Antichristianism is the keys of visible Church-constitution or Marriage-Ordinances resolve themselves radically into believers or into the power of the people who may at any time take them up erect and model visible Churches open and shut the doors thereof to others This we reduced to the touchstone of the primitive and found that they prayed preached baptized and at last brake bread while they were bare disciples and onely Covenant-members but in respect of Church constitution they were commanded to tarry and wait at Jerusalem till the promise of the Father to wit the keys of the Kingdom was given whereby the Kingdom of God came with power Acts 1.4 8. Luke 24.49 This was a manifest transfusion of the Spirit that did not onely increase the glory of the former but also stated and invested them with new Membership and Office and inspired the stative Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation Church-censures with a new created efficacie whereby they received in and shut out of that new-married Church The image of this is set forth in Acts 2. It is called a pouring out of the Spirit in regard of the abundant measure thereof visibly manifested vers 17 also a mighty rushing winde filling the house with cloven tongues of fire vers 2 3 as causing that breath of life and spiritual heat which operated in that apparent Kingdom Isaiah compares it to smoke filling the house as presenting the glory of Christ in his powerful administration Chap. 6.3 4. In Ezek. 1.4 5 the four Beasts or livings with each of them four faces which must typifie the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists who had all gists and tongues by which they were distinguished from the four Beasts Rev. 4.6 7 who had each of them but one face came out of the midst of that winde cloud and fire also in Ephes 4.8 11 the Spirit tells us that all the several degrees of the Ministerial Office to wit together with the former three Pastors and Teachers were ingendered originally by that virtual efflux of the Spirit sent down from heaven Indeed the twelve were set apart for their Office by Christ while he was on earth and in that sense named Apostles as Joseph is called the husband of Mary and she his wife while they were no more then espoused Matth. 1.18 19 20. and a man may be termed an heir when he is onely designed for the inheritance but their real investment was not till after For Ezekiel in the place before quoted shews that the four-faced beasts proceeded out of the wind cloud and fire expressed Acts 2 and in Eph. 4 Christ first ascended then gave gifts the gift sent down was the Office Some Apostles c. They had not till then that differential eminency of gift which gave being to and distinguished their Office from the rest nor of extraordinary Prophets or Evangelists nor of ordinary Pastors and Teachers no nor yet of the same which private members had after the Spirit was emitted They were before unfurnished with the gift of Tongues Act. 2.2 looked on Christ as an earthly king over a temporal kingdom Luke 19.11 Matth. 20.21 were ignorant of the death resurrection and ascension of Christ the common and main principles of Christianity Matth. 16.22 Mark 16.11 13. Luke 24.11 21 25. were not able to bear many things which after were easie to every believer Job 16.12 Chap. 14.26 1 Cor. 15.1.2 3 4 5 6 7. And this M. Robinson and others the solidest men of the Separation have maintained against the Presbyters and Bishops Again their first designation came not from man but onely from their Master which makes least for those who here will plead against us Besides the disciples were not called a Church nor did any lay on hands for Membership or Office nor use any Church-censures till they received power from on high Hence we may safely conclude that Gospel-stating at the first beginning came not from believers as believers but from the powerful dispensation of Chirst Jesus and that when if sunk and the same open windes before animating were with-held it must return to him the fountain whence at first it flowed for every thing resolvs into its principle But leaving the primitive we may search the Scriptures treating of this last marriage to come and we shall find the same pouring of the Spirit that was in that first Gospel-day * Rev. 11.2 Chap. 19.7 Isa 32.13 14 15. the joyous City shall lie desolate untill the Spirit be poured out from on High whereby the Wilderness shall be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field counted for a Forest also Zech. 17.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace c. Which must be on Jews and Gentiles for the mourners here poured on are interpreted by our Saviour to be all the tribes of the earth who by their sins and Iedol-worship have pierced Christ Matth. 24.30 likewise Ezek. 37.9 th-same open windes before bound up Rev. 7.1 shall be then loosed in their manifest blast So Luk. 17.24 and Psal 97.4 there will be the like fiery flashing lightning to illuminate the world which the earth shall see to wit visibly and tremble also Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he will appear in glory and Isai 60.2 His glory shall be seen upon thee both which places shew that his most excellent dispensation shall be visible Hence we may gather that as this by the apostacy resolved into Christ so it must again issue forth from him before it can have its true existence For this glorious effusion of the Spirit in the first beginning of Church-constitution is the foundation of the keys thereto pertaining it gives them their vital being their proper difference and by its manifold work causeth those various operations which proceed from and by them Thus in the primitive marriage they received power from on high whereby the Lord was to them for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty Isa 28.5 by vertue whereof they had the high keys of the Kingdom So in this last the Lord will first marry them to himself to wit pour out his Spirit upon them whereby they shall be as a crown of glory and a royal diademe in his hand Hos 2.19 Isa 63.2 and then vers 5 they as sons of the Church shall marry in others the first is done by God immediately wherein man is meerly passive the second by man as instrumental working by the power of his preceding Into the first work of marriage acted simply by Gods own finger none save the Elect enter and not all the Elect but onely such elect ones who believe and wait for the same promise of pouring the Spirit for such choice singled ones were the hundred and twenty in the primitive though by the second done by the hand of the Church hypocrites did then intrude So in this last matrimony Isa 60.21 Rev. 21.27 none but the virgins who expect and prepare
for this later coming of the Bridegroom by the pouring glory of his Spirit shall go in with him to the Marriage and not all they but properly the wise virgins shall be thus immediately invested from heaven * See Parag 4. Matth. 25.10 what may be afterwards by the sons of the Church we leave to the times to manifest If you will bring all our new-stated Churches to this touch-stone you may finde them to be of a different metal from the true and however so neer the primitive they seem to be in the outward shell yet in reality to be grounded upon another foundation to wit upon believers not possessed with such a power visibly sent down from heaven Now that faith or the profession thereof without such a divine call and spiriting cannot be a ground-work for stating Churches I shall further prove by these following Arguments 1. Faith must foot on a call as done in obedience to the heavenly voice but now there is no call for visible Church-marriage as is declared in our first Rule and no call no faith nay it wanting that must bottom upon our own call name and time which is presumptuous disobedience 2. God having promised to spirit this again faith must rely upon the same promise till fulfilled and not upon its own power the hundred and twenty were believers and yet begun not any constitution by vertue of that but waited till the keys were given 3. Profession alone can no more give life unto Ordinances from which the glory of God is departed then it can infuse a living soul into a dead carcase It is God's sole prerogative to create their breath of life which he will do in his own season according to what he hath promised Faith and profession are but effects and to attribute such a causal vertue to them is to confound and turn the causes upside down and to set the creature in the place of his Creator 4. This pretended saith void of the call and promise of God and the vital influence of its prime original cause is but a meer work a bare creature-foundation by far too weak to lay a Gospel-fabrick upon and being but humane must in divine things be bottomless and whether the smoke or dispensation arising thence be not then that of the bottomless pit we leave it to wise men seriously to consider We are sure that this is the proper distinguishing character to difference the true from the false The true begins with the smoke or winde Gods glory inspiring the follow the keys opening and entering and by that it becomes a spiritual building the false begins with the key the smoke ensueth and thence is it a building made with hands grounded on tradition Rev. 9.1 2. The true is as smoak descending from heaven the false as smoke ascending from an humane bottom I shall now speak a little to you of the Separation who are modeled into the form of stated Churches I know there are many precious Saints amongst you in whom the character of Jesus Christ is printed and confess that some of you have been instruments to bring to light some solid Truths and prepared way for greater You hold a Separation from all National Hierarchies according to the Scriptures have in part cleared that the Beast reacheth further then the Papal Chair of Rome have renounced prelacies and precedencies have vindicated the consciences of the godly from the Laws and Canons of Courts and Classes maintain the Gospel to come in the liberty and power of the Spirit have rightly pleaded that members of true Gospel-Churches must at least have a visible Saintship have to this day been real and cordial in that noble Cause beginning in our ends of the earth For these good things found amongst you I protest in the presence of the great Tribunal I am obliged by the bond of entire affection and desire your spiritual welfare as my own salvation Yet I must not dare not flatter or dissemble in matters divine but because I love I am compelled to deal plainly and faithfully resting confident that those who are truely pious will desire to see their combustible works burn by the fiery trial of the Vials What I shall expostulate with you I have already convinced in my self Consider seriously whether consultations be not weak grounds to bottom Gospel-Churches or whether the primitive the patern you labour to model by was ever laid upon such sandy foundations or whether these your actings do not contradict many of your own tenents before named Did the Kingdom of God in that first day come by observations or by the descending majesty of the Spirit Or will Christ think you be less glorious in this later Reformation then in the former View I beseech you the Scriptures treating of the dignity of this later marriage Or if you cannot search primarily into the cause look into the effects that follow these your undertakings For knowledge in the ordinary way comes to us secundum posterius so that by those signes or symptomes which break out in manifestation we are directed to look into the fountains whence they issue forth Why was there so great efficacy in the outward order of the primitive Government but because it proceeded originally from the manifest blast of the Spirit Why is there so little in your externalities if not because arising from weak humane principles You that are most discerning do you not see too much of formality too little of power Nay why was that one and the same in every particular drawing the flock of Christ into a general unity unless because it footed in the Spirit which by its illuminating glory virtual operation and perswasive attraction congregated the whole body of Sions sons unto it Why are yours manifold disagreeing and occasions of dividing the Saints but because basing on obscure carnal apprehensions Experience informs us that your various constitutions have rent the Lords people in pieces and are as so many walls to keep them asunder and that which divides is carnal Tell us To which of you shall we joyn to come to the general Assembly Yea to what form shall we come and not in the very act of sitting down sequester our selves from the major part of the godly By a narrow search you may finde your union to ground in division your gathering in scattering View Ezek. 34.5 6 and compare them to your divisions Peter James and John chosen vessels were like in their minority to fall into the same relapse Matth. 17.4 Master if thou wilt let us build tabernacles but alas they knew not what they said understood not that Gospel-tabernacles were not to be made with hands but by the powerful dispensation of the Spirit Much like to this do you Let us build temples let us erect Gospel-Churches Well if you must needs be doing the proper work of your Master observe what censure he gives of such designes Matth. 24.23 24 26. Iuke 17.20 21 22 23. Mark rightly the secret chambers
