it let them consider it is very dangerous to say of any Book of Scripture with the unlearned we cannot read it because we are not learned and with the learned we cannot read it because it is sealed If there were by the pouring out of the Spirit upon the Reformed an united endeavour to search by the Books of Scripture and other Ecclesiastical Records with Prayer what and what manner of Time the Holy Spirit in it did signifie as they have search'd for the Sense of Antiquity in some things of far less moment or concern to the Kingdom of Christ what doubt can there be but that the two leaved Gates of Truth in it had open'd to them and by their concerted Light and Authority Princes would be awaken'd and perswaded so that the great City and its Decimal power would soon feel the Earthquake and fall I am not at all in doubt but that to me less than the least of all Saints and the chiefest of Sinners as upon the Banks of Chebar Ulai and Hiddekel and as in the Isle of Patmos that Grace hath been vouchsaf'd upon my most Attentive Thought and Contemplation of this and other Prophesies of Scripture and upon the whole Scheme of Scripture Time that I have certainly found That at the year sixteen hundred ninety seven These great Things shall come to their Complement that are to be at even Dates with the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Christ That the Pollution of the Sanctuary shall be so far finish'd that the measur'd Temple and it's worshippers sealed up within eight the last twelve hundred sixty years shall be opened and a far more excellent Church-state Appear The Ministrations of Truth and Divine Worship much purer as the Ark of Testament seen and the Witnesses Shall have come out of their Sackcloth wherewith the so long Apostacy together with the Turkish Woe a Judgement upon that Apostacy hath cover'd them I have publish'd several Discourses to this purpose viz. A Scripture line of Time and Solomons Song adjusted to it and have found none who hath thought fit to remonstrate to them or resist the Evidence with which I have written not because I have written but because of what I have written I may say It is written It is written in the Scripture of Truth Particularly the annexed Discourse I publish'd a year ago and I cannot but look upon the present appearance of things in the World a Justification of it I have observ'd hitherto a very wonderful progress of Divine Government in the World according to the Calculation of Prophesie I have made I observe a great Preparation for the Cessation of the Turkish Woe upon the Imperial Constantinople and the Greek Cities that those Candlesticks may be Re-placed I observe yet This seems to wait for the Fall of the Tenth of the great City which motion it is to attend I have been always of the Judgment the Reformed Churches that lye in the Bowels of Nations whose Princes and Staple Laws had not established the Reformation were in Danger of fresh Martyrdoms by the cruel Policies of the Jesuites Order whose Arcana Imperii or Politics may well be styl'd the depths of Sathan I have understood those Churches symbol'd by the Church of Thyatira in regard of whom the Feet of Christ burn as in a Furnace to this day The Nations whose Princes and Laws have establish'd the Reformation I have had firm Assurance could not be re-enslav'd under the enchantment of Restoring that Power to the Beast which they had repeal'd from him nor should the Churches in them except by a short Hurricane be in any danger of force I have had the same Confidence with particular Relation to this Nation and the Churches in it and that the Soveraign Power of it shall be of the principal that shall perfect that Revolution of the Reformation into it's Complement and on that account have pray'd for the good understanding of our Supreams to that very end I have compar'd such Reformed Churches and particularly this to that of Sardis esteeming our greatest danger to be a Security a slumber in a State though splendid as to this World yet short of the Glory intended by Christ in the Advances of his Kingdom and that thereupon he would come upon us and we should not know at what hour he himself would come upon us I find no Reason to change or so much as to suspect but to be more and more confirm'd in these Sentiments I make no more doubt the present Conjuncture is a dawn of that great Revolution awaiting the Year ninety seven next ensuing than I doubt whether the dawn of the day be in advance to the perfect Light because I am not upon any single Conjecture but upon the whole Conspiration of Apocalyptical Times compar'd with the Registries of History in the course of Time since our Lords Resurrection as famous and as well known as the Reformation from Luthers Time is known I am not on any single Line of Time but upon the Concatenation of Times throughout Scripture not as it is perplex'd with the Irreconcileable Chronological Controversies but assur'd by Massy Sterlyn Scripture both by compare of the Texts themselves and Scripture Reason argued from them I have only three parts of that Line to publish viz. from Abraham to the going out of Egypt from the going out of Egypt to Solomons beginning the Temple and from the Temple begun to Cyrus his Decree for restoring it after the Babylonish Devastation I have also prepar'd so great a Probation that the day of Judgment and the Resurrection so generally acknowledg'd in Christian Doctrine are at the full dimensions of Exposition the very