not Ceas'd However suspended is That Scripture Acts 2. 17. For there the Apostle Peter is giving an account of the same Things as in this Text Heb. 2. 4 Those Divers Signs and Wonders and Gifts of the Holy Spirit so says the Apostle out of Joel And it shall come to pass in those days I will powre out my Spirit on All Flesh and your Sons and Daughters shall Prophecy c. before that Emphatical that Illustrious day of the Lord come Indeed the Apostle does say This is that was spoken of It began then God gave a very bright show of it then It looked out upon the World with a great Glory at that Time But an Eclipse came upon it it is yet notwithstanding due to that great and Notable Day of the Lord that Day which he calls by a word that signifies Illustrious Apparent Glorious and so as we Translate Notable Day How Notable and so Illustrious but by many Wonderful Magnifyings of Divine Power upon it in so Immediate a way So indeed none can deny that Miraculous Powers must needs introduce that Day of Judgment according to the general Notion or Doctrine of it But saith the Apostle further Before that Notable and Illustrious Day of the Lord Come Now to have spoken this only of that Thing that was seventeen Hundred years ago already or very near it and we don't know how many more it may be if we have not a True Judgment upon Time by the Scripture Line of Time and the Exposition of the Sure word of Prophecy concerning the nearness of that Day we don't know how much longer how many years more it may be to it and yet to call this pouring out of the Spirit before it that was so long ago as if it were but just before it seeing God speaks to us as to Creatures of Time is a very unexpected way of speaking in any and not easy to be Allowed to be the way of the Divine Spirits speaking considering how often Scripture speaks of Great Things just upon that day and not so long before it This indeed seems so unreasonable to very sagacious Interpreters that they cannot acquiesce to before that Day so long before it and therefore have found this way to salve it to understand this Notable Day of the Destruction of Jerusalem and of the day of the Vengeance of God upon the State of the Jews I do not deny but that is made every where a Type of the very Day of Judgment But that Day of Desolation however on many accounts very great is not yet great enough to Answer as a Reason of so great a Thing as before that Day only nor will it be adjusted to the things spoken of in the Prophet Joel nor to the great Things every where spoken of in Scripture as coming near that day It cannot therefore in just Reason be understood only of that Day of the Judgment of God upon that City and Temple nor indeed at all of it but as of a Type and Symbol of that Day and yet if be not so understood except another powring out of the Spirit be understood before that day as near we make a wide breach and Gap of Inconsequence in the Apostles Discourse and yet still the general Opinion even of Christians and their usual way of Discourse makes that Notable Day of the Lord no nearer than it was a Thousand and more years ago So far are we from what the Apostle Requires of hastning on to that Day of God Argum. 3. I Argue from the great Truths that are yet to be Preached in Declaration of and order to this Kingdom of Christ For Miracles are to give Testimony to Truth when God hath great Truth to Communicate to the World and that Universally to be given As the great Things of the Gospel had such a Glory of Miracles to Seal them even so the Truths that are given proper to that Time shall be Witnessed and Sealed with mighty Power of Miracles The great Masters of Discourse concerning Miracles are herein Agreeing that one great Reason of Miracles is to recommend some Manifestations of God that had not been before made at least so far known or so plainly known or so convincingly known I doubt not therefore every One will be ready to say hath not God made known all Truth already In these last days hath he not spoken all Truth by his Son and by his Apostles that heard him hath he not Seal'd up as we say the Canon of his Word the Treasury and Standard of Truth What Truths therefore can there be expected that will need or require the presence of Miracles to give Honour and Assurance to them Is not this very thing a sufficient Argument against any Further Expectation of Miracles that there are no such New Discoveries of Truth to which they can be proper I will therefore give three Instances of the Truth that at least in the further more Glorious Manifestation of especially after the Time of the Apostasy God will grace with Miracles I. The first great Truth that shall be in a wonderful manner Preached is The Freeness of the Grace of God in Christ the riches of Redemption in his Blood I do acknowledg This is Preached now so that there is a very high measure as I may say of yea yea yea and Amen concerning it among the Servants of Christ both as to Conversion and Calling according to his purpose and as to the Justification of Sinners Freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ But it must needs be confess'd also there is a great deal of Cloud and Darkness concerning it It is much Contested and Encountred on all Sides This was the New Song that was Sung Revel 5. saying to the Lamb Thou art Worthy to take the Book of the Kingdom and to open the Seals thereof For thou wast slain and hast Redeemed us by thy Blood out of every Tongue People Kindred and Nation And this Redeeming by the Blood of the Lamb that was slain was the most especial Truth that Miracles at first gave Testimony unto in the Apolical Times Now in the Deep Times of the Apostacy this New Song was lost alltogether and tho at the Reformation it was in some measure Recovered yet even as â—he Reformation hath sunk as almost all Considering Men allow so hath the high and Lofty Ayres of this Song been Lowerd So that at the Time of the Witnesses coming out of their Sackcloth and when the Servants of God who have all this Time bore a Seal of Concealment on their Foreheads shall appear with the Fathers Name on their Foreheads in open legible Characters made so plain that he that Runs may read them This Song therefore shall be as it were a New Song I lay great stress on this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a New Song It is not a New Song For it was Sung in the Days and Times of the Apostles but yet it hath
to all Holiness and Heavenly Conversation are Recollected and Presented p. 94 THE CONTENTS OF THE Charter for the Interpretation of Prophesy THE clearing of the Text for the Founding the Discourse from page 1. to page 8. The great Relation this whole second Epistle of the Apostle Peter hath to the Apostasy and to the Kingdom of Christ after it p. 8. to pag. 14. The Heads of the Discourse laid down p. 14. 15. The Arguments Proving Interpretation of Prophecy is of Free and Open and not of Reserv'd Access from p. 15. to p. 23. The Objections against these Arguments Answered from p. 23. to p. 32. The Standards or Rules to be Observ'd in the Interpretation of Prophecy for giving Assurance to the Interpreter himself and to others his Interpretation of Prophecy is Just and Right and worthy to be Considered from p. 32. to p. 37. The Application of these Standards to the Interpretation of Prophecy in several Treatises by the Author briefly given from p. 37 to 42. The particular Reason of Fixing the Epoch or beginning of the 1260 Days at 437 so as to End at 1697. by way of Answer of an Objection that that year is not remarkable enough to bear such an Epoch From p. 42. to 47. An Humble Enquiry into and Prognosticks upon any Representation Prophecy may have given of the State of Things near the Time of the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ as Now from 1694 and the two last Years before to 1697. by way of Removal of a fear'd mistake in Former Hopes from p. 47. to p. 56. The Table of Prophetick Time presented from p. 56. to p. 67. The consideration of a Prophecy found near 100 years ago in the Study of Justus Lipsius and Transcribed by Dr. Mayer in his Preface before the Prophets above 40 years ago Of great Consent with the Authors Expectation at 97. given as an Appendix to this Discourse from p. 67 to the End A DISCOURSE UPON THE Powers of the World to come OR The Miraculous Powers of the Gospel and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. II. 4 5. God also bearing them Witness with Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the World to come whereof we speak CHAP. I. The Opening of the Text and the Heads of the Discourse given THE Apostle had said in the First Verse Therefore we ought to give the more that is the most Earnest Heed that can be given to the Things which we have Heard lest at any Time we let them slip Lest by any means they should Escape or miss our Duest and Deepest Consideration For saith he if the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Disobedience received a Just Recompence of Reward how much more shall we not Escape if we neglect so Great Salvation That is the Great Salvation revealed in the Gospel with so great Lustre of Truth and Power of Miracles For This Great Salvation hath a double Evidence and Assurance of its Truth 1. That It began to be spoken by the Lord who so spake that if he had not come and spoken to Them They had had no sin For He was mighty in Word as well as Deed He spoke as never man spake and It was confirmed by them that Heard Him even by the Apostles who went forth in the same Spirit and Power of Truth 2. God bare witness to them with Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the greatest Variety and Manifoldness That is God gave Them All the Letters Patents all the Credentials from Heaven that could be desired That Our Lord came from God and that his Apostles were sent by God and by Christ Himself the Lord of All. And in all Thâ—s it is diligently to be observed as having great Influence upon all the After Discourse That as the Works of Christ were Great Evidences of Truth and Testimonies to it so the Words or Doctrine of Christ carry'd their own Evidence For if this be not observed the Doctrine of Miracles will never be rightly not truly understood 3. These Divers Miracles Signs and Wonders were subject to the Wise and Holy Cousel of the Will of God and of the Blessed Spirit So that only where when on whom and by whom This Miraculous Power should be dispens'd was as on many Accounts is after to be observ'd wholly after the Counsel of his own Will 4. The Apostle gives the Reason of these Miraculous Powers being thus dispens'd by his own Immediate Increated Will and Pleasure Because they Closely Appertain to and are Connected with the World to come whereof saith the Apostle we speak That is do now and ought to speak continually and only as of that World so incomparably Great that God will neither trust Holy Angels to have any Administration of but as Commissioned as the Apostles were at any time by a Power given immediately to them and not the Power Resident in and Connatural to their own Beings under the General Divine Concourse and Command or Permission For Miraculous Power truly so God never can Give out of his own Hand much less therefore will he permit Bad Angels to use it and when this World shall appear in Glory they shall be sealed up in their own Abyss That therefore which I propose by the Grace and Assistance of God to discourse on so great a Point shall consist of several Heads whereby our Understandings may be Enlightned and our Hearts Affected with many Truths of Exceeding Moment 1. I would closely enquire into and endeavour to Explain the Nature of Miracles in general and what place there is for any such Appearances of God even peculiarly and as on purpose prepared or left for them 2. I would search after the Great Ends and Reasons why God hath at any Time Appear'd by Miraculous Powers in the World 3. I shall endeavour to make out That though there are indeed other Great Reasons and Ends of Miracles yet there is none so Supream and Soveraign as that they are design'd by God to be not only Pawns and Pledges but Pieces and Portions or Parcels of that World to come And that this will be found to be the most Adequate Reason or End of Miracles upon True and Impartial Enquiry and separation from prejudice and pre-possession of other more Received Opinions 4. I shall consider what Times we read of in Scripture which God hath been pleas'd most of all to illustrate and make Remarkable by Miracles and what Times have been a Dark Place as the Apostle speaks on occasion most agreeable herewith if not absolutely the same viz. in regard of the powers of the World to come not appearing in it and on what Accounts upon a Ballance of one with the other there have been such Differences and so great a Non Appearance of Miracles these Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years 5. I will endeavour to
