High Ends to be hereafter assign'd For I have been thus large in this matter it being both so Noble a Point as also because it makes much to the True Consideration of the Chief End of Miracles 2. I come therefore to a Second Consideration of Creation and Providence as giving Space and Room for Miracles to enter and that I shall represent First In the General and then be more particular with relation to Miracles 1. When Man had sinned and forfeited the Glory of that State of the Creation that had Respect to him That all things did not immediately as I may say tumble about his Ears dash in peices upon him or fall into an Universal Hell is owing to the Mediator who therefore is said Heb. 1. to Vphold all things by the Word of his Power even he who purged our sins by his own Blood thus upholds All that the Sun shines and invigorates all the Lower Creation with its Light and Beams that the Fruitfulness of the Earth and the Courses of Water remain All is due to the Glory of the Mediator Else All had return'd to the First Tohu Bohu its first dark and desolate state And yet notwithstanding it is so ordered in the Wisdom and Righteousness of God and by the Counsel between him and the Mediator or as Zachary says between them both that there should be many Interspers'd Appearances of the Curse as we all know by abundant sad Experience which are become so setled and expectable that we call such Appearances of the Curse Nature or are so frequent as we account them at least common to Man or Humane Nature such as Sickness Death Lameness Blindness many Insults of the Enemy or the Diabolical Nature either in plainer Possessions or more secret Impressions upon the Mind and Body Now if such Appearances of the Curse had not been there had been no place for many Miraculous Appearances of God and of Christ in Mercy and Grace and so if there had not been General Judgments and more solemn Appearances of the Curse there had not been such Miraculous Acts of Grace as the Ark was to Noah Zoar to Lot Goshen to the Children of Israel Had not there been such Strokes of the Curse there could not have been such Miracles of Healing Restoring Sight Raising the Dead All these Miraculous Acts of Mercy come in by way of Relief against the Curse There could have been no change â—n Exalting the Creation if it had continued according to the First State Good and very Good Except we suppose any Openings to an higher Advancement of Adam and his Posterity in the Kingdom of the Second Adam of whom the First Adam was but a Type and the First Sabbath a Type of that Great Sabbatism of the Lord from Heaven as the Apostle expresly asserts Rom 5. â—2 Heb. 4. 7. Let us therefore I humbly beseech attend to this very thing that there are such Remains of the Excellent Frame of the First Creation Dâ—e and Acknowledgable to the Grace of the Mediator and yet such Mixtures of the Curse as give Place or Room for Mirâ—cles For if all were Judgment there were no Place for Miracles of Mercy except of a Total Restoration For All had been One Peice of Wrath and so must be wholly Restor'd or not at all Or if All had been in the First State of Integrity there had been no need of Exalting the Creation till that Glorious Kingdom I can suppose of the Mediator of Amity or Conciliation tho not of Reconciliation But as Things are now That All Things do not unite in a State of Wrath and Ruine is because the Mediator purging our sins upholds All with the Word of his Power Else as God said when Wickedness had broken into the World to so great an heighth I even I do bring a Flood upon the World So he had put an End to it at the first coming in of sin had not the Mediator come between in the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpents Head But when Noah had offered a Sacrifice an undoubted Type of the Sacrifice of Christ God then promis'd he would not Curse the Ground so any more but there should be Summer and Winter Spring and Harvest Day and Night until the very coming in of the Restitution of All Things And God set the Rain-Bow to be a Sign of that Covenant as we find Gen. 9. 13. and Ezek. 1. 28. and Revel 4. 3. The Rain-Ron encirculed the Throne All which shews the great Prevalency of the Mediator in the upholding the World in its present State That though God the Creator be to be acknowledg'd yet Creatorship and Providence are now Vested in the Redeemer But yet still there are such legible Characters of the Curse in innumerable Kinds that they give full place to Miracles in further and higher Grace to relieve against that Curse 2. There being such a State of Mercy and Grace through the Mediator there is place also given to another sort of Miracles viz. Miracles of Greater and more Extraordinary Strokes of Wrath than generally we observe in the World wherein the Mediator so far deserts his Interposal of Mediation and then Miracle of Judgment immediately enters so far also as may appear in several Great Instances to be given And this I desire you would seriously attend to because it will be found to contribute very much to the clearing the Great Point of Miracles I begin therefore the clearing this Matter in that first Judgment of the Flood upon the Old World In which as also in the Judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah the Apostles Peter and Jude instance because as is after to be shewn they have Great Concernment in making it appear That Miracles appertain to the world to come whereof we are speaking I begin therefore with this Flood on the World of the Vngodly for which whatever Preparations there might * According to the most Learned and Ingenious Theory of Dr. Burnet be yet to shew Gods own supreme Hand in it he thus expresses I even I do bring a Flood And to shew how far the Mediator did desert and how far he did not undertake is made more manifest He did undertake for Noah and his Family Noah is therefore said to find Grace in the Eyes of the Lord an Expression proper to the Mediators Undertaking The Rest even the World of the Vngodly not finding Grace were swallowed up Lo here a Miracle of Judgment For this was beyond the ordinary proportion of the Curse upon the Fall as bounded by the Mediator a Curse on the Earth far Greater than usual Again if we consider this in relation to Sodom Gen. 19. 23. The Sun was risen upon the Earth so far the Mediator undertook for Sodom Then Lot entered into Zoar At that very same time God Rain'd upâ—n Sodom and upon Gomorrah Brimstone and Fire from the Lord out of Heaven It could not be done before For says the Angel to Lot Haste thee Escape thither
for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither Why but because Lot was in a peculiar manner undertaken for by the Mediator as is signify'd in Two Expressions 1. The Lord being merciful to him and he finding Grace in his sight And 2 God Remembred Abraham with whom we know he had Established a Covenant in the Mediator v. 16. 19. 22. Behold here another Miracle of Judgment because contrary to the General Undertaking of the Mediator This was indeed a strange work of Judgment and as the Flood was of the General Destruction before the New Heaven and New Earth of the VVorld to come so was Sodom a Type of the Vengeance of the Eternal Fire that shall make that Destruction In the same manner the Plagues of Aegypt were Miracles of Judgment because the Mediator was coming in Exodus all along to Chap. 16. up against them with a Glorious Type of his Judgment on Spiritual Aegypt with his Seven Vials Revel 15. c. 16. made on purpose parallel to the Plagues of Aegypt Now the Reason was the Mediator in Grace no longer undertook for Pharoah and his Aegypt but set him up as a Rock for his Judgments to be planted against The last Miracle of Judgment I will instance in because it much declares the Nature of Miracle is that of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 29. If these men saith Moses dye the common Death of all men or if they be visited after the common Visitation of all men Then the Lord hath not sent me But if the Lord create a New Thing and the Earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertains to them and they go down quick into the pit Then ye shall understand these men have provoked the Lord. Every Miracle as hath been spoken is a New Thing This is the Nature of Miracle whether it be a Miracle of Mercy or of Judgment A New Thing of Mercy lifting up the present State settled in common by the Grace of the Mediator or a New Thing in Judgment when the Mediator deserts this State upheld by him and Judgment breaks in above Ordinary Judgments and this to shew that Desolation that shall be at last upon this World of the First Adam that the New Heaven and the New Earth according to his promise may come in Thus this Opening and Swallowng Alive is like the Opening of the Lake into which the Beast and the False Prophet those Apostate Pretenders to be Sons of Levi are cast alive Rev. 19. as the whole Antichristian Race say They are Jews but are not but do lye and so are given up to Wrath by the Mediator Thus it will be at the last Burning of the Earth and of the Wicked upon it Then the Mediator will bear up the World no longer Thus when any particular Person is destroy'd cut off by Death and cast into Hell until that very Time the Mediator undertakes Then he undertakes no longer for him To draw up then these Poâ—nts to a Sum. We find the present State in an Equipoize in an Even Ballance between the Grace of and by the Mediator and the Wrath and Justice of God keeping its Hold upon this World of Aposlate Adam And both the settlement of Things by Grace and Mercy and yet under Wrath and Justice are now Call'd and Styl'd and Deem'd to be Nature the State of Nature the Law of Nature the Course of Nature And whatever there is either in Mercy or Judgment wherein a Divine Hand a High Hand a Hand Lifted up and made Bare appears is