Milennial or thousand years Kingdom of Christ that I think upon the comparing of Scriptures I have vouch'd and argued it cannot be denyed and as a Complement of all I have adjusted to those Illustrious Scriptures the Prayer we so generally acknowledge by the Name of the Lords prayer in the Explanation of it and proved it to be the Prayer of and prepared for that Glorious Kingdom of Christ as also by eminent Scriptures the Lords Supper to be the Sacrament of the Kingdom I hope by the good Hand of God towards me to be so assisted as to make Publication of these with the great and confiding Expectation that since I have had so great cause to believe no one sees Reason to chastise the Discourses I have publish'd and that the Divine Administrations of these latter Times are going on to justifie them they will be serviceable as Goâ—ds to the enquiries of greater Masters of Assemblies and their every way â—ore acceptable Researches into these things to the greater hastning of the Glory and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fall of his Enemies to be his Footstool by the earnest Prayers of his Churches and Saints and that in the mean time they will be as Nails fastning those Tents and Pavilions of Princes who are to serve the King of
to say This is one of the Ten Kingdoms that should hate the Whore and Execute the Judgment of God upon it that is Written in it's due Times And that the Soveraign of the Nation because he cannot at the present understand the Reason of complying with so great a Prophesie should voluntarily retire from the Government till he shall see and consider what he hath not yet duely seen and consider'd It being indeed Impossible according to this Prophesie but this Protestant Nation must have a Protestant Head no other can rest upon it Certainly this is a very Memorable fulfilling of this Prophesie and I am most assur'd it is for a Sign to the Lord that shall not be Cut off till the whole be fulfilled and it ought to be set up for a Memorial before the Lord as in the Temple of the Protestant Churches I know something like it fell out in our Neighbour Kingdom concerning Henry the Fourth and the Great of France Grand-father of our King and Great Grand-father of our Prince of Orange There was at that time in that Nation an universal Zeal against the Reformation which they call'd Heresie so that they would by no means receive a Prince how great soever his Character was as it was indeed as great as any Princes of his time though there was at that time a Complex of great Princes in the World they could not receive him how undoubted soever his Right according to their Salique Law But he was under a necessity to forfeit his Right to live in a perpetual War or to change his Communion upon what he did Draw a Curtain in Honour to the Memory of so Heroick a Name But was not this also a great fulfilling of this very Prophesie according to that season For at that time when several Princes had withdrawn themselves and their Kingdoms from the Anti-christian Usurpation if all had done so how had the words of God been fulfill'd giving the Beast Forty Two Months of such a Decem-Principality or Ten Horned Power when above an Hundred Years at that time were unexpir'd It pleased God to take the advantage to Revulse some of them from him to give public notice thereby It was the Morning of the half Time and we are even now to be admonish'd by it on the other side some great Kings were to continue united to him to show the half Time was not run out but the end of it to be expected for the making Desolate and Naked and Judging her that hath so violated the Wedlock of True Christianity In another regard also Prophesie was hereby fulfilled for by that Great Henry the Fourth of France that Famous Edict of Nants was Granted and Confirm'd in favour of the Reformation of which he had been so great a Confessour and Champion that thereby in France as in Germany and Poland and some other Countries Churches of Thyatyra might be settled lying among the Nations where the Counsels of the Ignatian or Jesuits Order superadded to other Orders justly esteem'd and call'd by Protestants or as They viz. Protestants speak the depths of Sathan would yet take place according to which springing up in a just Season for it viz. 1528. advantages have been taken to Persecute Christ in his Servants of those Churches and to cause his Feet to Burn as in a Furnace as they have done most dreadfully some time past in that Nation in violation of that Edict and as more constantly where the Hellish Inquisition hath been always as an Oven or Furnace kept hot and burning in Countries wholly given up to the Beast still And thus wonderfully hath God Counterpoiz'd the State of the Beasts Kingdom and the Reformation during this half Time acccording to Prophesie giving yet the inclining and heavyer Scale to the Beast that his words may be fulfilled until the Beasts Measure be heaped up and running over Argument 6 That which greatly further persuades me the present Providence over these Nations shall be in order to the fulfilling of Prophesie is that it so wonderfully Synchronizes or keeps time with the State of the Turkâ—sh Empire I have given Eighteen Months ago public Testimony from Prophesie that the Tenth part of this great City shall fall before the Mahometan Sultany is Dis-mounted from the Constantine-politan Heighths and De-ported from the Confluence of People as of Rivers since that two Champagnes have pass'd full of