A DISCOURSE UPON THE Powers of the World to come AND The Great Charter FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE Prophecy of Scripture ADVERTISEMENT THere is an Exposition upon the whole Book of the Revelation Explaining the Sacred Text Word by Word and opening and arguing the Divine Senses of that great Prophesy Sold by Richard Wellington at the Lute in St. Pauls Church-Yard and are to be had at Mr. Marshals at the Bible in Newgate-street and of Mr. Salisbury at the Rising-Sun in Corn-hill A DISCOURSE UPON THE Powers of the World to come OR The Miraculous Powers of the Gospel and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ And their Certain Return at the Kingdom of Christ in its Succession To which is Adjoyn'd The Great Charter FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE Prophecy of Scripture And more particularly of the Prophetick Numbers of Time Evincing the Kingdom of Christ in Succession at 1697. And Consequently MIRACLES shall then Return By T. Beverley London Printed for the Author and are to be Sold by W. Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street 1694. TO The Right Honourable Sr. John Somers THE Lord Keeper My Lord THAT I take the Boldness to make this Dedication to your Lordship is not that I can make the least pretension to be Known to or to Know your Lordship but as you are on such an Eminence you cannot be hid and as a Luminary of the Nation every Eye is upon you But yet I have made this Presumption on Great Reasons First That the Truths I offer in the ensuing Treatise are so little consider'd or Receiv'd that they are under a Necessity to remove from the Rigor of Prejudicate Opinion and to make Appeal to the Chancery of a most Equitable Review Then that I have much Reason to be perswaded your Lordship hath in peculiar manner in the Greatness of your Apprehension the Noble Freedoms of a solid Judgment and most condescending Christian Temper a truly High Court of Chancery in your own Breast and will allow it to sober Proposals of Truth Analogous to Faith and Christian Morality however Old Bottles and Palates refuse New Wine New to them not so in it self but spoken of by All the Prophets since the World began Another Great Reason I have is That tho I pretend to no Prognosticks except Justified by the Sure Word of Prophecy yet speaking humanely it is very probable your Lordship shall continue in your High Administration till 97. and then I have Great Assurance it will be capable of being made much Higher and more Honourable by the Kingdom of that Great Prince of the Kings of the Earth coming into its Succession Wherein undoubtedly every Character of Humane Honour Appointed and Justified by his Word and seated in Persons ready to Kiss the Son and pay Homage to him will receive unexpressible Additions And hereunto I add That it is most Reasonable so publick a Personage and that bears as is said the Conscience of the Government and so fittest to make Judgment on such a Point should have both the Notices and the State of so great a Thing laid before him and before the whole Nation in him Lastly Although I very well know how Great a Prince I herein serve and do most Freely submit as to my self to his turning your Heart this way or that way as the Rivers of Water yet I think it no way disagreeing to my Duty according to his present Dispose to desire such a Patronage as that of your Lordship that I might rest under your shadow and wait for the mighty Ratifications of All I have writ on so great a Subject by Mighty Power It is now My Lord Ten Years since I first made Publick the Prophetick Calendar of Time and I have not found Reason to Vary from the First Moments on which I Fix'd it but have receiv'd Greater Additions of Light and Assurance as I have continually and publickly Remonstrated and yet I have always and do ftill disown all things Enthusiastick and am upon the plain Principles of Letter of Scripture Scripture Arguments according to the most undoubted Chronology and History and so offer my self Freely to the Attack of All that can bring Contrary Reasons And have now as in a Chancery Proceeding presented the Case to your Lordship Let him that finds Reason in the same Way put in his Answer A Greater Cause than this cannot come before your Lordship Whether the Books of the Prophets of the New and Old Testament have declar'd such a Glorious Visible Kingdom of Christ Whether they have declar'd it shall be First in Succession preparing for its Glory by an Universal Preaching of the Gospel as by a Flying Angel seal'd with the Return of Miracles For All this I affirm And whether they have given a Line of Time Determining that Succession to 1697. For such a Line I affirm also and have produc'd it from the Sure Word oâ— Prophecy by a Charter for Interpretation Now may that Supreme Prince whom I declare who is Essential Wisdom by whom Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice Even the Judges and All the Counsellors of the Earth see in his Light And who is so nigh Coming as I affirm to Reign in his own Name Guide your Lordship in all the things that concern your own immortal Spirit in all the Arduous Matters of so High a Judicature and particularly a Rich and Glorious entrance into his Everlasting Kingdom I now present as My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant In the Kingdom of Jesus Christ T. BEVERLEY TO My Very Esteemed Auditory at the Lecture at Cutlers-Hall and in them to Every Reader I Have indeed in several Treatises my most Esteemed Christian Friends made publick before this Asserted Things of the same Tendency But I never yet Attempted in a Set and Solemn Discourse to Argue this Grand Point of Miracles that shall so Distinguish and Assure such a Succession of the Kingdom of Christ as I give now before-hand the most Open Notices of God any way enables me to Now if that his Name as King of Kings and Lord of Lords shall be declared by his Wondrous Works at 97. to be so near as that his Kingdom is in Succession If besides the mighty Revolutions in the World that shall bring it into Succession and be brought in by it That Time shall be severed from All other Time by Miracles as Great and Greater than in the Times of the Apostles as the Kingdom that was then was to be under Patience and Delay particularly of the Times and Half Time shall then by the Oath of Christ Allow no such further Time nor Any Delay whatever but the Mystery shall be Finished with all speed I Appeal to All Whether Any One Declaring this can be suspected of an Intention to Deceive and if the Events do not Answer to shuffâ—e under any Plausible Appearances and so to Abscond There are and may be Great Changes in the World by that time and speaking but after the manner of
it Consider it every way and then give me an Answer is it Miracle or not And as it is thus concerning Creation so concerning Providence it is perfect Miracle for what is Miracle but an Effect rising from the immediate word of God now how does our Meat preserve our Life not by it self only but by every word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of God as our Lord hath declared to us So How do our Cloaths warm us How does the whole Course of Nature maintain its Circulation We are as ignorant in all these things even as the Jews were when Christ either Heal'd the Sick or the Lame or open'd the Eyes of the Blind or cast out Devils or whatever were the great things he did and yet still the things were evident Matters of Fact Even so it is in the Dayly Evidences of the Divine Power and Greatness and Goodness in the Creation and Dayly Providence How excellently does David speak upon this Subject Psalm 104. He goes through this whole Oeconomy of Creation and Providence and therefore he begins thus Oh Lord my God thou art very Great Thou art Cloathed with Honour und Majesty who coverest thy self with Light as with a Garment and so on Now if we do really believe that the whole World stands by Immediate Divine Power and that every day the Motions of it come fresh out of the Hand of God and that beyond all Natural Causes or Connexion of Causes then we must acknowledg Miracles every day The Prophet Jeremy tells us Lament 3. 23. It is of the Lords mercies we are not Consumed and because his compassions fail not they are new every Morning We are ready to think the Light and the Life and the mercy of this Day are the same they were Yesterday but if we believe the Spirit of God by that Prophet they are not the same though of the same for Kind yet not the same by any necessary Continuation or Natural Connexion with those of Yesterday but new new every Morning Now if the mercy of this Morning be new why then it is certainly a Miracle because no Power of a Creature could have produced it or brought it forth but an Immediate Act of the Power of the goodness of God And he had not done it so yesterday that he must needs do it to day yet if he did not generally do it and that anew our Life must cease for ever Oh if our Hearts did but Live under this Sense of God how Humble and Dependent would it make us We are ready to think it is the Suns Duty to Rise to Day because it Rose Yesterday and we are too ready to Build upon it that our Life shall be to Day as it was Yesterday but if we could consider that it is indeed a New Life every Day yea every Moment and that whatever Channel it runs through yet that God alone is the Giver immediately from Himself and it is continually a New Gift If a Man were Dead and Raised again from the Dead then every one would look about them and make a great wonder but if we went up to the Fountain Head we should find the very same Power that Raises the Dead giving Life every Moment and if we could see but into that we should see Miracle in the one even as in the other for both are immediately from Infinite Power Both are New Only one is out of the Ordinary Course of Gods Disposal the other not so I would only argue this further on one place of Scripture and so pass on It is said Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible Things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly understood by the Things that are made Even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without Excuse The Apostle affirms The Eternal Power and Godhead are in themselves clearly to be seen round about us by the Works of Creation and Providence and so as to leave without Excuse Although therefore we see not thus clearly even the best of us and so many bruitish Atheistick Men not at all yet this cannot make the Apostle's Words of no Effect They continue Firm The Eternal Power and Godhead are so to be seen as to leave men without Excuse What now can Miracles do more They can only alarm or call us to closer Attendance They cannot more clearly inform inlighten or assure We may therefore justly say of Creation and Providence compar'd with Miracles as the Lord said of Moses and the Prophets compar'd with one rising from the Dead If they will not believe the one they will not be perswaded by the other If not by Creation and Providence no not by Miracles I would therefore consider what is said by the Men of Wit and Reason as they are ready to Esteem themselves They would suppose that Matter and Motion being either Eternal as some would have it or Created by God as others would at least seem to allow and then either by themselves or by a General Concourse of the Supreme Being they could together according to a sort of Mechanick Law do every thing But we see how soon not only the Works of Art but even of Nature Run out of Order or wear out themselves It is True if all things could have produced themselves there were an End of the Miracle of Creation Or if when made they could Govern themselves There were then indeed no Miracle of Providence but what turned Nature wholly out of its Course But to us instructed by the Word of God the whole Frame of Creation is like a well Tuned Instrument every String wound up to its due Tenor but in evèry single String and the whole Harmony the Divine Hand was immediately even wherein any Second Cause had the least Activity Every Wheel in this curious Machine was plac'd by his Finger And when all was put together and so Tun'd All had for ever notwithstanding lain still like an Instrument on which the Musicians Hand never came or was removed Or as a Clock or Watch whose Weights or Spring were never wound up or quite down or taken off And to this Frame and this Motion no Vicarious Hand but the Creator's alone can suffâ—ce He is every moment even a-new the Fountain of Life Being and Motion as the Apostle saith In him we live move and have our Being So that Creation and Providence are still Miracles The Sun and so all other of the Works of Creation in their proportion is prepared as a Bridegroom coming out â—f his Chamber and rejoyces as a strong man to run a Race But in all this the Sun declares the Glory of God alone Oh that therefore our souls could Bless the Lord while we have our Being and all that is within us praise his Holy Name that the meditation of Him and his Works could be sweet to us and that we could say we need not Miracles as further Evidences of his Creating Power or Preserving Goodness but for the Displays thereof to other
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
the Whales Belly What is said of our Lord Jesus Mat. 4. v. 24. when It is said The Fame of him went out throughout all Syria And they brought unto him all sick persons those which were possess'd with Devils those which were Lunatick and had the Palsy and he healed them his opening the Eyes of the Blind cleansing the Lepers making the Lame to walk the Dumb to speak the Deaf to hear the giving to speak with Tongues to Interpret strange Tongues But above all Raising the Dead appears to All perfect Miracle the Raising of Lazarus when Dead Three Days John 11. 14. so alarm'd the Jews and affrighted the Sanhedrim who sat in Counsel upon it that they said If we let him alone all men will believe on hiâ— and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our Nation All these are Miracles of Mercy and both these sorts both of Judgment and Mercy we allow to be Miraculous because they are above the Standard of Gods general Government of the World and settlement of what we call Nature in this present State of it And thus I have labour'd in this First and Fundamental Point to define the Nature of Miracle because it will give Light all along the Discourse and guide to the chief Point viz. That they a pertain to the Kingdom of Christ and World to come CHAP. III. Giving yet a more Strict and Exact Description of Miracles in Five Particulars I Find it necessary to come up yet closer and nearer to the Nature of Scripture-Miracles or its Account of them and that so that I may shew how close they lead up to that World to come And herein I shall observe most particularly the Words the Spirit of God uses to express Miracles by I will to this purpose insist on these Five Particulars 1. The First Thing that speaks Miracle and that is indeed the most Proper and Essential Description of Miracles is That in Miracle God acts by an immediate Hand and does not work by any Second or Subordinate Cause whatever Instrument Conveyance or Minister of his Power he may use When he works perfectly as the Creator he is alone and there is no other with him in his Work He shews himself immediately by his own Hand and stretched out Arm If God blesses Physick and the sick man is recovered This is indeed Miracle if we consider the First Spring God is at the Fountain of All Mâ—ans For he is the First Cause When a Man by Diligence in his Calling grows Rich This Men say is no Miracle He was a Diligent and an Industrious Laborious Man and he had besides these and these Opportunities But if we believe the Scripture This is not to be attributed to the Second Cause but to the First and in that it is Miracle For The Blessing of the Lord maketh Rich and The Lord maketh Thee to grow Râ—ch as we Read in Moses and a man to whom God giveth Riches saith Solomon But yet the Scripture it self does not call this Miracle because a Train of Second Causes waits upon the First and to a common Eye hides it In Miracle God does All and he works like himself suddenly and not according to the Leisure and Slowness of the Second Cause He heals immediately He pour'd Riches on Solomon like the most High Possessor of All He commands and the Effect stands up together in the same moment he commands If a Man hath Cataracts on his Eyes and goes to a Skillful Oculist and he Couches them as we speak we do not call this Miracle because an Hand of Natural Cause waits upon God here for Concurrence But when by the Power of Christ Men had their Eyes opâ—ned without the use of Means Then Every One agrees It is the Hand of God and calls it Miracle I say therefore This is One Thing in Miracle and I beseech the serious Consideration of it because there is such assurance in Scripture God will come to do great Things immediately by his own Hand He will do them as he said he would Answer the Idolatrous Enquirers in Ezekiel by Himself by his own immediate Power According to this we are instructed Exod. 7. 