old this plainly indicates that They were only in being at that time for had the Bridegroom been come without all doubt he would have invited the Guests himself and not the Bride 'T is plain He was come only in Spirit but not in Person for both before and after this in the same Chapter he saith Lo I come quickly which would never have been said had he been come already And all this must be understood at the near expiring of the Jerusalem-state according to the common Rule of Interpretation That he was come by his Spirit influencing the Bride in the whole Conduct of her Administration is very plain since the Text joyns the Spirit and Bride together saying The Spirit and the Bride say Come but that he was personally come there is not the least appearance at all Further It being plainly proved that the Saints rise not literally His Coming and Reigning must be of a piece with their Rising and therefore not literal His Coming must certainly be after a spiritual manner as is plainly hinted in that Text God manifest in the Flesh justified is the Spirit Which Spirit will first be poured out on his New-risen Witnesses or Church Regenerate being his Body in the Scripture phrase But to look a little farther into the Nature of Christs Reign I must with submission look first into the Nature of Satan's Reign who from the beginning of the Creation has usurped upon his Rights and been his great Antagonist Now I find Satan got into his Temple and sat in and defiled his Throne That is in the Heart of Man for 't is said The Prince of this World rules IN THE HEARTS of the Children of Disobedience Now Christ comes and throws him out of his Throne and Temple and takes possession of Mans Heart influencing all his Words Thoughts and Actions bringing every Thought into captivity and to his obedience And where should the Remedy come but where the Disease is Any Outward Application would be like brushing a Mans Clothes to cure him of the Collick the Plaister ought to be where the Sore is The Wise Man saith Out of the Heart proceed the Issues of Life And a Wiser than Solomon told the Pharisees That all Defilements proceeded from
within The Inward Powers being purified and set to rights the Outward Powers fall in of course and so the whole Creation quickly recovers its Native Beauty Therefore the first Act of Soveraignty which Christ will exercise will be to purifie the Heart there he begins his Reign of the Millennium If he should come in Person and be in the Air accompanied with an innumerable Company of Saints and Angels as some imagine Alas what would this sight do It would surprize us and we should gape for a little while but it would quickly wear off for we have the glorious Body of the Sun Moon and Stars and all the Beauty of the Creation without us but they have but little influence over us one small Ray of God in the Heart is more than all the Outward Aypearances whatsoever Satan therefore being a cunning Adversary when he came to conquer the World observed the Heart to be the chief Post and made his first Attack upon it and having conquered it and placed his Black Guards there he quickly became Master of the whole World But Christ comes to destroy the Works of the Devil to heal where he has wounded and to build up what he has pulled down and to raise the Creation out of that confusion in which Satan by a long Mis-rule has put it The first Act therefore of his Reign is to regain the Heart and that being secured all the rest come into due subjection And this consideration brings me to my Text. There has been a continual War fince the Creation berwixt Christ and Satan but in this Book particular mention is made of Three Great Battels if the last may be called one In the first Satan is thrown out of Heaven in the second he is thrown out of Heaven Earth taken Prisoner and bound and in the last he is thrown into Hell But this last is not so much a Battel as a Siege or Assault Satan in allusion to Ahaziah sending some of his Captains of Fifty to attack the Saints Camp and Fire comes own from Heaven and destroys them all At the First Battel or at least at the Mustering and Raising his Soldiers Christ was 〈◊〉 a White Horse and at the Second upon a White Horse and 〈◊〉 White-Linnen-Followers and at or after the last upon White Cloud But before I proceed any further I must note Christ's Wars are always of a two-fold Nature by the Word and Sword the Word first proclaims them and then retires into the Rear and the Sword in the Van leads the Armies was Lieutenant As for instance in this Second Battel First the Word gets upon the white Horse and proclaims the War raising an Army of white-Linnen-Followers which are his own Peculiar Army And these are nothing else but Preachers proclaiming a New Dispensation as is self-evident by their Swords being in their Mouths instead of their Hands and of being cloathed in Fine Linnen instead of Steel And tho' the Word's Garments are dipt in Blood 't is of the wicked Soldier 's and not of he own drawing These I say march at first in the Van proclaim the War and bid Defiance and then draw off into the Bear then comes up the Sword or Lieutenant or the Angel in the 〈◊〉 who is the Champion or Goliah of the Word who like him having first summoned the Fowls of the Air to a Treat presently fall on upon the Dragon or Satan and his Armies and Totally Routs them and when he has Routed them then comes up the Word in the Rear and