by which they are all kept in a close successional Connexion one with another and the seventh Seal hath its Hold upon the whole even to the last Day of Judgment when the whole Book of the Kingdom is resign'd back into the Hand of God out of whose Hand it was received by Christ seal'd 1 Cor. 15. 24. c. I am therefore now and in the first place to speak of the first part of this second giving of the Line of Time and that as in the Seals before it came to the Trumpets 1. And because there is one general Preface to this whole Repetition of the Line of Time I shall first consider how adequate it is to the whole Line and to the great Administrations of it in a brief or summary Survey of it For to assure us The Preface was to the whole Apocalyptical Book or Time adorn'd with new Figures and Sculptures John heard the first Voice that spake to him and it was as it were of a Trumpet saying to him I will shew thee Things that must be hereafter Rev. 4. v. 1 2. and immediately he was the second time in the Spirit where the Distinction of things hereafter from the things that are as Rev. 1. 19. was made only as the Types of the Churches had a real Existence at that Time as Types in the then begun Christian Church but the following were deriv'd from things to come And after this there was no more any such Voice of a Trumpet speaking to John no more being in the Spirit except a being carried in the Spirit into the Wilderness to see the Apostate Church and then to a Mountain to behold the Holy City The Voice speaking again c. 10. v. 8. evidently relates to the first Voice in that chap. saying seal and write not v. 4. and then take the Book and eat c. and c. 1. 10. c. 4. 1 2. not to these Trumpet-Voices 2. At this second Apocalyptical Volume we have the great Theatre of the Throne and the whole Grandeur of it and adorn'd every way suitable to the Doctrine of the Gospel and as it were in the first Apostolical Church settled first in God as the Doctrine of the One God made known in the Father the Son and the Spirit is the Foundation of Christianity For the Father the Word and the Spirit bear Record of it in Heaven and these three are one in that Record as they are in themselves ONE 3. About this Throne at each Angle or at each of the four Points of it are four Living Creatures so I choose to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Beasts properly and distinguishingly in this Prophecy call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these four Living Creatures represent the Apostolical Church of the New Testament as in four Ternaries or Threes of the twelve Apostles in perpetual Action and therein as it were encircling the twenty four Elders of the pure Israelitish Church The Elders are upon Seats round about the Throne and with Crowns on their Heads as being of old a Kingdom of Priests and they are in this Prophecy introduc'd in Service to the Kingdom of Christ that shall be at the New Jerusalem together with and as by the Apostolick Church who shall be Kings and Priests together with them represented by these four and twenty Elders Heads of the priestly Courses who are first plac'd as leading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom by Prophecy but yet in the very first Action the Order is revers'd and the living Creatures are first in giving Glory First there is the particular Song to the Divine Nature on the Throne as the absolute Creator and Lord of all ending in this For thy Pleasure all things are and were created and so are absolutely under his Dominion and Dispose before whom they cast their Crowns 4. The grand Symbol of the whole Apocalyptical Time and its Events and of the supreme Conduct and Government till they issue into the Kingdom of Christ is the seal'd Book in the Hand of Him that sat on the Throne seal d with the seven Seals which Seals have under them the whole Course of preparatory Events to this Kingdom and the Kingdom it self till it be resign'd back to God Thus Daniel saw Prophecy and Vision seal'd up Dan. 9. and the Book seal'd Chap. 12. 5. There is Proclamation made by the loud Voice of a strong Angel for the finding out a worthy Person to open the Book and loose its Seals And none in Heaven or Earth was found worthy to open the Seals or so much as look thereon All which is certainly as Divine a Symbol to set out the supream and sole Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ as far above all Principalities and Powers and every Name in Heaven or Earth as could be found out and surpassing all Understanding or Invention finite and is in surprize of any Admissions of Angels or Saints into any parts of his Mediatory Office the very least so much as an Ability to look thereon as also to foreclose that grand Antichristian Assumption of the man of Sin for his very Supremacy is hereby plainly declar'd to be Antichristianism who undertakes not only to look upon this Book but to open the Seals and herein he shews himself in the Temple of God as God 6. The much weeping of John that none was found worthy to open the Book does most exactly and critically point to the time of the Death of Christ or his lying in the Grave when there seem'd a Despair upon all the Creation in that dark Interval and a suspension of the Consolation of Israel and when all the Apostles had given up as it were the hopes of it of which the Apostle John was here a Symbol and represented all the Apostles 7. The same Article of Time is farther assur'd and confirm'd by the one of the Elders as a Representative of the whole Israelitish Church who lead to Christ Thus Christ open'd the Scriptures of the Old Testament especially of Daniel That Christ was thus to suffer and to enter into his Glory viz. of sitting first at the Right-hand of God till his Foes should be made his Footstool He sate down on his Fathers Throne in his Father's Kingdom He shall have a Throne and Kingdom properly his own 8. Christ hereupon exactly as in the Time according to the History of the Gospel appears as on the sudden and unexpectedly in the midst of the Throne of the Elders and the living Creatures a Lamb as it had been newly slain and now risen and ascended and so the Epoch of the Apocalyptical Time is most strictly defin'd and fully assur'd And at this Point of Time he receives the Book which is the very same with sitting on God's Right-hand till his Foes shall be made his Footstool for when the Book is unseal'd and the thousand Years begin Then there is a putting down all Rule and Authority At the End of the thousand Year and the Day of
late Other Parts of the reform'd Church have not pursued the true Principles of the Reformation the Regulation of all Things in Doctrine Worship Conversation and Discipline according to the pure and perfect Rule of the Word of God but that Word in many things is regulated by Antiquity not considering how early the Mystery of Iniquity was at work and where the Foot of the account of the Beast's Number ought to be plac'd even at 25 or 26 from the Resurrection Revel 3. v. 1. c. so that these as in the Church of Sardis affecting too much outward Pomp and Grandieur are to strengthen the Remainders which are ready to dye that are to fill up the Reformation to endeavour to open the Voices of the Thunders among themselves and to prophecy more vigorously before Peoples Nations Tongues and Kings concerning which Things the generality are so asleep That there are but a few Names who have not defiled their Garments but will be in great danger of a shameful Devestiture or Degradation when Christ appears Revel 3. 3. compar'd with Revel 16. 15. The Church of Philadelphia although in a general Zeal to have a perfect Square with pure Evangelical Truth be indeed v. 7. c. in Being yet not come to make the Apocalyptick Line of Time by its proper Interval or space nor can do before the end of the 1260 days as it is drawn upon these Churches to the New Jerusalem which appears in Philadeph and the Right of a Church Their Door of the Profession of Christ according to his Word is endeavoured to be shut although Christ as by immediate Power hath hitherto kept it open yet They of this Church have but a little strength outward Power or Glory Revel 3. 7. c. The Synagogue of Sathan is ready on all Accounts and at all Advantages to Dissinagogue them and cast them out to controul and brow-beat them and that Synagogue must be of the Reformed so the naming them Jews imports as in the Church of Smyrna Jews signified Christians in Profession but becoming Gentiles so here it signifies Reformed but so far relaps'd as to be falsly so call'd who are at the same elevation of Corruption the Apostacy was at in the Church of Smyrna Not long before the 1260 dark days came in so that though they disallow the Apostacy since that time yet they are ready to Cannonize it so far as to that Time it had proceeded and might if they had Time find the same Path to the same End Yet still they escape the Beasts Number 666. Now in regard of all these things it is most evident The Witnesses must be yet in Sack-cloth but they are if they are not wanting to their own Priviledges and Office like Moses and Aaron commission'd to smite with Plagues as often at they will that is to declare the foulness of the Apostacy to Revel 11. 