called and styled Miracle The Light and Glory of the Heaven the Fruitfulness of the Earth the so General Health Beauty and Vigour of Body the Order Peace and Good Government we at any time observe in the World we look not upon as Miracle but as the Natural State of Things under the General Goodness of God though indeed as hath been shewn it is the Goodness of God in the Mediator But together with these we allow Storms Tempests Unfruitful Seasons Pestilence Famine Sickness Lameness Poverty Want Deformity Death agreeable to the Course of Nature also and no Miracle Yet indeed why are They not Miraculous when God made the World in such an Order of Nature if we 'll call it Nature Can we think when God made Man in that Noble State of his own Image it can be any other than Miracle of Judgment Men are left to be such Butchers one of another and that it is counted a Glory a Bed of Honour to dye so doing No undoubtedly Even that Christ shall Restore the World to as the Prince of Peace to learn War no more and to make the Battle cease to the Ends of the Earth is that which was at first the State of unfallen Nature And all the contrary State is Miracle of Judgment however because setled we do not call it so When Navies and Fleets are destroyed at Sea and Nations destroyed and desolated and all the Sinews of Government loosed we do not call this Miracle And yet from the Beginning these Things were not so nor design'd to be so much as Providentially Natural but because according to the Wisdom Holyness and Justice of God the Mediator upholds the World under this Caution and Reserve It should give Room and be as it were the Stage for these Judgments of God to have their Play in and upon They are so So though to die be now the ordinariest and most certain Thing in the World an Ordinance and a Debt to Nature as we call it vet Adam was not made to Dye and to Dye is a Miracle of Justice if consider'd according to the Original Constitution Indeed because the Mediator undertook no further but that it is as the Apostle says Fixed Determined Enacted that All Men should dye it is no Miracle nor that any of the other Unhappinesses common to Men befall Men do we account them Miracles But the Things we account Miracles are either the Extraordinary Sudden and Immediate Strokes of Wrath and Justice as those on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah on those Impure Men of Sodom struck with Blindness the Plagues on Pharoah on Nadab and Abihu the stroke of immediate Death by Fire from the Lord the swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram the striking Vzza dead the withering Jeroboam's Hand the striking Vzziah with Leprosie the striking Antiochus with an Incurable and Loathsome Disease and in the New Testament the falling backward of the Men that came to take Christ the falling down Dead of Ananias and Sapphira the sudden and immediate Blindness that fell on Elymas the Sorcerer Herod eaten with Worms These we account Miracles of Judgment On the other side the Benefits God daily loadeth the Children of Men of all Kinds with we account not Miracles but the Raising the Dead by Elijah and Elisha the Multiplying the Widows Oyl the Healing the Leprosie of Naaman the preserving Jonah from the Sea in so wonderful an Ark as
Nicodemus How can these things be Thou speakest of impossible things How can a man be born again Can he enter the Second Time into his Mothers Womb and be born We see this great Acknowledger of Miracles when he came to a Point of Miraculous Power indeed that is the Renovation of Man the giving a New Heart and a New Spirit He is Puzzled He is Posed He do's not know what to say I cannot forbear to take notice That the great Men of Free-will are the greatest Arguers of the Truth of Christianity by Miracles and yet notwithstanding they are as much puzzl'd and Blunder as much concerning the very Miracles of Regenerating Grace the Regenerating Spirit as this great Man Nicodemus did It is true to hear them speaking of it as it is not Miracle but according to the Law of the First Creation or very little Differing They may speak more Tollerably of it But saith our Lord to him That which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh According to the Law of the First Creation Let Flesh be your Spring and Well-Head you shall never rise above it do what you can Therefore marvel not saith Christ I said you must be Born again This Regeneration is by the Spirit alone no man can Beget himself but he must needs beget himself the very same He was before The New Birth is as Isaac was the Child of Promise It is as the Birth of our Lord and several of his Progenitors was by Miracle He can Communicate no New principle to himself And just as the Apostle says here Divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will So in this Miracle of Regeneration saith Christ The Spirit bloweoh where it Listeth To shew It is all immediate power that is Miracle Thus also the Apost Discourses 2 Cor. 5. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature or a new Creation All Old Things are past away behold all Things are become New I would ask any one whether this is Miracle or not If it be only according to the Law of the First Creation It is not Miracle but if it be entirely and perfectly a new Creation It must needs be Miracle Argum. 3. The Resurrection is agreed to be Perfect Miracle The Kingdom of Christ is the Kingdom of the Resurrection From hence appears the strong and close Connexion between the Kingdom of Châ—ist and Miracle I could Heartily Pray the Threed and Train of the principles Arguing from the Râ—surrection as Miracle were closely pursued and followed Home The Apostle says Acts 17. 31. God hath appointed a Day in which he will Judg the World by that man He hath Ordain'd whereof he hath given Assurance unto All men whereof saith he God hath made Credit He hath offered greatest Reasons of being assured of what he had so Ordained by Raising the Lord Jesus from the Dead and therefore he is so often called He that is Risen from the Dead and the First Born the First Begotten from the Dead God says to him Thou art my Son this day of the Resurrection have I Begotten Thee and so Royal Power is more solemnly settled upon Him I was Dead and am Alive and behold I Live for evermore I have the Keyes of Hell and Death the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Now this Resurrection is the very Finger of God and therefore It iâ— justly acknowledged the Principal Miracle It is indeed the Center Miracle in which all Lines meet as all the greatest Reasoners on Miracles do also Fix in it as so Now that the Kingdom of Christ is the Kingdom of the Resurrection of all his Servants is plain For he Rose First His Saints Rise at his Coming 1 Cor. 15. 23 His Coming and his Kingdom are Conjoyn'd 2 Tim 4. 1. So it is the Kingdom of the Resurrection But I would expresly Establish it on that Revel 20. 4. I saw Thrones and they sate upon them And I saw the Souls that is the whole Persons of Saints Souls Re-united to their Bodies of them who were Beheaded for the Word of God c. Now these Lived They Lived and they Reign'd with Christ a Thousand years And the rest of the Dead That is all those who were not in a State of Blessed Life but under the Condemnation of Christ during the Thousand Years They Lived not again after the Thousand Years were fulfilled This is the first Resurrection the Kingdom of the Resurrection Blessed and Holy is he who hath his Part in this First Resurrection as all the Living Remaining Saints have Over them the Second Death shall have no Power For they in a Paradisiac State on the New Earth chang'd into Bodies of Paradise are Priests of God and Christ for the Thousand Years Fitted to be Caught up and to be together with the Saints Dead in Christ Raised to Enjoy the Kingdom of the Resurrection as the Children of the Resurrection the Principals of the First Resurrection in the New Heaven I have often Heard and Read the Discourses of the Men of Reason Magnifying the Resurrection as is most Due As the Hand of God stretched out in the Highest manner as the Greatest of Miracles But oh why should they not follow on to the Kingdom of the Resurrection the World to Come of the Resurrection during its Thousand Years the New Creation the New Heaven the New Earth the Kingdom of all Miracle and then All delivered up to God and the Father that he may be All in All. For from all this I conclude the Kingdom of Christ is the Kingdom of all Miracle Every Miracle therefore that hath been in this World is but a Peice a Parcel a Portion of that so vast and entire Sum. Argum. 4. I have now Argued The New Creation The New Heaven and the New Earth are certainly Miracle because above the Constitution and Law of the First Creation and that therefore all Miracle is but part and parcel a peice and portion of the Great State of the Kingdom of Christ For he that is upon the Throne says Behold I Create all New And he adds Write For these Words are True and Faithful Why did he say so But because he knew very well what an Opposition what a contrary Sentiment even Christians would be of to this Truth Be assur'd therefore saith the Great Prince upon the Throne These Things are Faithful and True and shall have their full Accomplishment in their own proper Times But now as there is in The Kingdom of Christ so Miraculous a State of Mercy and of Grace to his Servants so there is a Miraculous State of Judgment Desolating and Dissolving the Present State of this World even as it is upheld now by the Grace of the Mediator and that in the Introducing the World to Come whereof we speak and also to settle such a Counter-state of Wrath and Judgment wherein all the Wicked that have been in the World shall be in a most Visible State of Contempt
