and Dishonour under the wrath of God and the Lamb. And of this all the Judgments that have been hitherto in the World have been Parts Peices and Portions also Pawns and Pledges of that State Those Great Judgments therefore on the Fallen Angels on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah on Egypt on Corah Dathan and Abiram on Nadab and Abihu have been already instanced in the Destruction of great Armies as most especially in the Valley of Jehosaphat 2 Cor. 20. 24. Joel 3 12. a great Type of that last Result at the Battle of Armageddon is most worthy to be considered and so indeed are All the Judgments we Read of in the Book of God The Book of the Wars of the Lord Numb c. 21. 14. Run down with a strong Stream and Torrent into their Great Sea the last Judgment at the Kingdom of Christ and having all the Nature of Miraculous confirm the Point we are now upon That Miracles and the Kingdom of Christ are closely Connex'd and Joyn'd together Argum. last For a Summary or Recapitulating Argument we may look back on some of the most Remarkable Miraculous Appearances of God in the Old Testament and see what an Illustrious Correspondence they bear to the World to Come or to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Translation of Enoch that he should not see Death Gen. 5. 22. Heb. 11. 5. That we know was perfect Miracle compar'd with the Present State of Dying Elijah and Elisha's Raising the Dead Types of the Resurrection 1 Kings 17. 17. 2 Kings 4 28. The Dividing the Red-Sea and Jordan Types of the smiting the Egyptian River in the Seven Streams and Destroying the Tongue of it making men go over Dry shod and of a High way for his People as to Israel in the Day he came up out of the Land of Egypt Esay 11. 16. and Like Drying up the Deep and the River and the Pride of Egyptian and Assyrian Departing away when all shall be strengthen'd in God and the people shall walk up and down in the Name of the Lord Zech. 10. 11. c. The giving of Mannah as Bread from Heaven looks to Christ the Bread of Life and the Tree of Life as the Water out of the Rock to the Water of Life But I would especially have Respect to that Standard Miracle of the Sabbatical Year A great Wonder of the Riches and Might and Power of God Every Seventh Year there was a mighty shewing forth of the Power of God For that the Earth brought forth it self so much in the Sixth Year that they might Live upon it without any Plowing or Sowing the seventh Year The seventh Year was to be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath to the Lord the Children of Israel were neither to Sow their fields nor to Prune their Vineyards nor to Reap nor to Gather but all were to Live alike of what came forth of it self God promised to Bless the sixth Year so that It should yeild meat for three years that so the seventh year might be a year of Sabbath or Rest to them Now let us Consider what the Prophets have spoken concerning this World to Come how exactly suitable and agreeable to this they have spoken of the World to Come From whence I Argue and do appeal to any one whether the Argument be not exceeding great The seventh year among the Jews was a Symbol was a Peice Parcel Portion of the World to Come whereof we speak and of the great Sabbatism of it Amos 9. 11. In that day will I Raise up the Tabernacle of David that it may be Built as in the days of Old That they may possess the Remnant of Edom and of all the Heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this And then it follows Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that the Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the Treader of Grapes him that soweth Seed and the Mountains shall drop sweet VVine and All the Hills shall melt The Earth and the Mountains and the Hills shall Flow out with a great Freedom and Spontaneousness into an abundance for the Servants of God Then shall the full Sense and Meaning of the Sabbatical years be understood Then shall the Full Sum of which that was but a Part and Portion be brought into open View Then instead of the Briar and Thorn shall grow up the Mirtle Tree and the Fir Tree And It shall be unto the Lord for a Sign and a Memorial that shall not be cut off When our Lord was here in the Days of his Flesh he gave an Experiment of Divine Power to the same purpose and it was a Miracle he seem'd to delight in For he several Times Repeated it He fed with a few Loaves and small Fishes so many Thousands and the Baskets of Fragments far exceeded the Principal or very first Provision Now these Things are all own'd to be Miracles let us but ask our selves whether these things were not so If we now in this Nation should let Plowing and Sowing alone for a year would we not look upon it as the Introduction of a Famine but now if God should positively command us and Assure us That there should be care taken in any one year for three years and we should Find it so taken Would we not look upon it as Miracle If any one should Set down so great Numbers of People as Christ did to so small a Provision that every one could not take a little should we not look upon it with as great or greater amazement than the Apostles did upon Christs doing so But if the small Feast in the Beginning should Multiply in the Eating and become More after a plentiful Eating than it was before Eating Should we not look upon it as a Miracle Now All this Imports That a Sufficiency of Food and Durable Cloathing shall be in the Kingdom of Christ that his Servants may Eat and be Satisfied Eat and Drink at his Table in his Kingdom and attend upon the Lord without Distraction that is Fulness of Enjoyment Thus the Miracles Christ did in Healing and Recovering the Sick the Blind and the Lame How did these mighty Acts look to that State of the World to come Revel 21. 4. There shall be no more Sickness Sorrow Pain Death nor Curse but God shall wipe away all Tears from his Servants Eyes The Great Readiness of Christ in shewing his Mercy and Power towards the Blind and Lame that they might be so no longer makes me think of that Glory in the Book of Samuel when it is said of David the Blind and the Lame whom David's Soul hated I only make an Allusion not considering the strict Sense Jesus Christ his Soul hated not the I ame or the Blind but the Blindness and the Lameness the Sickness and the Death His Soul had such a sense that this came upon the World upon Mankind by sin That he Laboured and Travailed in Spirit till he
Nicodemus How can these things be Thou speakest of impossible things How can a man be born again Can he enter the Second Time into his Mothers Womb and be born We see this great Acknowledger of Miracles when he came to a Point of Miraculous Power indeed that is the Renovation of Man the giving a New Heart and a New Spirit He is Puzzled He is Posed He do's not know what to say I cannot forbear to take notice That the great Men of Free-will are the greatest Arguers of the Truth of Christianity by Miracles and yet notwithstanding they are as much puzzl'd and Blunder as much concerning the very Miracles of Regenerating Grace the Regenerating Spirit as this great Man Nicodemus did It is true to hear them speaking of it as it is not Miracle but according to the Law of the First Creation or very little Differing They may speak more Tollerably of it But saith our Lord to him That which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh According to the Law of the First Creation Let Flesh be your Spring and Well-Head you shall never rise above it do what you can Therefore marvel not saith Christ I said you must be Born again This Regeneration is by the Spirit alone no man can Beget himself but he must needs beget himself the very same He was before The New Birth is as Isaac was the Child of Promise It is as the Birth of our Lord and several of his Progenitors was by Miracle He can Communicate no New principle to himself And just as the Apostle says here Divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will So in this Miracle of Regeneration saith Christ The Spirit bloweoh where it Listeth To shew It is all immediate power that is Miracle Thus also the Apost Discourses 2 Cor. 5. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature or a new Creation All Old Things are past away behold all Things are become New I would ask any one whether this is Miracle or not If it be only according to the Law of the First Creation It is not Miracle but if it be entirely and perfectly a new Creation It must needs be Miracle Argum. 3. The Resurrection is agreed to be Perfect Miracle The Kingdom of Christ is the Kingdom of the Resurrection From hence appears the strong and close Connexion between the Kingdom of Châ—ist and Miracle I could Heartily Pray the Threed and Train of the principles Arguing from the Râ—surrection as Miracle were closely pursued and followed Home The Apostle says Acts 17. 31. God hath appointed a Day in which he will Judg the World by that man He hath Ordain'd whereof he hath given Assurance unto All men whereof saith he God hath made Credit He hath offered greatest Reasons of being assured of what he had so Ordained by Raising the Lord Jesus from the Dead and therefore he is so often called He that is Risen from the Dead and the First Born the First Begotten from the Dead God says to him Thou art my Son this day of the Resurrection have I Begotten Thee and so Royal Power is more solemnly settled upon Him I was Dead and am Alive and behold I Live for evermore I have the Keyes of Hell and Death the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Now this Resurrection is the very Finger of God and therefore It iâ— justly acknowledged the Principal Miracle It is indeed the Center Miracle in which all Lines meet as all the greatest Reasoners on Miracles do also Fix in it as so Now that the Kingdom of Christ is the Kingdom of the Resurrection of all his Servants is plain For he Rose First His Saints Rise at his Coming 1 Cor. 15. 23 His Coming and his Kingdom are Conjoyn'd 2 Tim 4. 1. So it is the Kingdom of the Resurrection But I would expresly Establish it on that Revel 20. 4. I saw Thrones and they sate upon them And I saw the Souls that is the whole Persons of Saints Souls Re-united to their Bodies of them who were Beheaded for the Word of God c. Now these Lived They Lived and they Reign'd with Christ a Thousand years And the rest of the Dead That is all those who were not in a State of Blessed Life but under the Condemnation of Christ during the Thousand Years They Lived not again after the Thousand Years were fulfilled This is the first Resurrection the Kingdom of the Resurrection Blessed and Holy is he who hath his Part in this First Resurrection as all the Living Remaining Saints have Over them the Second Death shall have no Power For they in a Paradisiac State on the New Earth chang'd into Bodies of Paradise are Priests of God and Christ for the Thousand Years Fitted to be Caught up and to be together with the Saints Dead in Christ Raised to Enjoy the Kingdom of the Resurrection as the Children of the Resurrection the Principals of the First Resurrection in the New Heaven I have often Heard and Read the Discourses of the Men of Reason Magnifying the Resurrection as is most Due As the Hand of God stretched out in the Highest manner as the Greatest of Miracles But oh why should they not follow on to the Kingdom of the Resurrection the World to Come of the Resurrection during its Thousand Years the New Creation the New Heaven the New Earth the Kingdom of all Miracle and then All delivered up to God and the Father that he may be All in All. For from all this I conclude the Kingdom of Christ is the Kingdom of all Miracle Every Miracle therefore that hath been in this World is but a Peice a Parcel a Portion of that so vast and entire Sum. Argum. 4. I have now Argued The New Creation The New Heaven and the New Earth are certainly Miracle because above the Constitution and Law of the First Creation and that therefore all Miracle is but part and parcel a peice and portion of the Great State of the Kingdom of Christ For he that is upon the Throne says Behold I Create all New And he adds Write For these Words are True and Faithful Why did he say so But because he knew very well what an Opposition what a contrary Sentiment even Christians would be of to this Truth Be assur'd therefore saith the Great Prince upon the Throne These Things are Faithful and True and shall have their full Accomplishment in their own proper Times But now as there is in The Kingdom of Christ so Miraculous a State of Mercy and of Grace to his Servants so there is a Miraculous State of Judgment Desolating and Dissolving the Present State of this World even as it is upheld now by the Grace of the Mediator and that in the Introducing the World to Come whereof we speak and also to settle such a Counter-state of Wrath and Judgment wherein all the Wicked that have been in the World shall be in a most Visible State of Contempt
Daniel there were very Resplendent Signatures of the Mighty Power of God in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and Image both Retrieved by Daniel when He had lost all Lines of it as also Expounded to him which both satisfied and convinced that Insolent Monarch into an acknowledgment of God the Miraculous Chaining up the power of the Fire upon the Three Servants of God in that so over-heated Furnace while yet it had Full Force to Fly out and Ravage upon the Servants of the Idolatrous Furious Prince that doted upon that very Image of Vast Arbitrary Dominion most probably which being so Miraculously Represented and Expounded had Extorted from him the Confession of the one True God That immediate Hand of the most High upon him in such a Deliration and Phrensy which turn'd him to Grass with the Beasts and as wonderfully Restor'd him with a Mouth so full of acknowledgments of the God of Heaven The Dreadful and Astonishing Starting of the Hand and Fingers out of the wall to that Intemperate Sacrilegious and Idolatrous King Belshazzar with the Affrightful Comment of Daniel upon the writing of them The preserving Daniel in the Den of Lyons when their Rage was yet so quick upon the men that gave him as a prey to their intended Ravenous Teeth All these very stupendious and Mighty Works of God were undoubtedly on purpose provided for that very Time wherein These most Admirable and Truly more Miraculous Visions of the Kingdom of Christ were in Giving and as most Connatural to them so for a Confirmation of them They lasted therefore so long and were succeeded by not so many Miracles as very wonderful and Mighty Providences in the Restoring Judah and Jerusalem by such Signal and almost miraculously moved and Ingaged services of so many Princes of Persia together with the Glorious Prophecy of Haggai and Zechary which lasted till Judah and Jerusalem were Restor'd and so long continued the Spirit of Prophecy Then immediately came on those Strait Cramped Times both as to the Prophecy the Miraculous Power and all Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ One Rising and Setting with the other as by the strongest Sympathy and Configuration or most Wise Disposals to for and with one another For when those Straits of Time under the Power of Heathen Princes and the more settled Times of the Gentiles came in the Spirit of Prophecy Retired in Malachies Prophecy and took as it were its Leave and gave its Fare-well in those Words ending it Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servant in Horeb for All Israel with the Statutes and the Judgments viz. As Enlarg'd upon by the Prophets Let my Written Word be your Rule Thus there was a Sealing up Prophecy till the sending of Elijah the Prophet which Elijah the Prophet our Lord Assures was John the Baptist in One Degree but not in the Highest For another Elijah like Ministry and of an Higher Elevation or exaltation shall yet Arise as our Lord hath Intimated also in saying Elijah truly Cometh and shall Restore All Things even before that Notably Great and Terrible Day of the Lord And when the mighty Converting Power the Power of Miracles being also Joyn'd with it shall be abundantly given out For John did no Miracle to shew the Prophecy was not in him Fullfill'd to the utmost then shall indeed the Heart of the Fathers be Turn'd to the Children and the Heart of the Children to the Fathers or of the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just However in the mean time The Beginning of the Gospel in every Evangelist is plac'd in John to whom says Luke The Word of God by immediate Mission came and he was a Man sent from God as the Evangelist John says And the very Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God is Fix'd in Him by Mark cap. 1. 