such Action as hath exceedingly humbled the Oâ—toman Mountain and yet it stands though shaking and as in a trembling expectation of the fall of that Anti-christianism that gave the demeritorious provocation to the Wrath and Justice of God that swell'd it to such a loftiness As Rome and Constantinople were such Sisters in the Apostacy as Aholah and Aholibah in an Idolatrous defection from God so God prepar'd for them so sore a scourge as the Mahometan Imposture that should both deride their Superstition and miserably Afflâ—ct them together It came abroad soon after the contest of those Two Bishops both fallen Stars for Supremacy and Vniversality wherein Rome had the fatal pre-eminence to obtain the Key of the bottomless Pit. Immediately broke out those Judgments of that Mahometan Imposture which this Sacred Prophesie calls Two woes which have layn upon them Both from that very time more or less Judgments prepar'd on purpose for the Anti christian Apostacy in which the Eastern Churches shar'd deep and which is to this day too closely Incorporated with the remains of the Christianity that is found among them that are indeed rather dark Mentions of than that Excellent Doctrine it self and Holy Religion of our Lord Jesus Christ As therefore this Armed and violent Imposture seiz'd above Two Hundred Years ago on that Imperial City Constantinople that so unhappily affected to be called New Rome and therefore hath Druâ—k so deep of it's Cup both of Sin and Judgment so it shall continue under that Tyranny as a Witness of the more dreadful vengeance that is to fall upon that fouler Prostitute Old Rome and stands as a Pillar of Salt to warn it hereof Yet so that that Grecian Acropolis is subjected in Hope and waits as the groaning Creation for the Liberty of the Sons of God so for that happy Day of the fall of the Tenth of that great City the coming of the Witnesses out of their Sach-cloth and their Ascent to Glory as it were to Heaven in a Bright Cloud For then that Second wâ—e of the Turkish Vsurpation upon that City and those Churches shall pass off from them and so must be near And now that God hath so suddenly shaken the Foundations of that Ottâ—man Empire and made it to Totter gave me expectations the Anti â—hristâ—an should observe Time that the Provocation and the scourge might pass off together and it is to me most undoubted this Râ—vâ—lution is in Motion thereunto nor can I slight the notices from Nature as in Convulsive Fits in the last Summers Earthqâ—akes giving the Alarm to both these Tyrannies
THE LATE Great Revolution IN THIS NATION Argued according to Rev. 17. 16. 17. To be duely Ascribed to the Supreme Spirit now about to move in the Fulfilling All Prophecy The earnest of which is vouchsaf'd to us in this so wonderful Change. In pursuance of a Discourse Published Twelve Months past viz The Command of God to come out of Babylon Wherein is more fully proved the NOW Roman Communion is Intended and that the Words of God will be fulfilled concerning the Present State of the Papacy in its Expiration and the Hatred of the Whore 1697. By T Beverley For the Testimony of JESVS is the Spirit of Prophecy Revel 19. 10. Printed for John Salusbury in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1689. A PREFACE TO THE READER Upon the following DISCOURSE suited to the present Juncture of Affairs in the World and to the particular Signs of the Times now Emerging THat which bore up the great Princes and Leaders among the Servants of God in Elder times to such a Transcendency of Action was immediate Revelation from God The Word of God came to them as Christ speaks and ennobled them as Gods upon Earth Immediate Revelation in the same manner bore up so High the Spirits of the Prophets that they feared none of the Powers upon Earth how great and formidable soever in delivering the Divine Messages even when they threatned them with that Ruine which they knew would most enrage them to Hear of The very same immediate Revelation stirred up the Spirits of the Vniversality of the Servants of God in Prayer and suitable Action so that they offered themselves willingly to the Services of their Generation even in the Loughtiest Atchievements when they knew themselves Arm'd with the Assurances of the Purposes of God to be fulfilled in those Seasons wherein they were summoned to such Actions That which next to such immediate Revelation would now Inspire the Servants of God in each Station to the highest Elevation in Divine Manifestations to the World in Prayer and Action must be a Discovery of the Signs of the present Time according to sacred Prophesie and especially that great Prophesie of the New Testament which is peculiarly entitled The Revelation Because it is and ought to be in the place of immediate Revelation to All who Read and Hear it and all the Servants of Christ ought to Read and Hear it For it is the Revelation that God gave to Jesus Christ to shew to his Servants things that are shortly to come to pass And that shewing is plainly declar'd to be by their Reading and Hearing For it immediately follows Christs shewing and signification of it by the Testimony and Writing of his Servant John. For he is commanded to write for after Ages And to encourage in such Reading and Hearing There is a Promise of Blessedness adjoyn'd to the Reading and Hearing I do not at all doubt there is a mystical Reading and Hearing by the Spirit and Power of Christ instructing and actuating his Servants according to