6. remonstrate the Bestianism and Antichristianism of it and to foretel the seventh Trumpet and its Voices and Vials in Ruine of the Kingdom of the Beast and the great Judgments to be executed on his City Church Himself and his false Prophet and all the Impenitents of his Kingdom from first to last and also to declare the Redemption of the whole Israel of God from this spiritual Egypt and its Slavery the opening the Temple that the Ark of the Testament the Tabernacle of Testimony may be seen in Heaven and the Kingdom of Christ appear in the New Jerusalem And this they may do as often as they will That is There is abundant Evidence of Prophetick Truth to do it by There are abundant Promises of Acceptance Favour and Support in the doing of it so that it is a Remisness of Will that is of Zeal not to do it For Blessed is he that heareth and they that read the Words of this Prophecy especially when the Time is so near at Hand The last part of this Time is the most Glorious because Revel 11. 11. c. it issues out into the seventh Trumpet and then those great things will come to pass in Preparation of which all that was at the beginning of that Time was but a shade and semblance Then the Spirit of Life in full and perfect measure shall enter into the Witnesses and set them on their Feet and great fear shall fall on them that see them there will be then so wonderful an appearance of divine Power and Judgment as upon the Apostles Doctrine and Miracles in the very first Times Where if things had gone on with the same Power from Heaven as at first the Kingdom of Christ had then appear'd but the Mystery of Iniquity surpris'd them at 25 or 26. There shall be a Voice calling them up to Heaven and as in the Cloud wherein Christ himself ascended They shall Ascend and whereas only the Servants of Christ beheld Him Their Enemies shall behold them which speaks the publickness of their Ascention and the mighty Influences it will have And in the same Hour the Tenth that is the Decem Principality of the great City viz. most necessarily That great City in which the Witnesses lay dead in the breadth of it fell For when the Ten Horns that give State and Altitude to the Beast fall off from his seventh Head the Woman that sits on the Beast which is this very same City-Church must needs fall from that Height with which the Beast carried it while exalted with his Ten Horns which substantial Reason will recompence for the seeming Impropriety of such a use of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Tenth being both in Dan and this Prophecy so essential to the Beast that carries the Woman The Ascent of the Witnesses into Heaven I understand to be some Exemplification on Earth of the Glory and Triumph The Witnesses of Christ that have gone out of the World suffering for Christ in any degrees of Martyrdome have at this time in Heaven upon this change of the World to Christ's Kingdom as undoubtedly the Saints have on all such Changes even as the Angels joy in the Repentance of Sinners As the Saints in Heaven triumph'd at the Desolation of Heathenism or the casting down of the Dragon The Exemplification then of this on Earth by the exalted state of the true Servants of Christ there is the Importance of these Symbols And in the same Hour oppos'd to the same or one Hour of Revel 17. 12 13. the Ten Kings receiving Power with the Beast and giving then their Kingdom to him and therefore comes now into a fit Counter-parallel There shall be an Earth-quake such a mighty Concussion shake and change of the State of the Christian World that Cities shall be removed as it were and not be the same they were before That great City although it shall remain on its Heap yet its tenthly or Ten Kingdom'd-state shall utterly fall seven thousand not Names only but Names of Men shall be slain They shall be slain in
upon that and other the Visions of Ezekiel relating to Time I have at large treated in that afore promis'd Discourse only I cannot omit the Prophetical Cypher of Time translated from the 40 Days for forty years in the Wilderness is here solemnly given with its Key as of perpetual Scripture use from thence I can with great Truth and Sincerity make Protestation It was no part of my Design to enter a Dispute with any Perswasion of Christians but only to pursue the Line of Time as it reaches that illustrious Sabbatism for which I find Eminent Persons of all Perswasions have very great Favour But doing this I could not avoid but that the Antichristian Apostacy as seated in the City that in the Time of the Revelation given and its Prince are so fathally enwrap'd in all parts of Prophecy that they must be every where attack'd yet I have taken care to do it only in the Terms and Phrases of Prophecy and as the necessary Explication of it and its Times enforc'd Notwithstanding I had no such Intention I find no Discourses upon or against that Apostasie in any degree comparable either in clearness or assurance if disjoyn'd from Prophecy as when conjoyn'd with it either for determination of Theological Doctrinal Controversies or Differences in History or Chronology as when such corrupt Doctrines superstitious Innovations in Christian Worship Usages and Usurpations in Christian Discipline entred the World and at what rate of Detestation they ought to be Had All these are more certainly and more briefly resolv'd when Prophecy hath the umpirage for little Intimations either deriv'd from Grounds of Scripture or Reason or from History and General Opinion when Prophecy inclines with them or supposes things agreeably with them will weigh against vast Volumes on the other side with which Prophecy propends not Thus I am much more assur'd by observing what is after fully discours'd from Prophecy concerning Image-worship however palliated that it is that so much detested Idolatry forbidden in the second Commandment then from all Rational Discourses with Prophecy however grounded on Scripture but not compar'd without Prophecy for a fuller Interpretation of it I am much more assur'd in what Class of Religions and Churches that Religion and Church is to be repos'd that on such Terms calls it self Catholick by laying them into the Prophetical Scales then by the most considerable Moments of Discourse without Prophecy I know better when a Church-Supremacy entred by the Prophetical Era joyn'd with that however it may be by any controverted Agreement of History that Phocas gave it Anno 606 then I can know by some very learned Tracts concerning it I better understand of what small avail that Distinction betwixt the Court and the Church of c. in Vogue with some great Names can be by offering it to the Prophetical Test then by any other way of Exploration although I look upon the Distinction as a Confession extorted by Divine Judgment upon both from Prophets of their own that that Court is the Court of the Beast and that he ought to have such a Court that the Prophecy might be fulfill'd And what a Church it is I learn from the Prophetical System of the Churches of which I have given a brief survey though it does not so expresly concern Time yet as most admirably illustrating as well as concurring with other Prophetical Iconisms and Characters of Time And to every part I have added Brief Remarques directing to that Faith and Patience of the Saints to that keeping the Commands of God and the Testimony of Jesus which are the use of all the Discourse that at that Glorious Resurrection It may be said of us Here are they that have so done Revel 14. 12. Thus I have given Account of what is now drawn in full and whole and what only in little in short Calendary Proportions which I intend if God please to give in more proper Dimensions as also to make compleat concerning the Churches concerning the Voices and Vials concerning the thousand years what is rather in Perspective then in just Figures of Discourse I have only to add that notwithstanding speaking or writing the Word of God I must obey the heavenly Visions throughout yet as that teaches me I yield all the Regards Deferences of Honour and esteem due to the Character Learning Vertue general Profession of Christianity that I can render to every Person and much more to Princes and all in Authority however of a Communion I could for this Prophesies sake most earnestly pray and even offer my Life in the Service they might not be of But nothing can be more effectual against Rebellion Sedition or any Irregularity towards Government and supream Power then the Right Vnderstanding of this Prophecy For while Holy Prophecy styles them Kings who yet give their Kingdoms to the Beast the plain Doctrinal and Preceptive part of Scripture obliges as to fear God so to Honour those whom It so styles Kings and then Prayers Supplications Intercessions giving of Thanks should be made for them and for all in Authority Nor is it possible any Pretence of setting up or advancing Christs Kingdom can justifie any Rebellions mutinous or seditious Commotions seeing hitherto It is most evident they have proceeded upon mistakes of Time And when ever that Kingdom shall Appear The manner of Appearance is mistaken also for it is not as from Earth but as from Heaven Heavenly Spiritual Pure Peaceable yet Efficacious and Almighty Regular Orderly conducted by lawful Sovereigns even those who till the Words of God are fulfill'd have so given their Power so that as well may the Doctrine of the Day of Judgment which no created Power can produce or oppose be made a pretence for Rebellion as the Doctrine and Prophecy of Christs Kingdom or be complain'd as dangerous to Government or destructive to Humane Society That therefore we may be Aright guided by this sure Word of Prophecy that shines as a Light in a dark place is my Grand Design in this publication even till it be wholly Unriddled and Unveil'd as it shall be when it Turns to the Lord just then Appearing however it be now Veil'd when it looks from Him as at a distance 2 Cor. 4. 