1 2 As if he would have Joyn'd the last words of Malachi and the first of his own together and in a Continuation as one and the same Holy Scripture But notwithstanding all this tho John was so great a Prophet Yet he saith Christ that is Least in the Kingdom of God is Greater than he His Greatness above all that were Born of Women stood in this That he prepar'd the way to Christ and to that great Power with which the Son of God came He was so Great in his being so near the Kingdom of God yet because he was so near and not in that very Kingdom It was not fit for him to do any Miracle That was a Glory Proper only to the Kingdom of God it self Now it was just in its Appearance And thus I have brought Time down to its Fullness just to that very point wherein our Lord Jesus Christ Appearing there were so great Reasons of Expectation that his Kingdom should also have then Appear'd Immediately and all Miracles have been summ'd up in its Coming with Power But tho in the Days of those Kingdoms I mean of those Four Monarchies in Daniel that were so Determin'd by God and by Christ a Room was reserv'd That the God of Heaven should set up a Kingdom and a Dominion never to End yet it was in Infinite Wisdom and Counsel so Determin'd that it should shew it self and its right and so withdraw again because the last of the Four Monarchies even the Roman Monarchy had that large Stage of Time allow'd to it to run over and concerning the last State or Part of which Christ had Sworn There should be Time Times and half a Time e're the Wonders or Miracles proper to the Introducing his Kingdom should be Finished Dan. 12. 6. However for that very Appearance of that Kingdom set up so great a Power of Miracles as were wrought in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was so shewn both in regard of that Kingdom of Faith and Holiness that did then actually show it self and which indeed can never suffer a Total so much as Interruption much less an End But yet an Apostasy from it even a General Apostasy the Apostasy of a Generation the Antichristian Generation express'd by the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 1. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to come as the Apostle does with so great an Earnestness and Zeal Assert 2 Thes 2. And by the same degrees the Mystery of Iniquity wrought in order to that and to bring it forth by the very same the Kingdom of Christ withdrew and Retired in the Spiritual Vertue and Power of it and also in the Miraculous Power that comes along with it This stop to its present glorious Appearance is very Forcibly Express'd by Daniel in these words Dan. 9 24. The Sealing Vision and Prophecy at the very Time of making an End of Sin and Finishing Transgression shewing that whereas the Glory of the Kingdom was in strict Justice due to Christ at the very Time of the Sacrifice offered and Reconciliation made and the great Assurance God gave of his Acceptance of it
of his Kingdom of the New Creation there should be a Miraculous Appearance A Light therefore shone round and other Manifestations of the Powerful Visible Presence of Christ were given at it All this shews then another great Reason why God is pleas'd to make Miracles the Conveyance as I have said the Chariot of his Mighty Spirit and what End but that God would give Testimony That a New Creation a New Heaven a New State of Things a World to come shall be when the Gospel shall attain its Glory Then shall be a Visible Representation of the Inward Spiritual Glory The Case and outside to the Inward Glory shall be the outward Glory the outward Glorious State of all Things some Parcels and Portions of which are according to the Word of God shewn with the Gospel at such Times and in such Cases on such occasions as the Lord sees meet For this is Demonstration If without Miracles Christ drew Souls when he pleased even whole Cities as that of Samaria John 4. without any Miracles we Read of And if notwithstanding Miracles he left many to the Blindness and Hardness of their Heart It is then Evident There is no necessity of Miracles but the Spirit powr'd out from on High is Enough and only Enough with Miracles or without for Conversion It follows then Miracles are wrought chiefly because God would give Pledges and as I said Parts and Peices of the World to come before hand that shall be a Visible Glory over and upon the Spiritual Invisible Glory of the Gospel at its Height and Perfection Tho it may Collatterally serve for Confirmation and a Testimony to it now Yet still Miracles duly attend the Gospel in the World in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles in All its Grander Appearances in the World as is allowed and agreed on all sides I Argue then seeing the Gospel is yet in a very Imperfect State of Acquist or of getting the whole World into its possession therefore when ever the Gospel is to come out again in that Glory and Power as to bring the uttermost Ends under it Then even in Course there must be there shall be a return of Miracles Tho as I shall Argue much more because the Gospel shall then Introduce the Kingdom of Christ and the World to come It must be attended by Miracle But to Argue first according to the Allowances of Men with whom we now deal let us look on the second Psalm v. 7. saith Christ I will declare the Decree the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son This Day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathens for thy Inheritance and the uttermost ends of the Earth for thy possession This shall indeed be done by Angry Power by a Rod of Iron where the Gospel does not prevail but yet it is to be done also and principally too by the Gospel For Psal 110. When the Lord shall send the Rod of Christs strength out of Zion That he shall Rule in the midst of his Enemies and even as other Scriptures say to the very Ends of the Earth His People shall be willing in the Day of his Power and through the Power of Converting Grace he shall as in regard of Abundance of Converts have the Dew of his Youth the Children of his Youth Renewed at that Time Like the Eagles as numerous as the Drops of Dew from the dawn of the Morning His People perswaded by the Gospel shall come in as Free-will Offerings in so great numbers When this Day of Christ's Power therefore shall be and the Effects of the Gospel Preaching so mighty then according to all Rules of Proportion Miracles shall return to attend the Gospel But I Argue further from positive and Express Scriptures beyond Contradiction and indeed I do not find many that are so unreasonable as to disagree however they may think that Miracles shall not Return that the Gospel must have yet a greater Publication to the ends of the Earth than it yet hath had For we know what vast parts of the Earth there are now that are without the Gospel not only without the Belief of it but without the very Sound of it or at least a Sound that is at all Considerable if any at All Yet few think it shall be so to the very End Few think God hath done what he intends to do that God hath gone over the World with the Gospel as far as he hath any purpose to go and that he intends to go no further But whoever may think so Christ Discoursing concerning the End hath told us Matt. 24. 6 14. There shall be Wars and Rumors of Wars but yet we must not be so shaken in Mind as to think therefore The End must needs be For saith he The End is not yet It is True saith Christ I have been Prophecyed of as the Prince of Peace and that under my Government Wars should be made to Cease to the Ends of the Earth that the Nations should learn War no more but beat their Swords into Plowshares and their Spears into Pruning hooks That I should Break the Bow and Cut the Spear and Arrows Asunder and Burn the Chariots in the Fire And therefore when ever you have Wars and Rumors of Wars you may think that it must needs be I must Come and put an End to all Things as in this State of the World that I may put an End to Wars But saith Christ These things must be yet the End shall not as yet be And therefore I freely profess though we see the World at this Day almost All in a Combustion in a Flame Every one knows what an Universal State of War there is at this Time yet I should not look on this as an Argument of the near Approach of the Kingdom of Christ if there were not more Assured Arguments from the Scripture Line of Time For Christ hath told us that there shall be such Things all along and we may see by the History of All Nations There have been Wars and Rumors of Wars all along and yet this is no Argument The End shall yet be But v. 14. Christ tells us what shall be an assured Argument The End shall be that is The End of this State of the World For saith he v. 14. This Gospel This very Gospel of the Kingdom it is very Remarkable It is the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ It shall be Preached in all the World for a Witness unto all Nations and then shall the End Come Surely there can be nothing more Express and Full to the purpose That there must be just upon the End a Preaching of the Gospel in all the World Take what Preaching of the Gospel you will that hath been before if the End hath not Followed upon it That is not the Preaching of the Gospel on which the End Follows that is here spoken of This must needs be granted For when Christ says such things shall Be
not Ceas'd However suspended is That Scripture Acts 2. 17. For there the Apostle Peter is giving an account of the same Things as in this Text Heb. 2. 4 Those Divers Signs and Wonders and Gifts of the Holy Spirit so says the Apostle out of Joel And it shall come to pass in those days I will powre out my Spirit on All Flesh and your Sons and Daughters shall Prophecy c. before that Emphatical that Illustrious day of the Lord come Indeed the Apostle does say This is that was spoken of It began then God gave a very bright show of it then It looked out upon the World with a great Glory at that Time But an Eclipse came upon it it is yet notwithstanding due to that great and Notable Day of the Lord that Day which he calls by a word that signifies Illustrious Apparent Glorious and so as we Translate Notable Day How Notable and so Illustrious but by many Wonderful Magnifyings of Divine Power upon it in so Immediate a way So indeed none can deny that Miraculous Powers must needs introduce that Day of Judgment according to the general Notion or Doctrine of it But saith the Apostle further Before that Notable and Illustrious Day of the Lord Come Now to have spoken this only of that Thing that was seventeen Hundred years ago already or very near it and we don't know how many more it may be if we have not a True Judgment upon Time by the Scripture Line of Time and the Exposition of the Sure word of Prophecy concerning the nearness of that Day we don't know how much longer how many years more it may be to it and yet to call this pouring out of the Spirit before it that was so long ago as if it were but just before it seeing God speaks to us as to Creatures of Time is a very unexpected way of speaking in any and not easy to be Allowed to be the way of the Divine Spirits speaking considering how often Scripture speaks of Great Things just upon that day and not so long before it This indeed seems so unreasonable to very sagacious Interpreters that they cannot acquiesce to before that Day so long before it and therefore have found this way to salve it to understand this Notable Day of the Destruction of Jerusalem and of the day of the Vengeance of God upon the State of the Jews I do not deny but that is made every where a Type of the very Day of Judgment But that Day of Desolation however on many accounts very great is not yet great enough to Answer as a Reason of so great a Thing as before that Day only nor will it be adjusted to the things spoken of in the Prophet Joel nor to the great Things every where spoken of in Scripture as coming near that day It cannot therefore in just Reason be understood only of that Day of the Judgment of God upon that City and Temple nor indeed at all of it but as of a Type and Symbol of that Day and yet if be not so understood except another powring out of the Spirit be understood before that day as near we make a wide breach and Gap of Inconsequence in the Apostles Discourse and yet still the general Opinion even of Christians and their usual way of Discourse makes that Notable Day of the Lord no nearer than it was a Thousand and more years ago So far are we from what the Apostle Requires of hastning on to that Day of God Argum. 3. I Argue from the great Truths that are yet to be Preached in Declaration of and order to this Kingdom of Christ For Miracles are to give Testimony to Truth when God hath great Truth to Communicate to the World and that Universally to be given As the great Things of the Gospel had such a Glory of Miracles to Seal them even so the Truths that are given proper to that Time shall be Witnessed and Sealed with mighty Power of Miracles The great Masters of Discourse concerning Miracles are herein Agreeing that one great Reason of Miracles is to recommend some Manifestations of God that had not been before made at least so far known or so plainly known or so convincingly known I doubt not therefore every One will be ready to say hath not God made known all Truth already In these last days hath he not spoken all Truth by his Son and by his Apostles that heard him hath he not Seal'd up as we say the Canon of his Word the Treasury and Standard of Truth What Truths therefore can there be expected that will need or require the presence of Miracles to give Honour and Assurance to them Is not this very thing a sufficient Argument against any Further Expectation of Miracles that there are no such New Discoveries of Truth to which they can be proper I will therefore give three Instances of the Truth that at least in the further more Glorious Manifestation of especially after the Time of the Apostasy God will grace with Miracles I. The first great Truth that shall be in a wonderful manner Preached is The Freeness of the Grace of God in Christ the riches of Redemption in his Blood I do acknowledg This is Preached now so that there is a very high measure as I may say of yea yea yea and Amen concerning it among the Servants of Christ both as to Conversion and Calling according to his purpose and as to the Justification of Sinners Freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ But it must needs be confess'd also there is a great deal of Cloud and Darkness concerning it It is much Contested and Encountred on all Sides This was the New Song that was Sung Revel 5. saying to the Lamb Thou art Worthy to take the Book of the Kingdom and to open the Seals thereof For thou wast slain and hast Redeemed us by thy Blood out of every Tongue People Kindred and Nation And this Redeeming by the Blood of the Lamb that was slain was the most especial Truth that Miracles at first gave Testimony unto in the Apolical Times Now in the Deep Times of the Apostacy this New Song was lost alltogether and tho at the Reformation it was in some measure Recovered yet even as â—he Reformation hath sunk as almost all Considering Men allow so hath the high and Lofty Ayres of this Song been Lowerd So that at the Time of the Witnesses coming out of their Sackcloth and when the Servants of God who have all this Time bore a Seal of Concealment on their Foreheads shall appear with the Fathers Name on their Foreheads in open legible Characters made so plain that he that Runs may read them This Song therefore shall be as it were a New Song I lay great stress on this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a New Song It is not a New Song For it was Sung in the Days and Times of the Apostles but yet it hath