5. When I stretch out my Hand saith God upon Aegypt Miracle is the stretching out of God's Hand and Chap 8. 19. when the Magicians could not do what Moses did They then said This is the Finger of God Here then is the Nature of Miracle It is God's shewing his own Finger The Magicians acted by a Power as we say behind the Curtain They acted by the Devil But when Aaron smote the Dust of the Earth and it became Lice Then the Magicians themselves acknowledged This is the Finger of God because they tryed to do so with their Enchantments and could not This therefore plaâ—nly declares Miracle when it comes to that that no Angelical Power can do it nor can he trusted to do it as God's Commissioner Then it is Miracle Then it is a Power of the World to come which God hath not put into Subjection to Angels either Good or Bad. The Magicians acting by the Intervention and utmost Power of Bad Angels did some Things as Moses and Aaron so long they did not own Miracle But when they come to that They acting by Created Power could not do nor were any way Commission'd to do Then they cryed out The Finger of God And it is very observable our Lord makes use of the very same word in arguing the Truth of that so great Miracle of Casting out that Potent Devil Luke 11. by the Power of God and not as the Magicians by the Power of Belzebub or the Devil as the Magicians did If I by the Finger of God cast out Devils saith Christ then no doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you Where are Two Things most Remarkable concerning Miracles 1. That Miracles are by the immediate Power of God Patrated or Effected 2. That there is a certain undoubted and inseparable Connexion between the Kingdom of God or the World to come and Miracles or Effects of the Immediate Divine Power or Finger which shall indeed bring it in All in it being Highest Power and so is All that works for it There is therefore a peculiar Word chosen by the Spirit of God in the New Testament to Express Miracle by and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Power so very often in Scripture and most Remarkably Miracles are call'd Heb. 6. Powers of the World to come Now I find by the Consent of the most Sage Interpreters Those Powers of the World to come are understood of Miracles They are Powers Demonstrative of Immediate Divine Power and Powers proper to the World to come prepar'd for all manner of Service to it and which shall in the Due and Just Time introduce it and as I observed before we find the same Expression taken out of Exodus and so Acts 4. They are the Hand of God stretched out and his Arm as
Miracles almost of all Judgments and persuasions are very narrow and confined in their Apprehensions concerning the Reasons or ends of Miracles and have not consider'd this great End of them their relation to the World to come or to the Kingdom of Christ Far be it from me to take upon me but I say By evidence from the Word of God it will appear that this is the far greatest End of Miracles which hath been Overseen not considered nor looked into altho the Head of the Corner and yet other Ends or Reasons of them are to be duly considered also 1. A great end of Miracles is to call Men to an immediate Consideration of God For Men can put off God in Ordinary Things and say Nature did it this or that Natural Cause Did you not see say they how this or that Natural Cause wrought and take away say they the Natural Cause and the Effect will not be produced As if a Man lies still and does nothing he doth not grow Rich if he had not Riches and an Estate before and so let a man be under a Disease if he does not send for a Physician then Nature and the Disease must Contest it and dispute it together and it is odds against Nature it will be overcome if you take away the Fire say they there shall be no Warmth if you take away the Sun there can be no Light so men leave God out and therefore to awaken Bruitish Men that do not consider God is at the Spring of all and that he concurs with all that Reaches any End God very often crosses and thwarts what we count the Course of Natural Causes The Race is not to the Swift nor the Battle to the Strong nor Bread to the Wise nor Favour to the Men of understanding but the Wise and their Works are in the Hands of God the God of Nature Eccles c. 9. v. 1. 11. All this notwithstanding most men do not perceive God therefore hath not been wanting to the World to give some extraordinary Appearances and to make himself known by a Hand and Arm stretched out and made bare and it is a great Aggravation if Men do not take notice hereof This was the great sin of Pharoh that he harden'd his Heart against all those mighty Works of God done before him and upon him This sin highly provoked God against the Israelites That they saw his Works forty years and yet always Err'd in their Hearts and did not know the ways of God Heb. 3. 9 10. So says Christ If I had not come and done among them the works that no other Man did They had had no sin but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father John 15. 24. From all this It is very Evident Miracles ought to be vehement Persuasions to Faith Love Obedience Self-Resignation according to any Manifestation of God to Men with which Miracles go along But yet consider on the other side That though this is one great end of Miracles yet it is not worthy to be the chief or Adequate End of Miracles For let these two or three things stand in Counter-ballance to supposing so 1. That the general Works of God and those in ordinary or Constancy are so great that Men are without excuse in not Fearing God and Loving and Obeying him altho there had never been a Miracle in extraordinary in the World as I have shewn from Rom. 1. 20. The invisible things of God even his Eternal Power and Godhead are so manifest from the Creation All Men who do not Glorify him as God and who serve the Creature more than the Creator blessed for ever are without excuse if God had not done enough without Miracles then indeed there would certainly have been Miracles upon this only account that men might have no just Reason to complain of God And so let us consider that of Jerem. 10. 6. Who would not fear thee Oh Lord King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain For as much as there is none like unto thee For thou art Great and thy Name is great in might When he uttereth his Voice There is a multitude of Waters in the Heavens And will ye not fear me saith God who have placed the Sand for a bound to the Sea that though the Waters toss themselves they cannot pass over Are ye so Bruitish so inconsiderate so unreasonable that ye will not fear me Every day God doth Great Things and Miracles and that without number It is not therefore that God hath not given Evidence enough for he hath given abundantly enough yea though Men had not the Light of his Word They are without Excuse How much more are they without Excuse who have the Light of that even of the Gospel of Glory I do not deny that God makes a greater Offer of himself by Miracles considering Mens great Stupidity They are to excite them who Believe not I grant yet I am much perswaded there is so much enough and to spare of Evidence and Assurance of God that if that hâ—d bâ—en the sole end of Miracles to offer a further Evidence or Motive of acknowledging God if there had not been a greater End than that There had never been a Miracle in the World shewn on that Account 2. Let it be well weighed that as Christ says If I had not done among them the Works that no other Man did they had had no sin So he says If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin but now they have no Cloak for their Sin tho he should have done no Miracle That also weighs much with me That the great End of Miracle is not to Convince Men or move them home to God Luke 16. ult They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not believe them neither will they be perswaded though one Rose from the Dead I do most sincerely and with All clearness and fairness desire to Reason these things that I may see whether the things I design in this Discourse will hold or not I am very confident Take any man of the Family where there has been a great deal of Wickedness and Prophaneness and loosness of Living and so the Courts where there has been successive Debauchery carelessness of all Religion abundance of Pride Luxury and Sensuality and if God should bring back any of those Princes or Coâ—rtiers or Family-Relations from the Dead and he should say I was within such a Space of time as you are now Walking in the same Vanity of Mind giving my self over to work all Vncleanness with greediness running into all excess of Riot All for the present Enjoyment never thinking what would come after what would become of me for ever but now I feel the Torment and Woe of it and have obtain'd Liberty to come to Advise you that you would Repent and Reform that you may not come into the same state of Torment we should be ready to think this would certainly
move us and reclaim us but you see what he says that Knew all Men and that knew what was in Man and needed not that any one should Testify to him of Man what he would do in such a Case he Assures us This would not perswade Now the very same thing by all proportion of Sense Reason Experience may be said concerning the Works of God the Providence of God the Word of God If Men are not perswaded by these neither would they be perswaded by Miracles werâ— they never so great and many this thereâ—ore Argues to me To move Men to Conversion and Repentance is not the proper and Adequate Reason of Miracles 2. I would further strengthen this by the observation of the Behaviour of those to whom Miracles were more immediately Directed and we may find how they stood up like Rock against the Force of them as we see in Pharoh Would any one think God should send upon him Ten Miraculous Plagues one after another to take him down and bring him into Subjection to God and that at last we should find him Driving into the Heart of the Sea after the People of God and then overwhelmed the sin God had so often warn'd him of and Plagued him for and yet thus it was I acknowledg God magnified his Power and got himself a great Name in his Destruction but we may see there was a further Relation to the World to come by the Recalling the Song of Moses at the Red Sea the place of his Perishing and Joyning it with the Song of the Lamb and by the paralel Course of the seven Vials destroying Spiritual Egypt as was before intimated Rev. 15. In the same manner the Miracles of Christ and of the Apostles were Directed first and immediately on the Jews of That time But how little they Avail'd to Conversion we know beyond Doubt I do not deny God Justified himself more abundantly thereby in their utter Destruction by the Romans about forty years after But the Interest the Kingdom of Christ prevail'd beyond that End of Conversion For It Faild But when that was first Proposed How Proper it was to make so glorious an appearance of that Kingdom that shall fully appear in its own time tho not then that not being the proper Time in a like but much greater and more Illustrious Efficacy of Miracles 3. The moving men home to God cannot be the adequate end of Miracles God hath been pleased to bring some Home suddenly without Miracle as Matthew the Publican Matt. 9. 9. and the Apostle prefers 1 Cor. 14. 23. Prophecy or Powerful Preaching the Gospel as above Miracles for the End of Conversion or a more Spiritual Inward Miraculous Power above a Miracle that seems more wonderful to sense viz. a Speaking with all manner of Tongues or â—anguages And indeed That great and mighty Work of Conversion whatever service it may receive from Miracles yet is much more to be acknowledged to the Spirit of God powr'd out and laying hold on those Ordain'd to Eternal Life than to Miracles which much assures This working upon the Hearts of Men to a sense of God is not the End of Miracles in a full direct Adequation to it 2. It is assigned as a much more Agreable and Commensurate end of Miracles that they are Given as a Testimony from Heaven of the truth of any Divine Revelation from Heaven of the will and mind of God Touching any Law or Rule of Faith worship and Life in order to Eternal Life especially when the Points of that Revelation are above over and super-added to the Law and Light which we Call of Nature or to any former Manifestation and Declaration of the Will of God that had been fixed and setled in the Church and among the People of God throughout their Generations such Miraculous Power is therefore given into the Hand of such Ministers of Divine Pleasure as he hath Chosen for it Thus a great Presence of Divine Power was with Moses the Servant of God in the fixing that whole Frame of the Ceremonial Law Thus the Tabernacle and Service of it was fill'd with the glorious coming down of God into it so Solomons Temple was as we may say Consecrated by God himself And thus Especially and much more That supreme Revelation of the Gospel for the Excellency of the Declaration it self for the Glory of the Lord by whom it began to be spoken for the sake of so great and Antient a Sanction as that of the Mosaick Law which it gave a Cessation to not so much by Abrogation as fulfiling it was so Seal'd in all these Regards God bare Witness to Christ and to the Apostles by Divers Signs Wonders Miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his Will In the assured Knowledg hereof Châ—ist said The Works which the Father hath given me to do bear Witness of me Believe me for the Works sake John 5. 36 c. 14. 11. The Apostle Peter signifies the Boldness in speaking the word of God arising from the signs and wonders that were done by the Name of the Holy Child Jesus Acts 4. 30. Paul and Barnabas spake the word of God boldly the Lord giving Testimony to that word of his Grace and granting Signs and Wonders to be done by their Hands Acts 14. 3. These moved men to Believe This beginning of Miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his Glory and his Disciples believed on him John 2. 11. Christ makes it the great Aggravation of the unbelief of the Jews that he did the Works among them that no man else ever did John 15. 24. Now from all these Scriptures Joyn'd with the Reason of the thing it self It is undeniable The Confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel was a principal end of Miracles and that hereby men might be made obedient by Word and Deed through mighty Signs and Wonders by the Power of the Spirit of God Rom. 15. 19. But all thiâ— notwithstanding which I most Fully and Humbly Acknâ—wledg I have yet many things to observe upon by which it may Appear This is not the Adequate end of Miracles Now that wherein It appears The confirmation of the Doctrine of the Gospel is not the chief end or Reason of Miracles is That Miracles need a Confirmation from the Doctrine Preached with which they go along and are Joyn'd as well as the Doctrine needs a Confirmation from Miracles Nay Doctrine may Prove it self by it self when Miracles cannot prove themselves without the Doctrine This appears from many Great Scriptures as Deuteronomy 13. 1. If there Arise among you a Prophet and He giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods which Thou hast not Known and let us serve them Thou shalt not Hearken to the words of that Prophet c. For the Lord your God proveth you c. You shall therefore walk after the Lord your God