the Principles and Services of this very Prophesie And that what is now doing and operating in the World and in our Nation is according to it without explicite understanding or attending to the Explanation of it But yet undoubtedly a more open and bold Explanation is due especially to this Age of the Churches of Christ and approach of his Kingdom We ought now to be more skill'd in the Signs of the Times than by a meer kind of Implicite Faith. And that must be by the Calculation of them according to this Prophesie for the Signs of the Times are compounded especially of the Definition of times by Prophesy and the events determin'd to come to pass in those Times and our discerning the Signs of the Times is to be by a compare of Prophesie and the product of Times agreeable to the Prophesie together even as the Time of Messiahs coming was design'd by the sure Word of Daniels Prophesy and Jesus Christ mighty in Word and Deed came at the same Time. Now our Lord condemns the Ignorance of the Scribes and Pharisees and People who did not discern the Signs of that Time not as simple Ignorance or Nescience but as gross Hipocrisie that they would not know what they might have known and proportionably in all times but especially in these Times wherein mighty Works are to shew forth themselves and begin to shew forth themselves in the downfal of the Turkish Tyranny with which the Papal is to meet in such degrees of Ruine as are determin'd to be parallel in each and in parallel Times I most humbly and earnestly threfore Beseech the Angels of the Reformed Churches That they would search this so great Prophesie of the New Testament as commensurate as hath been said to Immediate Revelation and that they would Minister out of it to the Princes and Powers of the Ten Kingdoms that have so long given their Power and Kingdom to the Beast especially to those which are already of the Reformation For the Words of God are near to be fulfill'd for God had said The Beast shall have Power to continue Forty two Months and to receive great Power and Authority from those Kings giving their Power and their Kingdom to Him. And the Word of God was fulfill'd so that their Kingdoms were entirely so given till the Reformation when the Morning of the last half Day or half Time of the forty two Months gave Liberty to some of those Ten Kings to reverse and recal the giving of their Kingdom As Christ arose early in the Morning of his last third Day and appeared to some of the Apostles and Disciples But it was Evening e're he met them in a Body and those who saw him first were Instrumental to prepare those who did not see him till the Evening so those Princes already of the Reformation shall be Instrumental to oblige the rest who have not yet renunciated to the Beast and the false Church to do the same now near the End of the last of the forty two Months Let them therefore have those grand excitements and encouragements of Prophesie undoubtedly Cyrus though a Gentile Prince was highly animated by the Prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah for the Destruction of Literal Babylon which Prophesies we may be assured were expounded to Him by Daniel so great a Prophet in his own Times how much more will Christian and Protestant Princes exalted in their Spirits summon their Prowesse and puissance for the service of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to be within these Eight next Years proclaim'd by loud Voices from Heaven For when the Words of God are to be fulfill'd that the Ten Kings and their Nations do give their Power no longer to the Beast Then the Kingdom of Christ is proclaim'd although his Inauguration as we speak shall not be till seventy five Years after If any should say the Prophesie is dark and not to be understood and Men very disenclin'd to believe the Explications given of
Kings and Lord of Lords in their Station For I am sure they are given from one even the chief Shepherd and Bishop of his Church Jesus Christ I am not enclin'd nor have ever had a Temptation to represent the Prophesies of Scripture as a Doctrine of Blood. I am sensible what Spirit Christianity is of to its greatest Enemies Christ came not to destroy mens lives but to save them I expect a Battel of Christ that shall not be as of the Warriors with confused noise and Garments rolled in Blood but with fewel of Fire pure and clean Holiness a pure Ether of Justice and Righteousness for in Righteousness he Judges and makes War and that in the mean time there shall be no more use of Instruments to destroy than the most Righteous and just Constitutions and Governments of Nations allow For the Angels of the Vials upon the Anti-Christian State are cloathed with Linnen pure and white and their Breasts girded with golden Girdles their Vials full with no other wrath than of God Almighty Rev. 15. Yet not offering to be particularly definitive I Avow in the general Yet Eight years and the Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and Papacy and Mahometanism shall sink down before Him his Monarchy shall then begin its Succession although his glorious Investiture shall not be till seventy five years after In which time The everlasting Gospel shall be preached by a new Mission equal in speed and effect to that of the Apostles and more universal symboll'd therefore by an Angel flying through the midst of Heaven bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles and effectual to the Conversion of the Jews upon which