struglings and reluctances in the radix of my spirit Till at last summoning up the strength of my meditations upon that subject I espyed that all my model was but an outward form voide of that Spirit of life which breathed in the primitive order that the glory of God was departed from those ordinances I then plead for and did not anywhere accompany their execution I viewed a wider dissimilitude from the primitive then before and began to inquire the reason why the same could not in many things be followed why that was uniform ours various why that contracted and gathered the Saints into a unity ours distracted and set the most pretious men at a vast distance who before were one in brotherly love that whatever scatters gathers not with Christ Math. 12.3 I considered withall that when Gospel-Churches were in a right order Christ by his administration was so powerfully there as to gather the Saints to him the dead carcase Matth. 24.28 by which like Aarons rod it swallowed up all those of the Magicians and impostors that to joyn to it was to come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born Heb. 12.23 to separate from it was a manifest symptome of Apostacie nay Reprobation 1 Joh. 2.19 Jude 19. to be excluded and shut out of this society was to be delivered over to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 and 1 Tim. 1.20 that were as an effectual name and power in these external keys to binde and loose to open and shut which had clear effects on the parties either to ingratiate comfort and appease or to terrifie or harden that there was no administration of Christ in what was altogether independent from it And by comparing our new-built constitutions by this Norma I found them altogether deviated nay contradictory to their first copie to which they all pretend I need not particularize in so evident a case let any man enlightned view and judge On the other side in the behalf of the Independent Order I argued that the above-named necessity arising by the interception of Antichristisme the cause why the Primitive could not in its native way be practised may dispence with nay in some cases be above the Law according to the Proverb that the deadness of those stative Ordinances and the other defects in the right might arise from the weakness of the dispensation now in the dawnings of light which perhaps would obtain greater vertue in future ages that the sad differences thereby ocasioned might be ex excidenti from the carnality of men and not from any evil in stating of Churches that the Church must be upheld by Government and for me to question all visible Constitutions would be to oppose my judgement against most of Gods people nay the ablest men and condemn their practice both which will be accounted presumptuous and uncharitable Against this my thoughts replied partly by way of Queries that if the interception of that great Defection took away all possibility of practising the Primitive in its native method Whether it did not demonstrate a sink and interruption of that Order especially there being a mystical Babylon and a spiritual Egypt coming between us and the same first day in which all the Saints seemed to be captivated as Israel was in the outward of old and all our new-begun constitutions must necessarily imply such a cessation as also the call for separation alluding to that of ancient times Whether that fail might not occasion an alterable dispensation seeing different times have produced different changes in the outward body of Divinity and the prophecies seemed to look with divers faces on the primitive times and ours Neither found I such eminent good in any of our new-built Church-models which might necessitate the changing of the Rule nor any warrant for it in the Scripture either by Precept or Type they seemed rather to be obstructive to the free passage of the Gospel and the causes of Rents among Brethren Whether a Gospel-marriage begun at all in weakness or not rather with power to distinguish it from the Legal which was more formal as also from the false and Antichristian and so fill it with spirit whereby it might hold forth the lively presence of the husband that it did initiate with such majestie in the Primitive Acts 2 and the Prophets predict the like magnificent kingdom to come in succeeding ages Whether as there was a preparing by John and after by Christ's Ministery while on earth and some space of waiting after his ascension to dispose the disciples for the receiving that powerful dispensation there might not now be the like preparatory work gradually to purge away Antichristian filth and fit the Saints for that glorious administration to be revealed Whether those lively breathings operating in the constitutive Ordinances of Confirmation Ordination Excommunication c. in that first Gospel-day came not from the effectual emission and blast of the Spirit sent down by Christ and whether the same winde was not the soul to essenciate and animate the key before promised but not till then given Here I began to question my former mistake and enquire whether if the Primitive Order failed the placing the same upon visible believers not possessed with such power from on high to inspire the said keys with new breathings was not privative as the want of light is the cause of darkness and of life deadness the ground of that formality and emptiness which is experimentally known to be in the above-said stative Ordinances whether this be not to lay another foundation as bottoming that upon man or any grace in man that ought to lie only upon Jesus Christ and descends by a virtual influence from heaven Whether the contrary effects in ours from the primitive do not symbole a difference in the cause as arising from another principle and having a different spirit even that of Antichrist which though in pretence is most strongly for Christ yet in reality is most opposite to him And whether our deplored divisions and dissentions amongst the godly raised by our disunited Church-forms do not originally flow from that other root Man and that spirit of carnality which rents and scatters Whether the bright coming of Christ will establish or not rather abolish all these as Antichristian and offences to his Kingdom That a true Gospel-stated-Church cannot have the keys of the Kingdom wanting which have a name and power to accomplish all the above-said ends That the Church of the Elect was preserved by Christ when all Ecclesiastical Rule was her enemy and this outward Government hath ever since the Apostacie been experienced to be lifeless and not to contribute one mite to the power of godliness but hath rather increased formality debate strife quenched the noble grace of Love to all the Saints and hath been averse to the workings of the Spirit and being thus prejudicial ought to be detected it being the great designe of God to anatomize the man of sin in all his specious
as having no such promise annexed to them and why should this be but to shew that these keys in the Churches hand should receive a sink and loss of their efficacie for a time For certainly the Lord knowing the apostated times if they had continued through the Babylonish defection would have added some word of remaining to them as well as to the profession To these we shall annex that Zech. 4.2 12. in which we may behold that related as evidently as the face is seen in the glass The Angel vers 2. sets before the eyes of Zechariah the image of the primitive Apostolical Church the like was also seen of John Rev. 1.12 20. onely here was the difference the Prophet sees the type of one Candlestick as representing the Church in her unity John beholds seven he writing to the seven Churches and here in vers 12. is pictured out a platform of the dispensation of the sealed elect number during the times of Antichristianism That the Candlestick vers 2. did embleme the primitive Churches we render these reasons 1. From the Angels answer vers 6. that this was not built by might or by power as outward Zerubbabel's temple was but by the Spirit as without hands by Christ the true Zerubbabel 2. From the head-stone of this spiritual building vers 7. which was the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 2.6 Psal 118.22 Isai 28.16 Matth. 2◠42 Act. 4.11 3. From the shout and cry which was not Works works but Grace grace the manifest difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel 4. From the despising of small things the Jewish Ceremonies and the sight of the Plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel Christ vers 10. which teacheth the coming off from Mosaical rudiments to that of Christianity 5. From the seven eyes opened to be the Lambs eyes and for time in the primitive Rev. 5.6 and the seven Lamps vers 2. agreeable to Rev. 4.5 That the two Olive-branches and the two golden pipes vers 12. pertain to the next following Antichristian times is apparent by the decrease of the former fulness and the answer of the Angel vers 14. which can aptly be applied to no other time then that of the elect in Babylon From hence we shall evince this argument That there was a fulness of Ordinances in the primitive Age there were seven pipes to the seven Lamps vers 2. the number seven notes out a perfection the Pipes signifie Ordinances Luke 7.32 these being the organ by which the light and oil of Ministery is displayed whereas in the Antichristian season there are seen but two pipes that had golden oil the least of numbers and yet sufficient to testifie the truth of inward grace Now why should there be seven at the first and but two at the last but to set forth the cessation of the former five in their efficacie and power as being dead empty and without golden oil viz. Ordination Confirmation with the other stative Ordinances and that Ministery Prayer c. being predicted of God for abiding must as the two golden pipes remain and the two anointed ones by these empty themselves as the two Olive-branches In Rev. 7.1 the four open windes which are causa procreans conservans the begetting and preserving cause of these visible keys Ezek. 1.4 5. Act. 2. were by reason of the falling away wholly with-held from their apparent blast and the cause failing the effect must also cease this Spirit of life being restrained they must needs be meerly formal That as in the Scriptures before cited they were not promised to abide so the Spirit doth here desert and leave them empty of its lively influences In Chap. 9.1 2 3. the Angel who had usurped all church-Church-power into his custody totally apostated from heaven to earth becomes a meer earthly Angel by which that Church-policie that before was a kingdom of heaven is become a bottomless pit or a false Church without any bottom of Truth in her order and in stead of the keys of the celestial kingdom was another contrary key of the same bottomless pit the key being the same with the Church in the room of that sweet recreating winde or lightsome smoak descending