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
Soul an Offering for Sin This foreshewed the Dread of the Vengeance of God for sin burning upon the wicked to the Neithermost Hell setting on Fire the Foundation of the Mountains Burning up the Earth and the Works of it and the wicked becoming as Bryars and Thorns Burnt on that their own Earth For as Christ said in a Foresight of the Destruction of Jerusalem If these things were done in the Green Tree what shall be done in the Dry This ought to be carried to all Desolations and Destructions the Manifestation of the Righteous Judgment of God shall make in his Holy Indignation against the Posterity and World of the Apostate Adam not Reconciled by the Second Adam The Lord from Heaven and Father of the world to Come whereof we speak The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ the great Miracle as all that speak of Miracle acknowledg is a Glorious Pledg of the World to Come and an entry into the very State of it This World knew no such thing before nor had any such Thing in all its Treasure Riches or Variety He was the First Born the First begotten from the Dead Such was his Ascention his Glorious Entrance into the Tabernacle made without hands not of this Building his sending down the Spirit as the Apostle hath said in the Context I am upon in divers Signs and Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will And all this in Connexion with the World to Come not in Subjection to Angels but the Kingdom of the Son of God All which comes home to this That Miracles are proper to the World to Come as the Reason and end of it Now there is nothing wherein I can more Humbly and earnestly Intreat you that Read these Things and wherein you can yeild a greater Acceptance to what I am now Discoursing than that you would Search these things and Compare them and Argue them to your selves For I know they will and must bear weight with you Argum. 2. The Second Argument I would give you is the Consideration of the way by which God will save All and every one of us whom he will save by the second Adam and fits them for that World to Come for that everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ He saves them he does all for them in a way of Miracle This I will endeavour to make plain to you by considering That God would not save Men by the First Covenant the Covenant of Creation the Law of Creation They cannot be Saved by that They must be saved by a New Covenant a Covenant that is all Miracle This I will shew you in two Parts of it 1. When God Justifies Sinners by the Righteousness of another by the Obedience and by the Suffering and by the Death of another This is Miracle and it is as great Miracle as any of the Things that Men allow to be Miracle and indeed in Regard of the Internal Excellency the Intrinsick worth of the Thing It is far greater than any Miracle except what concerns the very Excellency and Glory of the Person of the Mediator Those Wonders of Miracle if I may so speak Oh therefore that we could consider it If we are Pardoned in Christ if we are Justified by Christ If we are Saved from Hell from Wrath to come by him or from the Curse of the Law This is all Miracle For I would Ask any Man I am sure None of the Men of Reason and that seem to understand Miracle Best can deny it Is not Miracle a Lifting up of the present State of the World above the first Law and Order of the Creation sure this cannot be Denied Now that Law of Righteousness that was given to Man at first Thâ—t Law Do this and Live Be thou Holy be thou Perfect and thou shalt have the Reward of it Thou shalt Live by it This was the First Law and Constitution of God upon Mankind Now if Men were saved any way by this Law of VVorks and Righteousness in themselves Let it be what way it will Here were nothing Answering to Miracle to the Powers of the world to come only God may have Moderated the Point Take a little in the place of a great Deal Sincerity in the place of Perfect Obedience But still that great Point of Doing of Doing that is the Thing For there lies the Point of Miracle of New Creation That it is of Grace and not of Works For the Apostle hath Fixed the Firmament as I may say between Works and Grace He hath Established the two Worlds the World of the Old Adam the World to come of the Second Adam in saying If it be of Wrk s It is no more of Grace otherwise Grace is no more Grace or work is no more work Now Work was the very Foundation of the First Creation Man made in Knowledge Righteousness and True Holiness and then working according to it acting from and by himself according to the Law of his Creation I doubt not indeed that Man was made with the Knowledge of Christ the Mediator of Amity and Conciliation and Sustentation in the state wherein he was made seeing all things were made by and for our Mediator and that Adam himself was the Type of him to come and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and of the Tree of Life pointed to him and the very Image wherein Adam was made was Christ the Image of God But this being not of the present Intention I only intimate and stand not to prove it But Adam not keeping close to the Mediator was wholly upon his own Bottom of Creation and the Self Subsistence he chose out of a Mediator Whatever therefore God does in Grace through a Mediator to Man Fallen is Miracle of Grace and though it may seem in all Spiritual Concernments the Concernments of the Inward Man there is not Miracle because they do not at the present come into sense yet in regard of the present state they are of as Real Inward Deep Sense and Peace of Conscience and External Evidence in the Change of the Life and Conversation and shall in the Future State appear in Glory and illustrious Vâ—sibility and so are now by the Apostle call'd a being chang'd into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by that Spirit who is Jehovah I think This may be most justly called Miracle throughout and so great Miracle that all outward Miracles are but the Outside Case and Representations of them Now then if it come to Grace and to Faith to receive Righteousness by another it must needs be Miracle We are saved by Miracle in the pardon of sin and being accepted through the Righteousness of Jesus Christ I think the Apostle guides us to this very Apprehension For what saith he the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh so that it might not be imputed
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
Daniel there were very Resplendent Signatures of the Mighty Power of God in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and Image both Retrieved by Daniel when He had lost all Lines of it as also Expounded to him which both satisfied and convinced that Insolent Monarch into an acknowledgment of God the Miraculous Chaining up the power of the Fire upon the Three Servants of God in that so over-heated Furnace while yet it had Full Force to Fly out and Ravage upon the Servants of the Idolatrous Furious Prince that doted upon that very Image of Vast Arbitrary Dominion most probably which being so Miraculously Represented and Expounded had Extorted from him the Confession of the one True God That immediate Hand of the most High upon him in such a Deliration and Phrensy which turn'd him to Grass with the Beasts and as wonderfully Restor'd him with a Mouth so full of acknowledgments of the God of Heaven The Dreadful and Astonishing Starting of the Hand and Fingers out of the wall to that Intemperate Sacrilegious and Idolatrous King Belshazzar with the Affrightful Comment of Daniel upon the writing of them The preserving Daniel in the Den of Lyons when their Rage was yet so quick upon the men that gave him as a prey to their intended Ravenous Teeth All these very stupendious and Mighty Works of God were undoubtedly on purpose provided for that very Time wherein These most Admirable and Truly more Miraculous Visions of the Kingdom of Christ were in Giving and as most Connatural to them so for a Confirmation of them They lasted therefore so long and were succeeded by not so many Miracles as very wonderful and Mighty Providences in the Restoring Judah and Jerusalem by such Signal and almost miraculously moved and Ingaged services of so many Princes of Persia together with the Glorious Prophecy of Haggai and Zechary which lasted till Judah and Jerusalem were Restor'd and so long continued the Spirit of Prophecy Then immediately came on those Strait Cramped Times both as to the Prophecy the Miraculous Power and all Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ One Rising and Setting with the other as by the strongest Sympathy and Configuration or most Wise Disposals to for and with one another For when those Straits of Time under the Power of Heathen Princes and the more settled Times of the Gentiles came in the Spirit of Prophecy Retired in Malachies Prophecy and took as it were its Leave and gave its Fare-well in those Words ending it Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servant in Horeb for All Israel with the Statutes and the Judgments viz. As Enlarg'd upon by the Prophets Let my Written Word be your Rule Thus there was a Sealing up Prophecy till the sending of Elijah the Prophet which Elijah the Prophet our Lord Assures was John the Baptist in One Degree but not in the Highest For another Elijah like Ministry and of an Higher Elevation or exaltation shall yet Arise as our Lord hath Intimated also in saying Elijah truly Cometh and shall Restore All Things even before that Notably Great and Terrible Day of the Lord And when the mighty Converting Power the Power of Miracles being also Joyn'd with it shall be abundantly given out For John did no Miracle to shew the Prophecy was not in him Fullfill'd to the utmost then shall indeed the Heart of the Fathers be Turn'd to the Children and the Heart of the Children to the Fathers or of the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just However in the mean time The Beginning of the Gospel in every Evangelist is plac'd in John to whom says Luke The Word of God by immediate Mission came and he was a Man sent from God as the Evangelist John says And the very Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God is Fix'd in Him by Mark cap. 1. 1 2 As if he would have Joyn'd the last words of Malachi and the first of his own together and in a Continuation as one and the same Holy Scripture But notwithstanding all this tho John was so great a Prophet Yet he saith Christ that is Least in the Kingdom of God is Greater than he His Greatness above all that were Born of Women stood in this That he prepar'd the way to Christ and to that great Power with which the Son of God came He was so Great in his being so near the Kingdom of God yet because he was so near and not in that very Kingdom It was not fit for him to do any Miracle That was a Glory Proper only to the Kingdom of God it self Now it was just in its Appearance And thus I have brought Time down to its Fullness just to that very point wherein our Lord Jesus Christ Appearing there were so great Reasons of Expectation that his Kingdom should also have then Appear'd Immediately and all Miracles have been summ'd up in its Coming with Power But tho in the Days of those Kingdoms I mean of those Four Monarchies in Daniel that were so Determin'd by God and by Christ a Room was reserv'd That the God of Heaven should set up a Kingdom and a Dominion never to End yet it was in Infinite Wisdom and Counsel so Determin'd that it should shew it self and its right and so withdraw again because the last of the Four Monarchies even the Roman Monarchy had that large Stage of Time allow'd to it to run over and concerning the last State or Part of which Christ had Sworn There should be Time Times and half a Time e're the Wonders or Miracles proper to the Introducing his Kingdom should be Finished Dan. 12. 6. However for that very Appearance of that Kingdom set up so great a Power of Miracles as were wrought in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was so shewn both in regard of that Kingdom of Faith and Holiness that did then actually show it self and which indeed can never suffer a Total so much as Interruption much less an End But yet an Apostasy from it even a General Apostasy the Apostasy of a Generation the Antichristian Generation express'd by the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 1. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to come as the Apostle does with so great an Earnestness and Zeal Assert 2 Thes 2. And by the same degrees the Mystery of Iniquity wrought in order to that and to bring it forth by the very same the Kingdom of Christ withdrew and Retired in the Spiritual Vertue and Power of it and also in the Miraculous Power that comes along with it This stop to its present glorious Appearance is very Forcibly Express'd by Daniel in these words Dan. 9 24. The Sealing Vision and Prophecy at the very Time of making an End of Sin and Finishing Transgression shewing that whereas the Glory of the Kingdom was in strict Justice due to Christ at the very Time of the Sacrifice offered and Reconciliation made and the great Assurance God gave of his Acceptance of it
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
