World to Give a Parallel Scheme in such an Agreement with the Word of God and the Providential Events in Concert with it By which I am assured It is not nor cannot be my own but as Found in Sacred Writings seeing Fancy and Imagination cannot create into Self-subsistent Things or Erect into undoubted matter of Fact As it is That there are such and such Prophetical Emblems and Representations Such Examples of the Way and Manner of Interpretation as that Nebuchadnezzar was the Head of Gold the King of Persia the Ram the King of Grecia the He Goat The Babylonish Woman the City on Seven Mountains that at the Time of the Revelation Given was then Reigning over the Kings of the Earth All These Give such a Pattern of the Manner of Interpreting Prophetick Images and what way the Spirit of God means They should be Expounded and Discypher'd that They are Equal to Matter of Fact That there are such Numbers as 2300 Eves Morns 70 Weeks Time Times Half a Time Three Days and an Half 1260 1290 1335 Days 42 Moons And all these to be multiplied by the Prophetical Standard of Time or Days for Years And that These are some of Them Repeated variously plac'd is plain Matter of Fact To find therefore the Concert of these and to place Them in their Just-Order one towards another and in the Greatest Friendliness Peace Harmony and Beautiful Symmetry and with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Admirable Air and Mien of the Divine Wisdom finding out the Knowledge of All Witty Inventions herein and then Supervening or Coming upon All These Substantial Undoubted Matters of Fact the Greatest Events that have been in the World Adjustable to these Numbers of Time Comprobated and Assured by the most Valuable History and Chronology that are in the World All Make up such a Plerophory a Fullness of Assurance that must needs deliver from the Scruple that Fancy and Imagination have had the Architecture of such a Triangular as I may call it Compage of Things in such a Justice of Respect one to another such a Trine or Threefold strongest Combination one with another For to give a Summary Delineation on what Grand Pillars of Event the Emblems of Prophecy are Planted or drawn and what Proportions of Time are adjusted to them and then how well it is known That such Events and within some General Ken of such Allowances of Time are own'd by History and Chronology to those Events is the Greatest satisfaction that can be given For either small Petite or Obscure Events will Disgrace any Prophetick Scheme And to be out of all Boundaries of Time is as Dishonourable The Root therefore of Prophetick Time I make that Stupendious Failure of the so Illustrious Types of the Kingdom of Christ the Reigns of David and Solomon at the Death of Solomon and the Incredible Depression of Them had not Sacred Writ assur'd it in the Division of the Tribes into the Two Houses of Israel and Judah Till Both Involv'd each in a dreadful Captivation distinct to Each The Rescue and Deliverance of the Two Tribes from their Captivity in Babylon was by the Destruction of that Monarchy the First of the Four and the Decree of Cyrus the Founder of the Persian Monarchy at the End of the 390 and 40 Years of the Visional Bearing of Iniquity for them and settling the Prophetical Standard of a Day for a Year by Ezekiel In Cyrus his Universal Monarchy so Favourable to the people of God and so Great a Type of Christ as to be called Messiah or God's Annointed Begin the 2300 Eves and Morns That staple Line of Time that Reaches to the very Glorious Kingdom of Christ In the First Hundred Twenty Four Years of them there is though with Interruptions a Gradual Restoration of Judah and Jerusalem Entring within the First Seven Weeks or Forty Nine Years of that so Famous and by Christians Universally Agreed Character of Time confirming the Prophetick Standard of a Day for a Year to 490 Years Viz. The 70 Weeks Through these runs the very Dwars-like and Tributary Condition of the Jews besides some horrible Inroads upon them under the latter part of the Persian the whole of the Grecian Monarchy and the beginning of the Fourth or Roman At the last of these Weeks there is that so Glorious Exaltation of Time to its Fulness in the Appearance of our true Messiah and in the midst of it His Death and Resurrection Greater things then which till his Glorious Appearance the Fulness of Times or of all Time Time cannot contain In the other Half the Loud Publication of the Gospel of these Things as by the Heraldry of Thunder began in the First Seal Opened by the Apostles In the Next Four Hundred the First Seal is continued and the next Three Seals are Opened in very Great and New Productions in the Roman Empire till in that Conclusive Persecution of the Christians within the Fifth Seal under Dioclesian and the Con-Temporary Pagan Emperors In the Sixth Seal That so indeed August Revolution of the Roman Empire from Pagan to Christian begun by Constantine in the Sixth Seal continued Julian's short Reign Excepted till Vindicated and Staâ—â—minated by Theodosius the Great in the Seventh Seal a Great Precursory Emblem of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ But Early under Constantine and so Going on That Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ began to be