and Dishonour under the wrath of God and the Lamb. And of this all the Judgments that have been hitherto in the World have been Parts Peices and Portions also Pawns and Pledges of that State Those Great Judgments therefore on the Fallen Angels on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah on Egypt on Corah Dathan and Abiram on Nadab and Abihu have been already instanced in the Destruction of great Armies as most especially in the Valley of Jehosaphat 2 Cor. 20. 24. Joel 3 12. a great Type of that last Result at the Battle of Armageddon is most worthy to be considered and so indeed are All the Judgments we Read of in the Book of God The Book of the Wars of the Lord Numb c. 21. 14. Run down with a strong Stream and Torrent into their Great Sea the last Judgment at the Kingdom of Christ and having all the Nature of Miraculous confirm the Point we are now upon That Miracles and the Kingdom of Christ are closely Connex'd and Joyn'd together Argum. last For a Summary or Recapitulating Argument we may look back on some of the most Remarkable Miraculous Appearances of God in the Old Testament and see what an Illustrious Correspondence they bear to the World to Come or to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Translation of Enoch that he should not see Death Gen. 5. 22. Heb. 11. 5. That we know was perfect Miracle compar'd with the Present State of Dying Elijah and Elisha's Raising the Dead Types of the Resurrection 1 Kings 17. 17. 2 Kings 4 28. The Dividing the Red-Sea and Jordan Types of the smiting the Egyptian River in the Seven Streams and Destroying the Tongue of it making men go over Dry shod and of a High way for his People as to Israel in the Day he came up out of the Land of Egypt Esay 11. 16. and Like Drying up the Deep and the River and the Pride of Egyptian and Assyrian Departing away when all shall be strengthen'd in God and the people shall walk up and down in the Name of the Lord Zech. 10. 11. c. The giving of Mannah as Bread from Heaven looks to Christ the Bread of Life and the Tree of Life as the Water out of the Rock to the Water of Life But I would especially have Respect to that Standard Miracle of the Sabbatical Year A great Wonder of the Riches and Might and Power of God Every Seventh Year there was a mighty shewing forth of the Power of God For that the Earth brought forth it self so much in the Sixth Year that they might Live upon it without any Plowing or Sowing the seventh Year The seventh Year was to be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath to the Lord the Children of Israel were neither to Sow their fields nor to Prune their Vineyards nor to Reap nor to Gather but all were to Live alike of what came forth of it self God promised to Bless the sixth Year so that It should yeild meat for three years that so the seventh year might be a year of Sabbath or Rest to them Now let us Consider what the Prophets have spoken concerning this World to Come how exactly suitable and agreeable to this they have spoken of the World to Come From whence I Argue and do appeal to any one whether the Argument be not exceeding great The seventh year among the Jews was a Symbol was a Peice Parcel Portion of the World to Come whereof we speak and of the great Sabbatism of it Amos 9. 11. In that day will I Raise up the Tabernacle of David that it may be Built as in the days of Old That they may possess the Remnant of Edom and of all the Heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this And then it follows Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treader of Grapes him that soweth Seed and the Mountains shall drop sweet VVine and All the Hills shall melt The Earth and the Mountains and the Hills shall Flow out with a great Freedom and Spontaneousness into an abundance for the Servants of God Then shall the full Sense and Meaning of the Sabbatical years be understood Then shall the Full Sum of which that was but a Part and Portion be brought into open View Then instead of the Briar and Thorn shall grow up the Mirtle Tree and the Fir Tree And It shall be unto the Lord for a Sign and a Memorial that shall not be cut off When our Lord was here in the Days of his Flesh he gave an Experiment of Divine Power to the same purpose and it was a Miracle he seem'd to delight in For he several Times Repeated it He fed with a few Loaves and small Fishes so many Thousands and the Baskets of Fragments far exceeded the Principal or very first Provision Now these Things are all own'd to be Miracles let us but ask our selves whether these things were not so If we now in this Nation should let Plowing and Sowing alone for a year would we not look upon it as the Introduction of a Famine but now if God should positively command us and Assure us That there should be care taken in any one year for three years and we should Find it so taken Would we not look upon it as Miracle If any one should Set down so great Numbers of People as Christ did to so small a Provision that every one could not take a little should we not look upon it with as great or greater amazement than the Apostles did upon Christs doing so But if the small Feast in the Beginning should Multiply in the Eating and become More after a plentiful Eating than it was before Eating Should we not look upon it as a Miracle Now All this Imports That a Sufficiency of Food and Durable Cloathing shall be in the Kingdom of Christ that his Servants may Eat and be Satisfied Eat and Drink at his Table in his Kingdom and attend upon the Lord without Distraction that is Fulness of Enjoyment Thus the Miracles Christ did in Healing and Recovering the Sick the Blind and the Lame How did these mighty Acts look to that State of the World to come Revel 21. 4. There shall be no more Sickness Sorrow Pain Death nor Curse but God shall wipe away all Tears from his Servants Eyes The Great Readiness of Christ in shewing his Mercy and Power towards the Blind and Lame that they might be so no longer makes me think of that Glory in the Book of Samuel when it is said of David the Blind and the Lame whom David's Soul hated I only make an Allusion not considering the strict Sense Jesus Christ his Soul hated not the I ame or the Blind but the Blindness and the Lameness the Sickness and the Death His Soul had such a sense that this came upon the World upon Mankind by sin That he Laboured and Travailed in Spirit till he
hereunto also may be reduced the many Policies and curious Designs of Men of Power and great Motion in the World that amuse ordinary Beholders but all these with the Artifices of men of lower Figure are no moâ—e than greater or lesser Puppet play moving things by Wires unseen and unobserv'd but God does indeed thâ—ngs truly great and New and puts thereby a New Song of Praise into the mouths of his Servants for they are indeed Signs and Wonders and mighty Acts. And they are indeed New because as I have said they are all Peices Parcels Portions of that New Creation the New Heaven and New Earth that New World the World to come the Restitution of All things whereof we speak as is further to be shewn But at the present I rest upon that which hath been already nam'd as the steaddy Representation of a Miracle in strict speaking to us it is the Lords Creating a New Thing in the Earth I only add that proportionably to the New Heaven and the New Earth â—od makes in the Souls of his what he calls A new Creation a new Heart and a New Spâ—rit Old things passing away all becomes New 3. The more proper and Adequate Character of Miracles is that they are Pâ—rtions and Parcels Pledges and assurances of the World to come and of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ of the New Heaven and of the New Earth of the New Creation of God whoever looks closely and Intentively into them shall find that because the Old Creation as under the Curse through Sin and Apostasy of the First Adam will not cannot serve the Ends of the Glory of God of the Creator and of Jesus Christ the Lord and Heir of All by whom and for whom they were all made and of his Body the Church the fulness of him that filleth All in All. Therefore a new Creation is to be brought in and it is to be brought in by a Dissolution of the Old a Total Dissolution of the Old Creation the World of the First Adam and a Restitution of all things and even an Exaltation into a far Higher and more excellent State than the first Now this is to be done by Immediate Power in both Parts of Mercy and Judgment else neither Could be done No Hand but that which put together this Frame can Dissolve it no Hand but that which holds it together can either let it go or stir up those Tumults and Combustions that shall bring it to its End which is a further Argument that Creation and dayly Sustentation are Miracle Effects of immediate Power for else some however unknown to us Disorders and Crâ—ss and Counter Motions of Second Causes had Defeated the Frst Creation or long since brought this Frame to Ruine if there had been none to Guide or Sustain them but themselves And hereby it is also Evident the low State in which the Creation is is Miracle or Immediate Power of Justice for else the Goodness of the Creator had undoubtedly kept it up to its first Being in all things Good and very Good Infinite Immediate Power hath let it down so low and no lower Again on the side of Mercy and Grace so far and so much as the Creation is gone down and fallen from it self through Divine Justice Retiring the Omnipotâ—nt Conserving Hand of Power that would have kept it up or suffering thosâ— Destructive Counter-Motions in the Parts of it or in the Principles of Motion Omnipotency alone can Repair and Fill uâ— those Gaps and Hollows in the Present State and effect a Restitution of All Things and Deliver the Creation now in Bondage from that Servitude under which it hath so long and yet Grones and much more That Almighty Hand alone can Raise it above what it was at First so that Miracle runs