from Gods glory to beget the truth of Office was the dark and delusive smoke or dispensation ascending from this bottomless furnace which ingenders none but locusts a degenerate brood of false Officers Here we may take notice of the effects that ensue upon the former with-holding of the windes God having forsaken and left it void Satan hath full power gives another key with other smoke whereby of Christ all is become Antichrist and bottomless of Truth In Chap. 11.2 where though the Temple was measured of which we shall speak anon yet the onward court was excluded and forbidden to be measured for so saith the Spirit The court without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies cast out That this outward court must belong to the visibility of Church-government may be cleared by these Arguments 1. Because this as opposed to the Temple within must be the exteriour outward part and who knows not that the Order of Ecclesiastical Government is the outside or visibility of the Church 2. Because this here excluded was given to the Nations the inward rooms of true grace with Worship flowing from those internal springs was never in the power of man to intermeddle with but the outward court of Church-Regiment was in the hands of Nations for many generations and nowhere else 3. Because the Nations by enjoying this outward court did tread the holy City under foot Now woful experience hath taught the Saints that that by which Antichrist hath trampled upon the godly was by sitting in the externality of Ecclesiastical Discipline in Spiritual Courts and Classes The four windes above restrained must be from this rejected Court the bottomless key pit and smoke in this unmeasured to Truth In Chap. 12.6 14. the same externality given to the Nations and mixed with worldly things becomes a worldly wilderness into which the woman fled That this wilderness is the National Babylonish Church is proved at large by Scripture and the analogie in Sect. 5. of the first Paragraph In Chap. 13. the Principality or chief of the power ruling here is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wilderness-beast compared with Mark 1.13 answerable to those false christs and false prophets which our Saviour foretold should be in the wilderness Matth. 24.24 The second Beast is here called a false prophet inferring the first to be a false christ or Antichrist as is shewed in our answer to him on Matth. 24. In Chap. 17. the Church born up by this Beast is called Mystery Babylon as being another and distinct from Sion in her very foundation who also was seen of John in this wilderness To sum up all if we consider the Gospel-times aright as they are pourtrayed in the Prophecies we shall finde that in the primitive there was the smoke of Gods glory preceding Isai
which in Paul's time was the greatest cause of rents then was the primitive Church in her highest stature being as the sun in its full Meridian then were all things here spoken of fulfilled then and but till then was a growing rising time and after that was a gradual declining from that time Heresies and Errors the renters of union crouded in apace Euseb lib. 3. chap. 29. In little time after the three highest spheres of the Ministerial Office were wholly resolved and expired and that remaining of Pastors and Teachers grew in every succession more corrupt and so increased in pride and usurpation till at length the Angel totally apostated from heaven to earth lost the true key of Office and instead thereof had the key of the bottomless pit which brought a gloomy night on all Object 2. Your second Scripture is 1 Tim. 6.13 14 where say you is a strait charge laid upon Timothy to keep that course of discipline prescribed to him in that Epistle Answ This solemn command of the Apostle doth not comprehend the whole Epistle but onely that immediately going before which is to fight the good fight of faith in following after righteousness godliness love patience meekness and avoiding covetousness thereby to obtain eternal life and this is doctrinal and to be observed till the last coming of Christ Now that it is thus is clear from the text for the Spirit faith not Thâ—s but this as pointing at that immediately preceding nor commandments in the plural as respecting all the several precepts of the whole book but commandment in the singular number as respecting one The Apostle in this Epistle gives other charges by the particle these in the plural number as Chap. 4.11 These things charge and command and Chap. 5.21 having before given rules about discipline enjoyns him to do these things without partiality and lay on hands suddenly on no man The phrase of abiding is not at all annexed to these former charges they containing many things that failed but onely to this later singled out by it self which it well reviewed will further clear up our assertion and by a direct diameter contradict the sence which you would force it to To your fourth Objection from Matth. 28.19 20 we shall reply to in the conclusion of this Paragraph Section 2. Our second is that Ministery Prayer c. being perpetuated in the Word have always the life and power of the same Word in some measure accompanying them whereby to preserve their vital being Rev. 11.1.3 But the later wanting the same Word to uphold their abiding had the winde of the Spirit with-held from them whereby they became as a carcase without a soul Rev. 7.1 We are to observe that the outward matter of Ordinances are in themselves either barren empty elements or at most external formalities a meer carcase or void cask 't is the Name and power of Jesus Christ and the Spirit sent from him that is their internal and essential form when the same Spirit of life deserts them they then remain as a dead body is when the soul is severed from it or as an empty cabinet out of which the Jewel is taken Now the former of these answerable to the Prophecies are experimentally found to have some degree of their vital faculty subsisting There is the same light power and vertue in Ministery Prayer and Praisings that was in the primitive age though not in the same degree likewise for Baptism the badge of the Covenant there was some secret vertue in the Covenant to beget and preserve a sealed company amongst the Israelites which there was not amongst Turks and Heathens quatâ—nus sic also the Communion received upon the ground of our spiritual union with all the godly may confer some influence of comfort and refreshing flowing from the death of Christ For as there was a mystical relation of the scattered Saints which knit them to Christ the head and one to another by a spiritual bond so was there a mystical communion and feeding together with respect to the same inseparable union But for the later that are proper to a Church stated and invested with full power though in the first Gospel-day they held forth the glory and face of Jesus Christ yet afterwards when the external Government was taken from Christ's shoulders and placed upon Antichrist as it was generally in the hands of Popes Patriarchs and Archbishops thorowout the world according to what was prophesied that it should be given to the nations Rev. 11.2 then was the winde of the Spirit withheld from breathing in them then was the glory of God departed from them since which time they have been but as an empty shell out of which the kernel of their ancient truth was taken since then the lively efficacie and power of Christ is not found to accompany them wherever used Consider them as they are in the Romish Church who alone in all our Horizon can claim a succession from the primitive and where because your Office is derived from thence you are inevitably driven to hold their true being to remain What tender hearted Protestant who holds the Pope to be Antichrist can cordially embrace that his Holiness or his Clergie by laying on of hands can confer a true spiritual gift or that Christ accompanies their hand with so much glory as to make it the prime key on earth to beget the truth of Membership and Office Who would not blush to imagine that the Popes Excommunications or Bulls deliver over to Satan and by consequence that the Church of Rome â—nto which by these keys and doors they are entered and out of which they are shut is such a Church as may be named a kingdom of heaven or that what she bindes on earth is bound in heaven or that what she looses on earth is loosed in heaven or that she can forgive and retain sins All which powers she must have if the really possess the keys of the Kingdom For these can no more be severed from the keys while abiding true then the soul from the body while a living organ But if Rome be fundamentally a false Church as she is held to be by the Protestant party and stript naked of that primitive excellencie in her external government then what may be thought of you who deduce your interest from her by descent Experience hath taught the Saints that there was as little efficacy of the true Spirit if not as much of that Antichristian spirit of Cruelty Partiality Covetousness Enmity against the power of godliness in the Bishops Courts as was before in Rome And what the Presbytery hath been in Scotland where they had the full and uncontroulable command we leave to such to determine who have felt the rod. If it be true that Effectus sequitur virtutem causae The effect follows the vertue of its cause then surely no good fruit is like to spring from an Antichristian root The lifelesness formality contentions divisions c. that
in profession were beyond the sphere of Satan For the inward created principle in the soul breaking forth in and by these means and Ordinances the Spirit in and by the Word sustaining its perpetuity and Christ supporting the same are all far above the reach of Antichrist had these been in the power of that destroyer he would have utterly marred all the springs yea the very fountain of grace In the same manner the communion taken on the ground work of the spiritual union of all the godly wherever scattered when the corporated was false and Christ therein fed upon by faith was not altogether subverted for the mystical relation betwixt Christ and the heart and the godly with the godly was beyond the compass of Popes Bishops or any humane authority whatsoever Also for Baptism though the Antichristian Church was in her constitution and order unmeasured to truth and therein Babylon yet she was not utterly shut out from the Covenant but had the call of Israelites had the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost put on them with a common grace to believe the Covenant and an elect sealed number in and amongst their tribes none of which properties can be attributed to those wholly without Though Antichrist in some things infected the externality of this Ordinance yet could he not fundamentally raze the Covenant nor utterly abolish the name of Christ from amongst Christians nor make invalid the power of the Word perpetuating that name Isai 56.5 In like sort the ten apostated tribes were in their Church-order set up by Jeroboam radically false and yet were Israelites within the Covenant and had the signe of Circumcision Thus also men excommunicated are excluded from Church-fellowship but not from their Baptism and the Covenant Likewise Hereticks who fell from the Church were received again not by new Baptism but by laying on of hands Euseb l. 7 cap. 2 3. 