to that last making known which is therefore great Proof the Power of Miracles is not so ceas'd but that it shall Return Argum. 5. Another Argument I would give for the return of Miracles is that Prayer Acts 4. 29 30. Lord grant unto thy Servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word and that Signs and Wonders may be done by the Name of thy Holy Child Jesus I desire to know what words of Limitation are to be found in this Prayer or where any place of Scripture can be found where the Servants of God are Discharg'd from expecting Miraclâ—s any more Where is it said Hitherto shall Miracles go and no further Where is it said they shall cease here or here They are ceased here are the Bounds I have given Leave They shall reach unto this Point but no further There was a Sealing up Scripture from the Day of Malachy the Prophet until John the Baptist his Times With him Scripture began again by the Evangelists There is a sealing up Scripture again by the Apostle John in the end of his Gospel c. 20. 39. c. 21. 25. These things are written that ye might Beleive and if All things were written the World could not contain them It seems order'd by Peculiar Disposes of Providence that the Books of Scripture should be clasp'd up with that End of the Revelation c. 22. 18 19. But there is no bound set to Miracles or Miraculous Power It is true it hath ceased but by no Act cutting off as I may say the Entail tho there is a suspension This Prayer therefore altho it hath had a long Interruption in its effect yet it hath no cessation put upon it but It shall prevail unto the Kingdom of Christ from the Promise of which Psal 2. it was taken The Hand of God we know is not shortned that it should work no more Miracles but the Apostasy fallen upon the Profession of Christianity hath brought forth this long Interval yet the Lords Hand shall be again stretched out and shall not be called back till he hath accomplished the thoughts of his Heart and whatever he hath spoken concerning the Glory and Kingdom of Christ and of that World to Come whereof saith the Apostle we speak when we speak of the various Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will there being so close a Connexion between the one and the other CHAP. VIII Of that Power of Miracles that always Accompanies the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and hath Rested upon the Witnesses and yet Rests upon them During the whole Time past and to the end of the Twelve Hundred and Sixty Days of the Woman in the Wilderness and the Witnesses in Sackcloath and the Forty two Months of the Antichristian Apostasy IT may seem that by giving such Accounts of the Cessation of Miracles and such Arguments for the Return of Miracles that it is the Intention of this Discourse to deny all Miraculous Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ now with his Gospel I shall therefore to clear that Part spend this Chapter in the Stating and Vindicating so weighty a point in these following Particulars shewing the Constancy of Spiritual Miracles 1. Those Mighty Miraculous Spiritual Powers of the Gospel never remove from it wherever the Gospel comes they come wherever the Gospel-Styl'd the Kingdom of God Removes being taken from any they Remove also And tho these are not accounted Miracles because they do not assure themselves to sense yet the Intrinsick Inward excellency of them is such that they are indeed the true Miraculous Nature if I may so speak both as they are Effects and Emanations of Immediate Power from Heaven and as they are so many essential Parts and peices of the World to come And First The Gospel is its own Miracle so rich a Manifestation of Truth that had been Hid from Ages and Generations and now manifested in these last Times But besides It is Truly Miraculous in its Effects 2. The Acceptance of Believers in Jesus Christ to Righteousness before and with God through Free Pardon and Justification by the Blood and Obedience of Jesus Christ. 3. The Renovation and change of the Whole man and of the Action and Conversation by the Spirit of Jesus Christ mortifying the corrupt Lusts Inordinate Affections and filling the Soul with every Grace to Newness of Life and Obedience 4. Dying or Sleeping in and by Jesus Christ when Saints Spirits call'd out of the Body go up to God and Christ 5. When any one is Assured in his own mind hath full Evidence when he Finds all he ever did is brought under Conviction and Confession as in the Woman of Samaria and that the Heart and Life are chang'd why should Miracles be narrowed so much to sense while thus there is surmounting Evidence to the whole man Now altho the Working and Actings hereof are Invisible and Indiscernible by Sense yet they are as Spiritual greatest Realities every way above the Power of Nature or its Comprehension Asserted in all Scripture to be the mighty Power of God and giving a Rich or abundant Entrance into the Kingdom of our Lord und Saviâ—ur Jesus Christ and therefore wanting only the Externe Appearance and Assurance but giving greatest Inward Assurance For they are Acknowledged and Comprehended by All Saints even this Heighth Depth Breadth and Length of which the Apostle speaks Ephes 3. 18. As if he hereby intended Mathematical Assurance They are Inwardly Seen Heard Tasted and Felt and they have the Odours the Flavours of the Kingdom of Christ causing the Triumphs of his Servants the certain Observation of all by standers who cannot but acknowledg their good Conversation the Holy Lives and Comfortable Dying of the Saints of Christ and many have been wrought upon hereby to Faith in Jesus Christ the acknowledged Principal End of Miracles But besides these which are always Inseparable from the Gospel There are those the Spirit of God hath told us are proper to the very Time of the Apostasy as a Counterpoison to it manifested in and by the Witnesses of that Time I would therefore open as I have before shewn Miracles are to be Divided into Miracles of Mercy and of Judgment How far Miracles continue even all the Time of the Antichristian Apostasy in each way or manner of Exercise But it is Heedfully to be Remembred They were not Represented and Counterparted with those open and sensible Miracles which are indeed the Miracles that more properly we are now in Discourse of such as force the Sense and call upon men Universally to say Here is the Finger of God For the Witnesses and their Miracles were under the Seal of the Living God as I have already Reason'd and so were not seen and acknowledged but by comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual and therefore not by Natural Men even Men of Sense great Reasoners as they are Reputed without the help of the Divine Spirit 1. It was truly a Miracle to
the Blood as of a Dead man They hang out the Scarlet Thread of Christs Blood They set up Christ and Christ Alone and so there is none Barren among them They are blessed with doing Good to Souls made Wise to Win Souls and to turn many to Righteousness 4. The last Miraculous Power they Exercise is They smite the Earth with all Plagues as often as they will That is they may as Freely as They Desire Declare the Judgments of God even those seven last Plagues that shall make an end of the Antichristian State and of all the Enemies of Christ yea the whole Corrupted State of this Earth and all they say shall certainly be made good and Fulfill'd even as the Plagues Moses was Commanded by God to Smite the Land or Earth of Egypt with and which had their full effect are Recorded as Miracles of Judgment even so shall the smiting of Spiritual Egypt and its Earth be found to be when the Seal in their Forheads is Removed and all they have spoken and done fully understood in the Light of that Day But this as often as they will tho it seem altogether a word of Concession and Leaving the Matter to their Freedom and Choice yet it indeed gives the Faulty Reason on the part of the Witnesses why Popery has not been more prevail'd against even throughout the whole Time Times and Half Time of the Apostasy For the Wise and Holy Counsels of God do not Remove the Faultiness of Mens Actions which bring those very Counsels to pass as we see throughout Scripture in the greatest Instances as in Judas and all the Powers that Joyn'd in Crucifying the Son of God They were never the less wicked Hands because they did what God had determined in his Counsel and Fore-knowledg should be done And while the Jews heard the Voices of the Prophets they did notwithstanding most Evilly Fuâ—fill them Even so the Vâ—itnesses not having a Will to smite so much and so often as they should and ought have fallen under Blame by our Lord And this helps us to understand what Christ says to those Two Churches even the two Candlesticks slanding before the God of the whole Earth in the Time of the Apostasy Pergamus and Thyatyra To one it is said I have a few Things against Thee That thou hast them who hold the Doctrin of Balam c. To the other it is said I have a few Things against thee That thou sufferest the Woman Jezebel c. Now these small Things may be very well Interpreted They did not will so much as they should have willed However they are called small or Little Things because they were indeed under an Over-powering as well as an Under-willing But surely Sardis the Symbol of the Churches under the Reformation except in the Few and Small undefiled Names and yet more especially the They on the part of the Synagogue of Satan are under much severer Censure that they have not Will'd more to smite the Antichristian Earth with the Predictions of Divine Judgment upon them who have a Name to Live and yet are Dead who have not strengthen'd the Things that Remain but are ready to Dye in order to the Kingdom of Christ nor Fill'd up their Works before God who have not stamp'd with their Foot and with all possible Zeal Prophecyed Prophecyed as God Commanded Ezekiel the Ruin of Babylon the Great who as Jehoahaz have smote only Thrice and Staid when they should have smitten Six or seven Times till they had Consumed Babylon and cut it off Root and Branch For the Reformation was the Arrow of the Lord's Deliverance but not pursued to the utmost as 2 Kings c. 13 15. And this is signified by the Thunders that opened in the Reformation then Sealed and so it hath sunk and gone backward and not forward and so it will be to the End of the 1260 days we have rather been Giving back to Egypt this should stir up our Zeal to smite to the utmost now with the Arrows of the Lord's Deliverance and tho many who have gone further than others have been Laugh'd at Despis'd Persecuted by them Them especially of the Synagogue of Satan as Rash Heady Hot Fanatical Persons yet at Last it shall be found to be under a Divine Commission to smite as often as they would and all they have said shall have the full Effect even as greatest Miracles and Justified as true Interpretation of Prophecy Neglected too much by the Learned under pretence of a Sealed Book And thus far I have shewn That Miracles have not in the Inward Spiritual Part been cut off but have run along the whole Apostasy tho underground and Invisibly But they shall now within short Time appear in their Glory CHAP. IX An Enquiry upon some late Miraculous Appearances of God according to his own Will that look like a Beginning of Miracles Returning and how far they give Encouragement to wait upon God in any Case of Extremity to do for us above his ordinary Course of Providence or Government of the World TOuching the late Miraculous Appearances I will not say The Fr. maid Mrs. Salvage The Shepherd near Hitchin Hertfordshire Sir D. C. of Glocestershire more than we generally know of them that such things then were 1. Because the particular Instances altho an Atheist does not know I Believe what well to say to them yet they do not Rise to so great a Heighth as to Argue upon them alone 2. Because I do not observe God is pleas'd to go on and joyn them with others in a continued Series or Course that should strengthen one by the other and make All together more considerable remarkable and demonstrative of Divine Power 3. Because altho I see no more Reason to doubt of them than of any Miraculous Appearances of God that Rest on Human Testimony only yet I cannot but put a great difference between all Human Judgment on Miracles and those which the Holy Spirit hath Recorded as such I shall therefore Place no other sense upon them than this only that they are Providential Awaknings and Alarms of such a Returning Power of Miracles as upon all the fore-going Discourse and the Arguments of it we have Reason to expect As to the Question therefore propos'd I will give an Answer in Four Assertions how far we may in any Case ground Expectation of a Miraculous Power 1. The Time of the Return of Miracles is not yet because the Days of the Four Monarchies and particularly the Time Times and Half Time of the last State of the Fourth Monarchy or Roman Papal Apostasy are not yet expir'd nor the Kingdom of Christ yet in its Succession So that though our Time as the Lord speaks is always ready we have great need in all regards of the Miracles of Mercy But his Time is not always It is not yet If that Time be not yet we cannot look for any Miracle in our particular case with any certain Assurance we
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