3. v. 13. 16. from that Appearance and towards us for our Instruction and as inviting our Diligent search first and then our Expectation Prayer and earnest Desire for the Quick Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ especially now his Appearance grows so near And that we may be thus guided is also the most Humble and Incessant Prayer of My very Honoured Your most Faithful Servant in this Work Beverley If any Person either Friendly and from desire of further satisfaction in this Point or Unfriendly and from Prejudgment please to make any notice of it to me I doubt not by the Evidence of this Prophecy and the Gracious Assistance of the Spirit of it to satisfie their Doubts and remove their Prejudice upon fair Allowances
as to the State of the Church all along these Seals past There was a plain Appearance of it in the Apostolick Voices till just the Entrance of the fourth Seal From that Time these Voices ceas'd which had so far as supported by the Characters of Imperial History declar'd to us the Times and States of the Church as before drawn out in the Labour and Patience and Sufferings of the Ephesine Church while those Apostolical Voices lasted although there was such a Leaven of the Apostacy hid in it that it was charg'd to have left its first Love one great Instance of which was in Victor's Excommunication of the Asian Churches upon the score of the unwritten Ceremony of keeping Easter at all much more unwritten as to Criticism of Time which made that so great Fewd The Fifth Seal so plainly opens in the Sufferings of the Seal 5 Christian Martyrs as to assure us This Prophecy as also other Scripture-prophecies and Notes of Time are for the sake of the Church and not of Heathen Empires and States yet by the Course of the Seals we may easily know at what hour of the Empire it was as by referring to the peculiar foregoing Church-prophecy we know under what Symbol of the Church it lies and from both That it was the last and cruel ten Years Persecution or ten Days Tribulation begun by Dioclesian while the Christian Church was under that peculiar Symbol of the Church of Smyrna That it was about the Time of Dioclesian the Current of the former Seals and the immediately following Desolation of Heathenism under Constantine assure us That it was under the Symbol of the Church of Smyrna its peculiar Character of Sufferings and ten Days Tribulation make out as also in that there was no longer any Apostolical Voice but the Voice of Souls that were gone out of martyr'd Bodies it signifies the Synagogue of Sathan near an height and from that very occasion of the Tombs Relicks Memories and Veneration of Martyrs and Trust in their Negotiation out of the Body for those they left behind in it growing much higher However God graciously accepts this Suffering Church and lays no Imputation upon it but only on the Sathanick Synagogue He seems to have more respect to the Souls Complaint than to the Survivers of that Church He appoints them white Robes but as unconcern'd in Mediations for any in this World they are commanded to rest and there is on their Instance a Signification of a new Roll of Martyrs under Antichrist when the whole Number of those of the first Resurrection should be compleat over whom the second Death should have no Power This Seal then is the very Joynt betwixt the Kingdom of Paganism falling but not yet fallen and that short Appearance of Christ's Kingdom in the Christian Empire till Theodosius the Great The Army of Martyrs had not yet overcome by the Word of the Testimony which they held The Kingdom of Christ was not yet celebrated with that Doxology chap. 12. But there was nothing came between this Cry of the Souls and that Kingdom although speedily surpris'd by Antichristianism into which Pagan Demonolatry was first transplanted on this very occasion of Martyrs Sufferings compleated within this Seal especially And thus we have the State of the Kingdom of Christ in the Church within this Seal assur'd by one of the most famous Monuments of Ecclesiastick History The sixth Seal is that great Seal opened by which the Heathen Seal 6 State of the Roman Empire was demolish'd and which carries most abundant Instruction of this whole Time of the Seals and also of the Kingdom of Christ in his Church during that Time 1. That Heathen Idolatry that had seated it self as in the Heavens and from thence reach'd down it self into the Earth and in the Deep is as by an Earthquake remov'd from below and as by a Tempest above is dismounted and deposed from thence so that here Sathan as the Dragon was cast down from Heaven as by Lightning according to the Vision chap. 12. 2. The Emperours or Kings of the Earth and all its great Men lay'd aside their Greatness even to their Imperial Purple and Diadems as particularly Dioclesian the Arch-Persecutor and Maximian with him mov'd not so much by any thing as by a divine Terror by the Fear of him that sate on the Throne and of the Lamb. And this is given as a lively Type of Christ's glorious Appearance in the Destruction of his Enemies Who will be able to stand in that Day of his Wrath What Mountains Dens or Caves will then open to receive affrighted men 3. From hence it plainly appears What was to be open'd by Christ's opening of these Seals even no other than the glorious visible Kingdom of Christ and not his spiritual Kingdom only As an eminent Assurance of which He declar'd himself in the preaching of the Gospel and a Crown was given to him as an Acknowledgment of his Right though to obtain it he was to go out conquering and to conquer Here then in this Christian Empire beginning at the sixth Seal and so going on in the seventh Seal to Theodostus's Victory over all the Remains of Heathenism after Julian in the Senate Magistracy and People of Rome gather'd to a Head in Eugenius and Argobastes This Kingdom appear'd as in an Emblem and earnest of it self and so it is celebrated chap. 12. with Praise and Triumph as in Heaven though even there surpris'd 4. Here the State of Christ's Kingdom in the Church is solemnly declar'd and also as in the Christian Empire In the Church to shew the high towring Synagogue of Sathan There is no Voice of the Church but of an Angel crying to the four Angels not to hurt c. a certain Indication of bad Symptoms appearing at this in it self happy Change 2. There was a pure Church and Kingdom of Christ yet publick and visible but upon the Retreat for it was just now retiring and about to be seal'd that is under that over-growing Synagogue 3. This Kingdom of Christ in his Church was to have abating the general Unhappiness of fallen sinful Man a more quiet and illustrious State than heretofore viz. in a Christian Empire for till the whole Time of sealing the Servants of God was past the four Angels that had the four first Trumpets were commanded to hold the Wind that no such Hurt could be done upon the Empire as was after to be done when they sounded This was Smyrna's Crown So that tho' God had determin'd the Period of the Blood-guilty Roman Western Empire as Imperial yet it was kept off till it became Pagan-Antichristian a new Paganism Then God gave it in Wrath after a Time an Antichristian King its former Imperial King being taken away in Wrath first 5. The precise Time of Sealing that is of covering all the True visible Glory of Christianity in the Christian Empire is hereby set viz. until the First Trumpet For till all was sealed no