2. Our Reasons why the later sort as Ordination Confirmation c. abode not are these following 1. They are not promised in the Word to continue Isai 56.5 2. They wanting that promise were forsaken by God when corrupted 3. All the external Order became Antichristian and so the Ordinances proper thereto must be bestial or else how could there have been a Babylon wherein the sealed number were captives 4. Our last taken from this text Rev. 9 is that these were wholly resolved into the Pope to whom was given another key with other smoke and Officers These being altogether external and Christ leaving them Antichrist might have and had absolute power therein to make them bottomless Object Against this you assert that though the Pope have another false key yet withal he hath the keys of Christs discipline in Ordination Excommunication Suspension c. Answ Though the Pope usurp the carcase of those Ordinances that were Christs before yet their true essential form which makes them to be Christs and true Office and Membership on which they depend he and his whorish Church have not For confirmation whereof these grounds do naturally arise from the text 1. The first Reason is drawn from the nature of the Pope and Antichristian Hierarchies vers 1. the Star or Angel fell from heaven the orb in which he was fixed before unto the earth or wilderness Chap. 12.6 a total apostacie from his former office and sphere and was not in the least degree heavenly but terrene earthly and meerly humane or a wilde beast Rev. 13.1 and is numbered not to God but to man vers 18. It is a true Rule Corruptio optimi est pessima The corruption of the best things is always worst and most contrary to its former goodness Satan who was the noblest is by his fall the basest of creatures and most unlike to an angel of light which he was before he fell So here that Angelical Office which shined as a fixed Star in the bright firmament of the primitive purity holding forth the liveliest glory of Christ for the perfecting of the Saints being once apostated from his former sphere became not onely an humane Hierarchie but a meer Antichrist as most opposite to Christ of any other 2 Thess 2.3 and the man of sin as that wherein the quintessence of evil and deceit is epitomized and grown to its perfect maturity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one in office altogether without and besides the Law and likest to sin it self which is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3.4 nay he is the principal vicegerent of Satan on earth to whom he commits his chiefest power Rev. 13.2 throne and authority in the exercise whereof he is Abaddon or Apollyon Chap. 9.11 destruction it self in the abstract recorded in the two most famous Languages and is most emphatically stiled by Paul The son of perdition being one who hath caused the greatest ruine and desolation and is termed by John the King of the bottomless pit Thus we may see that the Office of the Pope and his Hierarchy is most corrupted of any thing else being that wherein the being of Antichrist doth subsist who is not a particular person but a corporation And this Official Hierarchy being stript naked of its primitive truth and becoming meerly Antichristian cannot in the least degree beget a lawful Office for Nâ—l dat quod non habet If the fountain be polluted how can the streams be pure None can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.3 2. This Angel had another key different in nature from the former And it is impossible the keys of the kingdom of heaven can subsist with the key of the bottomless pit or the power of Jesus Christ be united with the power of Satan Contraries in their extremes cannot stand together but the one must destroy the other 3. The Church opened by this key is a bottomless pit bottomless she being void of the groundwork of Truth in her order a pit or prison being as a hell on earth in which men are captivated Prov. 7.27 Chap. 9.18 Isai 51.14 Chap. 49.9 Zech. 9.11 12. also a Church excommunicated of God and Babylon Rev. 11.2 Chap. 17.5 and so cannot in her constitution have the keys of the kingdom of heaven for the key must be of the same nature with the Church Besides if Confirmation Ordination Excommunication c. be true in Rome then must that Romish Church into which by these keys she enters and out of which she shuts be a kingdom of heaven and a Sion and not a bottomless pit and Babylon which we conceive you will be ashamed to affirm 4. The smoke or dispensation of this pit or false Church is hellish and diabolical eclipsing and darkning the whole Horizon vers 2. and how can the smoke or winde of Gods glory spiriting these Ordinances and making them lightsome dwell together with the darksome false and delusive smoke of the bottomless pit surely the Lord will not so much honour Antichrist his greatest adversary If the
invested with a full power to make Members and Officers This stating of your case if we misapprehend you not is a digression from all your former and after writing which tends to manage the continuance of a Church in membership office and the keys thereof 2. Such a Church as you here nominate to wit the Saints assembled in distinct companies who were externally pure from all the corruptions of the times cannot be shewn to the extant through the whole season of the apostacie for both the Scripture and the event hath manifested the contrary that the true was here and there a godly man outwardly mixed with the common Israelites Object You alleadge Such a church there was in Israel among the ten apostated tribes Answ 1. How that of the Israelites was through all the time of that defection is uncertain this we are sure of that there was then a true Church in Judah and Benjamin and the Temple at Jerusalem was the common centre of Worship for all the Israelites and it is more then probable that the godly of Israel have had some relation to the Church of Judea and went at times appointed to Jerusalem But without all doubt none of the Order of Jeroboam's Priests were true Officers nor any succession derived from them the like may be said of the Pope and of your investment coming from him 2. It is untrue that there were always such Assemblies for in the days of Ahab Elijah the chiefest Prophet knew of no such congregatings but testifies that he onely was left 1 King 19.18 So then the seven thousand reserved must be a hidden number known onely to the all-seeing eyes of Eternity and not obvious in open Assemblies Besides this pertains not to the Antichristian deluge and doth not at all prove your point Neither doth that of the Jews captivity for they being amongst Heathens and those wholly without did not involve themselves into their Paganism but were entire within themselves in the service of their God exercised in their own Synagogues were distinct in their Genealogies from the Babylonians their Priestly Office came not in the least from the Idol-priests of Bell but descended without any such interception from the Order of Aaron on the other side the Saints in the mystical were amongst such who though in their Order Babylon yet were not without the Covenant but were Israelites amongst whom they were visibly incorporated and not severed either in Membership or Office which your self confesseth to be the condition of your first and choicest men in the thirtieth page of your book That of the Israelites and this of outward Babylon though in many regards it symbolizeth the Antichristian stand yet not in all there being something more and proper to this later which none of the former could chalenge Object But say you such Assemblies there were through the Antichristian defection Answ This we utterly deny and have manifested the contrary Object But to confirm the constant succession of visible Churches you propound these Scriptures Isai 9.7 Dan. 2.44 Psal 110.2 Answ We have assented to and proved that there was faith and some degree of its profession visible in the lowest ebbe of Antichristianism but it yet remains for you to evince that the true visible constituted Church had its perpetual abiding Your text Isai 9.7 makes it good that Christ ruleth in the kingdom of grace but not a syllable of his constant reigning in visible Church-order is there specified We conclude thus far with you that Christ sits on this throne to order and establish it with judgement yet his ordering is in its dispensations various it was more open and full in the primitive glory more retired and sparing in the Babylonish desertion it will again be more manifest when the glory of the first returns The first word of the verse is divers in the reading in the Hebrew copie it being one thing in the line and another in the margine The line is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Bibles take the margine The margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The line if beginning with the primitive times is most concordant with the other prophecies and the event the margine if applied to the Jews last return and the kingdom then rising doth best agree with the other Scriptures speaking of the same time Object But say you what is this throne and kingdom of David but Christ's visible Church in which Christ is to sit and reign visibly as David did in his kingdom Answ You here confound the effect with its cause in making this throne to be the visible Church David's throne in a Gospel-sence is the spiritual throne of grace which is the centre of Divine Majestie the common fountain from whence all the influences of grace do flow and that before which the Saints approach and Christ sits upon this throne of majesty in the heavens where neither he nor his throne are to be seen with bodily eyes as David and his throne were but are onely belieft by the piercing eyes of faith Also the kingdom is but an effect arising from that incomprehensible cause not the cause it self and this may be more open or more hidden according to the various administration of him that sits upon the throne Again the throne of David was not visible in the Babylonish captivity Your next text Dan. 2.44 belongs to the victorious kingdom of Christ in these last days prevailing over Antichrist and the whole Romane Monarchy For 1. This Image comprehends all the beauty and strength of earthly Monarchs from Daniel's days downward the last whereof was the Romanes 2. The last of Iron is distinct from the three foregoing of gold silver and brass Now as the three former metals pictured out three several kingdoms different both in their rise language and regiment from each other to wit the Babylonians Persians and the Grecians so this last of Iron being of a distinct metal from the other must type out another Monarchy even the next set apart from the former three preceding hereupon the Spirit vers 40 calls it a fourth kingdom now the fourth from the Babylonians and the next following the Grecians was the Romanes who were differing from the rest in their original people and government The Romane Monarchy Dan. 7.23 is intitled the fourth kingdom Furthermore the strength of the Iron exceeding breaking in pieces treading down subduing all the rest and devouring the whole earth can agree with no other but the Romanes The Seleucians it cannot be for that was but part of the Grecians and is described to be one wing one head one horn of the third divided unto the four windes and inferiour to the first rise thereof Chap. 7.6 Chap. 8.8 Chap. 11.4 Again the stone interpreted to be the kingdom not the king alone breaks in pieces this of the Iron and it was not the Saints of the most High but the Heathen Romanes that subdued the Seleucians Now this fourth kingdom of the Romanes is dashed into