Eclips'd And the Barbarous Nations Rushed in on the Empire in the Just Revenges of Christ upon Antichristian Supplantation who yet after United as his People and as Ten Kingdoms under his Ecclesiastick Empire and Undermine by the Interposal of the Antichristian Moon so soon that Prophecy gives the Notice of it as Immediate in the Sealing the Servants of God against both the Antichristianism and the Vengeance in those Trumpets of Vengeance Given into the Hands of the Angelick Ministers of it the Witnesses Entring into Sackcloth and the Churches Flight into the Wilderness or being so Hidden that it was hard to be Discovered before the Reformation These Early Notices do beyond All Reasonable Contradiction Assure the Times and Half Sworn to Antichrist must needs be now upon the Expiration which as before Noted are cast into Fifteens in the 1260 Days into which they are Expounded to shew their Nearness to Constantine's Time and because so Determinate a Time and Short Compared with the Glory to follow is styl'd a Short Time in God's Answer to the Souls under the Altar And the Devil considering it Reflected on it as a Short Time not as the Father of Lyes but as it was Extorted from him by God shew it near Ending At the End of 400 Years from the Weeks of 404. from the Resurrection and 437. from the Incarnation Begin the Time Times and Half with the High Sounds of the Four First Trumpets Of which That Year was not without its Answerableness to this Prophetick Character by reason of the Incursions of the Barbarous Nations
Universal Laughter and Rejoycing The Desire of all Nations will Appear at a Set Time this Next Year the very Last of those Three Set Seasons Time Times Half Time Eleven Times expresly or Vertually Recorded in Scripture Prophecy and therefore I can have no Doubt But in the observing These so often Repetitions Remarking close upon Them and on what Accounts They are Recalled and to what Applied and Ballancing These One with Another I have Arriv'd to Full Assurance They are Assign'd to the Papal Last State of the Roman Monarchy the Last of the Four Kingdoms or Monarchies and the Four now Expiring in the Expiration of These Times and Half Indeed I look upon no Truth of Scripture to be more Plain and Certain except the Articles of Faith and Rules of Holy Practice necessary to Salvation Then that Those Four Monarchies are given as a Calendar of Time for the Embarrassment of the Kingdom of Christ or that Glorious State of Christianity which even the Prayers styl'd Establish'd by Law oblige the Belief Desire and Expectation of Scripture takes therefore so particular Notice of the Four viz. the Babylonian and Perfian as is well known and Takes Account of Their Time of the Grecian more obscurely Yet the very New Testament in that Language and the so often Division of the People of that Time into Jews and Greeks is a very undoubted Owning Them as one of the Monarchies Out of which through a Great Part of the 70 Weeks the State of the World had been sliding into the Fourth the Roman Monarchy which Surrounds the whole New Testament History and Prophecy as is undeniable But assoon as ever the Time allowed to the last of these is at an End The Kingdom of Christ will immediately succeed and there can be no Inter-Reign Nor can any other Kingdom Interpose The Vision is so sure and its Interpretation so certain And such a kind of Kingdom it must be as was Congenially to have its succession so Connexed to those before it that tho it is a Holy a Heavenly a Spiritual yet it must be also a Visible Sensible Kingdom as to the Dominion and Glory of it and no Metaphor or Allegorical sense can satisfy without it And we know the Nations to which we belong are a part of the Ancient Roman Empire and Remaine still of the Ten into which it was canton'd Which Division hath been to me an Infallible Reason of Confidence France should no more prevail to an Vniversal Monarchy then the House of Austria hath done And herein for the keeping it within the Figure allowed its King by Prophecy I know God hath made our K. an Instrument All the Iron of it could never break the Northern Iron and Steel of the sure Word of Prophecy But seeing we I say are such a part of the Ancient Roman Empire we are the more concern'd and ought to be the more Awake on the Fullfilling of Prophecy as of the first of the Kingdoms of the World which is to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. I have the same assurance that this Time Times and Half Time must be just on the Expiration By Prophecy we might rather have expected their End sooner The Wisdom of the Divine Spirit draws them so very near to the Time of the Roman Empire Becoming Christian in all its Portraitures of the Anti-christian State As I know my self able by Divine Assistance to make out to the satisfaction of Any that will allow themselves the thought they know and yield necessary in any more retired Parts of Science That had I not the Faithful Evidence of the Scripture Line of Time I have already mention'd together with uncontestable Events I should Fourteen Years ago have pitch'd upon some nearer Time For to mention one of the most obvious the very Casting the 1260 and Additional 75 so manifestly into Indictions or Fifteens of Years a Character of Time not Regulated