now the Church was indeed out of view by the Apostasie introduc'd by the Gentiles the Beasts people under the other Beast so that the False Church hid the True as in a wilderness The Gentiles crowded the True worshippers into a clos'd Temple The Daily was taken away The witnesses were in Sackcloth where then could the True Church be seen All was scatter'd no Body of a Church appear'd but the Antichristian to this state things grew more and more under the Regnancy of the Beast till the Woman was fled from the Serpent himself All this is then to be accounted to the Beast serving the True Church by Gods overruling Hand so far as that it was out of the Dragons reach who was deceived thinking to strike the True but the False lay bleeding In the mean time Satan however in his Serpentine and draconick Nature jealous of any thing of Christ even in his own Kingdom first persecutes the Empire by the Barbarians where He knew the woman very lately was by her bringing forth the Manly Birth He struck at it by way of distinction in his own Aym but finding He could not reach it by the rude strokes of the Barbarians but the Eagles wings had convey'd it away and finding that those Barbarous Nations setled by degrees into the Antichristian Christianity and so help'd it forward into the wilderness He then resolved to be sure of it attempted to swallow it by the Mahometan Flood But This neither distinguishing it nor succeeding because the Bestian Earth drunk up the Flood not only receiving it upon it self but maintaining the name Doctrine Profession and Church state of Christianity so far as is necessary absolutely to Antichristianisme and its Kingdom so drunk up the Flood by setting it self against the blasphemous monstrous Mahometan Imposture and with a deadly hate because Mahometanism is no less against Antichristianity than Christianity so the Serpent disappointed is wroth and as so necessitated determines now to sift for his Ends by Draconism refin'd into Beastianism Heathenism guilded with Christianity but pointed and edg'd with Antichristianisme which is a compound of the Dragon and the Beast And because this Antichristian state allowed such a thing as a Christian Church tho but it self only He can make war only with the womans seed And to the purpose and as we say with a Vengeance He makes War with the womans seed who keep the Commandments God and hold as witnesses the Martyry of Jesus that is by the Beast whose History immediately follows cap. 13. and to whom the Dragon deputed his power and seat even Great Authority which Delegation the other Beast that spake as a Dragon viz. the False Prophecy received and managed for him the Grand Beast until He came to his Image and Number and so the Dragon and the Beast continue together till the Beast is taken and cast into the Lake and the Dragon and all his Draconism bound Chain'd and Seal'd up by the Kingdom of Christ appearing Rev. c. 19. c. 20. v. 1. And this is the True History of Draconism as entred into Bestianism by which it plainly appears the scattering of the Power of the Holy People or the state of the Woman in the Wilderness is wholly owing to the Beast and his Bestianism whose are Time Times Half Time and that the Dragon and his Persecution were wholly defeated by the Bestian Apostacy conveying the Church from the Serpent till He wrought by the Beast and made over his Power to Him in revenge upon the Womans Seed it self being still safe Now how admirable is all this according to the Symbols the Beast still in all appearance and semblance secures Christ on the Throne while it supplants his true Kingdom and Power for how could Antichrist's Kingdom stand if Christ were not in Title upon the Throne But how could it stand if Christ did indeed reign No it presently falls then or rather vanisheth away Again the Wings of the Apostatiz'd Empire while they convey the true Church out of all ordinary Visibility yet secure it in the Name and Notion of a Church the Beast's Earth thus helps it for a Christian Church is his Claim and Title to his Kingdom but it must be hidden for a true Christian Church visible destroys his Kingdom Thus all things even to Astonishment at the divine Prophetick Wisdom have a Harmony in Truth greater than that of the Spheres in Imagination Mahometans and Pagan Infidels by subverting Christianity necessarily overthrow Antichrist's Kingdom also it is in indispensable need of Christianity so far as a Pretence goes but the Brightness and native Glory consumes it while Christianity under a false mask supports it true Christianity scorches it to nothing as will be seen at the Vial pour'd into the Sun true Christianity and the Church therefore must be hidden and in the Wilderness and its Seed persecuted as if not of the Church that false Christianity and the false Church may reign in its Absence under its Name and Appearance Thus while the Dragon persecutes in his Aim and Intention the Christian Church the Apostacy pretending it self the Vniversal Church conveys the true Church into a Wilderness and so befriends the Notion of a Church while it conveys it out of sight the Dragon by the Beast makes War with the Seed and scatters them that they could not possibly be found in the Body of a Church not but that the Church was truly visible in the single Witnesses however anathematiz'd but it could not be reach'd in a Body even by the Serpent himself for it was not in a Body and yet the Notion of a Church was dear to the Antichristians for They and the Beast usurp'd it At this Time therefore according to this Prophecy it could be no Argument against the Church Where was it or It was not visible in a Body for it was not to be visible in a Body but in the Suffering scatter'd Seed So that it was hid from the very Serpent And yet even to the end of the 1260 Days there is a Mahometan Draconism levelling at Christ Christianity and the true Church but falling almost wholly upon the false Church and the Antichristian King and his Subjects who is therefore always principally concern'd to drink up this Flood and so helps the true Church by his Earth There is nothing at the present I can think necessary to add to this Explication of the Apocalyptical Dragon but that the whole Vision Rev. 12. to v. 13. is presented as in Heaven so that the Assumption of the manly Birth the Joy upon the Dragon 's casting down upon the Kingdom of our God being come c. is given as in Heaven and is reserved also in Heaven till the glorious Appearance of Christ and there is no more but such an imperfect cognisance of those great Things upon Earth as was given by the Christian short Empire to be expected till that glorious Kingdom of Christ at the end of the Beast's Reign which may
remove any seeming Objection arising from the sudden change from such a Glory into the Apostacy so soon after entring and the Witnesses going into Sackcloth and the Woman into the Wilderness SECT VII In which is given the description of the other Beast and his first Administration of the Witnesses and their first manner of Testimony both before the Beast's forty two Months with the Answer of an Objection and Reflections upon this Interval IN these Enquiries I have now explain'd whatever I can conceive needful from the Beginning of the Trumpets to the forty two Months of the Beast except the Delineation of that which the Prophecy calls the other Beast under whose Conduct the Gentiles were brought into the outer Court and Holy City so far as the Action of that other Beast led to the grand Apocalyptick Beast And to inlighten this Interval of Time the more viz. from the Apostasie beginning in the 1260 Days at 437 unto the Beasts 42 Months 475 I find it most convenient to consider most accurately the State of the Witnesses as Prophecy hath given any Light to the pointing of the Time of their whole Testimony and distinguishing the various States of it which Method I will endeavour to follow through this whole Line of Time viz. to observe the Advances and Declinations of the Bestian Kingdom and to adjust thereunto the Declinations and Descents of the Witnesses into the deepest of their obscure State and their Re-advances till their Resurrection and Ascension for the one and the other States rise and fall alternately whose motion herein the Woman the Church was exactly conform'd to being indeed the very same one with another except the Notion of Single and Collected Single in the Witnesses Collected in the Church as before said But because the Action especially was sustain'd by the Seed or the Witnesses the Line of that Action is most particularly drawn over them the Witnesses I begin then with the other Beast but I will adventure to lay no stress upon the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Another as if it did necessarily imply Another Order or a various Sub-specification of these two Beasts because I find this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be according to this Prophecy significant of no more than a numerical individuating Difference But yet that these two are so different so solemn and great so momentously different Iconisms as are given of each of them and their Action by the holy Spirit sufficiently argue That we may then have the perfect Pourtracture of this other Beast who manag'd all things from the Beginning of the Apostacy during the wounded State of the Grand Beast in one viz. the sixth of its Heads call'd the Dragon and the Infancy of the Grand Beast viz. as united to its seventh Head call'd in this Prophecy most often The Beast We may thus behold Him the other Beast so far as his Description reaches while the Grand Beast lay wounded which was till the forty two Months began by which great Preparation will be made to understand that Grand Beast 1. This other Beast must as Beast does every where in Prophecy import a Body of Men under some Superiority of Power I must here remember again to