compleats the Victory Preselyting the rest of the World by Preaching for the Text saith The Remnant were stain by the Sword of him that sat upon the Horse whose Sword proceeded out of his Mouth 'T is plain the Angel in the Sun or Constantine the second doth the Rough Work and is the Great Executioner He levels the Mountains and forces open the City Gates that the King of Glory may come in the VVord is nothing but the Word Preached and not a Person as some would have as is plain by the Sword in his Mouth which is the Sword of the Spirit Not by power or by might but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Things standing thus the Forces of Satan who is Prince of this World being Routed and himself their Generalissimo taken Prisoner he 's not ransomed or bailed since none will be accepted but sent to Prison for a Thousand Years So All the World become the Kingdoms of the ord and his Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords The whole Earth is his now as well by Conquest as by Right of Inheritance all the Inhabitants of the Earth become his Vassals and lie Civilly dead before him The whole Race of Mankind are All concluded under Death their Power and Dominion which is their Life not only devolved on him as of Right the Usurper being Expulsed but also by Conquest by force being taken from them Now the first thing this Mighty Conqueror doth as is the custom of Conquerors He has a respect to his own Trusty Followers and Servants who assisted him in his Conquest to them therefore in the first place he saith Rise and Live That is He Invests them first with Power and they being the first of the Civilly Dead which receive any Power are said first to Live and Rise and this is called the First Resurrection which truly and really is so in a double sence because they are the first Receivers of Power and because 't is the first time that ever Holy and Good Men were so Solemnly Advanced they being to this time not much better than Civilly Dead always labouring under the death of Perfection Tribulation and Affliction Now as to The Rest of the Dead the Text saith They lived not again until the Thousand Years were ended That is The 〈◊〉 of the Conquered received no Power which is Life till the Thousand Years of Satans Imprisonment is ended as the 〈◊〉 and Holy Men do Rise and Live in Christ so the Wicked at dead in or with Satan for Imprisonment is a Civil Death and Christ will let the defeated vanquished or dead crew of Satan to have no Life or Power whilst his Saints Reign and He gives his Saints the Church Regenerate or New Risen Witnesses a Royal Lease or Pattent of Power for a Thousand Years and 〈◊〉 they may have no Rival but be undisturbed all the time 〈◊〉 their great Adversaries to their good behaviour during 〈◊〉 time and here is the greatest reason for this immagiâ—â—â—â— For after his defeat in the last or rather in the first 〈◊〉 by Constantine this cunning Quack healed his Wounds and 〈◊〉 Again creeping into Heaven or the power of Empire in 〈◊〉 of the Church which Power he has Usurped for 1260 〈◊〉 therefore sufficient caution is now taken by binding him 〈◊〉 he Live not Again as before and that he may not palm upon the World any more Whores laying them like changlings in the
These Seven when the Great Shaking comes must all Remain and be of Use and Practice in the Millennium whatsoever Dreams some may have to the contrary Things Mutable to be Shaken 1. The Will of Man and every thing subject thereunto or that has dependance thereon has been is and ever will be Changeable 2. The Opinions of Men as to their differing Sentiments and Notions of things have been are and ever will be Changeable 3. The Differing Ways amd Modes of Eating Drinking Marrying and Giving in Marriage Buying Selling Building Planting c. in all Ages have been are and ever will be Changeable 4. The Outward Forms of Civil Government and the Administration of Justice are Changeable Witness all Histories and all the present Forms now in use 5. Lastly The Circumstantials in Religion as to the Outward Administration are Changeable of which there needs no proof The World being at full Age 't is time it should know its own Constitution And that the whole Oeconomy thereof is comprehended under the above Two Classes or Twelve Particulars I think none that has had but a little converse therein will deny me These therefore allowed me for Authentick I have some ground to stand upon And if I can find a Body of Men upon Earth which have made these Five Changes That is Whose Wills are changed whose Opinions are changed who have made a sober change in Eating Drinking Marrying and Giving in Marriage c. and who have made an absolute and intire change in the Outward From of Civil and Religious Government I say If I can find such a Body of Men in the whole Christian World who have made all these Changes I am in a fair way of finding my New-Risen-Witnesses for nothing else can be changed And this will extort a Confession from me That God has fulfilled his Promises of making all things new having changed all things that are changeable in this World And it makes not much to have things in their Perfection if they are truly begun and stand upon Perfect New Foundations 't is enough Good old Simeon sang the Nunc Dimittis when he saw Christ only an Infant Men cannot suppose that things should receive their Commencement and Perfection all at once And the Nature and