Saviours shall come upon Mount Sion and destroy the whole race of Pagan Mahometan Anti-Christian Edomites and the Kingdom shall be the Lords ADVERTISEMENT IF any please to assist in the Publication of the whole Designation they shall receive Proportionably It consists of the Scripture Line of the Kingdom drawn from the first Sabbath to the thousand Years Sabbatism The Song of the Kingdom or Solomons Prophetick Song adjusted to it The Doctrine of the Kingdom or Demonstrative proof by Scripture the Kingdom of the thousand Years is the Resurrection or Day of Judgment The Prayer of the Kingdom or the Lords Prayer prov'd principally to look at that Kingdom The Sacrament of the Kingdom or the Supream aim of the Lords Supper argued to be at that Kingdom T. Beverley Revel XVII 16 17. And the Ten Horns thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her Flesh and burn her with Fire For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his Will and to agree and to give their Kingdom unto the Beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled I Have in a Discourse Published Twelve Months past explain'd Gods Command to come out of Babylon and prov'd the explanation of this and the neighbouring Prophesie as having it 's direct Aspect on the prostitute Roman Communion by such Arguments as have never been so much as attack'd in a time when there was both all advantage and keenness against what ever was offered contrary to that Interest how weak or trifling soever it might seem and it is probable They would have that Discourse go for such It is wonder therefore if the Arguments would have born it they were not at least expos'd to scorn and laughter but Prophetic Truth in this matter is too solid to be so fasten'd on This Prophesie Imports the great Revolution of those Ten Kings and their Kingdoms our own and those which lie all about us that were known for several Hundreds of Years to have been devotely united to the Roman Catholick Church as they delighted to Style it and to the Papal Supremacy as Head of it these very Kings and Kingdoms shall hate that Adulterous Church made Infamous in this Prophesie by the Name of the Whore and shall Treat her with the greatest Hatred Indignity and Aversation and God will set Judgment before them as in the Case of the Jewish Ezek. 23. Aholibah and they shall execute greatest severity upon it as eating her Flesh by Slaughter and Burning her with Fire And all this they shall do as is Implyed when the words of God are fulfill'd That is when the time determin'd by God for the giving their Kingdom to the Beast is expir'd till then they agree in one being under an Enchantment to the Whore to give their Kingdoms to the Beast that bears her that he might bear her with the greatest Granduer and State his Head rising up with these Ten Horns These Symbolical Names are given to the Papacy and the Ten Kings for the stupidness of their Idolatry and the Cruelty of their Persecution The time God had allotted to the Beast was Forty two Jewish Months making 1222 Years as another Prophesie assures us so long the Papacy was to continue from the time of this Authority to be accounted from 475 and at the same hour the Ten Kings receiv d their Kingdoms in Sacred Register or Prophesie at the Cessation of the Roman Western Empire This time is also call'd as given to the whole Anti-christian Revel 12. Apostacy Time Times and half a Time At the Morning of the half Time as Christ arose on the Morning of his Third Day Some Beginning â—3â— of those Ten Kings began to hate the Whore and Revok'd their Kingdoms from the Beast This was when Luther first rose up Ann. 1517. Yet so great Kingdoms as we know France Spain Italy Germany Poland and Portugal continue their Subjection to him In them also the Prophesie shall be accomplished when the words of God shall have their last fulfilling that will be at the Year 1697. For as each Time is Three Hundred Sixty Years so proportionably the half Time is one Hundred Eighty Years Take them to begin at Luthers appearance 1517. they necessarily end at 1697. the very observation of which gives the expectation of that Year Credence For none can deny if Time Times half a Time are equal to 1260. Years The half Time numbers 180. None can deny the Reformation dawn'd 1517. which things joyn'd together make whether we will or no a great Climateric of 1697. a Year of great Remarque as the Hundred Eightieth or half Time from the Reformation for if a part of the Ten Kings Revok'd then as in the Morning All must at the Evening For when the words of God are entirely fulfilled this hating the Whore must be fulfilled also and that is at the full end of the half Time 1697. These things I have more fully opened and proved in that Command out of Babylon as also in the Scripture Line of Time. I only prepare for the present Discourse by a Summary Repetition of them My Intention now is to Remarque upon the present wonderful Doing of God in this Nation and to