except to the Translation of the Four not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salvage Beasts but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle Animals or living Creatures Revel 4. and elsewhere least it should cause any mistake but else both in Daniel and the Apocal. Beast does imply a People under united to some Principality above and because here the Principality was in a Peerage or Aristocracy it resides in the two Horns 2. Because it is a Beast of Continuance as plainly appears by its Action from the very Apostasie to the Number of the Beast viz. from 437 to 725 and after that to the very Destruction of the Beast and false Prophet it must be a fluid successive Body as other Prophetical Beasts are 3. The inward sense of it must be a Body of False Prophets under Chiefs mitred Prophets for all the marks of false Prophetism are upon them this Beast therefore rises low mean feeble stilly out of the Earth without warlike force or noise it works Miracles pretends to call for Fire from Heaven like Elias that is it threatens Men with the Wrath and Judgments of God it deceives it caused men to do by saying or teaching After its Administration as a Beast is past because swallowed up in the Grand Bestianism it is several Times call'd the False Prophet as being expressive of its very Essence and wherein it is most nearly united to the Beast Revel c. 16. 13. c. 19 20. c. 20. 10. 4. It must be Antichristian and seeing Antichristianism is a false mock abused Christianity it must have of Christian also in it else it could not be Antichristian it hath therefore the Resemblance of a Lamb in its two Horns but it is Antichristian specifickly working by Fraud to surprise the Kingdom of Christ ambitious haughty idolatrous persecutory cruel thirsting after blood for it spake as a Dragon altho therefore it hath two Horns like a Lamb yet not the Lamb Christ Jesus for he hath seven Horns Revel 5. 6. agreeable to all the Apocalyptical Sevens except the Dragon 's and the Beast's seven Heads Seven not because They were symbolically but literally seven Successions of Government as the Rev. 17. Womans seven Mountains 5. Seeing the great Subject of the Apocalype is the Roman Empire in its last State when the Kingdom of Christ was begun in the Gospel and to appear in Glory after that last State of the Roman Empire the last of those four Imperial Canales of Time it must therefore be that this pseudo prophetical Beast under its two Horns is compounded of the upper and under the dignified and inferiour False Prophets of the Eastern and Western Empire And seeing we shall find that the Grand Beast is Roman it will thence appear This Beast must be so seeing its whole Ministry is about that Grand Beast which is Roman 6. It must be after the Grand Beast in some prophetical Respect or Notion of that Grand Beast for it is call'd the first Beast in compare with this other Beast yet this other Beast must be before it in regard of Action for it does all for it viz. It is after it as the Grand Beast is one from its very Beginning or Foundation of the Roman Empire under its seven Heads successively it is after it in regard of Procuration of the Cure of its Wound of the Exercise of its Power while it lay wounded all which speak it in being before this other Beast But it is before this very grand Beast as under its seventh Head for it erects it into its Headship by speaking as a Dragon by keeping alive the Bestian Power and in exercise while the sixth Head lay wounded till the VVound was heal'd by the seventh Head succeeding and then
Time and therefore by the constant care of God in preserving a Seed that is accovnted to the Lord for a Generation and particularly by the Types of this Prophecy we are most assured there must be such Witnesses and such must be their Testimony SECT VIII Wherein The Forty Two Months are measur'd by the exactest Rules of Prophecy and found by express Concurrencies of those Prophecies to begin at the Cessation of the Christian Western Empire and to end whenever the 1260 Days end the Date of the Kingdom of Christ immediately ensuing and therefore to begin at 475 and by compare with the 1260 Days to end at 1697. According to which the State of the Empire of the Administration of the First Beast and of the Witnesses during the Fourth Trumpet viz. from 475 to 606 is represented THE Point of Time I am now entring upon hath had a just Approach made to it according to its Importance which is very great I shall now through the Assistance of the Divine Spirit duely consider the most weighty sense of it self there being no Line of Time whose Bounds are so definitive the Beginning so uncontestably evident in History the End so illustrious as this must be to sense it self in the very nature of the thing That I may therefore discourse hereof most regularly I propose these four Heads to fix the Intendment upon 1. To shew That the Apostle Paul hath affirm'd the coming of the Man of Sin or Beast whose End is according to all Prophecies concerning him Destruction by the immediate Appearance of Christ's Kingdom at that his end hath an unmoveable Bar to his Manifestation till his own Time and that the Apostle John declares that Bar to be an indefeisable Succession of a seventh King not come in his Time to a sixth King then in Being in his Time and that seventh King to endure a short time and that then the Beast the eighth King should succeed and that he could succeed neither sooner nor later When therefore it will appear that such a seventh King did succeed the sixth and that that seventh did decease at 475 if it shall also appear as it will that this is the very same Beast to whom forty two months are determin'd it will then be most evident his forty two months must begin at 475. 2. To shew That the Kingdom of the Beast must last till the Kingdom of Christ according to the same Laws of Succession can succeed and it can last no longer as also that the Kingdom of Christ must succeed when that Kingdom ends and it can succeed no sooner if then it is expresly said the Kingdom of Christ shall immediately succeed the 1260 Days and that according to this Law of Succession and the course of all Prophecy it must also succeed the forty two months it then will plainly follow the 42 Months and the 1260 Days end together 3. To shew That the 1260 Days must be Time of the Sun and the forty two months must be Time of the Moon and seeing they must be adjusted to one another as ending together and lying both within one common Womb of Time Times Half Time The forty two months by the most exact compare of Lunar and Solar Time can be but 1222 Years and therefore besides all Advantages of Scripture-use of round Number beginning at 475 they most exactly and most necessarily must end at 1697. 4. To shew That the Beast indeed must have every way the Seminal fundamental Nature of such a Beast as he is describ'd to be at the very beginning of his forty two Months as the Infant hath of a Man but need not nor cannot be suppos'd to attain full prophetical Proportions till long after which Time Prophecy hath also dated to him by his Number 666. So that the description of the Empire according to the Fourth Trumpet the Administration of the other Beast and the State of the Witnesses may continue many Years after as they stood at the forty two Months entring and so Prophecy determines of them To begin then with the first of these I find this Order and Head 1 Concert of the Parts of it will be most convictive and demonstrative 1. That Daniel the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John speak all of one and the same Beast 2. That this one and the same Beast hath forty two months determin'd upon him as the just State of his Duration 3. That the Apostle John hath declared that peremptory positive Law of Succession that was the Let of the coming of the Beast into his forty two months For the first Although a multitude of Proofs from the Concert of all Prophecy which either have been or will be farther taken notice of may be given yet That which I will rest upon alone at this time shall be that most convictive one That his End is Destruction by the glorious Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ so that his eminent Character is Son of Perdition in Conformity to that Apostate Apostle Judas so near the Glory of Christ's Resurrection so the Apostle John twice describes him by his going into Perdition Apoc. 17. v. 8. v. 11. and his Destruction is solemnly declared c. 19. and then the Kingdom of Christ succeeds c. 20. c. 21. Thus Daniel in every Vision The great Image was smitten by the Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands growing to a great Mountain filling the Earth by a Kingdom never ending in its ten-toed feet part of Iron and part of Clay so exactly compounded of the Beast out of the Sea with his ten crowned Horns inseparably united with his false Prophetism a Beast out of the Earth Revel 13. The little Horn is a Beast deliver'd to the Flames and the Kingdom under the whole Heaven given to the Saints The King standing up against the Prince of Princes shall be broken without hand At the Accomplishing to scatter the Holy People viz. by this Beast as hath been made to appear All the Wonders of Christ's Kingdom shall be finished Dan. c. 2. v. 24. c. compar'd with Dan. c. 7. 11. c. c. 8. 24 25. c. 12. 7. The Apostle Paul 2 Thess 2 3. c. stiles him the Son of Perdition and foretels his being consumed with the Brightness of the Lords viz. Christ's coming and the Glory of his Appearance Whoever then considers the most notable and notorious Destruction always affix'd to one and the same kind of Power so even in all its manners of Description and such a kind of Destruction as is always declar'd to issue and flow out from the Glory of Christ at his coming to his Kingdom will find It must be one and the same Beast since Christ hath but one such Coming and one such Kingdom as these are describ'd to be nor indeed is there any more than one such Beast so scituated in Time Place and Succession as this will appear to be It is in the second place to be made out that this is the same
convey us upon this Line this wonderful Line we have discoursed so long upon the Line of the 1260 Days with which the forty two Months of the Beast are now combin'd Prophecy will I say very speedily in the fifth Trumpet convey and set us upon a new Line of the Mahometan Hegira or Computation of Time so that we shall run upon it for the space of eight hundred and thirty Years together with the 1260 Days and with the Bestian Line comprehending in short the most Oecumenical and illustrious Points of History at that Time in the Universe viz. of the Bestian and the Mahometan Grassation or Invasion into the same kind of Universal Power and both upon the Account of Pseudo-Prophetism the due Observation of which will persuade us of the Divineness of this Prophecy and that we are upon the true Explication of it As it were then between the ending of the Time of the fourth and the beginning of the Time of the fifth Trumpet there was a loud Voice as of an Angels flying through the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that upper Region like the Voice of Thunder reaching down to the Earth and saying Woe Woe Woe to the Inhabiters of the Earth because of the Voices of the Angels that are yet to sound Now it were wonderful if merely by the chance of Imagination running such a Path so great and remarkable Configurations both of Prophecy and History should meet it so often just where it would choose and desire to be so met For at this very Time Gregory call'd the Great Bishop of Rome a Personage of so great Eminence for Vertue Learning and Eloquence declar'd aloud in his Epistles to the Emperour Mauricius and to John the Bishop of Constantinople So also to the Bishops of Alexand. and Antioch That Antichrist was near That the Title of Vniversal Bishop was a certain Indication of him That it was Pride to assume such a Title It was like Lucifer Son of the Morning ascending the heights of the Stars setting his Throne above the other Angels above the other Stars affecting to be like the Most High Now seeing no such could be fix'd in the Firmament or Heaven of the Gospel he must needs Fall How close then is this to the prophetick Language I saw a Star fall from Heaven or as Christ in a like case speaks I saw Satan fall as Lightning from Heaven as the Dragon fell but found in the Beast a Kingdom on Earth as before said Just as when Satan fell from Heaven he had a Kingdom assign'd him by the Divine Permission and Decree viz. God of this World Ruler of the Darkness of this World This Star who is the Son of Perdition whose coming is after the manner of Satan had the same in Proportion the Key of the bottomless pit is given to him that is permitted to him given judiciarily into his hand by God's wise and holy sufferance and over-rule of all things to his Glory This Fall then of this Star is like the Angels leaving their own Habitation their first Estate or true original Principality Jude v. 6. a Fall not like that of the Stars the Dragon swept down with his Tail or of the Star Wormwood an involuntary Fall a Fall from the Heaven of a political Order and Supremacy to a low State without Power but a Fall of Apostacy from his due Station a planetary Defection from his own Orb v. 16. into a Kingdom of the bottomless Pit to which Darkness is reserv'd for ever And whenever the Antichrist came the Beast rose out of the bottomless pit or which is the same this Star had fallen there must be then Woe Woe Woe for the Vengeance of God at the same time made him way and pursued him every Trumpet sounded against him The first was to hurt only the Revel 9. 4. Men that were not seal'd of which he was the Prince the second was upon those who were guilty of Murthers Sorceries v. 20. Thefts Idolatries The Woman whom the Beast carried was guilty of all these was impenitent in them although c. 11. v. 15. compar'd with c. 14. c. 15. c. 16. God gave her space to repent The Third Woe-Trumpet brought with it the Kingdom of Christ and the Destruction of Antichrist or the Bestian Kingdom so there was Woe Woe Woe on the Bestian Earth whenever Antichrist came Immediately after this Remonstrance of the Bishop Gregory the Bishop Boniface accepts from the parricidick Emperour Phocas this Vniversality so that in his sense Antichrist then came and the first Woe-Trumpet according to Prophecy is dated from his Fall What can be more wonderful as Gregory was at all a good Man his Prediction must be own'd to a better Spirit and to the Knowledge Divine Prophecy gave him and to the Impression it had made upon him As he was himself part of that Body upon which his own Prediction ran it was like Nebuchadnezzar's prophetick Dream of Dan. 2. the Ruine of that Image by the Stone of which he was the head of Gold or like the Prophecy of Caiaphas a very bad Joh. 11. 51. part of which himself was concern'd in however his eminent Station gave the Rebound of his Prediction as through the World And the time of Rome lying so low is noted most emphatically by Prophecy viz. Rome without any eminent Light of Government and then follows such an immediate Appearance of Antichrist according to the Signal given of him by that Bishop of Rome and according to Prophecy the Star Fell. This is in some sense I may say but too remarkable in so plainly declaring who is Antichrist and that his Kingdom holds by the Key of the bottomless Pit It is true the Beast had been in his forty two months above a hundred Years yet as a Tyrant prophetically declar'd to be a Tyrant is not yet so in his Infancy or Under-state no more than Hazael was a Tyrant when Elisha told him what 1 Kin. 8. 11. he as such a Tyrant should do no more was the Beast such a Beast while he was under the Inscription Is not So that though he was a Beast by way of Succession and some presagious Actions He might yet not be a falling Star till he now fell and receiv'd this Key for the whole Bestian Body or Succession is consider'd in the whole Beast not in its several Ages nor in the single Persons making it some better some worse all that enter its Composition are consider'd as one Beast in the prophetick Scheme in any Age in any Bestian Qualities more or less yea though so moderate as that they should only bear up the Title and maintain the Succession And this removes all possible Objection as thus Was he that had been a Beast so long a Star yet to Fall You see he might be so while he was the Beast Is not and yet not a falling Star for this fall prepar'd his rising out of the bottomless Pit and so
to shew himself a Beast whereas yet he could not appear so but must remain in his State Is not till this fall and after it too even till he came to his number that Prophecy might be fulfilled when he ascends out of this Abyss And though his fall was but to the Earth yet because instead of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven he pretended to he had only the Key of the bottomless Pit he is justly said to rise out of it for that he ascended what was it as the Apostle argues in a much better Case but that he descended first Ephes 4. 