been so much lost that it is as it were a New Song And the Hundred forty four Thousand that bare the Seal of the Living God in their Foreheads shall now bear his Name openly on their Foreheads Now the Spirit of God hath assur'd us It is the Law of the Name of God that when that Name is Near His wondrous works shall declare it So then These Hundred forty four Thousand singing this though but as it were New Song shall sing it with the Fathers Name on their Foreheads That is with an open Manifestation of Miracles And it being as a New Song It calls for a Power of Miracles to make the manifestation of it Honourable in the Restoration even as it was in the first manifestation or singing of it by the Apostles and None then shall be able to open their mouths against it The Harpers Harping so sweetly and These Sweet Singers of Israel Taking this Song from them shall drown and overcome All other sounds And that this may be most Evidently The Fathers Name with his wonderful Works declaring it shall be on their Foreheads And so it shall go along with them in the propagation of that Doctrine or that Song And as the Sealing on the Forehead was an interruption and stop put on Miracles that there could be no Miracle wrought during the Time of that Sealing with which the Witnesses Sackcloath was concurrent So when the Seal is taken off and the Name Written on the Forehead Miracles cannot but be and then shall that New Song be Sung as one Principal Point to which Miracles shall give Witness And then shall no Dog move his Tongue against this Truth as the Apostle calls them Doggs that were of the Concision cutting short the Robes of the righteousness of Christ to the Dishonour of Christ and of his Saints for thereby the Saints shame is seen In that their own Righteousness is worse than Filthy Raggs Now such cut short I say the Robes of the Pure and Perfect Righteousness of Christ that they may find room and space for the Works of men And as Dogs they bark at the Free grace of God But then none shall so much as move their Tongue against that so Glorious Righteousness of Jesus Christ 2. The Second Truth to be Sealed and Witnessed to by Miracles shall be the Free Declaration of the Immediate Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ We know Any that now speak of it speak of it with greatest Disadvantage we are as the Jews to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ they could not believe that So we cannot Believe this Spiritual Kingdom that hath been now in the time of an Adulterous and perverse Generation kept so low as to all Glory of Appearance that it shall now shine out and be seen in Glory the Kingdom of the great Son of Man that hath been spoken of by all the Prophets and by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when therefore that Kingdom shall come into its Succession in the Days of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound and that Mystery of God be Immediately to be Finished a Miraculous Power shall Cleave this present World so that through the Clefts and Breaches of it we shall see the World to come on every side These Miracles Attending that Swift Ministry of the Flying Angel will make all indeed know that the Hour of his Judgment or Kingdom and Government is come For that is undoubtedly the great Truth of the Everlasting Gospel that the very Hour of his Judgment is come and if the Gospel in its First Preaching when that Hour of his Judgment was not come had Miracles to Seal it how much more when that Everlasting Gospel is Preached and the very hour of his Judgment is come shall Miracles certainly wait upon that Everlasting Gospel not only as the Gospel and as then more Admirably Appearing to be the Everlasting Gospel but as it Brings that great Truth that the Hour of his Judgment is come This Power of Miracles shall Exalt that Voice and make it a Loud Voice sounding through the midst of the Heavens of the Lord. Argum 4. A Fourth Argument that strongly perswades me There shall be a Return of Miracles is that Scripture Jerem. 16. 16. A place I desire we may often Meditate upon because the Time of its Fullfilling is very near and even at the very door Oh let us Pray that Prayer of Jeremy joyn'd with that great Assurance Oh Lord my Sâ—rength and my Fortress my Refuge in the Day of Affliction the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the Ends of the Earth and say Our Fathers have Inherited Lies and things werein there is no Profit Nothing will make God appear a greater Refuge in the day of Afflictipn than to be deeply apprehensive of this For God that can do this can be a Refuge in the most Extreme necessity How shall this Work on Men to hear such Gentiles saying Shall a Man make himself Gods and they are no Gods How will this Affect all that Hear and draw them off from their Idols of Silver and of Gold Or these words may be look'd upon as Gods words by the Prophet shall a man be so unreasonable or bruitish as to make Gods to himself of them that are no Gods And so they are rather to be taken but which way ever we take them Therefore or Because of this so great Misprision of me saith God I will this once cause them to know my Hand and my might and they shall know that my Name is Jehovah Now the Hand of God and Might and Power of God are every where in Scripture expressions of Miracles And they shall for this once know my might It is an expression to be paralell'd with that Heb. 12. 27. Yet once more I shake Heaven and Earth So once more the Nations shall know my Might God hath oftentimes in one way or other made the Nations know his might especially in the Days of Christ he made them know his might in a sense of Miraculous Power above any time before it but the making the Nations know for this once is the making them know for once that they shall never need to be made to know any more That Once shall be so Efficacious a making to know For so the Apostle hath Taught us to understand This Once or yet Once It is taking away or removing every thing that is to be moved out of its place by such shaking so the making the might to be known this once is the utmost removing all the Pagan Ignorance or Bruitishness of making Gods to themselves that are no Gods Now seeing the Gentiles have not yet been so made to know it is manifest It was not this Once that God here speaks of For it must needs have produced the Effect so that it never should have needed to be produced any more It must therefore be the last making known and consequently the Miraculous Power must Remain
shall receive it This is a Rule in all Cases not to measure Christ's Time God's Time by ours John 7th v. 6. 2. The Time of Miracles Returning may be very near and yet no Miracles till that very Time be wrought John the Baptist was the immediate Forerunner of Christ and yet it is expresly recorded to us John did no Miracle That was no Argument the Miracles of Christ and of the Apostles were at a distance No more is it that the Return of Miracles is far off Because we may at the present be without Ground or Encouragement that any should be wrought for us as yet 3. That Great Admonition of our Lord's concerning Miracles should be alway on our Thoughts Luke 4. 25. I say unto you there were many Widows in the Time of Elijah the Prophet but to none of them was Elijah sent but to her in Sarepta a City of Zidon And there were many Lepers in the days of Elisha the Prophet but unto none of them was he sent but unto Naman the Syrian This Christ spake as the Answer that the Great Physician gave when call'd upon Physician heal thy self Whatsoever thou hast done any where else do in thy own Countrey and City We may not think on any Account to oblige this Miraculous Power of Christ to us because he hath pleas'd to extend it to any other yea though it be of a Time of Miraâ—les 3. Even in a Time of Miracles Christ in doing great Things for his Servants will not be Limited to Miracles He expressed some Dislike when he says John 4. 48. Except you see Miracles you will not Believe To Thomas Desiring sensible Assurance He said with Insinuation of Reproof Because thou hast seen thou hast Believed blessed are they who have not seen and yet have Believed Christ as I have observed before drew many Souls to himself without any Miracle Epaphrodotus was not when sick and Nigh to Death Healed Miraculously by Paul from whose Body Aprons and Handkercheifs were carryed and had Healing Virtue in them and yet God had mercy on Epaphroditus and on Paul also in him and Healed him God does great and Wonderful things for his Servants and yet without Miracles This is our great Consolation he Works Miracles and saves He Works not Miracles and yet saves according to his own Will he does All. 4. When all ordinary Means Fail and the thing looks Desperate in Relation to all such Ordinary means when the Fig-tree does not blossom c. yet we may Trust in the Lord and Glory in the God of our Salvation even at such a Time our Feet should be Like Hinds Feet and walk on our high places In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen we may then come unto God Oh thou that hearest Prayers unto thee shall all Flesh come And tho we cannot Find by Sense we have the Petitions we have asked of him yet by Faith we may know it and he will give us outward Testimony of his hearing for rather than his Servants should not find him a God Hearing Prayers he will either put the working of Second Causes so together that such putting together shall be next to Miracle or rather than these Things should not be done for them he will step out of the way of his present Ordinary Government of the World and work a Miracle for them CHAP. X. Wherein a Representation of the Excellency of the State of Miracles in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles is given That we may thereby Judg of the Return of such a State of Miracles excelling even that in Vniversality and reaching the utmost effects THat I may now draw this Discourse of Miracles to its Conclusion I will Briefly draw up the State of the Miraculous Powers of the Holy Spirit that were so Visibly and Gloriously Acting in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that none may say Lo here and Lo there a Power of Miracles or this or that is the Time of them but that the Time of them may be known to be like the Lightning For as the Lightning Lightneth from the East and shineth to the West or as the very day and the Brightness of it is known from all the Deceptions and Mistakes of the Day when it is not so shall the True Time of the Return of Miracles be known by a Compare with the Standard and Exemplar of them in the Fore-nam'd Time For it was a Standard and Exemplar above all other Times All therefore must be measured by this altho indeed in some Things the Return of Miracles shall exceed as the fullness of Times or of All Times in the Second Coming of Christ exceeds the fulness of Time Singular only or of that First Coming of our Lord Jesus in the Flesh Yet then there was an Offer of the Kingdom to the Jews and it should have been Propagated to the Gentiles but the Kingdom being refus'd the Wonders could not be Finished nor Miracles consequently Consummate 1. The State of Miracles at the Time I am speaking of was Illustrious above any Time before or since it for the variety of Miracles various Signs and Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit as we find in 1 Cor. 12. To one The Gift of Healing to another of Knowledg to another of Tonues c. So one hath an Exhortation a Psalm a Prophecy yea Then was Raising of the Dead This was the First Fruits the beginning of what was spoken by the Prophet Joel Now by such a Variety of Miracles how great is the Confirmation One or Two might be Attributed to some unknown Cause but such a Consort and Harmony could be only Divine even the Atheist would be puzzled to Sacrifice to his Occult Causes decently for such a Variety God saw in the whole Creation where Miracles were fit to be Planted Then Behold and look Judg and Distinguish of the Return of Miracles hereby They shall Return in such a Variety as may Testify their Relation to that Original Exemplar-Variety in the First Appearance of Christ and his Apostles in them and that together they may make up that one however Interrupted in regard of Visible Miracles pouring out of the Spirit before the great and Illustrious Day of the Lord spoken of by the Prophet Joel as aforesaid 2. There were Commission'd Ministers of the Power of Miracles the Twelve Apsstles of our Lord Jesus and some that were as Gifted Brethren sharing in the Communication of these Miraculous Powers as we may perceive by the Seventy sent out by the same Power in some Regard as the Apostles and those Christians to whom the Apostle Writes among the Corinths 1 Cor. 12. To One To Another such Power was given c. For hereby the whole Power became of greater Notoriety of greater Authority as in a Sanhedrim as our Lord says to the Pharisees accusing him of Acting by Belzebub By whom do your Children Cast out Devils Therefore they
was a great Offer of the Kingdom of God and of Christ at that Time to have Appear'd as Christ says Be sure the Kingdom of God is come upon you and Christ Commands the Apostles to Preach the Kingdom of God in the Doing of Miracles as I have fully shown And it did indeed then come in the Spiritual State of it so at the return of Miracles that Kingdom shall indeed without any further Delay come in the Highest both Spiritual Glory and outward Manifestation of it in which regard Miracles as I have manifested through this Discourse shall be most Universal and to the highest Efficacy Because the world to Come which is the Kingdom of the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven shall be prepared for and effectually brought in thereby so that till the Time of that Kingdom be in its Succession There can be no such return of Miracles expected and that as I have shewn cannot be till the Four Monarchies are fully Expired For the Kingdom of Christ and of this Monarchy cannot mingle As therefore the Miracles proper to this Kingdom have been more Interrupted by the Course of those Monarchies and especially the Three Times and Half of the Last State of the Last Monarchy than at any other Time so they must be fully ended and the Kingdom of Christ be Proclaimed according to Rev. 11. The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he hath taken to himself his great Power to Reign and then shall Miracles the mighty Powers of the VVorld to come Return again to Huisher it in even a Stated Power of Miracles as in thr Days of Christ and of the Apostles as our Lord says I work Cures to day and to morrow c. A continuity a Connexion of one Miracle with another a Miraculous Power waited at his Hand at his Right Hand a state of Miracles there was that God was Magnified who had given such power to men a settled Power the Account he sent to John the Baptist of himself was The Blind receive their Sight the Lame walk the Lepars are Cleansed and that great Spiritual Miracle running along The Poor are Evangeliz'd and under the Power of the Gospel Messiah and his Kingdom and the Power of Miracles are always joyn'd mighty in word and deed in doing good Full of Compassion because he himself took our Sickness and carried our Sorrows and so heal'd as in Mercy to himself that it might be truly said Physitian Heal thy self The Apostles as Ministers of State in his Kingdom were Ministers of Miracles Freely Received of this Power aâ—d commanded Freely to give and so we find they did and with that Power that the Shaddow of Peter and the very Linnen touch'd by the Apostle Paul conveyed Cure insomuch that the very Pagans in sense of Divine Power said The Gods are come down among us Acts 14. 28. And surely when that Kingdom of the Restitution of all things shall actually appear then in all things It shall be fulfilled that our great Prince hath Received Gifts for men even for the Rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Miracles shall Husher it in and Miraculous Powers shall Found and Settle it CHAP. XI The Inferences from the whole Discourse of Miracles Tending to make Wise to Sobriety concerning Them and to all Holiness and Heavenly Conversation are Recollected and Presented Inference 1. MIracles indeed from Divine Power are able to bear the severest Tryal and Examination because they give Evidence of themselves to the whole Man not always to the outward Sense For as hath been before remarked the Words of Christ are Works Now Words of Great and Supernatural Efficacy are Miracles to and before the sense of Mind but not to the Outward Sense So they were to the Woman of Samaria Behold a Man saith she that hath told me All that ever I did Is not this the Messiah or the Christ John 4. 