which lie voide of his administration till his glory return from heaven to sanctifie them againe for use thereby avoiding the idols that must necessarily insue upon taking them up can be no breach but a fulfilling of the second and fourth Commandments both in the affirmative and negative part and this being grounded on the call and warrant of our Lord Jesus must be done in his name advance his kingdom fall into the compass of his divine will and pleasure agreeable to the three first petitions The Virgins going forth to meet the bridegroom was a preparatory to that illustrious marriage wherein Christ in the open prospect of his dispensation will appear a husband and they that are wise a married wife when entred into the wedding-chamber of the Lamb. I say this high way in the wilderness being the medium and passage to that spiritual magnificence tends to exalt the glory throne scepter and kingdome of Jesus Christ And this walk can no way hinder the salvation of our selves or others but bends to the furtherance thereof as the consciences of many can testifie who have found the ministery to be as waters springing out of the desart Isa 48.21 chap. 41.17 18. even when they could obtaine no such new rising springs of refreshments with you But Sir Seeing you have so furiously charged against us we shall intreat you to reflect upon your own way for nosce teipsum know your selves is the first point of wisdome and you may with eyes anointed with spiritual eye-salve discerne that you usurpe a power onely proper to the King of Saints to set up visible Churches to make members and officers upon your owne call power and spiriting and that by omission of some of the primitive ordinances and placing other inventions in their stead Thus to erect a bestial Idol with subjection thereto must be directly opposite to the second Commandment and having built up such a golden Calf can do no less then blemish and defile all your services in your assemblings on the Lords day contrary to the fourth command and withall you bottoming the same upon your owne consultations without a celestial investment first as power from above must honour your owne names derogating from the name of Christ set up and magnifie your owne kingdomes eclipsing and darkning his do your owne wills in opposition to the will of God and by this undermin'e the three first petitions Which machination of yours striking so against the radix of Divinity can no way forward the salvation of soules but is prejudicial and a drawing people to disobedience not a bearing up of the stative ordinances wherein his soveraign power and goodness will be set forth but a laying them upon a humane Antichristian base and thereby so changing them that they carry the majestical name spirit and wisdome of man the very Image of a beast not an establishing of doctrine therein and a right officiated ministery but a broaching of errors a constituting and bearing up of a delusive Ministery as a false Christ and false Prophet the foundation of such untimely and misleading visibilities for though sometimes you preach up God and Christ onely as coming in his Name in pretence yet you establish teach up another in discipline therein coming in your own name not a preventing of scandals and restraining licentious living by true discipline but a causing scandals and offences by a false not onely in particular persons but in your whole unseasonable stated Churches and therefore it brings a general wo Matth. 18.7 Rev. 18 6. and this miserable Scotland hath experienced in whom your greatest boast glory and hope of and for your Presbyterian Government resided You may plainly see how God worketh against such designes It is true that in the Primitive day when Church-Government came from Christ and manifest smoke winde fire and lightning of his Spirit which breathed in and operated by the stative Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation Church-censures c. there was the life light and glory of the same Spirit which presented the soveraign power beauty and wisdom of Jesus Christ the husband and made them effectual means for the perfecting and completing of the Church his spouse But since this externality was forsaken and rejected by the Spirit and the key thereof being grounded barely upon an humane Antichristian base became bottomless the same Ordinances have been found to be lifeless and empty of their primitive excellencie not to have the least vertue to convey any spiritual nutriment to the Saints but rather to increase formality and decrease the power of godliness Nay they springing from a bestial root have brought forth such bitter fruit as hath been most opposite to the workings of the Spirit of grace This key of Regiment through the West remained solely in the hands of Rome for many ages where it clouded and by degrees darkned the whole Hemisphere with the poysonous sumes and exhalations arising from that bottomless furnace and though at first it came in more mildly in a lamb-like visage yet at last when discovered it brake out into such open rage against the godly as hath filled the Chronicles with most sad and tragical stories Of later yeers in England it was taken thence and transplanted into the Bishops who by the enjoyment thereof so trampled upon the Saints that we are all sensible of that Antichristian spirit therein raigning and triumphing And those places where the Presbyterian Discipline hath had the full swinge and was backed by the sword of the Magistrate are known to abound with more formality worldly mindedness nay open prophaness then is usually to be found with us in England where also some precious men who could not lay their consciences passive to their yoke of tyranny have felt the stripes of their cruelty so deep in their persons and estates as hath forced some to flee from their native Country witness Scotland The same spirit in our lesser Corporations acts its chiefest strength in disuniting of the Lords people where also the above-named Ordinances are lifeless and ineffectual and this many the choicest amongst them begin to be sensible of It is onely the mystical Church or foundation of true grace that is the pillar and ground of truth while the outward court is cast out and becomes the base of falshood In the close your Book you excuse your being long before you sent us your Answer Answ We suppose you took the larger time to recollect and muster up your chiefest forces into one entire body It appears to us that many lines meet in that your centre and as the Poet saith in another case Virtus coit omnis in unum Many results in one seem to combine to stablish what will fall by strength divine POSTSCRIPT WE shall in the last place pass to your Postscript where you demand from Rev. 15 who the harpers are that stand at the glassie sea c. Answ Those harpers are a separated not a stated people which we have evidenced
compel doth testifie still retaining their old mustie store and sowre wilde grapes of Antichrist your Ministery is foully corrupted with guile and false principles about discipline accompanied with bitter and odious invectives against these harpers Lastly let us examine your National Churches above-named by Chap. 15. They stand not simply upon a sea of glass the word only purely sensed but upon the more gross interpretations of the Fathers and other learned men in darker times from whom they esteem it presumption to differ though to the native Truth as your sharp and frequent reproofs of me for differing from them doth demonstrate they have not obtained a conquest over the Beast but have erected a Beast in Episcopacie Presbytery c. his Image in their Canons and other Ordinances changed into his likeness his Mark by a subjection thereto nor are their members in distinct congregatings as being off from the number of his name but are all numbered to him And those who now adhere to these National Hierarchies are so far from harping out this triumphant song of victory by separation and war and singing True and righteous are thy ways herein thou King of Saints as they are secret mourners having a wound in their spirits at these his just proceedings and his judgements now made manifest witness of late the dolour for the overthrow of the Scots who fought in the Presbyterian cause your publike reproaches against the Separation with inward torments for their freedom together with many other passages which shew how this great work of God now beginning is closed and fast locked up from your understandings We desire from our souls that the Lord Jesus who hath the key of David would open the door of your hearts whereby his admired designes changes and works to be done might enter In the mean time you may behold your folly in bringing those texts to convince us and prove your practice every circumstance whereof agrees with the way of separation and riseth up as so many witnesses against yours You ask us Whether the Ordination of Ministers in such National Churches be a mark of the Beast Answ Seeing the Churches themselves are not these harpers but such as stand under a bestial power the Ministers must be of the same nature with the Churches And your Ordination whether by Bishops or preaching Presbyters coming from the corrupt key of Rome though done by fasting and prayer must carry with it the mark or brand of the same Beast or if the man be truely pious his outward livery And thus to judge is neither ignorance nor malice as you charge it but the discovery of Christ in his Revelation who through our sides you are pleased to defame with black terms of obloquie To your next we say that you are not clothed with the white garments of the harpers but with the black habit of sack-cloth You tax us with omitting singing of Psalms Answ For mine own particular I question not the Ordinance of vocal singing of Psalms though some do scruple the manner thereof as conceiving it to be much abused Albeit this harmonizing here is not tyed to metre but is the inward joy wrought in the hearts of Gods separated Saints for their noble redemption from the Beast and the new mercies bestowed on them which breathes forth either in secret ejaculations or acts more openly in Ministery Prayer Thanksgiving c. Object You quaere How we can be in our return from Babylon and yet within Babylons territories Answ A man may be returning from London and yet within the line of Communication so in this gradual separation we cannot go clear off at once but by degrees See Parag. 4. Reas 7. Before we conclude give us leave to propound a few Quaeries very material to be considered of 1. In general for all 2. In particular to you The general shall be a brief contracting of the whole body of this Controversie and are as followeth 1. Whether the being of yours or any other Office with us passing by succession from the Primitive came by a Lineal descent from Rome or not If some say Not then whether any can prove their Genealogie distinct and apart from her If from Rome as you confess then whether the essence and foundation of Office be true there or not If true then whether she must not radically be a true Church and a Sion If she be in her constitution false bottomless and Babylon whether there were not a dissolution of your line and chain 2. Whether a true congregated Church set in a right and compleat order of discipline in our Western Horizon can be proved from the Apostolical times to be distinct from the Romish Synagogue If not as the Scripture and the event doth clearly manifest then must there be a cessation and departure of Gods glory from this visibility proved from these Scriptures Rev. 7.1 Chap. 9.1 2 3 c. Chap. 11.2 3. Whether the primitive order sinking there must not be a new call and spiriting from God for the first restoring and beginning of this work whereby his glory may return to make it a true spiritual and heavenly building 4. Whether such a visible administration that gives being to a true pure genuine and single Gospel-marriage be to be seen in the first initiation of any of our new-built Church-formes or can be evidenced by Scripture to be existing at this present or whether this same be not prophesied not to return till after the downfall of Babylon by these Scriptures Rev. 19.2 3 6 7 8 9. chap. 11. 