Progress of the Kingdom of Heaven is all along to be observed in our Enquiry It ought not to be forgotten that 't is compared to a Grain of Mustard seed to Leven to a Stone out of the Mountain and to Waters that at first rose no farther than the Ancles By all which the gradual Increase and Progression are plainly intimated Christ being a single Man was the Grain of Mustard-seed He preached the Word and empowered the Disciples first the Twelve then the Seventy to preach the same through the Towns and Villages And in this nature and after this manner His Gospel by degrees was Published and Dispersed throughout the World This is the Pattern and after this manner the Gospel will be Restored One single Man of the New-Risen-Witnesses will first begin to Preach and so will be instrumental in Collecting and Raising a Body of Men who tho' simple and ignorant yet by the Assistance and Power of the Spirit of Life from God entering in them will cast themselves into such an Exquisite Mold and Constitution that the most refined Polititians in the World shall not be able to contrive the like That the New-Risen-Witnesses will make their Appearance and Progress into the World after this nature I think there is no Man will be so disingenuous as to deny me because 't is so like Gods former Method and because there is a Necessity the Body should be conformable to the Head in all things And further That these things ought to be so 't is unanswerably proved by Him that sat upon the white Horse followed by Armies cloathed in white Linnen with their Swords in their Mouth and whose Name was called The Word of God All the Divinity and Philosophy in the World can make nothing else of an Army so Equipped but an Army of New Preachers sent forth to Proselite the World to the Doctrine of the Restoration To think that any old Model should be pitched upon for a Pattern when Christ said He would make all things New is a very inconsiderate and sensless thought There 's no properer way can possibly be contrived then to Raise a New Body of Men out of the mass of the Whole who may Leven the whole Lump and may be as a Pattern or Standard Lifted up for the Rest to Repair to Nor is there a more proper way to raise such an Army than by Beating up for Voluntiers by a New Predication This is that Righteous Way that Christ has pitched upon to make War in in opposition to those inadequate and unrighteous ways of all the preceding Monarchies I will therefore take it for granted that we have such a Body of Men amongst us who have practised the same Method and have changed all things changeable in this VVorld and are a Body perfectly New in Temporals and Spirituals in their vvhole Rise coming up to the true and genuine Notion of a Resurrection And I knovv not vvhy I may not call them the New-Risen-Witnesses since they have so fair and just a Title thereto And since I have given them this Title I ought to deduce it regularly from the True Race of the Old Ones who can only give them a Just Claim It now therefore falls in my way to speak something of Them By the Old Witnesses I understand not Two Men or Two Books nor any single Church in any particular Nation but the Body of true and faithful Christians in all Christian Nations bearing their Testimony in all Ages during the 1260 Years Apostacy against the Mystery of Iniquity and the Usurpation of the Whore of Babylon on their true Rights Now the Text saith When they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascends out of the Bottomless Pit shall make war against them and overcome them and kill them and their Bodies shall lie in the street of the Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified And they of the People and Kindred and Tongues and Nations shall see their dead Bodies three Days and an half and shall not suffer their dead Bodies to be put in GRAVES And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and shall make merry and shall send Gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the Earth And after three Days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their Feet and great fear fell upon them that saw them And they heard a great voice from Heaven saying Come up hither And they ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them And the same hour there was a great Earthquake and the Tenth part of the City fell and
place for the Servants of God in each Nation for the Dispensers of his Word to dwell in and it ought to be as our Saviours Sepulcher in which 't is said Never yet Man lay For had the Spouse layen in such an one before She had had no occasion of Repentance and had not now been called a Church Regenerate So many Vile Idolators having lain in Rome Corrupted her Manners and Conversation and made her unfit for her Lords presence What Irregularities and Confusions there have been in the last Dispensations I think will be needless here to enumerate they being so plain and self evident to the World and that the principal cause and occasion of them has been what I mentioned I think is a like manifest The Dispensation of Moses was much better than this Last for he appointed Thirteen Cities for the Priests and Forty Eight for the Levites through all the Tribes of Israel The Servants of God were not left to scramble for their Livings in such a precarious manner as ours but had their due Lot of Land allowed them for a Possession which indeed was the greatest Due and