and known till soon after Constantine would have Enclin'd to have commenced them sooner I know the Hope for which I Apologize cannot but Encounter Great Objections but I am assured God hath set it and myself as a Minister of it as a Brazen Wall that tho it be Fought against It shall not be prevail'd over The Objections and Solutions I shall very much in short thus Account for First It will be pretended against it It is a Presumptuous Curiosity to undertake to Pry into Prophetick Times and that it ought to be immediately check'd with that of our Lord It is not for you to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath Set in his own Power But as to that Particular Scripture it is evident it was an Importune Enquiry of the Apostles not in the order of Scripture Researches nor in the due waiting for of the promise of the Spirit which was the Duty of that very Juncture And therefore tho our Lord is quick upon their disorderly question yet he implies there would be a Gracious method for their Resolution in it and commands them to Jerusalem to wait for The promise of the Spirit from the Father which saith He you have heard of me One Branch of which was The shewing them things to come Joh. 16. 14. And in general we find the search of Prophetick Times is much more under the Favour then the Displeasure of Scripture It is recorded with Honour to the Children of Issachar that they had understanding of Times and knew what Israel was to do Particularly 1 Chron. 2. 32. concerning Davids Kingdom which was the concernment of that Time And in which I doubt not they laid together the Prediction of Jacob and other Revelations of God peculiar to that People and those Times by which they were able to give a Judgment And it is observed Their Brethren were at their Command This sway'd no doubt in the Union of Israel in David The Prophet Daniel was not satisfied with what he found by Immediate C. 9. 1. Revelation but understood by Books of Scripture and civil Records It is a Recommendation of that method the Number of Years God had Determin'd for the Desolations of the Sanctuary The Prophets in the same manner search'd What and what manner of Time the Spirit which was in them did signify The Apostle by 1 Pet. 1. 11. the Spirit Praises the Giving heed to the sure Word of Prophecy as doing well Seeing then the Account of Time is one eminent Branch of that sure Word It is Praise-worthy to give heed to that and no Presumption to do so Our Lord charges it as Hypocrisy not to discern the Signs of the Times those Characters and Notes of Impression God hath set upon them by Prophecy How often is there Encouragement given in that Great Prophecy of the New Testament Blessed is he that Readeth and they that hear the Words of the Prophecy of this Book Let Him that hath Wisdom Count. Here Rev. c. 1. 3 is the Mind that hath Wisdom
Express Scripture End Three Years and Half or Half a Week from the Death of Christ And then we know a Time there must be from the Beginning of the 1260 of some distance of Space from the End of the Weeks Because from the Three Years and Half after the Death of Christ so many more Years then 1260 are now passed and yet the Great Events at the End of the 1260 not yet come to pass and therefore not the 1260 themselves And yet that space must take hold of the End of the Weeks Because the Half Week Ends a Three Years and a Half Half a Week from the Death of Christ The Seventy Weeks Notwithstanding They are divided into Joynts yet are as close as the Joynted parts of any the same Member of the Body being together the Seventy Weeks The Seventy Weeks lay an Indisputed Claim to whatever Time went before to Cyrus And every part must be Joyned Each to other Because all the several Portions of Time stand United in the 2300 And seeing so much Time hath already passed since the End of the Weeks as leaves no more then 75 before the Weeks of the 2300 to Cyrus we are sure there can be no more I confess there may be Fewer and so more of the 1260 to Run out then to 97 But so far as we can be sure there can be no more than 400 before the 1335. We may be sure there can be no Fewer than 75 before the Weeks From Cyrus backward must be the 40 of Judah's Sin Born Lying Close to the End of the 390 Days of Israel's Sin Born which Bring back to the Division of the Tribes into the Two Houses of Israel and Judah All which Things have been and are Ready to be Fully made out to any who Desire it in particular The Undoubted Emblems of Scripture Answering to these Numbers of Time may be Accounted for with the same Evidence in this Retrospective Motion as in the Progression For the very End of the Wonders is plac'd in the Beast and the False Prophet cast alive into the Lake And the Glory of Christ's Appearance and the Armies of Heaven for whom Thrones were Set and They Sate upon Them and They Lived and Reigned with Christ a Thousand Years were such as did not Worship the Beast nor Receive his Mark c. The Vials that Brought in the Thousand Years are Noted to Fall on the Beast and them that Worshipp'd the Beast and had Receiv'd his Mark The Voices that prepar'd for the Vials and at the End of which the Vials Began were also upon the Beast and the Witnesses coming out of the Death the Beast had laid them under plainly Entwist