examin whether it be not a loud Alarm not only to this Nation but to the Christian World throughout That God hath to admiration open'd to the accomplishment of this great Prophesie And that it is so I shall affirm by Ten solemn Arguments But first by way of premisal I say if this be indeed a Prophâ—sâ—e a Divine Prophesie so soon to be accomplish'd and that the accomplishment be indeed set out in this wonderful change of affairs in our Nation it is then certain the consideration of the Prophâ—sie is more to the great purpose what we are to expect then the fairest Train of second Causes the Eyes and the Spirit of the Living Creatures in the Wheels in Ezekiels Vision c. 1. are much more to every end and purpose then the Rings of the Wheels how High Dreadful and August soever they are indeed more in view make more noise raise a greater dust but the Spirit does all All Princes States Councils Forces are to be valued and Honoured in their Places but Prophesie or the God of Prophesie raises them gives them each their Line of Action raises others when they are at the end of their Line takes hold and grasps it's end and is most assured of it All second Causes may fail your Fathers are dead and the Prophets where are they But did not my words by the Prophets take hold So it was in all Ages so it will be now The words of this Prophesie seem to lie still in the Sacred Book but God remembers them as his word and sends out his Spirit and stirs up the Spirits of Men according to them We ought not therefore to despise the searches of Prophesie For whoever can find the True Canale of them gives greater assurance of the Port and Haven of all motions then the wisest Conventions or most Potent Armies or fairest set of subordinate Instruments can do From this very Prophesie sprung out the great Action of this Year now in our Eves I shall therefore pursue this Argument keeping wholly within the Pâ—ophetical Sphere touching no Civil concerns but as naked matter of Fact for the service of Prophesie Argument 1 I argue first That this great change of Affairs is the Divine Prologue to the accomplishment of this Prophesie from Christs Condemning both Teachers and People when they knew not the Signs of the Time. The Signs of the Times are not only Religious or Moral Characters as the Holiness of Christs Doctrine Life great Zeal in doing good was such a sort of Signs of the Mâ—ssiah that could not be absent and Christ says in Relation to them And why of yoâ—â—selves judge you not what is Right viz. from the Laws of Reason of Natural and Religious Conscience instead of a Sâ—gn fâ—om Heaven but besides these there are the Signs of the Times the sure word of Prophesie gives as Daniels Seventy Weeks gave of Messiâ—h With these His Miraculous Birth early Wisdom at Twelve Years old great works concerted and these compar'd could not deceive concerning Messiahs's times then on Earth I presume to say I have found a Line of Time in Prophesie reaching to near as within about Eight Years of this great Prophesie fulfilled I gave it out a Year ago Here comes out a Providence before us so great so stupendious to the very purpose of this Prophesie the equal of which is hardly to be found in Story that was yet but an Embryo in the Womb of this Prophesie at that time I made the Line Public far off from all prospect no Cloud as Big as a Mans Hand to Divine by If now one may not if one cannot discern the Signs of the Times by such a Conjuncture of Prophesie and Providence I may humbly say why should any one be condemn'd of Hypocrisie for not discerning those Signs when on so great a Configuration one may be mistaken Then may it be said all Signs of the Times are Fugitive Fallacious and Incertain but they are not so therefore I am not mistaken event will justifie it at 97. as it hath so beyond conjecture already begun Argument 2 There is but one great Phenomenon one great appearance in Prophesie that seems to forbid this Interpretation of the present glorâ—ous Providence that is that just before viz. Three Years and a half before the fall of the great City Babylon in a Mystery this Roman Infamous Woman the Witnesses must be kill'd and by the Beast on which she Sits I have Anticipated this Objection by shewing it is impossible the Beast should have Forty Two Moons of Years and have that work to do at his Three last Years and a half nor does the Analogy of so great an event agree with so Pusil so small a time But the Three Days and a half are equal to the Three Times and a half and both to Twelve Hundred Sixty Days They are in the Habit of Three Days c. only to shew a deep time of the Sack-cloath Prophâ—sie in being kill'd as there was a deep time of our Lords Death in his not whole but part of Three Days as I am conscious I have abundantly made out But further I argue from this Providence This Church of England Comprehending as God does all his Servants holding the Testimony of Jesus whether what we style Establish'd by Law or Protestant Dâ—ssâ—nters is a Land of Gods Witnesses if there be any such under Heaven if God hath then so rescued them from being in any sense kill'd by the Beast any more as he has it is certain that Prophesie of the Witnesses cannot be in the way of this Prophesie of the Ten Kings hating this Whore that it should not come to pass in it's just season of 1697. For God hath so Consolidated the Nation in this rescue that this Kingdom of the First Three among the Ten Kingdoms must be destroyed in all Human speaking e're it can be so subdued as to beare a killing of the Witnesses in it such as the Prophesie imports Indeed some resemblance there hath been of it in those severe Prosecutions of the Protestant Dissenters the guilt of which the Church of England hath I pray truely unloaded from it self upon Popish Cabals Besides Anti-christ hath poiz'd the weight of his Hand very notoriously upon the Church of England it self to try what it could do upon it But I doubt not at all the Bitterness of that Death of the Witnesses is past the differences being always great in my esteem betwixt the Church of Thyatyra Protestants lying in the midst of Popish Laws and Powers and betwixt those Churches whose Laws and Princes have given not only a Legality but Sardian splendor and security to the Reformation whose onely danger is too Deep a repose therein and slumber upon it Indeed I have been always much assur'd and God hath verified it Each Kingdom that repriz'd it self from the Power of the Beast shall be a Protestant Kingdom to the very last and that it could not have any Establish'd Prince that