through all Now seeing such a Boâ—h Dissolution and Restitution and Exaltation of the Creation is Decreed by God It becomes him by whom are All Things and for whom are All Things and by whom and for whom this very Dissolution and Restitution is to give warning to make Credit and Assurance of These even of Both and therefore as I have already Argued and shall much further Argue in the Part of this Discourse allotted to it That Miracles are Powers of the World to come every way proper and peculiar to it 4. Miracles are therefore Conjoyned with some Eminent and Notable Appearance of the World to Come As at the bringing of the People of Israel out of Egypt and into the Land of Canaan the Promised Land and so when Christ was here in the World and the Apostles so Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom as if it had been immediately to appear and so much more when that Kingdom shall indeed appear For else Miracles would be as Seals to a Blanck This therefore Detects all False Miracles and Lying Wonders that they are not in pursuance of the Kingdom of Christ And this is most Evident as was said before by our Saviours Inference from the Truth of that mighty work of Casting out the Deaf and Dumb Devil and that is was done by the Finger of God that no doubt the Kingdom of God was come upon them as he shews Luke 11. For Miracles cannot be without the Kingdom of God in Eminent Appearance 5. Miracles must being Parts and Peices of the World to come give greatest Assurance of themselves to be the mighty works of God this Assurance must be given to the whole man to the Mind Understanding inward and outward Senses for this is Assurance to the whole Man The Understanding is oft under Error and mistake wherein it is not Serv'd and Ministred to by Sense Sense is oft deluded when the mind does not make a Judgment When both make a full Judgment This is as great Assurance as the Intellectual sensible Being of Man is capable of and therefore Resistance to such Light is Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is Blaspheming against full Conviction of Divine Power and Appearance Mat. 12. 31. Mark 3 18. Luke 12. 10. The Miracles therefore proper to the Kingdom of Christ are Armed at all Points by Infallible Proofs as that grand Miracle of the Resurrection of Christ was Acts 1. 3. And thus they ought to be from their Relation to the Kingdom of Christ which shall give all assurance of it self to the whole Man and for ever remove all possibility of doubt from Saints who shall see then Eye to Eye and from wicked Men who would not see but shall see in that day CHAP. IV. Of the Reasons or ends of Miracles as they are generally Assign'd by those who have Writ upon them I Come now to shew the Ends and great Uses and Purposes of God in Miracles what he intends towards the Children of men by them And I will Argue the thing Freely both on the one side and the other because I know the generality of Christians and of the Interpreters and Teachers of the Doctrine of
c. If any Doctrines then be not according to whâ—â— God hath before spoken in his word and to those main points of the Love and Fear of God and the Rewards he hath proâ—â—â—â—ed and Punishments he hath Threatened Although such a Contrary Doctrin be Confirm'd with such Appearances of a sign or wonder as cannot be Dâ—stinguished by very Judicious observers from a Real Miracle This will not Justify the person that turns aside from the Commands or Doctrines that are indeed from God which ought to be weighed by all the Just Rules and Characters of Trying truth According to this Grand caution thus Given by God The Jews might have been excused in Refusing to withdraw from the Mosaic Law or to receive Christ as the Messiah and Son of God notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by our Lord and by his Apostles if the Doctrine and Action and high Acknowledgment of God of All holiness if the Excellencies alwaies most Bright and shining from our Lord c. If the Diviness of all his Preachâ—ng His clearest dicovery of eternal Life and everlasting Punishment upon all unholyness had not vindicated and demonstrated it self to be of God Christ therefore says as before observed John 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken to them they had no sin but now they have no Cloake for their sin and so John 14. 10. Christ saith The words I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me He doth the works Certainly our Lord Implyes His very Doctrine was all Miracle All works the works of his Father as well as the very Miracles or Works strictly so called Thus Christ Argues from the Direct â—endency of all his whole Ministry and design so manifestly tending to the Ruine of Sathans Kingdom that he could not be suspected of Acting by way of Collusion with Sathan except Sathan could be supposed to be Divided against Himself and to Destroy his own Kingdom Else the Pretence had been plausible if all the Doctrine of Christ had not been Infinitely Holy and Infinitely pure Destructive to Satan and his Kingdom Matt. 12. Mark 3. anâ— Luke 11. The Apostle Petet Comparing the Miraculous vision of our Lords Transfiguration Prefers the Word of Prophecy as more sure 2. Pet. 1. 19. And the Apostle Paul makes the powerful Preaching of the Truths of the Gospel more Convincing of the mighty presence of God in Church Assemblies then Miracles or miraculous Gifts of Tongues were 1 Cor. 14. 26. For hereby saith he the Secrets of mens Hearts will be Discovered and they will Fall down and worship God and say He is among his Servants of a Truth From all this It is most manifest The Confirmation of the Truths oâ— the Gospel is not the Adequate end of Miracles or a Reason of them Commensurate to them Because they do not sufficiently serve that end nor answer that Reason If therefore They had been supremely to that end or Reason of them There is no doubt They should to the very utmost and last point of effect have produced that Confirmation For such mighty works of God Cannot be once supposed to be in vain as they must be if they do not Attain their End or are-not Principal in Attaining it As it hath been made out They are not CHAP. V. Wherein the Grand Scope of the Discourse is Endeavoured to be truly Fixed viz. That the Chief and Adequate End and Reason of Miracâ—â—s is That they are Portions and Pledges Peices and Parcels and Portions of the Kingdom of Christ or of the World to Come and to Bring it in at Last I Come now to that Part of this Discourse wherein as in a Center All the lines of it meet that is to shew that the Principal and most Adequate Reason of Miracles is that They Bear a strict close and Inseparable Relation to that world to come whereof saith the Apostle we speak And because This world is to come and they have not yet Introduced it Therefore they can be no more then Parts or Peices and Portions and not the entire sum Pawns and Pledges and not the very Kingdom not that very world it self And in the attaining of this It will be found That whatever account can be given of Miracles as if this moving mens Hearts Home to God were an end or Reason of them or as if the Confirmation of the Doctrine of the Gospel were an end by it self worthy of them even That account will be Found to Lye in their Relation Those very effects have to that world to come as will be seen in the Particulars I shall now present in order Argum. 1. If there be such a World to Come as the Scripture hath abundantly declared there is then every thing wherein the Present State of the World is lifted up above it self or the present Course of setled Nature which being by Immediate Power and not in the ordinary manner of Vpholding and merciful Governing the World we therefore call Miracle is in its very own Nature a Pledg and Assurance of such a Restituâ—ion or New Creation or Wâ—rld to Come as we speak of and is a part or portion of it For it is a Specimen and a little part of what we shall see in full and whole And on the other side if there by any thing done in Judgment in such Extraordâ—nary and Miraculous manner breaking the Frame of the Present State either in any more Essential Settlement or in the general Course of Gods Government of the World it is an Assurance to us that he â—ill Dissolve the present World to make room for a new World and to bring in Vniversal Judgment upon the Vngodly on whiâ—h account all Extraordinary Judgments are delivered in the Language of the general Judgment as is most observable in all the Phrase wherein such Judgments are expressed in the Prophetical Parts of the Old and New Testament which are not a high Rhâ—torical or Poetical Language or manner of Expression but have real Reference to what shall be Fulfill'd in the very Letter at last Now in the presenting Particulars and Arguing upon them If the things spoken seem to be new or singular I would only Desire the Noble Temper of the Bereans to search the Scripture whether these things be so or not 1. I would begin more orderly and in the Foundation Jesus Christ is the Second Adam Lord of the World to Come and unâ—â—r Him the present World is put in regard of supreme Adâ—â—nistration of the very Things that are not put under him in the â—ense They shall be put under him I know we will All allow This great Mediator the Redeemer of the World Jesus Christ The Messiah the Prince of the Kingâ— of the Earth the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords He into whose Hand the Father hath committed all Judgment to Execute it even because he is the Son of Man that His coming into the World was supreme Miracle This none of