29. and the Samaritans said to the Woman We believe not for thy Words or saying but we have heard him our selves and know that This is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World v 42. And yet here was no Miraculous Appearance to the Outward Sense and so our Lord says Blessed are They who haâ—e believed and yet have not seen Now whatever produces Faith is Miracle before the Mind For it is the mighty Power of God that works in all them that believe Even as Miracle before the Eye is sensible Miracle Yet generally Miracles did commend Themselves to both the Inward and the Outward Sense and so that their most obstinate Opposers could not Resist their Evidences They could bear the severest Scrutiny sustain the uttermost Test and Tryal When the Enemies of Christ of his Doctrine and Miraculous Power at any Time sate in Judgment on Christ and his Miracles They were Confounded and Amazed They were forced to lay their hands upon their mouths and to keep silence This is the Excellency of the Miracles of the Gospel when the Juggles and Cheats and Tricks of the Devil and of All Deceivers may be easily found out if they are but search'd into They must be swallowed in silence and believed in the Dark or they vanish What an Abundance of the Popish Miracles have been Trac'd and Tracked Like their Story of Bell and the Dragon that they Fathally put in their Scriptures or Bible the very semblance of their Miracles to the Juggle and Cheat that lay under Them But the Miracles of the World to come and of the Kingdom of Christ are the Greater the more they are Eyed They have no Enemies but Ignorance Stupidity and Vnbelief or Counterfeit We have an Admirable Instance of this John 9. in the Cure of the Blind Man The Neighbours had it in question and were convinced first the Pharisees emptied it from Vessel to Vessel They Examin'd it at all Lights the Man being Blind himself his Parents were every way sifted and the Matter canvass'd and all they could do was to drop the Cause as they say and in their own defence to Excommunicate the Person on whom the Miracle was wrought They cast him out Juridically v 34. Again We shall find the Jews sitting in Judgment upon a Miracle wrought by the Apostles And what was the Great Effect of it Acts 4. 21. The people Glorified God seeing the miracle of Healing that was done The Apostles Peter and John had by the power of Christ heal'd a man Lame from his mothers Womb c. 3. v. 1 c. Now They beholding the man which was healed standing with them They could say nothing against it Observe They fain would have Remonstrated unto it but could say nothing against it and the Result was What shall we do with these men For that indeed a Notable Miracle hath been done by them v. 16. is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it So that here was the Great Excellency of the Miracles
debate whether Miracles are again to be expected and shall prove That upon All the Considerations that are assigned as Reasons of Miracles generally for herein I would speak to Men in their own Sense and which Divines give as Causes moving God to send out his Miraculous Power That they are most certainly to be again expected and beyond this that the bringing in the World to come does much more both Require and Assure the Return of Miraâ—les 6. I will with great Freedom and Impartiality on the occasion of the laâ—e Miraculous Providential Dispensations shew on that Occasion how far we may lawfully apply to God with the Expectation of a Miracuâ—ous Power in any Cases wherein all second Causes fail looking on it as a Beginning of Miracles 7. I will by way of Recollection upon the whole set out the Admirable Excellency and Grandeur of Divine Power in the Miracles of that Time of Christ in the Days of his Flesh which Scripture calls the Fullness of Time and argue That for the bringing in the Oâ—conomy or Dispensation of the Fullness of Times or All Time that Miraculous Power shall return in the same and in some Respects in Grandeur more illustrious because more Universal and reaching the Full Effect or bringing in the very World to come 8. I will subjoyn to the whole Discourse the practical Applications flowing from it Position The Position I would lay down is this Miracles are Extraordinary Divine Appearances and Efficacies of Almighty Power whereby He Gives Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel as declaring his Kingdom and the World to come the Spiritual Holy State of it in or by the Spiritual and Holy Preparations that give the abundant Entrance into it and that Visible and Illustrious Glory that shall Appear and All this by Miracles of those very Visible Specifications of that World to come in some part and pieces of it according to his own Free Will and Pleasure foreshewing the Great Changes that shall be in the whole Creation of God when that World shall so come to its entire Sum and Perfection both in Spiritual and Outward Glory CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Miracles and the due place â—f them I Begin therefore with the First Particular and that is to open the Nature of Miracles upon a True and Just Consideration of them Now that this may be understood there must be a clâ—se Attendance of Thought given to Creation and Providence that it may be known wherein they and Miracles differ one from another For if we do not look upon Miracles in that they can never be Rightly and Distinctly comprehended For it is Evident Miracles Signs and Wonders are some Appearances of God that seem to us to Transcend and to be Exalted above the State of Creation and the state of Providence and of the Government of the World at this day And indeed if things were rightly stated there is no other difference between Miracle and Creation but that Creation we look upon as a thing past and done settled and fix'd Ages ago but Miracle is a thing New and Fresh as we may say out of the Mint of Divine Power and so Providence and the Government of the World we are Acquainted and Familiar with as things that in some Points of them we see every Day in others we find that in the continual Tossing and Rolling of Things they are now and then thrown and cast up and at least in a Revolution and larger spaces of Time do at one time or other shew Themselves and whether they every day or seldom are seen we can give Account of them or make probable Conjectures how they come to pass by the Train Connexion and Dependance of one thing upon another and so they are accounted no Miracles but still they are in themselves all of the Nature of Miracles Indeed it is no Miracle to us now that there is a Sun gives Light by Day and the Moon by Night this is no Miracle as we account it now But I desire you to consider if there had been any men as it is generally allowed there were Angels at the very beginning of the Creation when the Earth was without Form and Void and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep What a Miracle had it been in our Sense to see Light When God said let there be Light and there was Light And so if any had been in any Former Day and seen the making the Things that were not made out of Things that did appear before until every following Day as the wonderful disposal of the Waters of the Light as diffused into the Lights of Heaven the Creatures Rising out of the Earth All these if any Intelligent Being were suppos'd as the Angels those Morning-Stars shouting for Joy must not he needs have acknowledg'd all Miracle And so in the Government of Providence if we were wise to observe it throughout every day we should see miracles Onely this it is because the order is stated settled constituted so long ago Therefore men have got another word for Creation and Providence that is Nature and the course of nature Because they consider they are settled but do not consider not onely whose ordinance first settled them but that every moment the word going out of the mouth of God continues them because all are Gods servants and they need a Fresh command every minute My Father worketh hitherto and I work without any Sabbath Jo. 5. v. 17. Oh how admirably is God himself pleased to discourse this matter and that very largely too in the latter end of the book of Job As to creation Job 38. v. 2. c. Saith God to Job Gird up thy Loins now like a man For I will Demand of thee and answer thou me Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the earth Declare now if thou hast understanding who hath layd the measures of it if thou knowest Or who hath stretched the Line upon it Whereupon are the Foundations thereof Fasten'd Or who layd the Corner stone thereof When the Morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted foâ— Joy or who shut up the Sea with Doors when it brake forth as if it had Issued out of the womb And so he goes on through the whole creation Now I say if God should come to the Atheists of our days to the men that are setting their mouth against the Heaven and their Tongue walking through the Earth if God should come and say to them Come now you Mighty Men of Wit and Reason and Sense that look upon all as sillyness but that you your selves speak what if you had been by when I was Laying the Foundations of the Earth and had heard me command Light when the Earth was without Form and Void and Darkness was upon the Face of it and it immediately appear'd would you have allowed it a Miracle or not Would you have disputed it with the Heavenly Host singing and shouting too for joy at
Scripture speaks made Bare When the Hand and Arm of God have Natural Means or Second Causes to attend and wait on their Motion then his Hand is not stretched out to the utmost Length or Line of Action reaching that Effect but it adds the Line of the Action of those Second Causes though but a Cypher without him yet he being before them in them with them they are of Value and so his Hand and Arm are Cloathed Shrowded with these as we call them Natural Causes and not Naked and Bare There is another Expression whereby also this Immediate Power is made known to us and that is used Dan 2. 34 45. and Dan. 8. 21. Without Hand And so it is used in Cases of Close Connexion with the World to come 2 Cor. 5. 1. and Heb. 9. 11. of that House and State of Saâ—nts and Spirits in Heaven that they may not be found Naked till they are Cloath'd upon with their House from Heaven Glorious Bodiâ—s of the Resurrection in the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven And that House Now in Heaven is the same Tabernacle Christ is entered into So that it is said in regard to Saints even as to Christ but of him as Principal and Supreme It is made without Hands That is It is the Work of the Immediate Power of God In the same manner it is us'd of a Circumcision made without Hands Col. 2. 11. Now in All These it is most Evident This manner of speaking is on purpose chosen by the Divine Spirit to impart to us Immediate Divine and Miraculous Power so it Equally imports Things not of This World not of This Frame not of This Building but that have intimate and undivided Connexion with the Kingdom of Christ and World to come As our Lord Christ therefore when he Opened the Eyes of the Blind when he Healed the Sick when he Restored the Lame when he sent out Apostles to Preach in All Languages he did not call for the Curious Oculist the Learned Physician the Skillful Chyrurgion the Learned Linguists to help him or to hasten to instruct in all Tongues He wrought all without Hands When he works by his Grace in the Hearts of his Servants to make them New Creatures by that Circumcision made without Hands when he prepares the place of his Servants Builds the Palace of his Kingdom when he breaks his Enemies He does All without Hands Now you know as among Men One of the Chief Measures for Every Building is by Fingers and Hands and so on and for Every Enterprise and Undertaking we still account how many Hands are prepared to work in it So the Wars that are carried on in the World They are wag'd by the Hands of the Men of Might They finding their Hands as David speaks the Hands Taught to VVar and the Fingers to fight And they that have Most and Ablest Hands we fore-speak to them the Greatest Success At this Day we are ready to say such a Prince is so mighty has so many Hands who is able to contend with him How Significant therefore is this Expression of Almighty Power working without hands Remember therefore This is One of the Essentials of Miracle It is the Finger of God it is the Hand of God stretched out it is the Arm of God made Bare it is working without Hands or that as some Learned interpret of the Stone cut out of the Mountains is not in any Hands the Managements as to him are not entrusted to any Humane Created Hand he works all by himself without Hand Thus in All these Expressions it appears Miracle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Power Naked Power Pure Perfect Power But because I have before urg'd That however we are Blind and cannot see a-far off we cannot see back into the Retiring Room of Things yet if we could we should find that all the Springs of Motion and Action of Life yea of very Being are without Hand and so Miracle is in Every Thing Power is in Every Thing and so here what we call Miracle and no Miracle does not differ till Things come more into the Great Hall of this World where Millions of Hands or Second Causes are at work So that the Difference upon the whole in what we call Miracle and not Miracle is That in Miracle Power without Hand goes all the way In Things not Miracle Created Hands take from God their share of Action and Appearance and hereupon we attribute All through our Stupidity Carnality and Unbelief to Created Hands and God is hidden his Hand Covered and Shrouded God therefore stretches out his Hand in Miracle He lifts up his Hand and makes Bare his Arm and Forces Men to say This is the Finger of God But because God does not this Every Day but seldom hitherto therefore a Second Character of Miracle arises 2. Miracle is properly something that in regard of the Newness and unusualness of it makes Men Gaze and look upon it with Wonder and Admiration and from this Passion it raises in Men it is call'd Wonder or Miracle and because Men are Alarm'd and Expect some Great Event upon it it is call'd Sign or Portent in the Sacred Language of both the New and Old Testament Two Words in the Hebrew denote Signs and another expresses VVonder and so in the Greek sometimes Miracles are remark'd to us by a Word properly rendered Sign and sometimes by a Word signifying VVonder and surprise And though I have before Asserted That herein also the Works of God though constant and perpetual are yet also New and Fresh our Life Health Freedom All we Enjoy are Fresh Mercies and Compassions New Every morning every moment They are not the Mercies we had yesterday but New mercies I desire this Remark may be upon all our Hearts to raise us to Thankfulness Dependence self Resignation and Obedience yet because these Every-days mercies of God we seem to hold by a more constant Tenure of Providence that exerciseth Loving-kindness on the Earth Scripture it self calls Miracles of Mercy or Judgment New Things what God does in Mercy or in Displeasure ordinarily we are so acquainted with and they look so like one another that we look not upon them as new but when God does those great things we call Miracles we are in a Wonder at an Amaze we ask what is this a sign of nay if things unusual fall out and appear although we account the things not Miracles but Wonders as a Comet in the Heavens great Eclipses strange Inundations Earth quakes we are Alarm'd and Mov'd and are ready to look for some extraordinary Things coming upon the Earth And unusual Events in Providence either of Mercy or Affliction make great Discourses among Men as to their expectations And herein so far as God permits him the Devil is as often as he can doing Wonders or strange Things and so are his Ministers either by or without his known help of which sort are all the Antichristian Signs and Lying Wondeâ—s and