so they cannot a tend to the sure word of prophecy as they are commended here for doing 3. In their peculiar Enmity to the searching the Prophecy of Scripture and denying even to the most Learned to intermeddle with it seeing their own Condemnation in it contrary to the Apostle's most peculiar Commendation of those who give heed to Prophecy 4. In their setting up Tradition a thing dependent wholly on Human Will above Scripture whereas the Apostle commends Scripture and its Prophecy that it came not by the Will of man but by the Spirit 5. In their allowing to their own Votaries the Credit and Honour of their pretended Inspirations above the Close attendance to Scripture Prophecy and its Interpretation which the Apostle hath here so recommended to every Christian and without the least signification of Inspiration Given to All and his plain making former Scripture the Test of All following 6. By exalting their Fabulous Legendary Miracles above Scripture or the Prophecies notwithstanding even to the Transfiguration The Apostle prefers the sure Word of Prophecy Although That was no Cunning devised Fable and of so great an Excellency by which the Apostle seems prophetically to Glance most severely upon those Cunningly Devised Fables that should arise in the Christian Profession 7. The Apostle Foretelling those Scoffers in the last days who should set up the Mock Fifth-Monarchy so earnestly recommends the Words of the Prophets and the Commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour the Great Messiah and Jesus whereby he hath also given a very damning Predictory Admonition of the Grand Antichristian Apostacy Now in all these it may be said to those Antichristians as it was to the Jews and their Rulers of old while they read these Scriptures and the Prophecys of Scripture in their ownway they not understanding the Voices of the Prophets are most justly condemned in fulfilling them For thus ought the Antichristian Apostacy to do though most wickedly they do so that these Scripture Prophecys may be fulfilled All that hath now been spoken being by way of premisal and preparation I lay down these Propositions 1. That Scripture Prophecy is given by God for a Light that must shine in the dark place of the Antichristian Apostacy till the end of which the Kingdom of Christ is in delay 2. Christians do well to take heed to it as so shining and giving the time when the day of that Kingdom shall dawn and the day Star of it shine into the hearts of all Saints 3. Such heed cannot be given except there be a Right given to Christians and a power of interpreting Scripture Prophecies 4. It is a First Principle to Christians of the Apostle's setting and fixing that all and every Prophecy of Scripture and particularly of Time relating to the Kingdom of Christ is Open and Free and not a Private Record or of any way an Enclos'd Impropriated â—or Appropriated Interpretation For the more clear and illustrious arguing the Grand Proposition That all and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of a private or secret but of an open free and publick Interpretation I will first proceed by direct and down right proof and Argument that of all Scripture except that which lays down the Truths precisely and absolutely necessary to Salvarion The Prophecy of Scripture is in its Interpretation most Free open and most certain I will in the second place give Answers to the great Objections against this Proposition so prov'd I will in the Third Place consider what Standards according to Reason and Scripture-understanding may be given whereby we may judge whether any one hath given a true Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy viz. whereby the person giving such Interpretations may know himself he hath given such true Interpretation and whereby Any other may judge of it and find it so In the Fourth Place I will draw out in most publick view the Evidences I my self have within my self and have offered to others that I have given a True Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy All this I will do with most particular relation to prophetical numbers of Time I will Super-add a Judgment upon the state of Time Intermedious from hence to the Kingdom of Christ and shew that the Kingdom of Christ shall be very sudden and as Lightning And this I shall do by way of retractation and correction of Any thing wherein I have err'd in this matter and what will be as an Answer of an Objection that Glories in the present appearance of Things to Sense as if no such Kingdom were near I will recollect the whole in some very Brief Reflections for the settlement of the Judgment and practice in relation to Scripture Prophecy concerning Time I begin with the First The arguing the Proposition which shall insist upon these Four Heads or Topicks 1. I argue from the Infinite Ability of the Divine Spirit so to give Prophecy that the Interpretation may be Free and Publick 2. I argue from the necessity That whatever is written with sense and coherence of the things written and with the Harmony of Truth if the parts of such Discourses are diligâ—â—tly compar'd and sagaciously intermedled with by persons separating themselves thereunto a certain Interpretation must needs fly out to them 3. I argue from the gracious Assistances and Promises that the Holy Spirit will as the Spirit of Truth lead into all Truth shewing things that are to come and give the key of knowledge leading into the Sectets of Prophecy even wherein our Dulness and Slowness of Heart makes them so notwithstanding the Provision of the Spirit for their Interpretation Argument I. The Divine Spirit hath an Infinite and Infallible Prescience of things that are to come to pass Known to him are the Works of God from the very Foundation of the World to the end of it with every particular Accident to the very least Circumstance and therefore he can foretell all things as clearly as he pleases and so that they may be interpreted and understood He searcheth all things even the deep things of God whose Counsels of old are faithfulness and truth who calleth the End from the Beginning and can declare it For he worketh all things after the Counsel of his own Will which Will he knew from Eternity within himself This Prescience of the Divine Spirit is acknowledg'd by All Christians except some few who least deserve the Name of Christians who deny the Actual Determinations of Free or what we call Fortuitous Agents to be Scibilia or Knowable I make not therefore here any dispute concerning the High Mystery of the Supreme Prâ—science how or in what manner God foreknew when the things fore known depend on causes acting so freely that what they will choose seems impossible to be known before hand or so fortuitously that if it could be foreseen how they would be cast the Fortuitousness seems destroyed But that God does foreknow I take for granted even as it is much the more generally agreed and
and stable 3. When the Prophetical Numbers being by Fair and Just Commissures Joyn'd to and United with the Plain Historical first Part of the Scripture-Line of Time Run on together in a strait even progressive Motion from the Creation and first Sabbatism so as to Run upon a Last Issue and Event Great enough to be that Last and to constitute a Fullness of Times or of All Times the New Creation and its Sabbatism the Apocatastasis or Restitution of All Things to the First State and much above it the Anacephalaiosis or Bringing All under Christ as the Head And all This as I said in a Strait Even Progressive Motion Taking in at their Just and Proper Seasons All other Great and Cardinal Events Embossing the Line of Time and principally that Great and Soveraign One the Coming Dying Rising and Ascension of our Lord Jesus into Heaven styl'd by the Apostle the Fullness of Time the greatest Honour of Time except the Forenamed Fullness of All Times These Two The Fullness of Time and the Fullness of Times or of All Times stand thus Distinguished Gal. 4. 4. and Eph. 1. 10. and Fix all Time Now This Constant Even Progression of Time keeps All Interpretation at a Gauge and at a Certainty from a Fugitive or Arbitrarious wandring hither and thither and is the greatest security for the Truth of it both to the Interpreter himself and to All that would put his Interpretation to the Test that can be For thus Nothing can be taken in nor thrust out at pleasure nor can there be Any Other Events shuffled in but what are found in that very Just and Natural Order of Time according to all History Thus Interpretation comes to the same Certainty as the Progresses of Time it self from Day to Day Month to Month Year to Year and Century to Century or as the parts of the Body in their True Situation one to another Whereas any other way of Interpretation hath its Starts and Leaps its Subterfuges and Evasions without Certainty or Fixedness 3. Another Standard of Interpretation of Prophecy is when there are found in the Interpretation some surprizing Transcendencâ—es in the Contrivances and as one may humbly say Artifices which the Spirit of Prophecy hath inlaid the Prophetical Frame with and engraven upon it as upon the Stone that hath seven Eyes throughout Perspicuous as well as Perspicacious And these falling in with the more Essential and Substantial Parts of Prophecy and the Events Answering in not only those Substantials but those Extraordinaries as it were Peices of Art in the Frame of Prophecy They must needs give sometimes even Ravishing Transports of Satisfaction and Assurance That one hath the True Key of Interpretation of Prophecy by the Becomingness of the Work to the Great Artist when Materiam fuperat Opus The Curiousness of the Work excells the very Materials wrought upon Even as besides the main Pillars and Rafters of the Creation and the more Bulky Parts of the Animal Creatures such Exquisite Curiosities are found herein They as much as is possible give Scientific Proofs of the Supreme and Divine Workman and when any one hath found them he cannot but break out into a Kind of Ecstatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Galen I have Found into an Hymn to the Creator upon beholding the Admirablenesses of his Divine Hand in the Animal Contextures For both in the Works of God and in his Prophetick Word such Wonders plainly discovered give greatest pleasure both in regard of the Beauties of the Hand of God and in regard of the Joy that we have receiv'd the Key of Natural or Prophetick Knowledge For these are Great Things we looked not for and meeting with them unexpectedly we become more than Assured even Triumphantly Assured For thus it becomes him whose Vnderstanding is Infinite both in Creation and Prophecy to abound to us beyond All we could Ask or Think and though our Assurance might be solid without these yet it would not be vivid and so high 4. A Fourth Standard of True Interpretation of Prophecy is When there is Found in All Parts of the Interpretation of Prophecy a perfect Agreement between Prophecy Interpreted and the Grand Principles of Scripture which the Apostle calls Prophecying according to the Analogy of Faith When Prophecy is so Interpreted concerning the Kingdom of Christ that it be not Represented as a Carnal Sensual Kingdom but like it self Holy and Spiritual That it Agree with the Apostles and our Lord's Doctrine concerning the Resurrection both as to the Saints dead and sleeping in and by Jesus Incorruptibly Raised and the Living Remaining Saints Changed and as to the wicked Rising to Condemnation to Shame and Contempt that Prophecy is not made to call the Proud happy or to make sad the Souls whom God would not have made sad that Darkness is not put for Light nor Light for Darkness That those Black Names in Scripture-Prophecy as Beast False Prophet Whore Horns Giving their Power to the Beast be applied to such Persons and Things as the Constant and most Avowed Doctrine of Scripture makes worthy to be so Character'd however call'd by Great and Glorious Names in this Dark place of the Apostasy And on the other side that Persons and Things be Cloathed with the Honourable Names Prophecy hath put upon them as the Woman Cloathed with the Sun Witnesses Martyrs of Jesus to whom the same Constant and Allowed Doctrine of Scripture will Allow them although in this Thick and Gross Atmosphere they are Bandenitoe'd with other Names as Hereticks Schismaticks Factious or Fanaticks 5. The Crowning and Topping and most Assuring Standard for the Interpretation of Prophecy is when a Thread and Line is Laid from some Plain and Litteral Interpretation of Prophecy by the Holy Spirit of Prophecy it self in one Place to such Litteral Interpretation in another place till we come at last to that Issuing Point of All Prophecy The Glory of the Kingdom of Christ We have the Beginning of the Four Monarchies in Nebuchadnezzars Image by very Litteral Interpretation settled in Nebuchadnezzar himself For Daniel said to him Thou art this Head of Gold Dan. 2. The Persian and Grecian Monarchies are in the same manner by Littteral Interpretation of Prophecy assured Dan. 8. In the same manner the Epoch of the Revelation is Assured by the Apostles being in the Spirit on the Lords Day of the Resurrection Rev. 1. c. 5. By the Mention of the Lamb Newly Slain The Fourth Monarchy is Assured to be Current in the Time of the New Testament by Augustus Caesar Censing all the World Luke 2. By the Litteral Interpretation of the Great Whore to be the City Reigning then or that at that present was Holding the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth which could be no other than Rome For no other had then the Kingdom besides the Seven Mountains on which she Sate is Litteral The Seven Successions of Government are given Litterally And that under the
Beast is Affirm'd to be the Seventh Succession as Head and the Eighth as King The Sixth Succession is Litterally Affirm'd to be then in Being or now is that the Seventh King being the Christian Emperours was no Head It is Litterally Assur'd the Eighth King but Seventh Head call'd The Beast goes into Perdition and the Kingdom of Christ immediately Succeeds Now all these do so lead us in the True Line and Course of Time that we cannot be surer of the Course of the Seasons and Months that run along and fall out between Season and Season then we are of the Things which in Event or Matter of Fact and History run along all this Time from the Resurrection of our Lord and Answer the Symbols and Images of Prophecy Hereby then the Seals the Trumpets with the grand Events Compriz'd under Them are made most certain to Run along the Time of the Roman Empire from the Appearance of Christ in the Flesh at the Fullness of Time to his Appearance in the Fullness of Times or of All Time at the Kingdom of Christ Now if any one should say These Standards of Interpretation of Prophecy of Scripture are not sufficient to secure Interpretation according to them to be also according to the Mind and Sense of the Holy Spirit of Prophecy I should be Bold to say he either Contradicts what the Apostle hath said That Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation or he must suppose the Sense of the Apostle in these very words All Every Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation are as or more Dark and more Hard to be Understood than the Darkest Prophecy of Scripture it self and Further That things may be made by Art or by Chance to fall into an Exact Harmony with the Word of Prophecy or that even a Serious well grounded Research of Scripture according to all the Commands and Encouragements of the Word of God and a keeping close to all the Rules of Scripture and Reason in such a Search may be all to no End or purpose we are never the Nearer to the Truth and Mind of the Holy Spirit of Prophecy than if we had never search'd at all which how Opprobrious and how near to Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit It is so to say I leave to every serious Considerer to Judg. Now as to what I have my self done I cannot without Transcribing a Considerable Part of what I have already Written and made Publick shew How close I have kept to these Rules and Standards given by my self for Interpretation of Prophecy Nor will I presume to say any thing in the gross concerning it I will only first make my Humble Petition to any Person able to Weigh and to Consider and to Compare one part of Things with another that if I have been wanting in any one he would please by Free Entercourses to Remonstrate it to me and to allow Liberty of Debate upon it that so a due Care may be Taken to Vindicate Enlarge Strengthen or if necessity should so Require to Retract or Reform I will therefore here subjoyn but some of the grounds I have rested upon in the Interpretation of Prophecy according to a few Notes on these Standards as the Next Head of Discourse Proposed I First according to our General Scripture Account Fix Historical Time For the drawing then into one View the Types and Symbols of Prophecy from the Time the Spirit of Prophecy was pleas'd to Compose it into a Scheme and had prepar'd so to do I have consider'd the Archetypal Vision of Ezekiel's Temple and City c. 40. to the End Representing the Kingdom of Christ in its Glory and the New Jerusalem also having the Glory of God Now when this was once given it becomes a Standard gives Types to the State of the Church of God from that Time among the Jews before Christ and in the Days of our Lord in the Flesh then of the Jewish and Gentile Christian Church in all the States of it either in the Dartings out of the Glory of it or the Stops Stays and Darknings of its Glory because as is Evident both by Scripture and Experience that Glory hath been and yet is under so long a Delay from the Time of that Vision given to this Day Now this I have all along observ'd from Prophetick Vision to Prophetick Vision through the Prophecy of Daniel and of the Revelation in those Express References to that as I justly call it Archetypal Vision from the very giving it to the End And I Account it as a Pole-star like the Star that Led the Wise men to Christ so this Vision shapes an Unerring Course to the Kingdom of Christ And because one Principal Point in that Vision of Ezekiel was the Throne Leading to the Throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem Ezek. 4. 