19. Hos 2.19 20. Isa 62.4 5. chap. 14.15 Mic. 4.3 8. Mat. 25.10 5. Whether if so all our visible constitutions must not be man in their ground-work and so numbered to that beast Rev. 13.18 6. Whether then the way prepared cast up approved of and called unto for his Servants now to walk in be not a separation with distinct Congregations without sitting down as Queens in visible constitutions I shall desire the Godly seriously and impartially to examine these Quaeries by the word of God We were all in a spiritual sense asleep and it is no shame but a honour to yeild to the conquest of truth and suffer it freely to triumph over our former misleadings and wanderings The Quaeries in particular to you are these 1. Whether as above your Office of the Ministery the corner-stone of your outward building being derived from the national hierarchy which successively came from the Pope be not one of Babylons stones and whether it be not against this text Jer. 51.26 They shall not take of thee a stone for foundations but thou shalt be desolate for ever saith the Lord. 2. Whether your gathering of Gospel-Churches out of true Gospel-Churches which you acknowledge the national to be be warranted by the Scriptures if so we desire your proofs for it 3. Whether your making of Elders without laying on of hands be agreeable to the primitive practice 4. Whether the receiving in of members made by your selves be taken from the primitive pattern that is whether such a Covenant and subscription thereto was the Ordinance by which men entred into Church-fellowship in that Gospel-day or whether members were not then received in by laying on of hands if by such a Covenant we desire your Scriptures to warrant it 5. Whether all this be not to omit or transgress the lawes and change the ordinances Isa 24.6 Yet one thing more You have taken a great deal of pains through your whole Book to prove a true visible stated Gospel-Church thorowout the Gospel-times but all this while you have not shewed us which of all the several forms is that true stated Church Rome arrogates it the Lutherans usurp it the English Episcopacie plead it the Presbyters and you chalenge it the Dippers appropriate it those called Brownists claim it as their sole interest the Independents assume it And truely the wisest man in Europe taking a thorow view of every one of these Church-models will be at a stand certainly to determine which of them is the true and right and which had its lineal descent in the rectitude of Order from the Primitive The more accurately he examines the greater occasion he may finde to question all Sir I beseech you not to take in prejudice what I have here presented in benevolence For though many things may appear something strange at first yet I hope upon second thoughts you will finde them no other then the real truths of God delivered by the Prophets Apostles and the Lord himself I presume you will not adjudge him who hath been and is your cordial friend to become your enemy because he tells you the truth and that in the same language the Spirit in Scripture speaks Indeed I may seem to some to be over-sharp but the discoveries by the vials are so imparted by the Spirit as at the one side to increase the torments of the marked souldiers of Antichrist so on the other side thorowly to searse and eat out the mystery of that deceit too deeply riveted in the mindes of many vessels of honour For though the Spouse was not totally deceived so as to be struck at the heart or killed yet was she so much deluded as to receive a wound Cant. 5.7 which cannot recover a perfect cure but by a searching salve And for my self I dare not daub in the things of God nor call evil good nor darkness light nor soothe up with flattering titles left my Maker should destroy me When I see my brother straying I am commanded to rebuke with plainness and not in any wise to suffer sin to rest upon him to omit which duty were a symptome of hatred Lev. 19.17 And I will assure you they are no other then the faithful wounds of a friend which in receiving may carry the vertue of an excellent oil that will not break your head but onely remove such putrefaction as might otherwise procure your loss at the day of Jesus Christ FINIS
6.4 9. compared with John 12.40 Acts 2.2 by which the visible keys of church-Church-power were given and sanctified but after when the Angel fell Rev. 9.1 2 3. another earthen hellish key with other smoke arising from the pit darkning and banishing the lightsome glory of the former as above and at last a new smoaking of the Temple from Gods glory Rev. 15.8 a new opening and entering implying key and doors all shewing that there was no opening nor entering but a cessation and shutting of the true visible betwixt these two days Besides there is a new open breathing of the four windes of the Spirit Ezek. 37.9 after the long restraint of the primitive blast Rev. 7.1 Act. 2.2 Ezek. 1.4 a new pouring of his Spirit Isai 32.15 after the former hiding of his power a new Marriage and Marriage-call Rev. 19.7 9. besides the Marriage at the first Matth. 22. a new lightning Matth. 24.27 besides the lightning at the primitive Ezck. 1.4 13 14. all teaching a non-continuance of this glory Again there was an invisible day between the bright shining day at the first Luk. 17.22 and the like glorious day again at the last vers 24. an invisible kingdom as that within vers 21. passing between the open kingdom of the primitive and the manifest kingdom of God at the last Chap. 21.31 Rev. 19.6 Chap. 11.17 all clearing up this cessation The visibilities Lo here and there were false and delusive The event hath made all this as perspicuous as the sun shines in the open firmament to those who will not obstinately and of set purpose shut their eyes against it to wit That there was an apparent and general Apostacie darkning and swallowing up all the bright Order of the primitive For that Church after Constantine had sully subdued the heathen Emperors and setled all in outward tranquillity about the yeer of our Lord 327 as the margin on Socrates hath it lib. 1. cap. 3. beginning to conform to and mix her self with National and worldly things degenerated and daily declined by the four first trumpets Rev. 8. till at last by the fifth the star totally apostated from heaven to earth about 390 and then the key of external Rule became purely National and was onely in the jurisdiction of Popes Patriarchs Bishops and earthly Hierarchies who alone usurped all Church-power into their hands In all our Western Globe there was no Church-Government visible but what was Romish for many ages and our Antagonist M. Elmestone confesseth that their Office of the Ministery the principal pillar of the Church came directly from Rome no longer ago then Luther's time Hereupon that of Protestantism is not termed a Separation but a Reformation their Office and Membership coming radically from the Romish Synagogue which seems to be hinted by the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 51.9 We would have healed Babylon and she was not healed Object It hath been objected by others What shall we think of the Greek Church who never had to do with Rome nor owned her power Answ To whom we reply 1. That the Church of Grecia may be no plea to such who live in the Levant under the Turk but concerns not in the least our Protestant Churches who derived not their power from the Greek but from the Romish Pontificality 2. It is not true that the Greek Church never had to do with Rome For about the yeer 390 after Christ all the Eastern Bishops yeelded the Primacie of seat the proper place of Christ to the Romane Pope And afterward if the Bishop of Rome obtained by Phocas the Emperour the title of Vniversal then assuredly the Bishop and Patriarch of Grecia must be subject unto him and together with the Church be within the limits of his territories Again the Greek Empire was possessed by the Latines for sixty yeers together even from the yeer 1200 to the yeer 1260 and then Michael Paleologus recovered their Empire who about the yeer 1273 agreed with Pope Gregory the tenth at Iyons in France and promised that both himself and all his people hereafter should yeeld all Sovereignty to the Latine Pope and Church 3. The Greek Church was as well National and had a terrene Hierarchy even the very same with Rome and is so apostated that she denies the holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son prays for the dead believes that the Saints departed enjoy not the presence of God till the Resurrection admits children of seven yeers old to the Sacrament because then as they conceit they begin to sin receives none into Orders but such as are married and forbids marriage to those who are actually in Orders rejects carved Images but admits the painted with many the like Fopperies and in many fandamentals is as gross or grosser then Rome To conclude Chap. 7 all the four windes of all quarters were restrained Chap. 11.2 the whole outward court of Discipline as well East as West was cast out as above and the great City Babylon was not onely at Rome but at Judea where our Lord was slain Chap. 11.8 and then certainly Grecia lying in the midst between must needs be comprehended within the circumference thereof It hath by some as the Dippers been questioned whether these National Churches be within the Covenant To whom I answer that though in their Church-order they were Babylon or confusion yet are they not wholly excluded from the Covenant as Heathens but are termed by the Spirit Israelites who had a sealed number amongst their tribes Rev. 7. Here we may see how though the place or hand failed the name was everlasting And it is not safe to detract from the words of this Prophecie especially seeing the sequele hath cleared that there was some profession of Christianity and a godly people amongst them through every age of this hiding of Gods power You may find this further cleared in the following Paragraph The next thing considerable under this first Querie is touching the true Church in this confusion 1. What she was 2. What was her condition 3. How she was fed 4. The just time of this her captivity 1. What she was In Chap. 7 I finde that there were one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones preserved secured and provided for In Chap. 9 that this number onely was undestroyed by the Locusts In Chap. 11 that the Temple measured must be this sealed company built up a spiritual house by the mystical bond of the Spirit it having no dimensions specified and all the externality being excluded as shall be proved in Paragraph 1. Sect. 4. In Chap. 14.1 that the mount Sion there expressed must be onely the mount of true grace footed on the counsel of God which is called a sure and sealed foundation 2 Tim. 2.19 For 1. All the sealed elect people even the whole one hundred and fourty four thousand stand on this mountain and that through all the apostated season which they did not do in any true visible being mixed amongst the Nations
symboles accompanying his Ministery and the peculiar effects thereof wrought in the manner of the Corinthians conversion sealed his Apostleship and not their bare conversion as is apparent by comparing this text with 2 Cor. 12.12 The signes of an Apostle were seen amongst you in all patience in signes and wonders and mighty deeds 2. Bare conversion without such singular gifts and fruits argues not any particular no nor any Office at all For men in every one of those five degrees nay such as had no Office were instruments in this honourable designe and a common effect proves not a particular cause Paul's argument had been weak and groundless to demonstrate himself to be an Apostle by such a signe as was common to all other Officers nay to private Christians 3. The Witnesses in mystical Babylon whether in Rome or elsewhere received a gift from Christ tending to convert and edifie Now the conversion wrought by those godly men did not confirm the warrantableness of membership and orders in the false Churches they lived in for their outward clothing was black deformed sackcloth it onely evidenced the truth of that inward grace and power given by Jesus Christ I hope you will not affirm that those good fruits issuing from the Ministery of Sylvester Savanarola Wickliff Huss Luther with others of the Romish Clergie as also Latimer Ridley Hooper with sundry other Bishops ratified the Office of Friers Monks Priests and Diocesan Bishops as that of Paul did his Apostleship we say It sealed onely their gifts We shall here sift another argument of yours against this gifted Ministery instanced in page 23 of your Book Object If such a gifted Ministery be currant and sufficiently authorized for administring Word and Sacraments then there was no need of an Official Ministery and Christ it seems ordained therein a superfluous Ordinance for Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora It is a vain thing and not beseeming a wise man to use many ways to do that which may be done by sewer Answ This your Philosophical Maxime is not generally true in Divinity but must admit of many limitations For God is a free agent and may work by more or fewer nay without mediums and in some seasons administers a greater variety and fulness for satiety and delight Prov. 9 1 2 3. Cant. 5.1 Matth. 