us that believe in Jesus Christ will deny but own it as an Article of Faith This the Scripture speaks of as a great Miracle For if Jesus Christ had come into the World the ordinary way of mankind It had been a great Argument that there had been no such Relation between Miracle and the World to Come as I now affirm to you But I will make it Evident to you how much though it be a thing we all Profess to believe That Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin The Scripture speaks of it in the High Language of Miracle The Prophet Esay ch 7. v. 11. Commission'd by God proposes to Ahaz King of Judah when there was a Confederacy against him that yet God assured him should have no success To ask of God a sign of it that is a Miracle and God knowing how great a Sâ—gn He intended him a Miracle or Sign Comprehensive of all Signs bid him Ask it as great and wonderful as he could desire either in the Depth or in the Heighth as if God had said I would have thee ask it It shall be a Point of thy Faith and of thy Obedience and thus indeed God offers a Miracle as a Confirmation as hath been allowed of any Declaration of God to man having yet an especial Relation to the World to Come Oh how great is this Goodness of God to Ahaz As if God should say to us in any Extremity or Distress I intend a Glorious Kingdom a World to Come of Grace Mercy and Peace to my Servants brought in by my immediate Hand and Power and you shall have a share of it a Lot in it as God said to Daniel and a part a pâ—wn of it in an Extraordinary a Miraculous Relief of your present Extremity and Distress How great a mercy would we esteem it But Ahaz being of a Perverse Unbelieving Disobedient Temper Oh saith he I will not ask I will not tempt the Lord what do you talk to me of Signs or Miracles I am content with the Even Course of Providence and with the stated Truth of the Word of God And so we are ready to say now What do you talk to us of Miracles They are Fancies and Whimsies of Brain sick Men only Let us keep to the Written Word and to settled Prâ—vidence even thus they will say at a Time when God is giving greatest Proof He will Work and Return on High For else I do acknowledg with all my Heart we must wait Gods Appointed Time But it is great Perversity when we Refuse the Eâ—idence of any thing Written in the Word of God that we might by the Scripture have had patience hope and Comfort in and say We won't tempt God Therefore immediately on Ahaz his Refusal saith the Prophet Esay Hear now Oh House of David Is it too small a thing for you to weary men To weary his Servants the Ministers of these things from God to you but will you weary my God also Tho you are not willing to ask a Sign I 'le single out a Sign for you Behold a Virgin shall Conceive a Son This we know is perfect Miracle It is True This did not appear at that Time to the Senses of Ahaz when it was thus Promised what sensible Symbol God gave of it then I will not now Dispute but This Promise carries our Thoughts on the Very Miracle it self when our Lord came in the Flesh and so we find the Evangelists Matthew and Luke give the History of the Virgin Mary bringing forth the Holy Child Jesus Thus we see in the Person of the Redeemer the very Foundation of the World to Come is laid in Miracle and according to this very Miracle and in Order to that very World he is Emanuel God with us God in our Nature a Miracle beyond all Miracles I 'le give you one Scripture more concerning this very Thing Jerem 31. 22 23. How long saith God wilt thou go about thou backsliding Daughter The Lord hath or will create a new thing in the Eartk a Woman shall compass a Man it is an Expression of the Miraculous Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth of the Virgin For as I have said the word A New Thing expresses the Nature of Miracle And then it follows They shall use this Speech in the Land of Judah and Mountain of Hoâ—yness which Holy Mount we know is an expression of the World to Come the very Assurance of which satiates every weaâ—y Soul and replenishes every sorrowful Soul and the ground of all this is the Miraculous Birth of the great Redeemer Jehovah our Righteousness According to this Genesis 3. 15. As soon as the present Creation was lapsed and Fallen by the Sin of Man and had sunk utterly intâ— Ruâ—ne if it had not been Shor'd up by the Mediator It is said I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman between her Seed and thy Seed It shall Bruise thy Head and thou shalt Bruise his Heel Here the Woman is taken a part from Adam and between the Seed of the Woman in a Peculiar manner and the Seed of the Serpenâ— is this Enmity Put to express that Miraculous Conception and Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ And indeed if we could lay the thing close to our Hearts God Awakens us to all the great Things of the World to come whereof we speak and shews us plainly that Things shall be lifted up to a far greater and more excellent state he hath given this as a Sign of it A Virgin shall Conceive and Bear a Son Let us consider one Scripture more Esay 9. 6. For unto us a Child is Born a Son is Given and the Government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the Increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end Vpon the Throne of David and his Kingdom to order it and to Establish it with Judgment and with Justice from henceforth even for ever The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this To us a Child is born a Son is Given Herein indeed is not an express Delineation of the wonderfulness of his Conception and birth but it is implied and Included His Name shall be called what shall it be called Wonderful The Man of Wonders That Wonderful Man throughout he is all Wonderful all Miracle the Counsellor and Mighty God and that which we call Everlasting Father is in the Hebrew The Father of the World to come And of his Government There shall be no End Glorious and Great shall be his Kingdom The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this and therefore the greatness of his Power It being all Miracle shall perform this His hand shall be stretched out in it and for the World to Come The Death of our Lord Jesus Christ was stupendious Miracle of Justice and Judgment when the Lord Bruised and put him to Grief and made his
God took him Gen. 5. 22 23 24. This was an Eminent Peice of that World to come Enoch was translated without seeing Death As the Apostle saith Some shall not Dye but be Changed and Caught up There were two Miraculous Appearances of Judgment The Lapse and Curse upon the Creation and Death upon mankind that Came in upon the Disobedience of the First Adam the grand Proâ—unciation of Judgment upon the whole State of the World of that First Adam and this compar'd with the First Glory of the Creation on which it Brake in is most justly to be esteemed Miracle tho now not so The so universal and general Judgment upon the Old World by the Flood of which was spoken before and how closely it Relates to the VVorld to Come as also of the Peculiar Miracle of Grace towards Noah and such a Remnant of the Creation with him as should give a present Restitution of all things and how Representative was that also of the World to Come in which the Servants of Christ shall be Saved from the Deluge of the Vials and of that Fire of the last Vial Now it was very Agreeable even to that Beginning of the World That it should not be left wholly without a Testimony of that Kingdom signified in the Promise of the Womans Seed wherein there is given the History of that Seed propagating it self as the almost whole History of that Time tho it was so very far off at that Time from Coming and was to pass through so many several Changes of Representation ere it came into its Glory The Confusion of Languages and the Division of the Earth in the Time of Shem the great Melchisedec and Eber the Holy Patriarch through whose Loyns the Holy Seed Ran and whose Son Peleg in an especial manner bore the Character of that Division had this Remarkable Relation to the Kingdom of Christ That it carried the Face of a Miraculous Judiciary Driving asunder the Nations and made the great Distinctiâ—n of Mankind That Kingdom hath made all along in the World and shall make For hereby the Oracles of God were so long committed to that particular Seed of the Hebrews of whom Christ God over All Blessed for ever came And hereupon arose that Temporary and present Remedy or Divine Expedient of the Gift of Tongues shewing the Miraculous Power of Christs Kingdom making way for its enlargement in the World and Foretelling also that Reunion of Languages At Pentecost in his Kingdom Thus the Time of the second Patriarchal Roll of Generation is Illustrated with a Miracle separating the Hebrews from all the Nations of the Earth The Time of Abraham with his Call to the Going out of Egypt was Enlightned with the continual Appearances of God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob which were indeed of the Naâ—ure of Perfect Miracle besides what was Miraculous in the Birth of Isaac of Jacob and that Miracle of Judgment on Sodom before spoken of Thus we see No Time hitherto to the Going out of Egypt hath been a Dark Place in Regard of Miraculous Appearances of God to his Servants because of the Great Son of Abraham according to the Flesh in whose Right of Inheritance as the Prince of the World to come Abraham is call'd Heir of the Worlds Rom. 4. 