3. 7. and Rev. 22. 3. And that there was to be as I have said so long a Delay Soon after the Vision of Ezekiel given There is a Vision given to Daniel c. 2 in Nebuchadnezzars Image and of Four Beasts c. 7. describing Four Monarchies as Four Thrones which should successively reach to the Kingdom and Throne of Christ And then as it is expresly said the Thrones were east down these Counter Thrones to the Throne of Christ and the Throne of the Son of Man Established alone Dan. 7. v. 9 This therefore I lay before me as another Archetypal Vision relating to the Powers of the Gentiles and the Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ And having to do with the Roman Monarchy the last of the Four from the Times of the New Testament I most particularly consider that and Finding that the Evangelist Luke gives an Early Notice of it as an Vniversal Monarchy in Augustus Caesar Commanding a Cense of the whole World as his own Dominion Luke 2. 1 Even before the Birth of our Lord I conclude this must be the Fourth of Daniels Monarchies For though some would have it the Macedonian as Divided after the Death of Alexander the Great I find That cannot be both because the God of Heaven would not have set up a Kingdom in the Days of those Kings as is expresly said Dan. 2. v 44. And also because The Kingdom of Christ Even yet is not that Universal Dominion it was Foretold it should be And Lastly Because I find so Admirable an Haâ—mony beâ—wen the Prophetick Figures in the Revelation and the plain Historical Accounts of that Monarchy and that the Spirit of God hath even to plain Litteralness or more than so Interpreted it to be Rome and its Empire I lay therefore before me this Roman Monarchy in the Pagan Empire in the Antichristian Empire viz. The Papacy which to give publick Notice it is a Throne Assumes so Solemnly and Notoriously Enthroniczation to it self and the European Kings given as Horns of Strength to it as also the Mahometan Saracens and Turks coming as two Woes upon it are adjusted in Time Now
not come to his End so soon but must do at last as is intimated concerning the Turkish King of the North Dan. 11. ult Now to keep France so within its own Figure is a Service so considerable to Providence according to Prophecy that it should make Princes and Nations Patient under the inconveniency of War to such an End And it may Answâ—r for a Confederacy of Protestants with Popish Powers so far as that it may be made use of by Providence to such an End as Restraining France Agreeably to Divine Determination And it may justly call us to the Observation of Providence in Ballancing Things so as this Last and former Years it has done so that while as with one hand God is pleased to keep the French Power at such a Height with the other he so Ballances that it should not exceed its Figure So we see it in all the Disposes of Things to this Day So in the Wonderful Preservation of the Kings Person when danger was so every way about and Death so near him Because he hath raised Him up as so peculiar an Instrument to that purpose to give a stop to the Exorbitant Power of France as also to be an Interposer against the Return of Papal Power on these Protestant Nations of England Scotland and Ireland 3. As it was said to Barak This Journey or Expedition shall not be for thy Honour because God would fell Sisera into the Hands of a Woman Judges 4 9 So the great Success of Finishing the War upon France in Conjunction with the Turks God hath reserv'd for the Stone cut oâ—t of the Mountains who is not in any Human Hand No Greater nor more Victorious Atchievements have been therefore Granted to the Confederate Armies nor any gradual Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ because the Glory is reserv'd to Christ so that all shall be done by him in an instant on the sudden at the very Time Appointed by God viz. in the year 97. so near Approaching These things shall be done The French Grandieur as it now stands in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ shall be ground to Powder The Witnesses both the Vaudois and the French Protestants at this Time under his Power and Tyranny shall see the Morning Star Dawning They shall be with Christ when he Breaks the Nations with a Rod of Iron They shall feel a Spirit of Life Entring into them and Causing them to stand on their Feet and they shall hear a Voice from Heaven saying Come up hither The Turkish Woe shall be clear Remov'd But then together with this The Confederate Princes as giving their Kingdom yet to the Beast or Papacy and even the Protestant Princes so Far as they enter into the Constitution of a Nebuchadnezzars Image the Papal Hierarchic Clay where ever it is Found with iâ—s 7000 Names shall all be Ground to Powder also 5. The Supreme Sovereign Event of Events shall then come to paâ—s The Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ He shall Reign in his own Name take to himself his Great Power and send out his Everlasting Gospel as on the Wings of Angels and Blessed is he who is not offended at these Things but Loves and Waits for them But indeed if God should please any way to bring down the French Power or Cause it but so much as to Lye still and to Dissolve the League between him and the Turkish Potentacy sooner my Hopes and Expectations might be that God were sooner also working by such Beginnings to much greater Things for the Change of the World In the mean Time I cannot but Represent things as Prophecy Represents them and I presume no further And that I find not to be till 97. Another Prophetical Note The Lord hath been pleas'd much to imprint upon my Spirit is that Habac. 2. 13 14. where the Prophet beholds in Litteral Babylon the Mystical Babilon the Town Built â—ith Blood the Intoxicating Soreeress Enchanting the Nations to the Exposing their Nakedness and Shame through Inebriating them with the Golden Cup of Fornication she holds in her hand and makes the Kings of the Earth Drunk with that they may commit the Whoredoms of Idolatry with her and in the beholding of this and the Foresight of the End and Destruction of it The Prophet is made to see in Spirit by the mighty Influence of that upon him while That bore and carried him alought and moved him and not any Created VVill but the Holy Spirit alone He speaks the State and Posture of Things that shall Confine and Border upon the Ruin and Destruction of that Babylon and the Manifestation of the Glory of the Lord Immediately Consequent upon it And this State he declares shall be by the peculiar Ordination and Constitution of the Lord of Hosts of him who has the Government of the whole Host of Heaven and Earth so that nothing shall be able to move to the Contrary The People shall Labour as in the very Fire the pure perfect Fire and shall weary themselves for very Vanity pure and perfect Vanity For so is it ordain'd by God that thus he may prepare for that great change of the World The very Reason why he orders it so is Because the Knowledg of the Glory of the Lord shall cover the Earth The Glory shall cover the Earth that the knowledg of the Glory of God may so cover it also even as the Waters the Sea that even as in the Sea there is nothing to be seen for Water even so in the Earth There shall be nothing to be seen for the Glory of the Lord it shall so take up the whole View througout all the Earth From hence therefore I Argue All kinds of Disappointment and Frustrations of All the Labour Undertakings Enterprizings that are in the World the Expectations from Princes Councels Governments From Trade and Commerce at Home and Abroad From Armies and Navies From Generals and Commanders of them and their whole Force and this not only in one part of the World but in the Nations and People taken together and in the Gross Such Labouring in the very Fire and wearying themselves for very vanity are no Argument against such a Glory of God being near and the Knowledg of such a Glory covering the Earth as the Waters do the Sea Such a Glorious Revolution and Change of the World being very nigh and at the doors so that they are rather an Argument for the nighness of it to us For God hath given us this as a Prognostick In the very same manner This Divine Prophet beholding that Great Vision of the Kingdom of Christ in its last Accomplishment when all his Enemies shall be under the Invasion with his Troops Intimates That even in the Labour and Service of Nature it self There shall be great Fâ—ustrations and Disappointments that the Fig Tree may not Blossom the Labour of the Olive may fail there may be no Fruit in the Vine
ever but may shine as the Stars and as the Firmament Fix'd in that Firmament of Christianity by the light of which Holy Men are now wise to win Souls and to turn many to Righteousness from which Antichrist by Transgression Fell as a Star from Heaven upon Earth and went down to Open that bottomless Pit and fill'd the World with Darkness and Smoke and shall be cast into his own place at that day the Lake that Burns Rev. 9. 1. with Fire and Brimstone But the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father in the New Jerusalem with God and the Lamb and for Ever If these Things seem hard to be understood let us therefore grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory for Ever THE END An APPENDIX This Prediction I have added by way of Appendix eoncerning Greatest Revolutions in the so near Approaching Year 1698. Found in the Study of that eminent Learned Person Justus Lipsius who Dyed in the year 1606. Transcribed by Dr. Mayer into his Preface upon all the Prophets published 1653. and there to be seen by any who will inspect it Translated and Remark'd upon according to its Agreement with Scripture Prophecy and the Line of it's Time explain'd in several Discourses demonstrating the time times and half time sworn by Christ as the space of the Antichristian Apostasy shall end in the year 1697. And so these so Grand Events appear in a settlement and Consistency 1698. The Original PREDICTION POst Mille Expletos a Partu Virginis Annos Et post sexcentos Rursus ab Orbe Datos Nonagesimus Octavus Mirabilis Annus Ingrueâ— Issecum Gaudia Laeta Feret Corruet hoc Anno Turcarum Invisa Propago Roma Tuum in Libris Fabula Nomen Erit Omnia Tunc â—buâ—t Mundi fursum arque Deorsum Impâ—ria ut Populos Sceptra Novella Premant Utque suâ—m Cunctas Verbum Diffundat in Oras Christus imperitet Nomine Ubique Suo The Translation FRom Virgins Son a Thousand Years when told And after them six Hundred more are Roll'd Then Ninety Eight a year of VVonders Comes And Joyes on Joyes It heaps to Vastest Sums The Hated Stem of Turks that year shall Fall Oh Rome in Sacred Books Foretold men All Shall call thy Name That Lye Earths Empires Move Their upside down a Novel Empire prove The Universal Monarchy Then Christ To th' Everlasting Gospel giving Rist Shall through all Tongues and Kindreds it diffuse And for Imperial Style his own Name use I can Humbly Bless God I have never been subject to be lightly Impress'd upon by any Pretensions to Prophecy Revering only that sure word of Prophecy Scripture Prophecy to which I esteem the word Prophecy in proper speaking to be now only due as the word Scripture to Sacred Writ and the Word to the Word of God yet it is very certain there may be still and there is still vouchsafed by God such Expositions of the sure Word of Prophecy as that his Servants thereby have the Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy or some Eminent Servants of God as A. B. Vsher had may have particular Foresights given them or God may providentially Dictate to the minds of whom he pleases the Foretelling of particular Events and their Times and each of these may in general speaking be call'd Prophecy or rather as I choose Prediction All this notwithstanding A Vain Credulity a weak Superstitiousness Fanatick Hears I have through his Grace Far Removed from me and I desire still to Renunciate to them Yet being as I may Account Providentially Directed to this Prediction which I can sollemnly Affirm had so little to do yet with my so constant Fixing on Ninety Seven that I had never Taken the least notice of it before the latter part of the last year Nor had I now minded it in the least but that I found it to Tread the path of Scripture Prophecy in so great and wonderful Events and according to the Line of Time given also by that Prophecy with which I have for several years last past Separated my self to Intermeddle and to make as publick â—â— I could as one Principal Point of Wisdom at this Season now the Day is so near Approaching I have found upon most Assured grounds This Prediction hath fallen upon the Just Time for those Events that commencing 1697 shall settledly appear 1698. Moreover I find This Prediction Formed in the very Phrase and Words which are so Applicable to the sacred Style that considering both the Substance and the Happiness of the very Expression in several Instances I cannot deny my self the Satisfaction and others the Benefit as I hope and desire of making some Remarks upon such an Effort of Providence in giving to whoever it was a Prediction so agreeable to Prophecy a Prediction in undeniable Fact many years before the present Time so consonous to what upon strongest Arguments from the Word of God with the Consent of Undeniable Universal History I have offered to General Knowledge and Observation To Excite to the Pondering of which Substantial Proof I have some Expectation such a Concurrent short Prediction because we are naturally Inclin'd to have some kind of Quicker Thoughts for such may not be unuseful This Prediction is affirm'd by Dr. Mayer to have been found in the Study of Justus Lipsius a Name so known to the World for All Learning and Sagacity of Enquiry into All Things and of the Roman as they will have it call'd Catholic Church I confess I can give no greater Proof It was found there than that Dr. Mayer hath left it so Affirm'd but if it was so It Argues There was some Observation Defer'd to it by him that he â—ave that Paper a place in his Study which Foretold Rome a the Catholick Church should become one of the most notorious Fables in the World and be exposed as one of the greatest Cheats upon it Altho he seem'd to adhere to it I say He seem'd for of so great a Wit I question it However bigotted he appear'd in Writing the Virgo Hallensis But that which is enough to me and will be I suppose to others in thiâ— Kind is That it hath undoubtedly been extant in Print above Forty years and so in the Hands of many persons and that any one may see it at any Time that Pleases Now it must needs be Dr. Mayer knew it a Prediction of â—oâ—e Age in his â—imâ— in Assigâ—ing it to Lipsius his Study who Died near Fifty years before and how long beâ—ore it came into Lipsiâ—s his Study it cannot be said Yet indeed Forty years in this matter is as much as an Hundred and Dr Mayers Preface in this Câ—â—e as much as Lipsius his Study For the whole stresâ— lieâ— here that such Events were Foretold so long before that there was no Train of Causes leading probably to that Ninety Eight more than any other year and that