22. Revel 19.9 in other times he useth a more sparing dispensation onely to maintain some being and life of grace When the Temple was destroyed and the vessels thereof lay void and were of no use for Gods service in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar yet the Lord then was to them a little Sanctuary in the truth of Grace Ministery Prayer c. You cannot from hence conclude that the same Temple and vessels as were made consecrated and used in Jerusalem were superfluous Ordinances neither is it safe to charge Wisdom it self with vanity and indiscretion for effecting that by more which he might have and did accomplish by fewer means So when the outward court of Church-government was given to the Nations and in the possession of Antichrist Christ did and might in point of honour and justice leave it and distribute his grace by a more retired and inward way as is at large declared in the Cessation Therefore this your assertion is both untrue and dangerous it intrenching upon the absolute and unlimited Royalty of the great King Object Lastly if the holding of the four windes be understood of the holding of the Spirit from breathing in Ordinances for others carry it fairly in another sence then 1. there is nothing said how long the restraint should last much less that it lasteth during the apostacie Answ 1. That the winde metaphorically signifies the breathing of the Spirit is apparent by these Scriptures Joh. 3.8 Ezek. 1.4 Acts 2.2 Ezek. 37.9 14. and it cannot here be fairly applied to any other sence it belonging to Israelites and the restraint being hurtful to their earth sea and trees that winde must needs be favourable and reviving whose detaining is hurtful 2. The text implicitely concludes the restraint to last during the time of the hurt which is the whole Antichristian age and after that the four windes shall again be loosed to animate what lay before spiritless as is shewed on the second Querie in the Cessation Object 2. Then it must be meant of a more sparing breathing in comparison of the primitive times not of an utter restraint 3. If it be an utter restraint then take notice that the restraint is general and cannot by any circumstance of the text be confined onely to Official preachers and preaching but as fully reacheth to the gifted men as to them and so doth conclude an utter ceasing of the Spirit now or then from breathing in or by any Ordinances Answ To begin with the last of yours 1. This withholding and the hurt thereby may be gathered by a circumstance of the text not to be so general as utterly to debar the Elect from some more secret and inward inspirations for vers 2 3 the four Angels are forbidden to hurt by this restriction till the Angel of the East had sealed the servants of God in their foreheads which infers a care and some provision for the spiritual subsistence and breathings in upon and by the elect hereupon it reacheth not to the gifted men for they had a power given immediately from Christ which breathed forth in Ministery Rev. 11.3 and as there was an inward Temple and Altar so there was approved Worship therein flowing from the truth of grace vers 1. 2. The restraint was total in respect of outward Order and Church-constitution For first Therein succeeded another key also that was cast out and became Babylon as shall be shewed in the two next Sections and the Spirit cannot breathe in that which is wholly corrupted and becomes another especially in what it excommunicates Secondly The winde here expressed was utterly detained from blowing on the earth sea or any tree which must imply it to be in some sence general Thirdly All save the Elect were hurt thereby and subverted vers 2. which dis-interesses other common Israelites from those outward priviledges they enjoyed while the visibility was true From hence we gather that the open windes deciphered Acts 2.2 which gave being to the external keys of Church-government were altogether bound up from their manifest blast but yet a still and secret influence coming more immediately from Jesus Christ which never was wanting from Adam's time remained and this was more sparing and narrow in comparison of the primitive both in its measure and degree and the number of the Ordinances which it occupied The windes here kept back are said to be four in regard of the generality thereof reaching to the four quarters also the windes of the earth it being an administration more visible here on earth thus the power of binding and loosing by these more external keys is said to be on earth
Matth. 16.19 And as the natural windes bring a sweet influence of fertility to the earth and of purification both to sea and air by their breathing in this lower Region the restraint whereof causeth things to putrifie so this spiritual winde blowing here below on the Israelites earth sea and trees caused the spices thereof to flow out and purified all Cant. 4.16 but after it was withheld then ensued a common infection Chap. 8. Chap. 9. Chap. 13. Chap. 11. Chap. 17. which poysoned all except the sealed ones who properly had some secret inhalations from the Angel of the East These Angels we conceive to be evil spirits working by their principal ministers the four capital Patriarchs of the Christian world to wit the Bishop of Alexandria for the South of Antioch for the East of Constantinople for the North and Rome for the West who usurping and in a manner ingrossing all Ecclesiastical Government into their hands and tugging amongst themselves for Primacie did by contention pride avarice and heresie gradually detain the four windes from breathing in the external Regiment till at the last the Headship fell into Rome where it became another And this restraint was not properly in them as if any creature had power over the holy Ghost but by accident in the same sence that the infection of Nature is said to resist and quench the Spirit Acts 7 51. and 1 Thess 5.19 Now because the Israelites here spoken of are thought by some to be the natural seed of Abraham I shall for their satisfaction evidence by some arguments that they must be the Christian nations or Gentile Israelites proved by these following Reasons 1. This Book of the Revelations was not sent to the Jews but to the Gentiles as principally belonging unto them and in various types pourtrays the several changes that should befall them from the days of John to the final consummation 2. The main body of this Vision was after the days of John as you may gather by Chap. 4.1 and for time begins when the open breathing of the Spirit was withheld when the trumpets that brought in the apostacie were sounded when the outward court was cast out even when the Jews were almost utterly fallen away from any profession of Christ from whom onely comes salvation and could not then have one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones amongst their tribes 3. The four Angels stand upon all quarters of the earth and the with-holding is universal The four windes and the hurt thereby to all the unsealed Israelites which cannot agree with any one Nation 4. This hurt was chiefly introduced by the locust Chap. 9.4 and by the Beast which can in no sence be applied to the Jews but to the Christian nations who were thus undermined by Antichrist 5. By comparing this text with Chap. 11.2 we may clearly perceive that the nations possessed the court without the temple which was the stand of the common Israelites The common Israelites stand in the court without the nations stand in the court without the nations then must be these common Israelites especially considering that all the visions of this book are not proper but allegorical 6. The number sealed from amongst them was the same not hurt by the Locusts Chap. 9.4 nor utterly deceived by the Beast Chap. 13.8 Matth. 24.24 the same standing on mount Sion Chap. 14.1 which duely pondered with all the circumstances can be reduced to no time or condition but that of the Elect in Babylon If the Romish and Antichristian defection be not deciphered by these figures and but the Jews onely then is it altogether omitted in this Book then must all from thence to the end of the Revelation be peculiar to the Jews neither of which can any man of wisdom assent to embrace The Spirit hath so interlaced this Chapter from vers 1. to vers 9 with all the after-types expressing the state of the time of the tribulation and from vers 9. to the end with the next revolution and condition of the harpers as may sufficiently remove such trifling conjectures from the mindes of all who will observe the order of this Prophecie Thus we shall leave the second Section and proceed to the third Section 3. Our third ground why the visibility of Church-constitution and the keys thereof comprising the later sort of Ordinances did sail was Because the Lord deserting them when made void of their primitive truth and purity the dragon had full power therein and gave to the fallen star another key even the key of the bottomless pit Rev. 9.1 2 3 4 c. Chap. 13. Object Against this you alleadge that the Pope got into his hands all the other Ordinances as well as these as Prayer Ministery Baptism and yet for substance they remained true why then may not the later as Ordination c. Answ Because you here require us we will give our Reasons together though most have been elsewhere written why the former continued and not the later Our Grounds why the former abode shall be first in general then in particular The Reasons in general are these two 1. The former being promised in the Word to remain the Lord so sustained them by his Word as no creature could abolish them 2. Because as Christ fore-declared that there should be a sealed number to make up a mystical Church in Babylon so he upheld the former as being more necessary to maintain the being of grace some means of salvation and the badge of the Covenant Now a few words for the former Ordinances with faith and profession in particular Those of Ministery Prayer and Praisings arise from a grace in the soul faith in the heart and a gift dispensed from Christ alone even then when the outward government was rejected now his Spirit could never be radically touched as it works in the soul Thus the desires of grace in the minde aspiring and fuming up to the Father of spirits in the Ordinances of Prayer and Praisings could not be restrained much less razed by the great Antichrist Likewise the gift of the Witnesses prophecie wrought in the inward man with the administration thereof breathing out teaching is so given inspired and sustained by Jesus Christ as the Beast could never take it into his full possession it this had been possible he would not have suffered them to turn his waters into blood ministerially and smite his earth with plagues and that not so oft as the Beast but as they listed vers 6. The Bishops with us in England when they had full command and jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical regiment could by no means wholly withhold or corrupt the desires and prayers of the Saints nor so take this inward gift into their custody but that in despight of their malice it brake forth in one corner or other of the Land to testifie the truth in some measure and disclose nay cry down the corruptions of the times Also faith in the heart and the effects thereof shining forth