Justice in the World And God appointed Moses to do it And when they came into the promised Land they applied themselves to Joshua and Eleazer And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the Land of Canaan saying The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us Cities to dwell in with the Suburbs thereof for our Cattel The Lord commanding this thing not only shews the Justice but the Fitness and Properness of it And I challenge all the Skill and Wisdom of the Universe to propose a better Way and Method of Dispensing Gods Word than what He here doth Himself in this Chapter of the New Jerusalem There is a River of Life and a Tree of Life in the midst of this City which no Skill or Learning in the World can make any thing of but must of Necessity allow it to be the Gospel and the Preachers thereof And to what purpose can the Twelve Gates serve but that the Preachers may go out Twelve times a Years or every Month to heal the Nations 'T is said The Tree yielded its Fruit every Month and the Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of the Nations And the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour into it This shews the Millennium to be rather an Hierarchy than a Monarchy as I hinted before And this Constitution of Circular and Itinerant Predicants doth confirm the same The Inhabitants of the City are a Royal Priesthood a peculiar People zealous of good Works But some say This New Jerusalem is Heaven because it comes down from above The Millennium is the Morning of an Eternal Day and this Jerusalem-state is a Type of Heaven but not Heaven it self because the Text saith plainly it comes down from Heaven and therefore cannot be Heaven it self It is said to come out of Heaven because of the Excellency of its Constitution being contrived by God himself and because 't is a Copy of the Heavenly Motions answering it in all its Circular Revolutions But if Men consider it right 't is a very strange Opinion to make all the other Scenes through the whole Prophecy to be on Earth and this to be in Heaven they may as well make Solomon's Temple in Heaven as to make this City in Heaven As his Temple was the Perfection of the Tabernacle so this City is the Perfection of the last Tabernaculous Dispensation of Babylon The Bride and the Whore are always put in opposition to one another and to make one upon Earth and the other in Heaven is to go against the whole current of Scripture-Analogy This City can be taken no other way but in a Literal sence And Men that only Gaze and speak at Random may be surprized But whoever doth soberly and seriously consider of the matter must needs Vote for me in this Case There is such a Torrent of Reason and Justice on my side that I cannot well see how any one can withstand it All Men will acknowledge that God made This World as a Theater to display his Glory upon the Five Empires are no other but Five Acts And the Altar Tabernacle Temple Mock City and True City are the Five Scenes Jerusalem is but the Scene of the Fifth Act which always is the best And 't is usual in the Last Act to have all the Actors on the Stage at once For first there are the New-Risen-Witnesses or Church Regenerate then the Jews then the Whore and her Retinue and lastly a Set of Idolaters throughout the World Every one are to be rewarded according to their Merit The Witnesses are the principal Actors in this last Act and are Risen but as yet enter not publickly till The Scene of the New Jerusalem be Drawn when The Stone which the Builders rejected becomes the Head Stone of the Corner But I spoke of the Reason and Justice of the thing Is it not a most Just thing that the Lord in Chief when He comes to visit the World should be served with the best Furniture and lie in the best Room in his own House He has had the First Fruits of our Flocks and our Herds an Altar for the Earth a Tabernacle for our Tents a Temple for our Houses But he has had no City yet And 't is fit he should be presented with the first Fruits of all the Compositums as well as of the Simple and Natural Things on the Earth The Kings of the Earth have built to themselves many stately Cities and called them after their own Name Saith one Is not this Great Babylon which I have Built for the House of the Kingdom and for the Honour of my Majesty And this is the cause which makes the Earth mourn and the Hail-stones of a Talent the Bombs ruine so many Cities Men build their own Houses and neglect Gods David would not do so He would not lie in Cedar when the Ark of God was in Tents But now the WORD OF GOD is on his White Horse in the Fields and like Jacob must lay his Head upon a Stone For He has no Tent at all But 't is hoped ere long this thing will be considered by our David when the Wars are over and when God shall give him Peace round about Again Nebuchadnezzar calls Babylon The House of the Kingdom Every Kingdom is to have a House or Principal City in it Now all the Kingdoms of the World are become Christs and 't is the most reasonable thing in the World that He should have a House in every Kingdom as Lord in chief and Proprietor of the Whole This is but a very reasonable Sacrifice to Him who can enter upon the whole Premises when He pleases At this very time He is Soveraign Lord of the Universe The King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that by a Decree ordained Him from Eternity No Monarch in the World has a Foot