9. for seeing he rises to his Power by the Efficacy of his deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish by his sathanick Signs and Wonders by his excommunicational Thunders from beneath by which he affrights men downwards and that much of his Potentacy lies in the management of a false Hell of his own founding It is very proper to him to ascend out of the bottomless Pit and the Power of the Keys he assumes is very ominous to him for what he calls Keys is this one Key of the bottomless Pit and so in just derision of him he carries this device in Prophecy The Key of the bottomless Pit was given him I confess The Patriark of Constantinople was the First in this Assumption the Emulation of which mov'd Gregory it is to be fear'd as a lower cause to so high an Exclamation but though he was First yet he was not to have the Key of the Abyss in Supremacy for Prophecy sees not as Man sees by degrees and as in parcels but at once it therefore calls him that fallen Star alone who was to have this Key although the other was a falling Star also and spake as a Dragon He is then and he alone He that hath under Sathan the Key of the bottomless Pit and though an Angel is call'd afterwards the Angel of the bottomless Pit whom we shall find in its due place very diverse from this Star who may seem to have a better right to this Key we shall yet find he was only a Warlike King of the Locusts under the Title of a Prophet the false Prophet Mahomet but was not could not be this Star whose fall must be from Heaven perpetual even as his aspiring Pretensions to Heaven are so continual as shall be further declared as one who once had a fixation in Heaven which Mahomet never had He that ascends out of the bottomless Pit is he that open'd it and let out the Smoke he opens it he lets out the Smoke out of which the Locusts came but against his own Intention he intended himself to ride in this Cloud as in an infernal Chariot alone but with the Smoke Sathan also ascended and became an Angel of the bottomless Pit in the King of the Locusts who were the Flood out of his Mouth propagating his Kingdom by both the Star and by the King of the Locusts The latter of which was principally a great Judgment of God on the Antichristian Star as shall be shewn at large In the mean Time we find the other Beast ministring to this delivery of the Key of the bottomless Pit under the decree and judicial Ordination of God For they made Trial for him of the Efficacy of the Lamb-like Horns joyn'd with the draconick Idolatry and Persecution and so exercis'd the Power of the first Beast before him while he as one and the chief Revel 13. among them look'd on They essayed the calling fire from Heaven and working lying Miracles in his sight to establish the Grandeur of false Prophecy they stirred up all to worship the first Beast viz. The Roman idolatrous Supremacy and to make an Image of Vniversality to it in such a Roman Catholick Supremacy as of the Vicar of Christ on Earth And even the Eastern Horn that aspired for it self above this Beast yet by approving the Idea by making the Experiment by assuming the Title provok'd and inkindled the Ambition of him who by the divine Decree had the Permission got the Possession and hath for many Ages wedg'd himself fast into it and left the other Horn leisure only to be angry at his defeat while his vain claim justifies the thing as lawful and desirable and therefore gave the occasion to the High sounding Voice of Gregory the Great And it is very observable on this very account the Divine Justice fell all along severely upon the Eastern Empire and Patriarchate by the two first woe-Trumpets especially at the taking of Constantinople and to this day lies heavy upon them so that as the Grecian Emperours gave first to the Constantinopolitan Patriarch and then to the Bishop of Rome this Antichristian Vniversality so most distinctly the Wrath of God was very dreadful upon both the Empire and the whole Hierarchy as so antichristianizing and so it continues and will so far conjoyn them in the Punishment of the Beast and false Prophet as they shall not divorce themselves from them by Repentance For this Prophecy looks upon both the Eastern and Western Hierarchy as one and the same Beast with two Horns under the same grand Beast and their People as one Body of Men Gentiles Inhabitants of the Antichristian Earth and Sea and as two Wings of the same Eagle And they all along are both punish'd in and with one another 'T is not the lesser Controversies among themselves concerning Primacy or some other matters that can dissolve the Antichristian Vnion wherein this Prophecy leaves them it must be sincere Repentance turning from Idolatry Superstition Enmity to the pure Religion and from Pride and Tyranny enjoyed only by one one of the Horns indeed for many years as most nearly allied to the Grand Beast but affected by both that must make that Wall of Partition that hath not yet been made between the Eastern and Western Antichristians or between any parts of each and their Antichristianism In the Interim from this very Time we are upon the Beast falling as a Star to the Antichristian Earth receives as Latin that is strictly Roman the Universality of both East and West as was always design'd by God to be so given or permitted and so by degrees enlightens Rome when all the Rulers of the Day and even of the Night were smitten gone down and set and now he begins to carry the Woman on high even at his first ascending and so gradually as he ascends to his Number And hereby the fallen Star appears to be the same Beast that rises out of the bottomless Pit to war with the Witnesses and therefore must be the same that wars with the Saints who are the Witnesses and who is led captive or taken by the Lamb and his Army of the faithful and true and goes into Perdition that is is cast into the Lake and so the same throughout And when he is so cast into the Lake an Angel of another Character does not fall but descends from Heaven
having the Key of the bottomless Pit not judicially given but committed to him not to open the bottomless Pit and let out the Smoak not to loose nor draw out at greater liberty and by provoking God to give the Malice of Devils greater scope by the Angel of that Pit raging like a roaring Lyon in a hellish Mahometanism but to lay hold on him to bind him to cast him into the bottomless Pit to shut him up and to set a Seal upon him that he may deceive the Nations no more for the 1000 Years which very Consideration of that so opposite Vision does much inlighten this of the fifth Trumpet we are now upon It remains that we consider now what the Service of the two Witnesses might at this time most agreeably with Prophecy be and as so considering it I look upon this joynt of Time this Proclamation of the three woe Trumpets to be the very entrance of the Witnesses in the second Type of that eminent Binary or Pair of Witnesses and Prophets Elijah and Elisha The Witnesses had now a long time as the Sons of Oyl emptied their golden Oyl by way of preparatory Furniture of those two golden Candlesticks the true Churches of Pergamus and Thyatyra that stood this whole Line of Time before the God of the whole Earth and though we have not the clear and unmixed Records of any such Testimony for that were to lessen the Prophecy besides that the Indignation of the Apostate Church must needs have suppress'd them they must needs have suffer'd more so than under the Injuries of Time but I say it were to lessen Prophecy which says They were cover'd with Sackcloth they were seal'd they were retir'd within the Temple the Church was in the Wilderness through the scattering of its Seed It is not then possible according to the Prophecy there should be pure liquid Remains of their Testimony But now the Antichristians like Sanballat and Tobiah and other the Enemies of the Jews disturb'd their Service and in building with them hinder'd the Operation and infus'd their Venome in some part into the Writings and Discourses of Persons of a much more excellent temper in the main Now the Witnesses therefore as we may in part see by Gregory praised before passed into the Spirit and Power of Elijah and Elisha they began now to have fire proceed out of their Mouths to devour their Adversaries They began to declare the Wrath of God against Idolatry and Antichristian Pride and Blasphemy And this entred as Fire into the Consciences of their Enemies that in this manner they were kill'd as it were by the Sword of Christ's Mouth which he threatens to the Balamites in the Church of Pergamus and herein they imitated the Zeal of Moses and Phincas against the spiritual Fornication and Nicolaitanism of that time and also prepar'd the Servants of God in Thyatyra with a holy Zeal against the Jezebelism and Idolatry and Fornication of that Time also when the Apostacy was increas'd But how can we hope for much of Monument hereof The Prophecy of Gregory is more than we could expect and were it not that he serv'd the Apostacy to many other great purposes we had not had so much of him but God over-rul'd so far Now the Witnesses were coming into the closest time of being seal'd and therefore we have the mention of it reviv'd within the fifth Trumpet They were sed with hidden Manna They were hardly known one to another at the very Time Elijah knew not of the seven thousand Knees that had not bowed to Baal nor their Mouths kiss'd him but thought himself alone How much less then can we now know them And which is very characteristical of this Period of the Witnesses Prophecy and Testimony They have Power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the Days of their Prophecy so that there arises a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord and this endured for the intimate Time of which we are to speak in the next Period of the Witnesses and the Remark of shutting Heaven for three Years and six Months will be of great Conduct to us SECT X. Wherein is undertaken to be prov'd That the Mahometan Sarazens are the Locusts design'd in the fifth Apocalyptick Trumpet and that the five Months given to them comprehend Four hundred-thirty five Years from the Mahometan Hegira at 622 and