the Vials and the Voices with the Beast and the Witnesses and so their Times one with another viz. with the 1260 Days the 42 Moons the Times and Days and Half And in this same manner the Dragon and they that were Beheaded for the Word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus and the Dragon cast down and the Martyrs of Christ Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony and not Loving their Lives unto Death Seeing the Dragon Gave his Power and his Seat unto the Beast shew very Evidently that the Moons of the Gentiles and of the Beast Began at the End of the Seals Even as it is most clear in a Progressive Motion the Seals Issue into the Trumpets by the Seventh Seal conveying to them The Trumpets into the Voices by the Seventh Trumpet the Voices by the Seventh Voice into â—he Vials the Vials by the Seventh Vial into the Thousand Years The Seals Run plainly Back into the Weeks Beginning in the Confirmation of the Covenant by that Preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles Emblem'd by Christ Riding out on his White Horse conquering and to conquer at the Ending of the Weeks The Weeks Run back into the Time of the Word Going forth for the Restoring Judah and Jerusalem from whence they are Dated The Going forth of the Word into the Babylonish Captivity which gave Occasion to the going forth of that Word and the Last Forty Years of the Babylonish Captivity which was the Ground of Bearing the Iniquity or Punishment of the House of Judah clasps Fast with the 390 of Bearing Israel's Sin because God commanded Ezekiel when He bad Born the sin of Israel on the Left side without any Intermission to Turn on the Other side and to Bear the sin of the House of Judah on the Right side and the Bearing the Sin of the House of Israel goes back to the Division of the Tribes into Two Houses at Solomon's Death In the Last Place I dare Appeal to the Greatest Chronologers or Historians whether our General Accounts do not within some Fair Proportion Allow the Years of the Papacy of the Pagan Power of the Roman Empire of the Grecian Persian Babylonish Kingdoms to serve these Prophetical Accounts and so backward by the Kings of Israel and Judah to the Death of Solomon Now all these Things were there Room to Represent Them clearly particularly and in Full would Give such certainty in these Points according to the Exactness of Scripture-Time as would amount to the Justification of the Great Hope I so publickly make Offer of and against which in every minute Particular I Humbly Pledge my self to be Ready to Receive Exceptions and to Return Due Satisfaction and therefore shall now Return to the more General Objections This way of Endeavour to Justify every Thing by Plain Accounts and Arguments of Reason Approachable by every Ones Reason and Subject to the Examination of every Man whoever will take so much Thought and Care of Tryal and Just Judgment upon Himself may take off much of that Exception Why should All This be Reveal'd to you more than to Any Other For The Answer I would give is Because God hath engaged my Heart and Thoughts to this Inquiry And it hath been the Principal Subject of my Intellectual Inquiries though I hope not in a Neglect of other Points of Theology and Scripture-Knowledge But by this means I have been looking every way into All the Advertisements of Scripture-Prophecy comparing Prophetical Things with Prophetical and any of the most Accurate Memoirs of History and Chronology I could Arrain And This is no other than what Any Other Studious in these Things might have Attained and much Higher according to the Advantages of Learning more enlarged Capacities of Mind Clearness of Expression as is most experimental in that Excellent Person The Annotator on the Revelation and his Annotations Published about Four Years ago The Only Thing that I pretend to of Peculiar Favour herein from the Most High is That he hath thus engaged my Heart and Thoughts to separate my self and to Intermeddle with this Wisdom and Assisted me so far therein When any one vouches any Immediate Revelation that cannot be disprov'd by its plain Disagreeableness to other Sealed Parts of Divine Revelation though
Application of it And I take it out of that 5th Chapter of Solomons-Song Here 's the great Difference that is between the one sort and the other sort Ver. 2. I Sleep saith she but my heart waketh That is there is a Principle within me there is a Spirit within me A Spirit within every Wise Virgin that keeps a watch even while it is in a Slumber As you know many Persons they have a wariness of things though they are in a sort of Slumber yet they are presently sensible if any thing comes either as to advantage or disadvantage So there is a Spirit in every true Christian that is aware of the Great Concernments of Eternity that knows the Excellency of Christ and that loves Jesus Christ and that knows the Vanity of this World and the things of it Even while they are in a Slumber their heart wakes concerning these things And then again you read They cannot be quiet they have such kind of Items and Intimations from Christ that they are presently aware That when Christ speaks presently the Beloved the Church of Christ the true Church answers him ver 4. Saith she My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the