brought forth as you know so many great Instances of the Redemption of Mankind in Carrying our Sorrows and bearing our Sicknesses till there be that perfect Restitution of All Things named before and the Creatures or Creation it self be Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Manifestation of the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God Now these things joyn'd together seem to me so full of Evidence that my heart is while I speak of them so satiated with them that I cannot but hope they will be also most Acceptable and satisfactory to them that read them so as to conclude how close Miracle and the Kingdom of Christ are Related one to another and that the Chief and Adequate End and Reason of Miracle is that they are Portions and Parcels Peices and Pledges of the Kingdom of Christ or of the World to come and shall bring it in at last CHAP. VI. A Discussion of the Times wherein Miracles have been most Illustrious and when there hath been greatest Darkness among the People of God in Relation to them Preparatory to the Asserting That Miracles are not ceas'd but a Return of Them is to be Expected SEeing from All I have Discours'd it appears very undoubted that a Return of Miracles is and ought to be expected because the Great and Adequate End of Miracles is a Connexion with and even an Introduction of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the World to come which Kingdom and World to come is not yet come and when it shall indeed come it shall have a mighty Power of Signs Wonders Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own Will to appear with it to introduce settle and establish it in the Order and Glory of the New Creation I shall therefore before I come to the down-right Proof endeavour to anticipate or to be before hand with the greatest Objection I meet with to it Object The Great Objection I find in my own Thoughts and which Raises and Confirms I doubt not in others a Resolved Pre-judgment that Miracles shall not Return is Because that now for a Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Years or near about Miracles except the Lying and Legendary ones the Antichristian Apostasy hath pretended to there hath been a going off and a Cessation of the True Power of Miracles and the Reason to be assign'd for it hath been thought Because the Doctrine of Salvation in the Gospel and the Canon of Scripture and particularly of the New Testnment hath been so summ'd up finish'd setled and sealed so confirm'd and assur'd by undoubted Power of Miracles that brought it into that Settlement and gave it so large a spread in the World that any further use or service of Miracles seems wholly superfluous and unnecessary For if it were not so it looks very strange and there seems no Reason to be given why God should be pleased to order so long a Parenthesis so Long and Dark an Interval such a long space and as I may call it Gap between the Power of Miracles in the Days of Christ and the Apostles and some space after and the present Time And indeed I would add To give the Objection all the strength I can That the Papists or the Antichristians both pretending Themselves to Miracles and finding among the Protestants and Reformed Churches no such Power nor so much as Pretension to it have been Loud and Clamorous upon it and have hereby assum'd it as a Good Reason to Damn the Reformation because it hath come Naked and Unarm'd of Miracles From whence the Reformed not having considered enough the True Reason of Miracles nor of their Cessaâ—ion have been under a Necessity to Defend Themselves by asserting Miracles are wholly ceas'd and no Return to be expected and that the Popish Pretences have been but so much Counterfeit and Falshdod In which Last Part they have spoken most Evident and undoubted Truth and this Defence hath also in the First Part seem'd so necessary that it could not be but it must sink Deep into the Minds of All the Most Holy Sober Serious Wife Protestants as well as the more General Profession of the Reformation and hath brought All Discourses of a Return of Miracles under Great Disrepute as Wild and Fanatical Altho indeed this part â—f the Defence arose from a not due consideration of the Reasons of the Cessation and of the certain Return of Miracles when the Force of those Reasons shâ—ll expire And I cannot but acknowledge It may seem strange according to the very Reason I am to lay down why there hath been such a Cessation of Miracles And there does arise a Difficulty upon it That there was not any Return of the Power of Miracles with the Reformation But I hope to give Fairest Solution to it In the mean time I cannot but take nâ—tice that the Popish Pretensions to a constant Power of Miracles does very notably not only agree with the Character of Prophecy in their Lying VVonders but also that they make indeed a Counterfeit Kingdom to the True Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ both in Prophecy and in their own Pretences and so far Counterfeit proves what ought to be in the Truth and the Life of That It is the counterfeit of and by Prophecy It was to counterfeit They give a Proof by the By That Miracles do indeed appertain to the Kingdom of Ghrist But to come to the main Answer to this Objection I propose upon it First To observe the State of Miracles or Miraculous Power in all the several Ages or Times Recorded to Us in Scripture and to collect the Light that may from thence be received to shew that Miracles shall certainly Return and Introduce the Kingdom of Christ 2. I will lay down what upon Great Reason I Esteem to be the True Cause of the Cessation of Miracles these Last Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years and why especially since the Reformation Miracles have not return'd seeing as Miracles pertain to the Kingdom of Christ so the Reformation it self was an appearance of that Kingdom Wherein I will consider any Collateral Objections that may spring up from any Discourse in this Answer That therefore which in general I pitch upon is that when we look upon the several Varieties of Appearances of Miraculous Emanations or Flowings out from the Divine Gloâ—y and Power in Miracles according to the Records of Scripture there have been no Times wholly without them of which Any Records of Scripture have given us the Memorials Because there was always a certainty of that Kingdom Coming and the moâ—e Notable and Remarkable Manifestations have been prepared for those more Noble and Remarkable Manifestations of the Kingdom of Christ. The History of Scripture is indeed very short in the Time before the Flood yet we have an Eminent Instance of a Miraculous Power of Grace in the Translating Enoch to Heaven without any sight of Death Enoch walked with God so many years and was not For
by the Rising of our Lord from the Dead for our Justification which was in Daniels Phrase bringing in Everlasting Righteousness That then immediately sollows the Sealing Vision and Prophecy viz. The Vision and Prophecy of the Glorious Temple and Kingdom of Christ even to Ezekiel 40. c. Indeed there was a Gradual Unsealing that first Sealing in the Opening the Seven first Seals which produc'd the Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ in the Christian Empire of Constantine and his Successors but because under it the Antichristian State of the Empire made up every day nearer and nearer to Antichrist's 2 Thes 2. own Time wherein he was to be Revealed therefore there was a second sâ—aling of the Servants of God in their Forehead which sealing being contemporary with the Witnesses in Sackcloath and that contemporary with the Forty Two Months of the Gentiles and of the Beast and of the Woman in the Wilderness is by construction a Time of 1260 Days of Years So that the Glory of their State was indeed secur'd but Conceal'd also and Reserv'd Upon which the Kingdom of Christ could not be Reveal'd during that sealing also and this as I shall argue was the True Cause of the cessation of the power of Miracles And when there was a Challenge of the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 10. by the Roar of the Lyon and Seven Thunders uttering their Voices there was yet which shall be the last a sealing up the Voices of the Thunders So that there coald not be the mighty Works of Miracles shewing forth themselves notwithstanding the Reformation I have thus far now shewn the close connexion of Miracles and the Kingdom of Christ all along from the Promise of the Seed of the Woman breakiag the Head of the Serpent unto the very Kingdom of Christ appearing in far Greater Glory than ever yet it hath done and no Time excepted but the Time of Straits from the Restoring Jerusalem to Messiah and the Time of the 1260 Days of the Apostasy not expiring at the Reformation nor yet expired That I may then give what I account the True Reason of the Suspension rather than Cessation of Miracles I will lay down my sense of it in these Following Particulars 1. There is a solemn Oath of Christ That the Potentacy of the Beast would have Time Times and half a Time 42 months or 1260 Days 2. This Potentacy of the Beast was to attain its power by doing Great Wonders and working Miracles For that which is called The other Beast Rev. 13. 13. while he says to them that dwell on the Earth that they should worship the Beast and make an Image to the Beast that is give him in the Image of Spiritual Supremacy Imperial Power He works miracles tho false ones And thus it was to be because as hath been said the Kingdom of the Beast is the Counterfeit of the Kingdom of Christ and so must Appear with Miracles 3. The Kingdom of Christ cannot appear while â—he Beâ—st's Term lasts For those Two Kingdoms can no more stand together in Manifestation and Appearance than the Ark and Dagon 4. In the Kingdom of Christ then Miracles come when his Name in his Kingdom comes For where his Name is near in any Outward Lustre and Visible Glory of his Kingdom in that Psalm of his Kingdom Psal 75. 1. There his wondrous works must and shall declare it 5. Where True Miracles come False Miracles cannot Abide but Vanish as those of Simon Magus Acts 10. of Elymas the Sorcerer Chap. 13. 8. of the Exorcists Chap. 19. 13. as those of Jannes and Jambres before Moses 2 Tim. 3. 8. as the Priests of Baal whose God could not Answer by Fire before the True God by Elijah 1 Kings 18. 28. 38. When God indeed appears All Counterfeits are forced to cry out This is the Finger of God God cannot be out-shot in his own Bow 5. Where the Miracles proper to the Evangelical Kingdom and Glory of Christ come there is also a pouring out of the Divine Spirit in the Hearts of Men by mighty Operations of Grace according to his own Will and in proportion to the Appearance his Kingdom is to make at that time And this must prevail over All that stands in the way of it Lay then these together They make Demonstrative Proof There could be There can be no Miracles while the Antichristian Times last that is no open visible sensible Miracles For if the Beast must by the Oath tf Christ last 1260 Years If it must begin and be sustain'd by Lying Signs and Wonders And if where Christ's Kingdom comes in Glory Miracles come and his Spirit also If the False Miracles of Antichrist's Kingdom cannot stand before the True Miracles of Christ's Kingdom much more with his Spirit Then it necessarily follows there can be no Miracles no Divine Visible Miracles while the Kingdom of the Beast is by the Oath of Christ to continue It would presently break All in pieces over-throw All The Beast's Kingdom cannot stand before them His Kingdom having been so near to 1260 Years so long Miracles must have been suspended and the Miraculous Power have lain still and been quiet as in its Scabbard For what can such Lying VVonders as are done by the Dead Bones of Martyrs Relicks of this or that Saint the Virgin Mary or even pertaining to Christ's Garments VVood of his Cross before the mighty Power of Truly Evangelical Doctrine seal'd with Miracles such as were done by Christ and his Apostles together with the Inward Power and Grace of the Divine Spirit making obedient by Word and Deed What could All the Legendary Miracles of Transubstantiation do in Resistance to Divine Truth so armed or Brutish Excommunications effect before that True Apostolical Power of casting to Sathan The One True Fire from Heaven the other Brutum Fulmen False Fire though pretended to be brought down from Heaven where by the way I cannot but observe how Prophecy hath guided common Language For as Lightnings or Fulminations are Fire from Heaven so common Language hath styled Excommunications Fire as from Heaven though indeed only from the Magical Heaven of the Pope and most truly from the sulpâ—ureous smoak of the bottrmless Pit Revel 9. 1. Falling in with Revel 13. 13. to Great Exactness Now a due Consideration of what I have now Represented makes Full Solution to Two Objections that may arise from an overly Reflection upon it Object 1 It may be asked Why had the Apostasy of the Ten Tribes so Great a Type of the Antichristian Apostasy so many and so great Miracles by Elijah and Elisha Ans The Answer is already given because the Kingdom and Apostasy of Antichrist was sworn by Christ and therefore could not be broken till the End of the 1260 days but it would have been broken by Miracle whereas the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes being Israelitish and Appointed by God was not Touch'd by the Miracles of Elijah and Elisha altho their Paganiz'd Apostasy was
the Kingdom therefore continued notwithstanding those Miracles so long as God intended But after he Removed it as he saw good But if the Antichristian Apostasy had or should Fall before the Time the Papal Kingdom must fall with it Now the Power of Gospel Doctrine of Miracles of Powring out the Spirit must needs have Broken it without Remedy which had been contrary to the Oath of Christ There were yet Spiritual Miracles as is to be shewn together with the Doctrine of the Witnesses But they being not visible and so not Forcible on the Sense nor Joyn'd with the Spirit powr'd out as it shall be in the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ the Antichristian both Kingdom and Apostasy have stood notwithstanding Object Why had not the Reformation a proportionable appearance of Miracles with the Revival of the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Retrenchment of the Papal Kingdom in so many States and Kingdoms Ans It hath been already Intimated The Antichristian Potentacy and Apostasy were to continue not only Time and Times but the Half Time also the 180 as well as the 1080 Days of years Now at the beginning of Half Time the Reformation appear'd yet the Beasts Half Time was Remaining due Christ therefore Seales the Thunders Rev. 10. 4. Gives out no Miraculous Power nor Gifts of the Spirit in Extraordinary or according to his Kingdom but stays till the Expiration of Half Time also For if the Revival of the Doctrine only with ordinary Gifts of the Spirit hath so far prevail'd without these Mighty Powers How much more must These Joyn'd with Miracle and extraordinary Effusions of the Spirit have prevail'd even to the Ruine of the Papal Kingdom and taking away the Apostasy before the Time sworn by Christ And so I have settled what I had to say on the Various Times and the various appearances of Miracles in all Times CHAP. VII The Direct Proof of the Power of Miracles Returning by the following Arguments for it I Now Address my self to the Immediate proof That Miracles are not so Ceas'd notwithstanding an Interruption of 1260 years but that they shall yet Return when the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ and the service of that Kingdom shall Require it Argum. 1. The general Argument I give for it is this That Miracles have not perfected the End and Intention of God in that whereunto they are appointed Now all the Works of God are Perfect and shall attain their End If then they have not done it it is certain they must return to do it For God cannot be Disappointed or Frustrated in what he Designs There are two great Ends of Miracles which have not yet been Answered by them which are Assurances to us Miracles shall and must Return Partic. 