so reach to 1057. upon Rev. c. 9. v. 1. c. I Pass on from this joynt of Time engraven with the real and substantial Characters of the Angel proclaiming the three Woes the Star falling the Key of the bottomless Pit given to him All which I have explain'd I come now to speak of the Descent of this Star to the opening the bottomless Pit and of that Smoak that issued out upon it and the unexpected Events of Locusts coming out of the Smoak which produce a new Line of Time beginning at 622 and not ending till 1453 but divided by Prophecy into two parts the five Months and five Months of the Locusts and the Hour Day Month and Year of the Army of Horsemen between which will come in the Account of intimate Time and so we will discourse each in their order Antichrist then appearing in the Star fallen to the Earth to shine there as an universal Pastor of which sort the Firmament of Heaven knows none nor can bear any such so he must needs fall to the Earth and the Beast here transmigrated into by the Dragon and beginning to exalt the Woman by carrying his Vniversality in an Image inscrib'd with the Name of the Woman and having receiv'd the Key of the bottomless Pit in place of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven he immediately proceeds to open it and le ts out Error Falsehood Blasphemy the Doctrine of Balam Nicolaitanism Antichristianism spiritual Pride and Tyranny like the Smoke or perpetual Vapour of the Abyss and its open Mouth that darkned the whole Air of the Christian Doctrine and Profession and in this by degrees he ascends higher and higher till he comes to his number 666. But Sathan above him in this bottomless Pit turning every way and moving more ways than one to advance his Kingdom especially over-rul'd and govern'd by God in fulfilling the course of his Judgment so impregnates this Smoke in that time of spiritual drought and of the Heaven shut as Brass and the Earth as Iron a Time specifick for these Locusts as drought is for the natural ones that unawares to this fallen Star there comes a swarm of Locusts out of the Smoke and they prove armed crowned Locusts dreadfully annoying and Tormenting the Antichristian World viz. by the Mahometan Saracens Having thus far then prepar'd to it I come to the main position of this Section the proof of which I am to undertake that these Locusts are the Mahometan Saracens whose five and five Months measure from 622 to 1057 The first Argument I derive from the Style in which
to 1697. We have found the order in which it hath come on very clear brought down by Prophecy in Symbols so justly proportionate to matters of Fact and Events all along History first to the Apostacy and from thence by as unquestionable a Chain of Events during that Apostacy as hath been before describ'd till the Reformation and now we shall find the Reformation as admirably set out and no other things in the whole course of Time answering to each Representation as those Cardinal Points of History do What greater Demonstration then can we have that we are upon the right sense and scope of Prophecy Since such admirable Correspondencies as if we our selves by our own Judgments had been to contrive the one for the other we could not under Veils have desired so much and therefore they can no more be suspected of chance then that the Letters Sillables and Words of the Apocaliptick Prophecy should come out by chance into that exact System wherein we now find them I pray therefore which of these grand Events can by History be contested or what fitter prophetical Symbols could be found out for them or in such a Succession And so we shall find in this particular of the Reformation so recent and fresh in History and all most in Memory at this day and at this day running on so that the Instances of it are most notorious confess'd and even to be admired in the Wonders of Providence that brought it to pass and yet sustain it When therefore the Bestian or Antichristian Kingdom was coming so near its number as that the Image of Supremacy had been made to the Beast at the 606 confirmed to it and Life given to it to speak and to cause c. by the Lateran Councel at 649. come to its very number at 725. The War was between the Beast and the Witnesses represented by the Jeconoclastick Emperours and their Constantinopolitan Councel damning Image Worship 754 but then the Witnesses were overcome by the Cessation of those Emperours and by that Councel of Nice 787 and so they lying dead till their first motion to a rising 1517. While all these things were the Judgment of God in just Degrees and Measures pursued with Vengeance this Antichristian Kindom First by Mahomets setting up his false Prophetism as near the Supremacy given by Phocas as 622 to 606 by the Locusts or Mahometan Saracens ready to enter their first five Months and to strike as a Serpion about the Time of the War with the Witnesses especially at their Death 787 And together with the Apostacy strengthning it self they advanc'd into their second five Months of hurting with the stings of their Tails and when a winterly torpidness seiz'd them then by the Turks as a far greater and more severe as also more continuing Scourge God Executed his Judgments on this Antichristian Empire But the Impenitency still continuing Christ Appears as it were from Heaven in the Reformation and how evident is it that the Reformation followed on such a state of the Latine or strictly Roman World for can any pretend there was after the taking of Constantinople any shew of Repentance Repentance of their worshiping Demons departed Spirits or Images and Pictures of Gold or Silver Wood or Stone which neither hear see or walk nor did they repent of their Murthers those cruel Butcheries of the Saints and Servants of God nor of their Sorceries those bewitchings of Men with a false sensual Religion their lying or magical and Necromantick Miracles ascrib'd to Relicks Images and the Idolized Host nor of their Fornications allowed Concubinacies and Stews nor of their Thefts their pious Frauds and wiping men of their Goods and Estates by Cheats and to false and impious Ends and that this high and avowed impenitency was not only then but hath continued ever since appears too much by the Councel of Trent and the whole Tract of time after the Reformation 1. Let us then consider the Appearance as it were of Christ from Heaven against this Impenitency He the mighty supream Angel of the divine Presence comes down from Heaven though sitting in Heaven in his mighty Administrations 2. He is cloathed with a Cloud his Face as the Sun breaking out of the Cloud and creating a Bow as in the day of Rain These Appearances are as after a Flood not yet removed the Clouds were yet hovering and flying the Rain not yet gon the Brightness watery and yet with significations of Mercy and the Grace of the Covenant That the Flood should be drawn off and return no more to cover the Earth 3. His Feet as Pillars of Fire signifying both the refining and purification of his Servants as also their Vivi Comburin their Death in the midst of Flames as we know how frequent they were at that Time 4. He had in his Hand an open Book the Book of his Kingdom as if he were now ready to publish the Decree of his universal Psal 2. 7. Reign which had been so often stay'd by sealing and now after the Seals opened and the six Trumpets sounding ready to reveal it self 5. As a signal of his unbounded Dominion He sets his Dan. 12. 6. right Foot on the Sea and his left Foot on the Earth as from the Sea to the end of the Earth 6. He cried with a Loud Voice as when a Lion roars when he received the Book He is call'd the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Then he prevail'd to open the seven Seals now as the same Revel 5. 5. Lyon he holds the Book open shewing his just right to the Throne of David the Throne and Empire of the new Jerusalem and roars from his Holy Habitation 7. When he had thus roared seven thunders utter their Voices as in an Eccho or resound of Heaven above to his just 2 Sam. 2. 10. claim and as Hannah prophecyed of old The Lord shall thunder from Heaven on his Adversaries so he on the Adversaries of his Kingdom when he comes to judge the end of the Earth when God gives strength to this his King and exalts the Horn of his Anointed Now all these things were that powerful sound of the Gospel and divine Truth by Luther and the first Reformers like the Angels coming down from Heaven and rouling away the Stone in Preparation of the Lords Resurrection This arous'd Matt. 28. 1. and amaz'd the World then even as the Keepers of the Grave were as dead Men when Christ arose and this was more a dreadful stroke upon the Bestian Kingdom then Mahometanism it self For this was an Arrow levell'd at the Heart of his Kingdom and declared it to be Antichristian an Usurpation upon the Glory of Christ This was a dawn of the most terrifying Appearance of Christ and shaked the very Foundations of his State This accompanied with the Separation of so many Princes and States from that Antichristian Empire was more formidable then all the Assaults of a false and barbarous Religion however