13. The Time of the Going out of Egypt from the Multiplication of the Children of Israel there to the very settlement in Canaan was one Continued Train of Miracles Nor was the Time of the Judges or of the Kings of Judah Un-illustrated by various Irradiations of the mighty Power of God towards his People in Fore-Assurances of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ which is much to be Remark'd Because the Law of God by his Servant Moses had Receiv'd the full settlement and Establishment by as high Testimonies from Heaven as serv'd not only the necessariness of its Sanction but the Glory and Grandieur of it And if only Prophets without any Power of Miracles had been Rais'd up in Addition to it There had been yet a Measure of Truth Shaken Down and Running Over For besides those Extraordinary Prophets there was the Standing Ministry as in Ordinary of the Priests Lips preserving Knowledg But that which is most Wonderful and Deserves particular Enquiry is That even in the Apostasy of the Ten Tribes besides the Communication of whatsoever great things God did in the Kingdom of Judah There were Those two Prophets Elijah and Elisha like two Witnesses after Moses and Aaron set out and Credential'd with a Mighty Power of Miracles to be as a Light shining in the Dark place of that Apostasy that was so great a Type of the Antichristian Apostasy and the Types of one are made by great Wisdom of the Divine Spirit Correspondent to the Types of the other even to so undoubted clearness and Certainty that I make no doubt to Assign it as one Reason Why there was such a Miraculous Presence there even that It with those witnesses at the Deliverance out of Egypt might be a Prophetical Plat-fotm of the Witnesses Appearing in the Twelve Hundred Sixty Days against the Antichristian Apostasy But besides that There was with Regard to Joseph of whom the Prophetick Benediction of Jacob and Moses spoke so great Things and who was so great a Type of Christ in his High Administration in Egypt and whose was as the Spirit of God Testifies the Birth-Right 1 Chron. 5. 2. There was a Type I say of the Kingdom of Christ necessarily to be Erected in his peculiar Posterity whereof he himself Foretold in Ephraim so that tho the Kingdom was Judah's and no one Good King of the House of Joseph over the Ten Tribes yet God being pleased to have some Representation of the Kingdom of Christ tho in so continued an Apostasy he was pleased also to Honour it with so peculiar a Prophetical Ministry and that so Illustrated with Miraculous Powers till he gave them a Bill of Divorce under the Name of those three Children of Whoredom Jezreel Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi Hosea 1. Yet because it was still a Type of the Kingdom of Christ There was an Eminent Type of the very Kingdom of Christ Elijah carried up to Heaven even above the Translation of Enoch in a Chariot of Fire without Dying Some years after the Captivity of the Ten Tribes when they were come under the very Perpendicular Influences of that Dreadful Lo Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi The Miraculous Power of God shone out with very Bright Rayes upon Hezekiah King of Judah a most Excellent Reforming Prince First in the Destruction of so great an Assyrian Army which threatn'd him with the Lot of the Ten Tribes and Immediately after with that Miraculous Sign in the Shadow that is as the Learned make manifest The Sun going so many Degrees back to assure his Life restor'd Then came on the Babylonish Captivity during the Time of which besides the Grandieur of the Spirit of Prophecy during that Time in Jeremiah Ezekiel and
been so much lost that it is as it were a New Song And the Hundred forty four Thousand that bare the Seal of the Living God in their Foreheads shall now bear his Name openly on their Foreheads Now the Spirit of God hath assur'd us It is the Law of the Name of God that when that Name is Near His wondrous works shall declare it So then These Hundred forty four Thousand singing this though but as it were New Song shall sing it with the Fathers Name on their Foreheads That is with an open Manifestation of Miracles And it being as a New Song It calls for a Power of Miracles to make the manifestation of it Honourable in the Restoration even as it was in the first manifestation or singing of it by the Apostles and None then shall be able to open their mouths against it The Harpers Harping so sweetly and These Sweet Singers of Israel Taking this Song from them shall drown and overcome All other sounds And that this may be most Evidently The Fathers Name with his wonderful Works declaring it shall be on their Foreheads And so it shall go along with them in the propagation of that Doctrine or that Song And as the Sealing on the Forehead was an interruption and stop put on Miracles that there could be no Miracle wrought during the Time of that Sealing with which the Witnesses Sackcloath was concurrent So when the Seal is taken off and the Name Written on the Forehead Miracles cannot but be and then shall that New Song be Sung as one Principal Point to which Miracles shall give Witness And then shall no Dog move his Tongue against this Truth as the Apostle calls them Doggs that were of the Concision cutting short the Robes of the righteousness of Christ to the Dishonour of Christ and of his Saints for thereby the Saints shame is seen In that their own Righteousness is worse than Filthy Raggs Now such cut short I say the Robes of the Pure and Perfect Righteousness of Christ that they may find room and space for the Works of men And as Dogs they bark at the Free grace of God But then none shall so much as move their Tongue against that so Glorious Righteousness of Jesus Christ 2. The Second Truth to be Sealed and Witnessed to by Miracles shall be the Free Declaration of the Immediate Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ We know Any that now speak of it speak of it with greatest Disadvantage we are as the Jews to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ they could not believe that So we cannot Believe this Spiritual Kingdom that hath been now in the time of an Adulterous and perverse Generation kept so low as to all Glory of Appearance that it shall now shine out and be seen in Glory the Kingdom of the great Son of Man that hath been spoken of by all the Prophets and by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when therefore that Kingdom shall come into its Succession in the Days of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound and that Mystery of God be Immediately to be Finished a Miraculous Power shall Cleave this present World so that through the Clefts and Breaches of it we shall see the World to come on every side These Miracles Attending that Swift Ministry of the Flying Angel will make all indeed know that the Hour of his Judgment or Kingdom and Government is come For that is undoubtedly the great Truth of the Everlasting Gospel that the very Hour of his Judgment is come and if the Gospel in its First Preaching when that Hour of his Judgment was not come had Miracles to Seal it how much more when that Everlasting Gospel is Preached and the very hour of his Judgment is come shall Miracles certainly wait upon that Everlasting Gospel not only as the Gospel and as then more Admirably Appearing to be the Everlasting Gospel but as it Brings that great Truth that the Hour of his Judgment is come This Power of Miracles shall Exalt that Voice and make it a Loud Voice sounding through the midst of the Heavens of the Lord. Argum 4. A Fourth Argument that strongly perswades me There shall be a Return of Miracles is that Scripture Jerem. 16. 16. A place I desire we may often Meditate upon because the Time of its Fullfilling is very near and even at the very door Oh let us Pray that Prayer of Jeremy joyn'd with that great Assurance Oh Lord my Sâ—rength and my Fortress my Refuge in the Day of Affliction the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the Ends of the Earth and say Our Fathers have Inherited Lies and things werein there is no Profit Nothing will make God appear a greater Refuge in the day of Afflictipn than to be deeply apprehensive of this For God that can do this can be a Refuge in the most Extreme necessity How shall this Work on Men to hear such Gentiles saying Shall a Man make himself Gods and they are no Gods How will this Affect all that Hear and draw them off from their Idols of Silver and of Gold Or these words may be look'd upon as Gods words by the Prophet shall a man be so unreasonable or bruitish as to make Gods to himself of them that are no Gods And so they are rather to be taken but which way ever we take them Therefore or Because of this so great Misprision of me saith God I will this once cause them to know my Hand and my might and they shall know that my Name is Jehovah Now the Hand of God and Might and Power of God are every where in Scripture expressions of Miracles And they shall for this once know my might It is an expression to be paralell'd with that Heb. 12. 27. Yet once more I shake Heaven and Earth So once more the Nations shall know my Might God hath oftentimes in one way or other made the Nations know his might especially in the Days of Christ he made them know his might in a sense of Miraculous Power above any time before it but the making the Nations know for this once is the making them know for once that they shall never need to be made to know any more That Once shall be so Efficacious a making to know For so the Apostle hath Taught us to understand This Once or yet Once It is taking away or removing every thing that is to be moved out of its place by such shaking so the making the might to be known this once is the utmost removing all the Pagan Ignorance or Bruitishness of making Gods to themselves that are no Gods Now seeing the Gentiles have not yet been so made to know it is manifest It was not this Once that God here speaks of For it must needs have produced the Effect so that it never should have needed to be produced any more It must therefore be the last making known and consequently the Miraculous Power must Remain