the Apostacy was in the Church of Smyrna in the Ascendency so it went on to a Throne of Sathan It is now towards it's lowest Declination so the last Synagogue shall come to Worship at Philadelphiaes Feet and to acknowledge Christ Loves that Church And I hope that Day is now Springing and no sureâ— Sign of the Apostacy expiring This very Synagogue Seal'd the Thunders that had utter'd their voices at the first Reformation It hath near this Hundred and Eighty Years retarded the Kiâ—gdom of Christ and Shut up the Book as hid in the Bowels of Prophesie then opened and ready to have come into Act but when that Synagogue begins to acknowledge it's Error that Kingdom is near But on the other side Vniversality is another principle of the Philadelphian Church some Protestant Churches are too narrow and Circumscrib'd within their own Congrâ—gations and will not own nor receive those as the Church of Christ whom Christ hath receiv'd although they even as themselves are among the undefiled Names of Sardis how few soever They should go and Learn what that meaneth Christ pleased not himself For it is Written the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me that is our very Sins not by way of complyance but by way of Compassion union to the persons notwithstanding their Sins or Infirmities Christ is the Head of a Church under many remaining evils we should own our selves the Members of such a Church An Universal Spirit is most of the Spirit of Christs Kingdom opening to receive the fulness of the Gentiles and Jews how much more real Christians and Protestants Not enclosing Austerely our selves in pend up Congregations so as not to unite in Spirit with all true Christianity and Protestancy though not of our Model Argument 9 It is in the place of a great Argument that the greatest Objection against the hope of so great a Mercy so happy a Revolution as we are Discoursing of near us is remov'd by this present Revolution that our Eyes have seen our Ears heard and our Hands handled that is that all our Senses are fully assur'd of the sins the unworthiness the unpreparedness of the Age for so happy a Revolution is the great Argument against it But it that could have interpos'd we of this Nation had not receiv'd so great a wonder of Providence in favour of us I delight not to insist on so ungrateful a part but leave it to every one in their own serious Reflexions to Calculate the greatness of this work in mercy to us by Ballancing all the unworthiness that might have opposed it but when God is pleased thus to work As his work is before him in his own determination to do it so his reward is with him he expects it only from himself He secures all that his own Wisdom and Holiness requires and prevails over the remainder of unworthiness by his own Names sake And of this I take the more earnest notice that we may know Prâ—phetical events are like the Rain that waits not for the Sons of Men but having such a Generation of the Just of the Children of God in the World whom Fatherly Providence hath a peculiar Eye upon it falls on the unjust also Yet this is to be understood with three Limitations 1. There are yet Eight Years for a variety of disposes to show themselves in either of Mercy or Judgment In this Time the Carcases of many of the mixed Multitude may fall as in a Wilderâ—â—ss There may be Wars noises of War Commotions distress of Nations and great pâ—â—plexity with many evils that may consume prophane and un refâ—rm'd Persons we ought not therefore to be sâ—cure or presuming because of so great a Mercy nor on the other side be discourag'd at contrary appearances For whatever waving of things may be in this Interval the end shall yet be certain as Prophesie hath declar'd 2. There will be nothing there can be nothing more dreadful to the un-holy to the sleepy and secure to the Ignorant and Abominable then that approach then those loud voices from Heaven of the Kingdom of Christ when these things come to pass Christ expresses it in brief to all those in defiled Garments in Sard … except thou watch I will come upon thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know at what hour I will come upon thee blessâ—d are they then or even at this Time though it shall have a greater fulfilling just at the Seventh Vial who watch and keep their Garments viz. from defilements because Christ comes now also as a Thief and on such a surprizal the unprepar'd â—hrowing off their defiled Garments in haste walk naked and Men see their shame The greatest Zeal of Protestancy if un-reform'd in heart and Life will be affrighted even to endless distraction and confusion at this approach of Christ if Men do not before watch that is resolve what manner of Persons they ought to be in all Holiness and Godliness of Conversation not sur-charg'd with Drunkenness Gluttony the cares of this Life c. 3. With Relation to the Grand Appearance of Christ there are between the Loud Voices in Heaven that the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ between the end of Time Times and half a Time which are the 1260. D. and the Kingdom it self Thirty Days for Years making 1290. wherein the Seven Thunders so long seal'd shall be open'd in Seven Successive Voices for the Reforming the purifying the Converting the World the World of all sorts of Men that whatever remains filthy may be filthy still even forever because it would not be cleans'd when God would have cleans'd it which Voices we may find in their due order Revel 14. compare the Time of Thirty Years Dan. 12. And these shall be before Christ comes to Smite the Earth with a Curse For immediately upon those Voices come Forty Five Years of the Vâ—als making up 1335. in Daniel these are the Execution of the Holy and pure Wrath of Almighty God without mixture of any Human Passions or Ends. Then at the end of them is the Glorious Kingdom of Christ the New Jerusalem wherein all his Saints and Servants from first to last stand in their Lots and whereinto nothing that is defiled shall Enter Thus God hath secured his Mercies though vouchsaf d to an Impure World now All which considerations exceedingly strengthen the Arguments and remove the Objections arising from so Impure and indispos'd a State of the World in General and of this Nation in particular for so Gracious Manifestations of God as this Prophesie Predicts Argument 10 There is one Note in this Prophesie that gives a further glance upon the near approach of the Time and that this Revolution looks to the very just Complement of the words of God to be fulfilled And that is that whereas the Prophesie had said The Ten Kings should agree to give their Kingdom to the Beast till the Words of God
of over-Reverence to Antiquity and rather humbling our selves and acknowledging an Error in too near Approaches to that Synagogue of Sathan that shew'd it self before the last of those Four first General Councels Lastly in a Great Moderation of Censure towards those Churches and Protestants who were so greatly mistaken in that last point not Reproaching them as Antichristian or having so much as the number of that unhappy Name however too near approaching the Ritual and High Jurisdictive Synagogue that led to it at first But now such shall see their Fault by the Instruction of Christ Himself who Receives and owns them and thus should we All joyn in seeking the Beloved of the Church together till He appear on the Mountain of Spices Cantic 6. 1. c. 8. last THE END POSTSCRIPT JEremiah when He had Writ All the Words concerning Babylon in a Book gave it to Serajah a Quiet Prince to Read when He Jerem. 51. 59. Came to Babylon and to pray according to it and then to bind it to a Stone and to sink it to the bottom of Euphrates as a Symbol of the then Babylon sinking and to Rise no more yet Jeremiahs Prophesie Rose again when Babylon Fell as is particularly Remark'd 2 Chron. 36. 22. Now I offer these Words of Mystical Babylon Sinking to every Quiet Calm Sedate Mind I only request such to observe how Providence moves and goes on according to the Prophesie expounded in them while It is yet standing Let the Discourses and the Instrument us'd by God however unworthy sink to the Lowest It may very well be so yet lâ—t none be Scandalized even that shall be only a Symbol of the Babylon that now is sinking These very Discourses shall Rise into particular Remembrance when Babylon Falls I do not pretend to particular Inspiration but the Observation of the close Chain and curious Links of Prophetical Scripture since the World began requires so intent and nice a Speculation that the Discovery is almost as particular as Inspiration and when they are found they are so even just solid substantial that I doubt not to say They are certain as Inspiration For Vâ—sion or Prophecy cannot Lye And there may be such a Manifestation of the Commâ—ssures and admirable Connexions of one part with another that sooner may the most exact Anatomists be deceiv'd in their Eye-sight though assisted with Microscopes and utmost Art and in their Reason and Admiration of the Works of God in Nature upon their Eye-sight then those Nerves and Fibres of Prophetical Scripture deceive They are such and so laid that no Fancy could create them This is my Assurance Yet even a Prophet must not look for Honour or Acceptance more in his own Time then in his own Country His Words coming to pass are the Credential Most require that God hath sent him The Jews built not the Sepulchres of the Prophets whom their Fathers killed till they knew their Words had come to pass It must much more fare so with the Expositors of Prophecy but concerning that The Will of the Lord be done I only beg the Favour of such Assistance as that the whole Work may be perfected and laid up for the Time to come and propose Thirty Sheets yet to be printed and desire Two Shillings six pence of each Assistant to carry on the Impression Parts Printed The Scripture Line of Time from the first Sabbath to Abraham from Cyrus to the Milennial Sabbatism The Song of Solomon adjusted from Davids Kingdom to the Kingdom of the Root and Off-spring of David Jesus Christ The Command to Come out of Babylon wâ—th this Treatise in Appendage To be Printed The Scripture Line from Abraham to Cyrus The Gospel Doctrine of the Kingdom The Prayer of the Kingdom or the Lords Prayer The Sacrament of the Kingdom or the Lords Supper Adjusted to that Kingdom