1. Miracles are Appointed by God to Attend the Gospel in its motion to the Ends of the Earth as the Gospel is the Rod of Christ's Strength by which he is to Rule so Extensively to the Ends of the Earth That hath not yet been Done Therefore Miracles must Return to do it as I shall now Argue First I say the Gospel was and is to prevail to the very Ends of the Earth This we see is not yet done The Gospel is to Establish the Glory of Christ the Glory of his Sacrifice of his Righteousness of his Intercession the Greatness of his Kingdom These Things we know how Imperfect they are as yet both in the Clearness of their Knowledg in the Extensiveness of them and in the Vniversal Communication of the Gospel to all the World Now if any one will say why may not a mighty Pouring out of the Spirit of Christ together with greater Light and more Abundant Evidences of the Gospel and of the Truths of it serve in the place of Miracles seeing it is an Affirmation almost General God works no Miracles except upon Necessity I Answer It is True If it pleased God It might be so but then so It might have been in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles Do we not certainly know that the Power of Christ could in the Days of his Flesh and by the Preaching of his Servants with the Presence of his Spirit have done all He and they Did without Miracles and wrought yet even to the utmost Effect If he had not pleased and thought fit to make Miracles the Convoy and as it were the Triumphant Chariot in which That Power should Ride For when the Apostle saith God bare them Witness with Signs and Wonders and Divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit He yet adds According to his own Will He saw no such Necessity of Miracles but all was according to his own Will his own pleasure It is most certain If he had not Freely chosen to Work by Miracles his Spirit would have immediately Reach'd any Heart without them we find it did so If Christ spake to any Person In the very moment he Rose up immediately and Followed him As Matt. 9 9. He saw Matthew sitting at the Receipt of Custom and he saith unto him Follow me and Immediately he made no more words of it but Rose up and â—ollowed Him He Conferr'd not with Flesh and Blood He was in a Profession that required much Intention He was in the Very Business of it and warm as we say in it and it was in such a Kind of Profession as Men do not use easily to be call'd off from to mind Things of a Religious Concernment For Publicans and Sinners often in the Gospel Joyn'd together were Men of no Tender or Scrupulous Consciences Yet when Christ Commanded and no Miracle was wrought he was Obeyed If a Man among us were waiting upon his main Business his way of Gain and Profit and one should come to him without such a Power as the Spirit of Christ Acts by and say to him suppose on any Gospel Account when the Man was a Stranger to it Leave that you are waiting upon tho it be your Office and your Interest and attend the Gospel of Christ what a Scorn would such a one make of such a Proposal But the Power of Christ can where he pleases Touch a Heart Bow a Heart without the outward conveyance of a Miracle But even a Miracle tho It may Amuse and Startle yet if the Power of Christ come not along with it it could not do more than amuse and possibly move for a while In Zaccheus it was the very like Case To Andrew and Peter Christ first gave his Commands and his Promise to make them Fishers of Men and they left their Nets and Follewed him without any Miracle at first because his Spirit wrought Effectually in all things But then on the other side as I have shew'd abundantly Miracles did not prevail when the Spirit came not For how many saw the Miracles of Christ and yet Believed not Indeed in the Conversion of the Apostle Paul Jesus Christ saw fit for the great purposes for the Honour and for the Manifestation
a Spiritual Eye and wherein the Power of God appear'd That He held up a pure and sincere state of Christianity in the midst of all the Roman Apostasy altho it was so dark and Dangerous a Time or Place as the Spirit of God calls it by the Apostle Peter 2 Pet 1. 19. And as he assures it must needs be because the Witnesses were in Sackcloth and War made upon them and they were kill d and the Woman or the Witnesses Collectively taken were in the Wilderness Rev. 11. c. 12. or as Daniel speaks the Power of the Holy People was scattered Dan. 12. 7. God was pleas'd to keep it up not only since the Reformation but throughout the whole Time or space of the Time and Times from 437 to 1517. the 1080 as well as the 180 of the 1260 Days when by the Reformation there was a Party-Rising of the Witnesses and Party-Retrenchment of the The Fresh Memorial of Christs Kingdom Papal Power and Apostasy at the Half Time according to the two Oaths of Christ Dan. 12. and Rev. 10. Allowing it as I have made out in a Discourse wholly to that purpose 2. For this is that which is spoken of Rev. 1â— 3. And I will give Power to my two Witnesses and they shall Prophecy in Sackcloâ—h a Thousand two Hundoed and Threescore days cloath'd in Sacâ—cloth I will give them Power but yet that Power shall be hid they shall be Cover'd or Cloath'd with Sackcloth So a place shall be prepared for the Woman the Church where she shall be nourished but it shall be in a Desert State not known or acknowledged it shall be in the Wilderness But saith God I will give Power to my Witnesses Now Power is one of the Words expressive of Miracles They are call'd Power and by that we have had the Great Truth of the Gospel Continued so as to be Restor'd to us in the Reformation by their Constancy of Declaring and Maintaining Professing and Teaching the Truths after Godliness the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ And this in Regard of the Darkness of that Time is call'd Prophecy and Power to Prophecy in regard of Miraculous Virtue in so doing For there hath been a Connexion a linking between Witness and Witness between one Age of Witnesses and another Age and with the Reformation it self which we are All so willing to acknowledg It hath been from the Power God gave to his Two Witnesses in the midst of all the Barrenness and Darkness of the Papal Apostasy These are the Two Olive-Trees the Two Green Olive-Trees Emptying their Oyl into the Two Golden Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Whole Earth not by might nor by Power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts These were the worthy Witnesses of Christ throughout that Dark Time when no man could any sooner look out with any of the purest Truths of the Gospel that stem'd that Apostasy but presently Heretick Heretick was cryed out upon him or â—ince the Reformation among those who hold of the part of the Synagogue of Sathan some Finer parts of that Apostasy venerated as purer Antiquity Schismatick Schismatick was as vehemently Fasten'd on any one if he broach'd any thing as they call it against the Hierarchic Church They have been Anathematised Excommunicated Prosecuted with Corporal or Pecuniary Punishments even to the most cruel Deaths and Imprisonments Fire hath been call'd down from Heaven and fetch'd up from Hell against them yet notwithstanding a Miraculous Power hath been given to them to Prophecy for the 1260 Days I know Many cannot understand how these Witnesses could be said to Prophecy while they lay Dead Three Days and an Half But I have endeavour'd in a peculiar Discourse to Assoyle that also in the Vision of the Witnesses and to shew that as it is said of Abel the first Martyr Being Dead he yet speaketh so of these his Successors although Kill'd they yet Prophecy And it is much more plain on their side For their Death however Violent-Natural also yet is chiefly Mystic They were Kill'd as Witnesses Hateful and Cursed Hereticks being the Sambenito the Disguise whereinto they were presently put but still they Prophetied tho they were slain And in this Sense also they continued Prophecying because as any were Naturally Killed others still rose up in their Room and which is great Miracle They were Dead yet they could never be Buried The People Nations Tongues and Languages would not suffer them to be Buried because their Doctrine however Condemned before hand was still kept above-ground as we speak in several parts of this Universal Roman Empire under the Pope and his Ten Kings the Princes of Europe notwithstanding all their Fury against it their Joy in hopes they had suppressed their Prophecy and their sending Gifts one to another for it yet it hath and shall continue to the Kingdom of Christ in regard of which to Come till it comes Their Doctrine is call'd Prophecy also And All this may be most justly Styled Miracle because it is not in the Train and Connexion of Things according to the general Order and Government of the World For so when Men Dye even all the Living World is in hast They be Buried what way soever it be But these Witnesses were not suffered to be Buried Their Doctrine their Slain Testimony must Remain Above to Annoy and Nusance the Papal and half Reform'd World And with these Gospel Witnesses Those Gospel Miracles before Named were Deposited all this Time the Turning and Changing Men from Sin and Sathan to God which must needs be Miracle For in the Train and Order of Things a wicked Man will go on in his Wickedness and Lewdness and not be purged from it till he Dye All the Justifying Sanctifying Grace of the Gospel the Dying and Sleeping in and by Jesus tho by Violent Deaths under the Rage of Persecutors was all in the Tenure in the Conveyancings of these VVitnesses Churches are Candlesticks Fed from these Sons of Oyl Ministerily Originally from Christ and his Spirit Consider then Spiritual Inward Miracles Miracles apprehended by Faith and Scripture-Reason never ceas'd For if they had the Everlasting Kingdom given to Christ must have Ceased And this is an Infallible Argument there shall be a Return of Miracles in an outward and Glorious Appearance because inward Miracles to which the outward as an externe Transparent Air are Due have never ceased The outward shall whenever the Reasons of State as I may say in that Kingdom shall Require it appear greater than ever yet and this I propose to Universal Consideration but more especially of the Wise Judg you what I say 2. In the Second Place I will propose the Judiciary Miraculous Power The Spirit of God affirms the Witnesses to have had and this consists of several Particulars 1. Fire proceeds out of their Mouths and Devoureth their Enemies And if any one will Hurt them in this manner must he be Killed Rev. 11. This was
indeed a Bringing down Fire from Heaven Now what was this but a denouncing the Judgments of God upon Antichristianism that shall so surely be Fullfill'd in their Season And of this there are many great Witnesses and Monuments In the Darkest Times there were those that let Fly as we speak against the Papacy who spared not to call the Pope Antichrist to his Face to Affirm Christianity was Turn'd into Paganism among them Fire went out of their mouths to this very purpose to Threaten that Antichristian Monarch and his so call'd Catholick Church with all the Vials of the Revelation the Plagues and the Curses of it to say God abhorr'd it and would Bring it into Judgment And tho the Witnesses were Slain before men as Witnesses of Lyes only by the Anathemas Excommunications Brands of Heresy Pour'd out upon them yet that Antichristian State These Witnesses of Christ had Power to Kill Ten Thousand Times more For all that they have spoken shall certainly and everlastingly be Fullfiâ—l'd upon it and it is condemn'd already by the Mouths of so many Servants of Christ of which each Particular Soul of that Antichristian Union going out of this World hath Found the dreadful effects of which the Reformation hath been the effect and stands a Monument of which many severe Judgments by Mahometans and others Many strokes from Heaven have been the Evidences and in Regard of which Threatned and Executed The Witnesses aâ—e and were accounted by the Antichristian World their Tormentors But the Illustrious Fullfilling is yet to come when that wicked one shall be Consum'd or carried off by the Breath of Christs Mouth in the Preaching the Everlasting Gospâ—l and utterly Abolished by the Brightness of his coming 2. The Second Thing in which the Spirit of God sets out the judiciary Miraculous Power of the Witnesses is They had Power to shut Heaven that it should not Rain in the Days of their Prophecy Now what was this It is taken from Elijah's swearing in the Name of the Living God There should be no Rain no Dew for three years and an half 1 Kings 17. A Symbol of these Three years and an Half of years or 1260 years For so I understand them Yet with Relation to a deâ—per Time like that of our Lord 's Lying in the Grave a part of Three Days For which Reason they are call'd Days and signify the Three Times and an Half as Days in all Languages Import Seasons Now the Doctrine of the Gospel and indeed all Instruction is Compar'd to Rain and Dew in Scripture My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain and Distil aâ— the Dew The Doctrine of the Gospel after the Ascention of Christ is expressed by Gods sending a plentiful Rain whereby he Confirm'd Strengthen'd or Refresh'd his Inheritance when It was weary Psal 68. 9. So in the Prophet the People are Call'd to to Break up their Fallow Ground Till God come and Rain Righteousness upon Them Hos 10. 12. The Shutting up of Heaven therefore in the Days of their Prophecy that It should not Rain shews 1. That there should be as is very well known was a very Dark and Barbarous Time as to all Learning and Knowledg in the Moons of the Apostasy that Chill Fruitless Planets of the Night from which the very Borrowed Beams of the Sun Fall Cold and Languid and without Vigor or Pregnancy 2. That there should be an exceeding Drought and Barrenness as to all Gospel Doctrines in their Life Purity Sweetness And how Remarkable this was all Protestants are I hope Sensible except they themselves Love still those Corrupted Pits and Cisternes of Popery or what hath the brackish Tast thereof 3. That there should be a very sad and woful Turning of the Earth or the Hearts of Men under the Name and Profession of Christianity into Iron and Brass as to all Gospel Softness and Fructification 3. And this will be yet clearer in the Third Particular They have Power to turn Water into Blood into the Blood of a Dead man as another Expression of the Revelation gives it us that is that hath no Motion Circulation Spirits Activity shewing the utter Ineptitude nay Impossibility of Popish Dâ—ctrines as of Justification by Works Transubstantiaâ—ion Pardons Indulgences Pennances Pilgrimages Worship of Saints Angels Virgin Mary Saints to be the Instruments of Conveying Life to Souls any more than the Stagnated Blood of a Dead Man to give Life or Motion to the Body in which it is so Arrested and Congeal'd But as Elijah said As the Lord Liveth there shall not be Rain nor Dew but at my word So the Witnesses may say but at our word at our Doctrine according to the Plainness Purity Sincerity of Gospel Preaching If they had stood in my Counsels They should have turned Sinners from their evil ways When men cull out the Morality of the Gospel only and our own Workings as many even of the Styled Reformed do little else Neglecting the Holding out of Christ in his Blood in the mighty Grace of his Spirit Hence the Doctrine of the Gospel becomes as the Blood of a Dead Man without Power of Conversion But it may be said would the Witnesses or should they ought they to shut Heaven or to turn VVaters into Blood I Answer The Preaching God hath given them to Preach the VVord he hath given them they must speak they must Preach If God hath given them to declare the rare and Seldom Conversions the Lowness and Penury of True Gospel Doctrine the Heavens shut during the days of the Apostasy they must Declare it their Declaring it done is the doing it what the Prophets Declare They Do as God says to Jeremy I have set thee to Build and to Plant to pull down and to Destroy So God Set these Witnesses to shut Heaven to turn Waters into Bood Again as Christ Taking to himself the Instruments of a good Shepherd condemned the Instruments of the Foolish Shepherd and so turn'd all the Preaching of the Scribes and Pharisees into Folly by Preaching himself with Authority and not as the Scribes So the Witnesses shut up Heaven and no Rain falls but at or by their Word and they turn waters into blood by Preaching Plainly and Powerfully and Sincerely the Truths of our Lord Jesus Christ And even many Souls perceive it of them as they did of Christs Preaching They find the Dullness and Deadness of other Preaching by that Thus God hath given Power to the Witnesses It is given to them to turn Waters into Blood and to shut Heaven that is to Preach sincerely themselves And to shew other Doctrines Poisonous Ruinous to the Souls of Men. Thus at this Day all the Doctrines that turn from Christ and Free Grace that is from the Spirit and Power of Christianity They are Discover'd by the Witnesses to be Destructive The Sheep that come up from the washing have Teeth white as Milk washed with the sincere Milk of the Word purified from this blood between their Teeth