engagement to prophesie ariseth from their taking and eating the book Besides the word Angel signifieth a Messenger or one sent with a prevailing administration which may be either by the medium of a visible power here belowe or else simply from above without any such mediums from man All this we shall be ready to evidence in our next Return Before we pass from hence give us leave a little to go back and reflect upon the ground-work of your stand and dealings in this particular Truly Sir we conceive you are hardly driven when being sounded to the bottom you cannot justifie your own Office but withal you are inforced to plead for that of Friers Monks Priests Bishops and the whole rabble of the Popish Orders nay to maintain them to be the Angels of truth by reason of their outward investments from Rome neither can you vindicate your interest in your key of Church-government in Ordaining Excommunicating c. but you must therewith manage the Popes Surely it is inevitable necessity drives you to this extreme shift that either you must hold the foundation of Church-order to remain in Rome and so make that mother of harlots to be radically the true spouse or else you must yeeld and renounce your own We cannot but * Isai 29.9 stay our selves and wonder that you who have been counted men of knowledge and godliness should so straitly tie up all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ to such a corrupt and Antichristian function as if you onely were thereby called and inrighted with a power to dispense the same when as your Office in the root thereof comes from the Pope the angel of the bottomless pit and his false way If your eyes were opened to see the nature and extent of that key you would quickly finde that your glorying herein were your greatest shame and so it will appear ere long For though you should outwardly clothe this your Office and the Church built thereon with the fairest Robes of the primitive patern and could extract the quintessence of wit policie learning art argument to present it as impregnable and had the tongues of men and angels to paint it out with more then humane eloquence to make it seem like * Ezek. 27.3 Tyrus to be of perfect beauty yet being in its principle earthly and bottomless your Office with the power of its government will unavoidably be disclosed to be a false Christ a false prophet or Beast the Church sustained thereby to be a daughter of that great mother Rev. 17. and her attire and seeming beauty to be no other then the glittering ornaments and paintings of the woman Babylon the mystery of whose deceit will be anatomized and made naked by the light of the Spirit This lay concealed in times of ignorance and God did more connive but now his call enlightens and discovers these principles of delusion and invites to a separation Let us therefore advise you in the bowels of charity to obey this voice of the Spirit in coming off your selves and to hasten your members the captive exuls that they die not in the pit that you may be of the number of the rejoycing harpers Rev. 15. and not of those mourners Chap. 18. Section 4. Our next ground was that the visible Church it self the foundation of these later Ordinances failed and so the Ordinances proper to a constituted Church must needs receive a loss of their efficacie Object You except That the visible Church is not the foundation but the institution of Christ Answ The institution of Christ is a foundation but yet that which affords present being or existence both to the constitution of visible Government it self and the Ordinances arising thence is the Spirit of life sent from Jesus Christ as is elsewhere shewed And whether such a Church first married by God whereby to have the keys of this visible kingdom given them from above and the Spirit of Christ united to and operating in them enjoy not by vertue of that union a principle of power to use the same and contribute a right Membership and Office unto others we leave it to you to consider The iron conjoyned to the fire hath the same essence of heat and operation with the fire and I suppose you will grant that a true Presbytery coferring an Office unto another by Ordination hath the being and foundation of that Office This word foundation taken simpliciter simply and originally is proper onely to Christ but secundum quid after some sort may be attributed to the Church whether visibly corporated or mystical You assent that if it be made good that the visibility of Church-order failed and became Babylon it is enough to carry the cause Answ This is proved in the Cessation from Rev. 11.2 that when this outward court was given to the Nations it was then cast out by the Spirit The words properly translated run thus But the court which is without the temple cast out and measure it not for it is given to the Nations and the holy city shall they tread under foot fourty and two months When the Nations ingrossed the externalitie and outside of Ecclesiastical Government into their hands and joyned in with National worldly Regiment they made up national Churches Here we may behold as in a spiritual Map of what nature they are and how they are false and Antichristian in the original of their constitution whether considered as Papal Episcopal or Presbyterial which these Reasons syllogistically drawn from the native sence of the text do demonstrate 1. Those Churches which are altogether outward and have nothing of the temple and altar and the vertue and life thereof in their constitutions are meerly humane and spiritless But National Churches whether Papal Episcopal or Presbyterial are so Therefore c. The Major you cannot deny the Minor is cleared by the words of the text for no more was given them but the outward court See Sect. 2. 2. Those Church-Constitutions that are cast out of God are disapproved and forsaken of him But such National Church-constitutions are cast out of God Ergo c. The Major is undeniable the Minor is confirmed by this Scripture The court without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies cast out and not leave out as it is translated hereupon ensued another key Sect. 3. 3. Those Churches that have no measurement by the line of Truth are false and Antichristian But such National Churches have no measurement by the line of Truth Ergo c. The minor is evinced by the text Measure it not and so are bottomless 4. Those Churches who are distinct and another from the holy City are in their ground-work of their Order strange and Babylonish But such National Churches are distinct and another from the holy city Ergo c. The Major is indubitable The Minor is also evinced from the text where they the Christian nations and the holy city are set in distinct and opposite terms 5. Those Churches who
river Euphrates by drying up these waters They are distinguished from the beast in Ecclesiasticks but not from the great river nor from that aire in which as yet they breath Revel 16.12 17. and cannot sit down in a Gospel order till these obstacles and pollutions be removed and they receive the grant of their beautiful wedding-garments the righteousness of the Saints Cap. 19.8 Reason 5. The day of the vials pouring is a time of war and blood-shedding and it is the wise Decree of God first to wash away the filth of the daughter of Sion and to purge the blood of Jerusalem from the midst of her by the Spirit of judgement and burning Isa 4.4 and after that to create upon all her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night vers 5. Where observe that this open dispensation that gives being to Church-stating as you may finde proved in the Cessation Quaere 2. comes not from heaven till after these combustions are put to a period and the Saints purged from filth and blood and then it is done by a new creation Also Revel 15.8 at that marriage-season the temple was filled with smoak from Gods glory and power to wit a manifest pouring out of the Spirit to restore the keys and by them a power given to open the temple for visible entrance Chap. 11.19 but before that day no man could enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Reason 6. A further reason of the weakness and unwarrantableness of all Church-constitutions in our times may be the divisions and rents amongst the godly caused by these forms also other effects and defects wherein they are directly opposite to the primitive which are more fully recited in the Epistle to the Reader Reason 7. The last reason why it is now by separation without stating is because this return from mystical Babylon is not fully accomplished at once but is traced by distinct steps and degrees Cam. 6.13 Isa 52.11 12. it hath a journey in it and a gradual going onward towards the visible marriage of Sion as Israel of old travelled out of Chaldea and the nations with their faces towards outward Sion Hence the prodigal who types out the Gentiles his return from the strange country Babylon to his native home is intimated to be a long journey his father meeting him afar off in which spiritual passage he was imbraced kissed jewelled c. before he entred into the house Also from the first call for the going out of and rewarding Babylon Rev. 8.4 6. to the marriage and call thereto chap. 19 7 8 9. there is a tract of time interceding as before For as Rome was not built at once but gradatim by several trumpets chap. 8 and 9. so she goes not down together but by degrees and certain intervals by the vials Hereupon chap. 11.18 19. Enemies must first be destroyed by several distances before the Temple in Heaven was opened To this agrees that of Matthew 13. where during the harvest which notes out this last holy war and the time of separation as we can clearâ— if desired the Antichristian Enemies the tares must first be cust down and burned before the wheat is gathered into the barn the visible Church which must imply some space of time Revel 16. This journey of separation is described in the Prophets and in Isa 35.8 9 10. is called a way in the wilderness that as the Saints had their place and abode in the wilderness during the foregoing season for 1260 years Rev. 12.6 14. so now the Lord prepares a way for her to go out by returning and the same is stiled a high-way being paved and cast up by the Spirit above the Babylonish earthly station as that on high or above to the wise it is also by a redoubled speech termed an high-way and a way as being a way in it self which must have a space to be traced in and is for form a way of holiness as that more pure then the times before And that this belongs to a distinguished people is evident ver 10. where they are entitled ransomed separated ones and returners to Sion not staters in Sion and travellers and walkers in the way not sitters down in Church-constitutions Also for time it must pertain to this last departing because the text attributes everlasting joy to be on their heads which can be applyed to not former separation either to that out of Egypt Chaldea or the primitive all these being after darkened by a succeeding sorrowful night onely this last shall have everlasting joy it being the passage to that glorious Kingdome which shall never be eclipsed as were the former Dan. 2.44 chap. 7.18 27. Besides waters and streams are said to break out in this desart ver 6 7 which was not literally fulfilled in the Jewes departure from outward Chaldea Likewise the leaping of the lame or him that halteth and the singing of the dumb ver 6. fitly alludes to the Harpers the incouraging of the fearful to be strong and Gods coming with vengence and a recompence to save ver 4 fitly answers to the recompensing and rewarding by the Vials If you except against this we desire to know what the way is when it is and who are the walkers in it This Prophet further calls this way in the wilderness a new thing then springing forth in which the Lord the light of the world will lead his blind people chap. 43.19 chap. 42.16 Likewise the Spirit by Hosea confirms the same chap. 2.14 15 16 17 18. Behold saith the Lord I will allure her in drawing her out I will cause her to walk in the wilderness for so is the true original and not I will bring her as is translated before she sate in now she walks out of the wilderness I will give her her vines from thence where vines are metonymically taken for the fruits of the vines which metaphorically symbols the comfort of the Spirit or that love which is better then wine Here are also many other pretious promises to the walkers in this way the last whereof is a quiet sitting down and a cessation from war all which shews a space of time to walk in this way and then agreeable to Rev. 1.97 I will marry thee to mee for ever Also the River Euphrates mentioned in the fourth Reason whose waters will be dried up to prepare for a passage over by the sixth Vial chap. 16. relates to this journey We being as yet on this side that river and not off from the Euphratean world and its affairs nor come into the spirituall land of promised must be till then within the wilderness of Babylon and can erect no visible temple but it must be built with Babylons stones stand in her territories and so be Babylons temple This will be dangerous because the Vials wherein the seven last plagues of God are wrapped up will irresistably pour out their wrath upon it either