Door and my bowels were moved for him Indeed she could not get quickly up Indeed saith she I have put off my Coat how shall I put it on That is I have set my self in a way of Religion that I hope will do and will be enough and it is as much as others do and as much as generally is to be found among Christians and as much as can suit with the present state of this World but Christ gave her an Intimation and Item from himself And presently saith she My Bowels were moved for him And I arose to open to my Beloved and then she went seeking up and down the City And the Watchmen said it is too much for you to take upon you they take away her Vail from her they impeach her Modesty as it were But she goes on I Charge you O Daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my Beloved that ye tell him I am sick of love There is an earnest and vehement and inward affection in the heart that is in every true sincere Christian in every wise Virgin Though they sleep yet their heart waketh There is a Principle and a Power that shall never be deserted and forsaken of God even in the midst of this inclination to Slumber God will bring it forth in Power and to Perfection and so you may Trace the thing along in your own souls Do you find that a little Intimation makes you very earnest and vehement after Christ Do you find that there is such a stable desire of Christ and his Grace and Spirit That you desire he should know that you are sick of love And that you declare to the World that you love him above all things else And so I shall proceed no further in this Discourse but only close with Application 1. In the first place It teaches us That we should not magnifie the present state of any Church or Churches whatsoever or their way for all of them come far short though one much shorter than another yet all come short And so we should see in our own state Alas it is but suitable to the Day or rather as I may say to the Night that is yet continuing and is not yet past off from us Though indeed God is exceedingly to be magnified and adored in all the good of the Gospel and Christianity that we see in the World I am far from putting a Blemish or Diminution upon what God hath done seeing there are so many Excellent Preachers of Christianity and so many Excellent Christians and such a great Light of the Gospel as we have That such as were heretofore would have wondred at the Goodness and Grace of God if there should have been such a freedom of Preaching his Word every where and gathering Souls to himself And that there are so many of his Servants have a desire towards his Name and towards the Remembrance of him And therefore I say I desire to fore-caution as to that part That I am not at all censorious but acknowledging of the Infinite Grace of God But yet I say still That I would not have you think we are at the Excellency of Christianity as it is in Publick or as it is in Particulars I make no doubt but he that fears God now shall fear him much more and he that loves Christ now shall love him much more and they that speak and think of his Name shall do it much more when this Slumber is taken off I tell you you cannot do now what you would do you cannot love God and Christ you cannot be so free and undistracted and retired in to the way of Christianity as you would be And therefore look upon it That the present Day is the Day of the Slumber of the Glory of Christianity and therefore let us bewail our selves that we can get up no higher awakened much more that we cannot shake off that Slumber that is so much upon us But still I say we must expect a clearer and lightsomer and a brighter Air of the Gospel and Sun-shine of it We must expect the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his Wings Do but consider how you come on upon a Duty and how you come off and how you lose what you would retain and how hard it is to gain and how quickly it is gone off Our souls should be in a constant posture in this World our Vessels for ordinary uses should be Holiness to Jehovah but if one Treats of this way or that way one finds that the Glory of it does not sparkle and glister as it should I speak not what I speak from my own spirit but what God will speedily make good to all those that shall live in that Time Then they shall say How hath the Glory of Christianity changed me We shall find the Vacancies and the Emptinesses and Blemishes that are upon us shall be fill'd up and taken off and we shall walk in a higher Power and Spirit of Christianity And therefore let no one boast in regard of this or that Church-State whatsoever it be For certainly All is under a Spirit of Slumber now and there shall come a far more excellent State upon the Churches of Christ and so it shall descend upon every particular Person And then 2. In the Second Place Let us earnestly aspire to this state in our selves as David says I will not give Sleep to my eyes nor Slumber to my Eye-lids till I make an Habitation for the God of Jacob So let us aspire now as high as we can and let us earnestly desire this Glory of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ that shall awaken us as a Man is awakened out of sleep as the expression is in the Prophet For I am perswaded God will awaken all his Servants as