shall be your Judges as in a Conneel The Miraculous Efficacies were also of greater Disposition and freer Distribution Accordingly we may suppose The 144000 with the Fathers Name writ on their Foreheads who learn the New Song First and those who are In structed by Them in it shall very Universally yet according to his Wisdom and Will who is the Supreme Donor be Endued with Power from above as Ministers of State in the Kingdom of Christ and Receiving Gifts for it 3. These Miraculous Powers were Dispens'd in a Frequency in a Continued Dayliness in an universality we find our Lord on all occasions dispens'd these Largesses of Heavenly Bounty and Compassion He never denyed any He extended them to his very Enemies the High Priests Servant onely he was as it were Repuls'd in his Grace by the Vnbelief of some He could do no mighty Works because of their Vnbelief that is he declar'd himself so that he might leave a Testimony against that Sin and Warn all of it Else He went about doing good He Healed all manner of Sickness and diseases And so by the Apostles This Miraculous Power was carried throughout the several Circuits of their Ministry as the Apostle Paul Witnesses concerning his own round about from Jerusalem to Illyricum He Preached the Gospel with mighty Signs and Wonders and Gifts of the Holy Spirit Rom. 15. And without doubt in the same manner shall this Miraculous Power Compass Sea and Land in the Preaching the Everlasting Gospel to every Tongue Nation and Lauguage And till this be I would Require none to believe Miracles are Return'd and then indeed it will be undeniable 4. As there was thus a Power of Miracles given to the Commission'd Officers of Christ and to his Gifted Servants So there was a Faith of both doing Miracles and a Faith of Receiving the Benefit of those Miraculous Efficacies For as the Apostle speaks of All Faith 1 Cor. 13. 1. Viz. Miraculous or Wonder working Faith So that I could saith he remove Mountains c so there is a Faith of Receiving the Benefit of Miracles For Peter and John and Paul are said Acts 2. c. 14 To perceive a Faith to be Healed a Faith of Receiving And our Lord took notice of the Faith of the Centurion and others altho it is True In many Acts of Grace there was no Regard we can Find to the Faith of the Receiver but the mighty Power and Mercy of God Sallyed out upon Persons by the Faith of the Ministers of the Miraculous Power Having Mercy because he would have Mercy And it gives us an Emblem of the Grace and Power of Christ in Conversion and bringing home to himself sometimes as it seems in a way of Preparation sometimes wholly without but however it seems it is certain Divine Power and Grace Drawing near did Erect that Faith that is in the Wise Ordination necessary to Receive Christ Grace Pardon Justification Sanctification even as the Miraculous Power of Christ being abroad and Drawing Nigh Raised so generally a Faith in that Miraculous Power so general and the particular Dtawing Nigh of Christ excited it in the particular Persons on whom the Benefits were bestowed And thus in the Return of Miracles the Servants of Christ both in Ordinary and Extraordinary Commission'd to Work Miracles shall be Cloath'd with a Faith to that End that those who can by no means Believe now such a Power shall Return will by Feeling that very Power comming upon them and the Hand-writing of the Fathers Name by the Spirit on their Foreheads will be fully perswaded of his wondrous works being as near as his Name to Declare it and these effects flowing out from it upon others There will be a Rousing the Senseless sleepy World that knows not yet the Blessings near it to wait for the Graces to be bestowed by this Power Till these things are No Opinions or best Fram'd Discourses No Essays Beginnings or Scatterings of such a Power can perswade I know none would have it so that Miracles are Returned But when these are none will be able to perswade the contrary and in the mean time the Hopes Expectations and Prayers of Christians are hereby rais'd 5. There arose then and there will arise at the Return of Miracles such full Assurance such Plerophory of Persuasion concerning the Truth of Things that they can be no more doubted than the Assurances of the Light and of the Day and indeed as Cartes Argues Rational Intellectual Assurance surmounts all Sensible even so Spiritual Surmounts both Sensible and Intellectual and this both as to matter of Fact that indeed such things are wrought and that they are wrought by God by a Divine Power and that herein is the Finger of God 6. Herewith a mighty Stream and Torrent of Truth pass'd along and Fill'd the World with the Light and Glory of it in very wonderful manner then and shall much more do so at the Return of Miracles that the Isles shall wait for the Law of Christ his Name shall be great from the Rising of the Sun to the going down of the same The Knowledg of the Lord and of his Glory shall Cover the Earth as the VVaters do the Sea The Light of one Day shall be as the Light of Seven For so hath the mouth of the Lord spoken He hath spoken and he will do it He will VVork and none shall let it He the Lord will hasten it in his own Time No one of these things shall want it's Mate and tho it be wonderful in our Eyes yet shall it be so in his 7. There was a mighty Power of Converting Grace a change of the Hearts Tempers purpose manner of Life and Conversation of men as appears by the 3000 Converted at one Sermon of the Apostle Peters Acts 2. a Real and Sincere and Sound Conversion as the Spirit of God Implies to us saying the Lord Added to that Number then of his Church and to his Church Daily such as should be saved The Five first Chapters of the Acts plainly shew us what the State of Christianity and of the Churches of Christ was before the Apostasy made some Inroads upon it c. 6. How they walk'd in singleness of heart all Spiritual Joy and Gladness of Heart in the Fear of the Lord and had all things Common a Heavenly Spirit and Temper prevailed in them And so shall it be at the return of Miracles a Spirit of Holiness Heavenly Mindedness Love Charity Singleness of Heart and all Purity shall come back with them For these inward Powers of Grace and Divine Presence are the Life and Spirit to Miracles when the one returns so shall the other also and nothing will indeed so convince the World of a Divine Power and Presence as to find it self thus Chang'd and quite other than as now it Criminates and recriminates upon it self as it now perpetually complains of Accuses and Condemns it self 8. As in the Miracles of Christ and of the Apostles there
of Christ in his Time and in the Time of the Apostles There was such Evident Matter of Fact it could not be denied by Sense in what pertain'd to Sense or by the Mind in what pertain'd to Mind Infrence 2. This Ponderous and Tremendous Consideration Rises from hence We ought to give the more Eaynest Heed to the things that have been spoken lest at any time we should let them slip For if the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast and Every Transgression and Disobedience received a Just Recompence of Reward How shall we escape if we neglect so Great Salvation c. If the Salvaâ—ion was so great and God brought it in and surrounded it on every side with Miracles or Miraculous Power Oh how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation so Almightily Testifyed I appeal to All whether we do not Think God dealt Righteously with Pharoah whether he had not a great deal of Patience with him to shew him Miracle after Miracle although he after Buried him in the Red Sea and whether he did not deal Righteously with Israel in the Wilderness that for Forty Years saw his Works and yet did alway Err in their Hearts and did not know the ways of God though their Carcases Fell in the VVilderness and whether seeing the Miracles of Christ and yet Rejecting him They Crucified him and were delivered up to the Romans not many Years after and are now scattered over the Face of the Earth because they sinn'd with so high a hand against a Miraculous Power so exalted before them Now if God bare so Great Witness to that very Gospel we have now confirm'd with Signs and VVonders and divers Gifts of the Holy Spirit How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Oh therefore let us look to it continually If God hath been at so great Expence as I may call it in the manifestation of Himself as to give us the Gospel sealed with such a curious Needle-Work of Miracles with such a Rich Explication of the manifoid VVisdom of God Oh how shall we escape if the Gospel-Faith Repentance Holiness be not found in us which will convince us of Great Neglect of it If it be said what was Miracle undeniable to the Beholders hath lost the Force of Miracle to us to whom it is gone out of Matter of Fact into Htstorical Account Tradition and Discourse I answer to this in a Third Inference Infer 3. That which presses forward the Exhortation and Answers the Objection is Let us consider and deeply weigh that God sealing any Doctrine with Miracles declares the Intrinsick Value and worth of that Doctrine the Fitness of it to bring Souls into the Kingdom of Christ Miracles are only a sensible Declaration of the Intrinsick Excellency of the Doctrine whether They are present or absent The Excellency of Divine Truth is still the same For Miracles are never a Seal to a Blank The Writing hath the Essence of the matter whether the Seal be at every Line or not It is enough It is once set It needs not be set a new every Time It is Read The Fine of Miracles once pass'd the Gospel as a Deed of Uses imports the Sense and Virtue of All and carries it and the Fine of Miracles as I may call it along with it however but once pass'd Miracles are no more necessary continually than One Rising on all Occasions from the Dead But the Divine Excellency and Truth of the Doctrine is always the same Christ coming and speaking Things of so Supreme Excellency that never man spake like him did also the works that no man else ever did Hence it is alike Infer'd If I had not come and spoken they had had no Sin but now they have no Cloak for their sin and if I had not done among them the VVorks no man ever did they had had no sin Conversion therefore hath been without Miracles and with Miracles Not therefore by the Vertue of Miracles which of themselves raise no more than Wonder without the Spirit of God working with the Truth of the Gospel and that without Miracles is most Efficacious Miracle can do nothing without the principal Truth even the Divine Spirit never works by Miracles without the Divine Doctrine It continually works by that without Miracles many who themselves wrought Miracles shall yet have that dreadful Sentence upon them I know you not depart from me you that work Iniquity A man may have a Faith Removing mountains and yet be nothing Matt 7. 22. 23. 1 Cor. 13. 1. It is certain therefore Conveâ—sion follows not Miracles But Miracles have and shall indeed Follow the mighty Power of Converting Grace working with the Gospel as at the Time of Christs Appearance in the Offertures of his Kingdom when here upon Earth and by the Apostles so at the Glorious Appearance of his Kingdom Great and many workings of Miracles so great Conversions many Converts and therefore by the way let me give this very Serious and Practical Notion It may be we should look upon our Selves as Persons highly Favoured of God If we could Heal Diseases or do any thing that would look like Miracle But it is not so great a Thing as a Power to Touch Christ and Believe in him To Conquer the Lusts and Corruptions of our own Hearts and the Impurity of our own Spirits The Faith that Touches Christ and Draws Vertue from him is a far more Excellent Faith than that which can Remove Mountains or Heal Diseases If we had a Power of Miracles it would indeed amaze the World with the View and be a kind of Nine days Wonder But it would Flatten upon the Hearts of Men by being daily They would grow familiar with it and Resist it as the Jews did as Pharaoh did If the Power of Converting Grace did not go along with it But this Inward Power is all pure perfect Spirit and never fails Tho Christ will say to many that had Cast out Devils and did many wonderful works in his Name I never knew you depart from me you workers of Iniquity yet to them who have by Faith Deriv'd from him Righteousness Holiness Victory over Sin Vanity Lusts and Corruptions over the World that have Receiv'd Renovation Mortification Heavenliness of Heart Christ will never Profess I know you not depart from me you workers of Iniquity Agreeably therefore to this when the seventy Returned and gave Account of their Success and Christ gave them Power to Tread on Serpents and Scorpions c. Yet saith he In this Rejoyce not but Rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven Oh! what an Admirable Thing is True Grace Faith Repentance Love Hope Obedience How curious is the Inlay and Variety the Curious Needle VVork like the Variety of Miracles in the Times of the Apostles or as Solomon speaks in his Song there are all Spices and Perfumes all the Richest Perfumes and Powders of the Merchant in the various Graces of the Spirit of which the
assurance of which Enlightens 3. The Apostle according to other Scriptures distinguishes between the day dawning and the Day-Star arising one signifying the succession of the Kingdom of Christ the other the glory of that Kingdom So the Mystery of God is to be fulfilled in the days of the Seventh Angel and then Christ appears in his Glory So the Apostle distinguishes between Christ blasting the man of sin with the Breath of his Mouth which is by the mighty power of the Everlasting Gospel and then utterly consuming and annihilating Him with the Brightness of his Coming or Appearanee 4. The Apostle describes the Apostacy that should so long delay the Kingdom of Christ in mystical Terms under the shade of Nicolaianism and Gnostiscism so fit to type out the Idolatry impurity of Manners and all the Abominablenesses of the Antichristian State of which Antichrist the little Horn in Daniel whose representation Daniel gave as thinking to change Times and Laws until the time of the Kingdom of Christ Now of this very changing Times and Laws is the Second Chapter of this Epistle a delineation and most prophetically and at greatest advantage after the mention of Prophecy it is given 5. His Third Chapfer most plainly and exprsly refers to Time for he answers not as some think the Atheists but the Antichristians Objection those great Burlesquers of Christianity into Fables called therefore Scoffers who say That all things from the Flood having continued as they were there is no such change as of the Kingdom of Christ to be expected and so all that which concerns the Kingdom of Christ hath passed with them for Millenarian Heresie The Apostle hath therefore laid down the Rule and Standard of Time accounting the Six-days of Creation each as at a Thousand Years and in the Evening or as between the two Evenings of the sixth Millenary begins the Sabbatical Milenary or the Seventh Thousand which is with the Lord that is with relation to the Lord or the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to his Kingdom but as one day often called the Day of Judgment and that Sabbath Day in which Saying of the Apostle That a Thousand Years is as one Day there is a manifest foresight of the Diâ—ine Spirit what it would make known by John even that number'd exactly Numbered Time of a Thousand years which the Apostle Peter affirm'd to be with the Lord viz. as Time designed and set out to the Lord as his own Times That one Day Now as this view of this Epistle gives us a clear apprehension how full to the purpose of Prophetical Scripture this Epistle is written how it simpathizes and is contemporate with the whole Scope and Spirit of it so the Words and Sense of Interpretation is exactly fitted to all and no other can fit it For there were two things all the Hebrews both unbelieving and believers were fully agreed in 1. That the Prophecies of Scripture were