indeed a Bringing down Fire from Heaven Now what was this but a denouncing the Judgments of God upon Antichristianism that shall so surely be Fullfill'd in their Season And of this there are many great Witnesses and Monuments In the Darkest Times there were those that let Fly as we speak against the Papacy who spared not to call the Pope Antichrist to his Face to Affirm Christianity was Turn'd into Paganism among them Fire went out of their mouths to this very purpose to Threaten that Antichristian Monarch and his so call'd Catholick Church with all the Vials of the Revelation the Plagues and the Curses of it to say God abhorr'd it and would Bring it into Judgment And tho the Witnesses were Slain before men as Witnesses of Lyes only by the Anathemas Excommunications Brands of Heresy Pour'd out upon them yet that Antichristian State These Witnesses of Christ had Power to Kill Ten Thousand Times more For all that they have spoken shall certainly and everlastingly be Fullfiâ—l'd upon it and it is condemn'd already by the Mouths of so many Servants of Christ of which each Particular Soul of that Antichristian Union going out of this World hath Found the dreadful effects of which the Reformation hath been the effect and stands a Monument of which many severe Judgments by Mahometans and others Many strokes from Heaven have been the Evidences and in Regard of which Threatned and Executed The Witnesses aâ—e and were accounted by the Antichristian World their Tormentors But the Illustrious Fullfilling is yet to come when that wicked one shall be Consum'd or carried off by the Breath of Christs Mouth in the Preaching the Everlasting Gospâ—l and utterly Abolished by the Brightness of his coming 2. The Second Thing in which the Spirit of God sets out the judiciary Miraculous Power of the Witnesses is They had Power to shut Heaven that it should not Rain in the Days of their Prophecy Now what was this It is taken from Elijah's swearing in the Name of the Living God There should be no Rain no Dew for three years and an half 1 Kings 17. A Symbol of these Three years and an Half of years or 1260 years For so I understand them Yet with Relation to a deâ—per Time like that of our Lord 's Lying in the Grave a part of Three Days For which Reason they are call'd Days and signify the Three Times and an Half as Days in all Languages Import Seasons Now the Doctrine of the Gospel and indeed all Instruction is Compar'd to Rain and Dew in Scripture My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain and Distil aâ— the Dew The Doctrine of the Gospel after the Ascention of Christ is expressed by Gods sending a plentiful Rain whereby he Confirm'd Strengthen'd or Refresh'd his Inheritance when It was weary Psal 68. 9. So in the Prophet the People are Call'd to to Break up their Fallow Ground Till God come and Rain Righteousness upon Them Hos 10. 12. The Shutting up of Heaven therefore in the Days of their Prophecy that It should not Rain shews 1. That there should be as is very well known was a very Dark and Barbarous Time as to all Learning and Knowledg in the Moons of the Apostasy that Chill Fruitless Planets of the Night from which the very Borrowed Beams of the Sun Fall Cold and Languid and without Vigor or Pregnancy 2. That there should be an exceeding Drought and Barrenness as to all Gospel Doctrines in their Life Purity Sweetness And how Remarkable this was all Protestants are I hope Sensible except they themselves Love still those Corrupted Pits and Cisternes of Popery or what hath the brackish Tast thereof 3. That there should be a very sad and woful Turning of the Earth or the Hearts of Men under the Name and Profession of Christianity into Iron and Brass as to all Gospel Softness and Fructification 3. And this will be yet clearer in the Third Particular They have Power to turn Water into Blood into the Blood of a Dead man as another Expression of the Revelation gives it us that is that hath no Motion Circulation Spirits Activity shewing the utter Ineptitude nay Impossibility of Popish Dâ—ctrines as of Justification by Works Transubstantiaâ—ion Pardons Indulgences Pennances Pilgrimages Worship of Saints Angels Virgin Mary Saints to be the Instruments of Conveying Life to Souls any more than the Stagnated Blood of a Dead Man to give Life or Motion to the Body in which it is so Arrested and Congeal'd But as Elijah said As the Lord Liveth there shall not be Rain nor Dew but at my word So the Witnesses may say but at our word at our Doctrine according to the Plainness Purity Sincerity of Gospel Preaching If they had stood in my Counsels They should have turned Sinners from their evil ways When men cull out the Morality of the Gospel only and our own Workings as many even of the Styled Reformed do little else Neglecting the Holding out of Christ in his Blood in the mighty Grace of his Spirit Hence the Doctrine of the Gospel becomes as the Blood of a Dead Man without Power of Conversion But it may be said would the Witnesses or should they ought they to shut Heaven or to turn VVaters into Blood I Answer The Preaching God hath given them to Preach the VVord he hath given them they must speak they must Preach If God hath given them to declare the rare and Seldom Conversions the Lowness and Penury of True Gospel Doctrine the Heavens shut during the days of the Apostasy they must Declare it their Declaring it done is the doing it what the Prophets Declare They Do as God says to Jeremy I have set thee to Build and to Plant to pull down and to Destroy So God Set these Witnesses to shut Heaven to turn Waters into Bood Again as Christ Taking to himself the Instruments of a good Shepherd condemned the Instruments of the Foolish Shepherd and so turn'd all the Preaching of the Scribes and Pharisees into Folly by Preaching himself with Authority and not as the Scribes So the Witnesses shut up Heaven and no Rain falls but at or by their Word and they turn waters into blood by Preaching Plainly and Powerfully and Sincerely the Truths of our Lord Jesus Christ And even many Souls perceive it of them as they did of Christs Preaching They find the Dullness and Deadness of other Preaching by that Thus God hath given Power to the Witnesses It is given to them to turn Waters into Blood and to shut Heaven that is to Preach sincerely themselves And to shew other Doctrines Poisonous Ruinous to the Souls of Men. Thus at this Day all the Doctrines that turn from Christ and Free Grace that is from the Spirit and Power of Christianity They are Discover'd by the Witnesses to be Destructive The Sheep that come up from the washing have Teeth white as Milk washed with the sincere Milk of the Word purified from this blood between their Teeth
was a great Offer of the Kingdom of God and of Christ at that Time to have Appear'd as Christ says Be sure the Kingdom of God is come upon you and Christ Commands the Apostles to Preach the Kingdom of God in the Doing of Miracles as I have fully shown And it did indeed then come in the Spiritual State of it so at the return of Miracles that Kingdom shall indeed without any further Delay come in the Highest both Spiritual Glory and outward Manifestation of it in which regard Miracles as I have manifested through this Discourse shall be most Universal and to the highest Efficacy Because the world to Come which is the Kingdom of the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven shall be prepared for and effectually brought in thereby so that till the Time of that Kingdom be in its Succession There can be no such return of Miracles expected and that as I have shewn cannot be till the Four Monarchies are fully Expired For the Kingdom of Christ and of this Monarchy cannot mingle As therefore the Miracles proper to this Kingdom have been more Interrupted by the Course of those Monarchies and especially the Three Times and Half of the Last State of the Last Monarchy than at any other Time so they must be fully ended and the Kingdom of Christ be Proclaimed according to Rev. 11. The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he hath taken to himself his great Power to Reign and then shall Miracles the mighty Powers of the VVorld to come Return again to Huisher it in even a Stated Power of Miracles as in thr Days of Christ and of the Apostles as our Lord says I work Cures to day and to morrow c. A continuity a Connexion of one Miracle with another a Miraculous Power waited at his Hand at his Right Hand a state of Miracles there was that God was Magnified who had given such power to men a settled Power the Account he sent to John the Baptist of himself was The Blind receive their Sight the Lame walk the Lepars are Cleansed and that great Spiritual Miracle running along The Poor are Evangeliz'd and under the Power of the Gospel Messiah and his Kingdom and the Power of Miracles are always joyn'd mighty in word and deed in doing good Full of Compassion because he himself took our Sickness and carried our Sorrows and so heal'd as in Mercy to himself that it might be truly said Physitian Heal thy self The Apostles as Ministers of State in his Kingdom were Ministers of Miracles Freely Received of this Power aâ—d commanded Freely to give and so we find they did and with that Power that the Shaddow of Peter and the very Linnen touch'd by the Apostle Paul conveyed Cure insomuch that the very Pagans in sense of Divine Power said The Gods are come down among us Acts 14. 28. And surely when that Kingdom of the Restitution of all things shall actually appear then in all things It shall be fulfilled that our great Prince hath Received Gifts for men even for the Rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Miracles shall Husher it in and Miraculous Powers shall Found and Settle it CHAP. XI The Inferences from the whole Discourse of Miracles Tending to make Wise to Sobriety concerning Them and to all Holiness and Heavenly Conversation are Recollected and Presented Inference 1. MIracles indeed from Divine Power are able to bear the severest Tryal and Examination because they give Evidence of themselves to the whole Man not always to the outward Sense For as hath been before remarked the Words of Christ are Works Now Words of Great and Supernatural Efficacy are Miracles to and before the sense of Mind but not to the Outward Sense So they were to the Woman of Samaria Behold a Man saith she that hath told me All that ever I did Is not this the Messiah or the Christ John 4. 