shall receive it This is a Rule in all Cases not to measure Christ's Time God's Time by ours John 7th v. 6. 2. The Time of Miracles Returning may be very near and yet no Miracles till that very Time be wrought John the Baptist was the immediate Forerunner of Christ and yet it is expresly recorded to us John did no Miracle That was no Argument the Miracles of Christ and of the Apostles were at a distance No more is it that the Return of Miracles is far off Because we may at the present be without Ground or Encouragement that any should be wrought for us as yet 3. That Great Admonition of our Lord's concerning Miracles should be alway on our Thoughts Luke 4. 25. I say unto you there were many Widows in the Time of Elijah the Prophet but to none of them was Elijah sent but to her in Sarepta a City of Zidon And there were many Lepers in the days of Elisha the Prophet but unto none of them was he sent but unto Naman the Syrian This Christ spake as the Answer that the Great Physician gave when call'd upon Physician heal thy self Whatsoever thou hast done any where else do in thy own Countrey and City We may not think on any Account to oblige this Miraculous Power of Christ to us because he hath pleas'd to extend it to any other yea though it be of a Time of Miraâ—les 3. Even in a Time of Miracles Christ in doing great Things for his Servants will not be Limited to Miracles He expressed some Dislike when he says John 4. 48. Except you see Miracles you will not Believe To Thomas Desiring sensible Assurance He said with Insinuation of Reproof Because thou hast seen thou hast Believed blessed are they who have not seen and yet have Believed Christ as I have observed before drew many Souls to himself without any Miracle Epaphrodotus was not when sick and Nigh to Death Healed Miraculously by Paul from whose Body Aprons and Handkercheifs were carryed and had Healing Virtue in them and yet God had mercy on Epaphroditus and on Paul also in him and Healed him God does great and Wonderful things for his Servants and yet without Miracles This is our great Consolation he Works Miracles and saves He Works not Miracles and yet saves according to his own Will he does All. 4. When all ordinary Means Fail and the thing looks Desperate in Relation to all such Ordinary means when the Fig-tree does not blossom c. yet we may Trust in the Lord and Glory in the God of our Salvation even at such a Time our Feet should be Like Hinds Feet and walk on our high places In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen we may then come unto God Oh thou that hearest Prayers unto thee shall all Flesh come And tho we cannot Find by Sense we have the Petitions we have asked of him yet by Faith we may know it and he will give us outward Testimony of his hearing for rather than his Servants should not find him a God Hearing Prayers he will either put the working of Second Causes so together that such putting together shall be next to Miracle or rather than these Things should not be done for them he will step out of the way of his present Ordinary Government of the World and work a Miracle for them CHAP. X. Wherein a Representation of the Excellency of the State of Miracles in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles is given That we may thereby Judg of the Return of such a State of Miracles excelling even that in Vniversality and reaching the utmost effects THat I may now draw this Discourse of Miracles to its Conclusion I will Briefly draw up the State of the Miraculous Powers of the Holy Spirit that were so Visibly and Gloriously Acting in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that none may say Lo here and Lo there a Power of Miracles or this or that is the Time of them but that the Time of them may be known to be like the Lightning For as the Lightning Lightneth from the East and shineth to the West or as the very day and the Brightness of it is known from all the Deceptions and Mistakes of the Day when it is not so shall the True Time of the Return of Miracles be known by a Compare with the Standard and Exemplar of them in the Fore-nam'd Time For it was a Standard and Exemplar above all other Times All therefore must be measured by this altho indeed in some Things the Return of Miracles shall exceed as the fullness of Times or of All Times in the Second Coming of Christ exceeds the fulness of Time Singular only or of that First Coming of our Lord Jesus in the Flesh Yet then there was an Offer of the Kingdom to the Jews and it should have been Propagated to the Gentiles but the Kingdom being refus'd the Wonders could not be Finished nor Miracles consequently Consummate 1. The State of Miracles at the Time I am speaking of was Illustrious above any Time before or since it for the variety of Miracles various Signs and Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit as we find in 1 Cor. 12. To one The Gift of Healing to another of Knowledg to another of Tonues c. So one hath an Exhortation a Psalm a Prophecy yea Then was Raising of the Dead This was the First Fruits the beginning of what was spoken by the Prophet Joel Now by such a Variety of Miracles how great is the Confirmation One or Two might be Attributed to some unknown Cause but such a Consort and Harmony could be only Divine even the Atheist would be puzzled to Sacrifice to his Occult Causes decently for such a Variety God saw in the whole Creation where Miracles were fit to be Planted Then Behold and look Judg and Distinguish of the Return of Miracles hereby They shall Return in such a Variety as may Testify their Relation to that Original Exemplar-Variety in the First Appearance of Christ and his Apostles in them and that together they may make up that one however Interrupted in regard of Visible Miracles pouring out of the Spirit before the great and Illustrious Day of the Lord spoken of by the Prophet Joel as aforesaid 2. There were Commission'd Ministers of the Power of Miracles the Twelve Apsstles of our Lord Jesus and some that were as Gifted Brethren sharing in the Communication of these Miraculous Powers as we may perceive by the Seventy sent out by the same Power in some Regard as the Apostles and those Christians to whom the Apostle Writes among the Corinths 1 Cor. 12. To One To Another such Power was given c. For hereby the whole Power became of greater Notoriety of greater Authority as in a Sanhedrim as our Lord says to the Pharisees accusing him of Acting by Belzebub By whom do your Children Cast out Devils Therefore they
shall be your Judges as in a Conneel The Miraculous Efficacies were also of greater Disposition and freer Distribution Accordingly we may suppose The 144000 with the Fathers Name writ on their Foreheads who learn the New Song First and those who are In structed by Them in it shall very Universally yet according to his Wisdom and Will who is the Supreme Donor be Endued with Power from above as Ministers of State in the Kingdom of Christ and Receiving Gifts for it 3. These Miraculous Powers were Dispens'd in a Frequency in a Continued Dayliness in an universality we find our Lord on all occasions dispens'd these Largesses of Heavenly Bounty and Compassion He never denyed any He extended them to his very Enemies the High Priests Servant onely he was as it were Repuls'd in his Grace by the Vnbelief of some He could do no mighty Works because of their Vnbelief that is he declar'd himself so that he might leave a Testimony against that Sin and Warn all of it Else He went about doing good He Healed all manner of Sickness and diseases And so by the Apostles This Miraculous Power was carried throughout the several Circuits of their Ministry as the Apostle Paul Witnesses concerning his own round about from Jerusalem to Illyricum He Preached the Gospel with mighty Signs and Wonders and Gifts of the Holy Spirit Rom. 15. And without doubt in the same manner shall this Miraculous Power Compass Sea and Land in the Preaching the Everlasting Gospel to every Tongue Nation and Lauguage And till this be I would Require none to believe Miracles are Return'd and then indeed it will be undeniable 4. As there was thus a Power of Miracles given to the Commission'd Officers of Christ and to his Gifted Servants So there was a Faith of both doing Miracles and a Faith of Receiving the Benefit of those Miraculous Efficacies For as the Apostle speaks of All Faith 1 Cor. 13. 1. Viz. Miraculous or Wonder working Faith So that I could saith he remove Mountains c so there is a Faith of Receiving the Benefit of Miracles For Peter and John and Paul are said Acts 2. c. 14 To perceive a Faith to be Healed a Faith of Receiving And our Lord took notice of the Faith of the Centurion and others altho it is True In many Acts of Grace there was no Regard we can Find to the Faith of the Receiver but the mighty Power and Mercy of God Sallyed out upon Persons by the Faith of the Ministers of the Miraculous Power Having Mercy because he would have Mercy And it gives us an Emblem of the Grace and Power of Christ in Conversion and bringing home to himself sometimes as it seems in a way of Preparation sometimes wholly without but however it seems it is certain Divine Power and Grace Drawing near did Erect that Faith that is in the Wise Ordination necessary to Receive Christ Grace Pardon Justification Sanctification even as the Miraculous Power of Christ being abroad and Drawing Nigh Raised so generally a Faith in that Miraculous Power so general and the particular Dtawing Nigh of Christ excited it in the particular Persons on whom the Benefits were bestowed And thus in the Return of Miracles the Servants of Christ both in Ordinary and Extraordinary Commission'd to Work Miracles shall be Cloath'd with a Faith to that End that those who can by no means Believe now such a Power shall Return will by Feeling that very Power comming upon them and the Hand-writing of the Fathers Name by the Spirit on their Foreheads will be fully perswaded of his wondrous works being as near as his Name to Declare it and these effects flowing out from it upon others There will be a Rousing the Senseless sleepy World that knows not yet the Blessings near it to wait for the Graces to be bestowed by this Power Till these things are No Opinions or best Fram'd Discourses No Essays Beginnings or Scatterings of such a Power can perswade I know none would have it so that Miracles are Returned But when these are none will be able to perswade the contrary and in the mean time the Hopes Expectations and Prayers of Christians are hereby rais'd 5. There arose then and there will arise at the Return of Miracles such full Assurance such Plerophory of Persuasion concerning the Truth of Things that they can be no more doubted than the Assurances of the Light and of the Day and indeed as Cartes Argues Rational Intellectual Assurance surmounts all Sensible even so Spiritual Surmounts both Sensible and Intellectual and this both as to matter of Fact that indeed such things are wrought and that they are wrought by God by a Divine Power and that herein is the Finger of God 6. Herewith a mighty Stream and Torrent of Truth pass'd along and Fill'd the World with the Light and Glory of it in very wonderful manner then and shall much more do so at the Return of Miracles that the Isles shall wait for the Law of Christ his Name shall be great from the Rising of the Sun to the going down of the same The Knowledg of the Lord and of his Glory shall Cover the Earth as the VVaters do the Sea The Light of one Day shall be as the Light of Seven For so hath the mouth of the Lord spoken He hath spoken and he will do it He will VVork and none shall let it He the Lord will hasten it in his own Time No one of these things shall want it's Mate and tho it be wonderful in our Eyes yet shall it be so in his 7. There was a mighty Power of Converting Grace a change of the Hearts Tempers purpose manner of Life and Conversation of men as appears by the 3000 Converted at one Sermon of the Apostle Peters Acts 2. a Real and Sincere and Sound Conversion as the Spirit of God Implies to us saying the Lord Added to that Number then of his Church and to his Church Daily such as should be saved The Five first Chapters of the Acts plainly shew us what the State of Christianity and of the Churches of Christ was before the Apostasy made some Inroads upon it c. 6. How they walk'd in singleness of heart all Spiritual Joy and Gladness of Heart in the Fear of the Lord and had all things Common a Heavenly Spirit and Temper prevailed in them And so shall it be at the return of Miracles a Spirit of Holiness Heavenly Mindedness Love Charity Singleness of Heart and all Purity shall come back with them For these inward Powers of Grace and Divine Presence are the Life and Spirit to Miracles when the one returns so shall the other also and nothing will indeed so convince the World of a Divine Power and Presence as to find it self thus Chang'd and quite other than as now it Criminates and recriminates upon it self as it now perpetually complains of Accuses and Condemns it self 8. As in the Miracles of Christ and of the Apostles there