29. and the Samaritans said to the Woman We believe not for thy Words or saying but we have heard him our selves and know that This is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World v 42. And yet here was no Miraculous Appearance to the Outward Sense and so our Lord says Blessed are They who haâ—e believed and yet have not seen Now whatever produces Faith is Miracle before the Mind For it is the mighty Power of God that works in all them that believe Even as Miracle before the Eye is sensible Miracle Yet generally Miracles did commend Themselves to both the Inward and the Outward Sense and so that their most obstinate Opposers could not Resist their Evidences They could bear the severest Scrutiny sustain the uttermost Test and Tryal When the Enemies of Christ of his Doctrine and Miraculous Power at any Time sate in Judgment on Christ and his Miracles They were Confounded and Amazed They were forced to lay their hands upon their mouths and to keep silence This is the Excellency of the Miracles of the Gospel when the Juggles and Cheats and Tricks of the Devil and of All Deceivers may be easily found out if they are but search'd into They must be swallowed in silence and believed in the Dark or they vanish What an Abundance of the Popish Miracles have been Trac'd and Tracked Like their Story of Bell and the Dragon that they Fathally put in their Scriptures or Bible the very semblance of their Miracles to the Juggle and Cheat that lay under Them But the Miracles of the World to come and of the Kingdom of Christ are the Greater the more they are Eyed They have no Enemies but Ignorance Stupidity and Vnbelief or Counterfeit We have an Admirable Instance of this John 9. in the Cure of the Blind Man The Neighbours had it in question and were convinced first the Pharisees emptied it from Vessel to Vessel They Examin'd it at all Lights the Man being Blind himself his Parents were every way sifted and the Matter canvass'd and all they could do was to drop the Cause as they say and in their own defence to Excommunicate the Person on whom the Miracle was wrought They cast him out Juridically v 34. Again We shall find the Jews sitting in Judgment upon a Miracle wrought by the Apostles And what was the Great Effect of it Acts 4. 21. The people Glorified God seeing the miracle of Healing that was done The Apostles Peter and John had by the power of Christ heal'd a man Lame from his mothers Womb c. 3. v. 1 c. Now They beholding the man which was healed standing with them They could say nothing against it Observe They fain would have Remonstrated unto it but could say nothing against it and the Result was What shall we do with these men For that indeed a Notable Miracle hath been done by them v. 16. is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it So that here was the Great Excellency of the Miracles
Diversities of Miraculous Operations were but the outward Counter point And therefore herein we may understand the Supernatural Excellency of Grace and Salvation by Christ Even as we Acknowledg Miracle far above Nature so the Salvation of the Gospel being most Perfect Miracle is in every Thing above Nature VVorks of Righteousness we have done is Nature If we are sav'd by them It is then indeed no other than Nature but if by the Free Grace of God Pardoning and Accepting through the Righteousness of Christ This is Miracle Works done by Free VVill is Nature Works done by the Grace and Power of the Divine Spirit is Miracle Oh! how great a Tryal is this of Doctrines whatever enters into that VVorlâ— to come whereof we speak with Acceptanee is Miracle a part of that VVorld to Come And though what we call Nature now is indeed Grace from the Mediator yet It is so mix'd with the Apostasy that if it is not sublimated Raised to the Height by Grace it will subside sink down to the very Bottom of the Apostasy Lastly Miracles Rightly considered shew the Order even the Primary Oorder of Grace For as Miraculous Power was first in Motion and Manifestation of it self ere there could be particular Application and not only so but there was a particular Approach of such Grace ready to Work which excited the Faith of the Person that was to Receive the Benefit of the Miracle and so the Miraculous Power Entred where Miraculous Power had no Place there Unbeleif prevail'd and no mighty Works were or could be done Even so in all the Spiritual Miraculous Powers The Grace given and Working Faith and Repentance and Obedience first Enâ—er and then the Graces Themselves For Grace even as Nature Fabricates and Raises its own Habitation or Reception Even by it Self So it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God who sheweth mercy Yet it is our Duty to pray earnestly for Grace in ourselves and others even as it is our Duty to wait upon All Means to wait especially on Grace it self Infer 4. How admirable is the Gift and Grace of God in Removing out of the World that Diversity and Strangeness of Tongues that both in different Words and Sounds as well as different Pronunciations of the same Words came in by a Miracle of Judgment on the Builders of Babel and hath continued a certain Diagnostick or Brand of the State of Confusion whose Base and House is in the Land of Shinar the Antichristian Babylonian Kingdom most contrary to the Kingdom of Salem and to the True Melchisedec Jesus Christ King of Righteousness King of Peace Now therefore at his first Appearance in his Kingdom and the Preaching of the Everlasting Gospel by the APostles in an Offerture of it at that time and a Pledg of what shall be There was a very Illustrious Specimen of the Babelism or Confusion of Languages Removed Yet it shall be much more illustrious at the utter Faâ—l of Babylon and its Kingdom For then the Lord shall shall turn to the People universally a pure Language They shall All speak the Language of Canan And this must needs be so when the Everlasting Gospel shall be Preached to Every Tongue and Language under Heaven Then must there be either one Vniversal Language spoken and understood by All to Preach it in or else there must be an Immediate Passing out of one Language into Another both in Speaking and Understanding Either of which is most undeniably the Work of that Infinite Power that made mans mouth that gave it speech and then Activity of Reason Turning every way and guiding that Speech This alone can Conciliate those both Different Voices Sounds Accents and manners of Pronunciation that are found in Different Languages or Tongues and the Different Formings of the same Language and Frame all into one Universal Character or Sound and Expression of Truth of the Gospel most suitable to the Glory of that Vniversal Monarch King of Kings Lord of Lords Then also shall all that Babelism or Confusion of Opinions so proper to Babylon concerning the Truths of the Gospel be Reconcil'd into Speaking one Thing being of the same Mind and Judgmen tand that perfectly or to Perfection Infer 5. And to conclude this Discourse Seeing the Messiah the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven and his Kingdom his World to come and these Miraculous Powers even to the bringing forth the New Heaven and the New Earth are always together Oh that moved by the Blessed Spirit who says Come and Joyning with the Bride which says Come we also Hearing and Sympathizing or moved Alike may say Come Oh let it be said Oh Zion Thy King cometh The Flock of Saints the multitude of Them Come The Lord our God shall come and all the Saints with Thee The Breaker shall come up before them They have broken through They have passed through the Gate and are gone out by it and their King shall pass before them the Lord even Jehovah on the Head of them Mic. 2. 13. Even so Come Lord Jesus Come quickly And thus I have Finished the Proof of the Return of Miracles I shall in this following Discourse Essay a Full and Satisfactory Proof by the Sure Word of Prophecy That The Return of Miracles shall be in the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ 1697. THE Great Charter FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF ALL Prophecy of Scripture AND OF The TIMES Defined by it PLEADED In Justification of what hath been Written thereupon against the several Imputations of Curiosity Groundless Presumption Phantastry or Enthusiasm 2 PET. I. 20. Knowing this first That no Prophecy of Scripture is of any private Interpretation IT is very Notorious there is nothing Learned and good Men are more Scandalized at or give slighter Regard to throughout all that is offered to them from the Word of God than the Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy especially if Any come to the Interpretation of those Prophecies that Define Time Now this arises from a strong Pre-judgment or Pre-possession of Mind That such Prophecies and most particularly concerning Time are not possible or hardly Lawful to be Interpreted and that it is presumption to offer at it and that all that is drawn from such Interpretation is no other than Groundless Phantastry I have therefore Resolved since the Lord as I Trust hath Himself engaged my Labours in this his Vineyard to make it my Humble endeavour to Explorate and to Find out by this Scripture How far such Attempts of Interpretation are Justified and the Success assur'd by the Word of God Now this Text and the whole Context seem even at the first sight to give Highest Countenance and Favour hereunto for it expresly affirms No Prophecy of Scripture not of Daniel or of the Revelation or any other Scripture Prophecy nor of the Numbers relating to Time in those Prophecies and wherein the preciseness of Times is Deposited and Lay'd up is of Private Interpretation I