of Divine Inspiratien that Prophecy of Scripture came not by the will of man but was from the Holy Spirit This the Believing and Unbelieving Jews were both most zealous of 2. That Messiah had a Kingdom assured to him in the Propheâ—ies of Scripture This even the Unbelieving Jews were all in â—ighest expectatâ—on of at that very time and the Believing Jews also were earnestly at that time in expectation of To these the Apostle therefore cannot be supposed to direct the force of his Discourse But that Jesus Christ was not to be owned as the true Messiah the Son of God and the King of Israel notwithstanding his Kingdom did not immediately appear was a Point the Unbelieving Jews are to this day scandalized at even to their rejection of Christ the True Messiah and the Christian Hebrews were very tender in Therefore that Jesus Christ was the True Messiah and that great Prince the Apostle gave first the pâ—oof of the Transfiguration as hath been shewn And that he with James and John were Eye and Ear-Witnesses Three Witnesses in the Mouths of whom it was establish'd and no Cunningly devised Fable to shift off the Scandal of the mean Appearance of our Lord in the days of his Flesh But saith the Apostle We have a more sure word of Prophecy as hath been opened to which you do well to take heed But the Objection still remains That the Prophecys run all upon a Glorious Kingdom of Messiah at that time to appear as the Unbelieving Jews thought and therefore the Scribes Pharisees Chief-Priests Elders their whole Sanhedrim determin'd against him with a high hand that he was a Deceiver The asserting therefore the Divine Inspiration of Prophecy could not be to the main purpose but that it is not of Private Interpretation but that serious Christians may find the sense and meaning of it and that it is not within the Enclosure or Embarasse of any Sanhedrim Council or Infallible Breast This is indeed highly to the purpose and that according to the Sense and Meaning of the Divine Spirit in it one part compared with another by the Assistances of the same Spirit it would appear that as Daniel's Seventy Weeks brought down Time to its fulness viz. at the Death Resurrection and Ascention of Christ that a dark place or Interval of delay and patience for that Kingdom must needs be for a long space but that yet that all Takers heed to prophecy Prophecy leads through the dark place with the Illumination of that Course of Time and how long it shall be until the dawning of the day and the shining of the day Star into the hearts of all his Saints by the glorious appearance of Christ and in the fulness of times or all Times Now all this is very evidently to a great and admirable end purpose and â—ffect in the Apostle's Discourse in this Context and whole Epistle viz. to settle the hearts of the Believing Hebrews and of all Christians in the comfortable Expectations of that Kingdom in the midst of the greatest Darkness of the worst Times and it is with the greatest Wisdom of the Divine Spirit of Prophecy that at this very Advantage the Apostle goes on to set out this Apostacy at this very Joint of Discourse of the dark place which that very Apostacy was to create and at naming of prophecy and tells them that there shall be false Prophets among Christians as there were among the People of Israel of old So the Apostle John in the Revelations joins the Antichristian Beast and False Prophet in several Particulars opposite to the Apostles Doctrine concerning Prophecy and Interpretation of Scripture wheâ—ein they have Antichristianiz'd as the Pharises at that time had Prevaricated 1. In that insolent Pretence to Infallibility of Interpretation by a Pope and Council and their Clergy would engross Interpretation and the Power of Interpreting Scripture as their own Propriety Right and Dominion 2. In their Locking up Scripture from the people under this very Pretence They cannot interpret nor have right to interpret it
so they cannot a tend to the sure word of prophecy as they are commended here for doing 3. In their peculiar Enmity to the searching the Prophecy of Scripture and denying even to the most Learned to intermeddle with it seeing their own Condemnation in it contrary to the Apostle's most peculiar Commendation of those who give heed to Prophecy 4. In their setting up Tradition a thing dependent wholly on Human Will above Scripture whereas the Apostle commends Scripture and its Prophecy that it came not by the Will of man but by the Spirit 5. In their allowing to their own Votaries the Credit and Honour of their pretended Inspirations above the Close attendance to Scripture Prophecy and its Interpretation which the Apostle hath here so recommended to every Christian and without the least signification of Inspiration Given to All and his plain making former Scripture the Test of All following 6. By exalting their Fabulous Legendary Miracles above Scripture or the Prophecies notwithstanding even to the Transfiguration The Apostle prefers the sure Word of Prophecy Although That was no Cunning devised Fable and of so great an Excellency by which the Apostle seems prophetically to Glance most severely upon those Cunningly Devised Fables that should arise in the Christian Profession 7. The Apostle Foretelling those Scoffers in the last days who should set up the Mock Fifth-Monarchy so earnestly recommends the Words of the Prophets and the Commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour the Great Messiah and Jesus whereby he hath also given a very damning Predictory Admonition of the Grand Antichristian Apostacy Now in all these it may be said to those Antichristians as it was to the Jews and their Rulers of old while they read these Scriptures and the Prophecys of Scripture in their ownway they not understanding the Voices of the Prophets are most justly condemned in fulfilling them For thus ought the Antichristian Apostacy to do though most wickedly they do so that these Scripture Prophecys may be fulfilled All that hath now been spoken being by way of premisal and preparation I lay down these Propositions 1. That Scripture Prophecy is given by God for a Light that must shine in the dark place of the Antichristian Apostacy till the end of which the Kingdom of Christ is in delay 2. Christians do well to take heed to it as so shining and giving the time when the day of that Kingdom shall dawn and the day Star of it shine into the hearts of all Saints 3. Such heed cannot be given except there be a Right given to Christians and a power of interpreting Scripture Prophecies 4. It is a First Principle to Christians of the Apostle's setting and fixing that all and every Prophecy of Scripture and particularly of Time relating to the Kingdom of Christ is Open and Free and not a Private Record or of any way an Enclos'd Impropriated â—or Appropriated Interpretation For the more clear and illustrious arguing the Grand Proposition That all and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of a private or secret but of an open free and publick Interpretation I will first proceed by direct and down right proof and Argument that of all Scripture except that which lays down the Truths precisely and absolutely necessary to Salvarion The Prophecy of Scripture is in its Interpretation most Free open and most certain I will in the second place give Answers to the great Objections against this Proposition so prov'd I will in the Third Place consider what Standards according to Reason and Scripture-understanding may be given whereby we may judge whether any one hath given a true Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy viz. whereby the person giving such Interpretations may know himself he hath given such true Interpretation and whereby Any other may judge of it and find it so In the Fourth Place I will draw out in most publick view the Evidences I my self have within my self and have offered to others that I have given a True Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy All this I will do with most particular relation to prophetical numbers of Time I will Super-add a Judgment upon the state of Time Intermedious from hence to the Kingdom of Christ and shew that the Kingdom of Christ shall be very sudden and as Lightning And this I shall do by way of retractation and correction of Any thing wherein I have err'd in this matter and what will be as an Answer of an Objection that Glories in the present appearance of Things to Sense as if no such Kingdom were near I will recollect the whole in some very Brief Reflections for the settlement of the Judgment and practice in relation to Scripture Prophecy concerning Time I begin with the First The arguing the Proposition which shall insist upon these Four Heads or Topicks 1. I argue from the Infinite Ability of the Divine Spirit so to give Prophecy that the Interpretation may be Free and Publick 2. I argue from the necessity That whatever is written with sense and coherence of the things written and with the Harmony of Truth if the parts of such Discourses are diligâ—â—tly compar'd and sagaciously intermedled with by persons separating themselves thereunto a certain Interpretation must needs fly out to them 3. I argue from the gracious Assistances and Promises that the Holy Spirit will as the Spirit of Truth lead into all Truth shewing things that are to come and give the key of knowledge leading into the Sectets of Prophecy even wherein our Dulness and Slowness of Heart makes them so notwithstanding the Provision of the Spirit for their Interpretation Argument I. The Divine Spirit hath an Infinite and Infallible Prescience of things that are to come to pass Known to him are the Works of God from the very Foundation of the World to the end of it with every particular Accident to the very least Circumstance and therefore he can foretell all things as clearly as he pleases and so that they may be interpreted and understood He searcheth all things even the deep things of God whose Counsels of old are faithfulness and truth who calleth the End from the Beginning and can declare it For he worketh all things after the Counsel of his own Will which Will he knew from Eternity within himself This Prescience of the Divine Spirit is acknowledg'd by All Christians except some few who least deserve the Name of Christians who deny the Actual Determinations of Free or what we call Fortuitous Agents to be Scibilia or Knowable I make not therefore here any dispute concerning the High Mystery of the Supreme Prâ—science how or in what manner God foreknew when the things fore known depend on causes acting so freely that what they will choose seems impossible to be known before hand or so fortuitously that if it could be foreseen how they would be cast the Fortuitousness seems destroyed But that God does foreknow I take for granted even as it is much the more generally agreed and
finding the Iconismes or Images of Prophecy every way Agreeing herewith both in the Freest Analogical and even Litteral Interpretation as I have shewn all parts squaring one with Another I cannot but be thus far assur'd The Interpretation of the sure word of Phrophesy must needs be Fair Just and Right or seeing no other Interpretation can be Found thus to Square Prophecy must be indeed of Private Interpretation altho the Apostle assures it is not so More particularly with Relation to the Prophetical Numbers of Time I Found the purely prophetical Time on that Basis or Ground of it the Three Hundred Ninety Days of Years of Ezekiel his Bearing the Iniquity of the House of Israel These I make Sevenfold according to the Standard of Seven God so often fixes in the punnishment of Iniquity Leviâ— 26. And so they comprehend in that Seven foldness which makes the 390 2730 the Forty Days of Years of Ezekiels Bearing the Iniquity of the House of Judah and the Twenty Three Hundred Eves Morns of the Sanctuary Troden under Foot until the Sanctuary Cleansed or Justified according to Ezekiels Vision in the Glorious Kingdom of Christ These Twenty Seven Hundred Thirty Years making Seven Times Three Hundred and Ninety is one of the Transcendents I find in the Scripture-Line of Time according to my Computation of it and the Third Standard now given In this Grand Portion of the Line viz. Of the Twenty Three Hundred Eves Morns Fall Evenly and Justly All the Numbers of Time given after in Daniel and the Revelation or that can be supposed necessary to fill up any Spaces according to History or that are necessary to make up the 2300. although the Numbers are not in Lesser or Collatteral Lines to the 2300 Named in Prophecy which Yet must be and are Seventy Five before the Weeks and Four Hundred Years after the Weeks For all others are expresly named in Scripture-Prophecy But however as I have often shewn All Agree in their Just Order and Agree among themselâ—es and Agree with the Notes of Discerning them Scripture hath given and lastly Agree with History and General Chronology All which make as great Assurance as can be of a True Computation and Account seeing neither Chance nor Art can Tune Thinâ—s to such a Manifold Agreement For as They say Res nolunt Decipi Things will not be deceived nor imposed upon so they cannot be Forc'd Compell'd nor Flatter'd into an Agreement and so manifold an Agreement when the Natural Mutual Respect they have one to another does not incline them That particular Portion of the Line of Time given to measure the Time of the Apostasy by so often and so variously given viz Time Times Half a Time Twice Forty Two Months Twice Twelve Hundred Sixty Days and Three Days and an half and so the Last Thirty and Forty Five most Evenly and Justly according to the Line of Time take hold of and succeed one another in their Just Places The 1260 concert with the Ten Kings Receiving Power at one hour with the Beast The Beasts Supremacy the Mahometan Times So as to give all the Assurance that can be Fall in One with Another All according to the Justest Configurations of Prophetical Images and Historical Events And herein I observe Four Transcendencies which most unexpectedly and surprizingly meet the Considerer herein according to the Third Standard here given and would make the Meditative upon them cry out I have found I have found 1. That as Scripture-Prophecy gives the Time by Moons to the Gentiles and to the Beast and Days of the Sun to the Witnesses and the Woman and that these Days of the Sun and Moons are to Agree one with another as Lunar and Solar Time do I find according to my Calculation they do Agree according to the so celebrated Rule of the Golden Number and that thereby the Succession of the Beast or the Antichristian Papacy according to the Exact Laws of Succession to the Christian Emperor as Seventh Head and Eighth King Revel 17. 10 11. is fix'd at 475 or 6. as it ought according to all History to be and determin'd to its End or Going into perdition at 1697. Lunar Time and Solar Falling in Exactly according to all Chronology with this Prophecy 2. According to my Calculation by the Time the so known Character of Time Indiction or accounting by Fifteens of Years was well known and settled after Constantine the Spirit of Poophecy hath Adopted it to Enter into its Own Computation of Time For the Time Times and half Time beginning accordingly at 437. are in the whole and in each Division cast into Indictions or Fifteens of Years viz. the Three Times or Thrice Three Hundreds and Sixties and the Half Time or the One Hundred Eighty and for their sakes the Thirty making 1260 1290 by Two Fifteens and the Forty Five making 1290 to be 1335. Dan. 12. 11. 12. is evidently by Three Indictions or Fifteens And to All this may be added the Observation that the Words chosen out by the Spirit of God in the Chaldee Hebrew and Greek to express Time Times and Half Time so Sworn by Christ as to be Determinate Time may be Emphatically Translated Indiction or Indicted Time Now what can this mean but that Over-Ruling Providence so Disposes All that such Notations of Time should be found out and come into Use as when it self hath Occasion for them to Ascertain its own Calendar of Prophetick Time and who also would Direct and Guide his Servants into the Observation of and most Assured Distinction of Prophetick Time by Them according to the fit Seasons appointed by himself to make them so known to them so that it is no wonder they have not been known before or that they are made known to some and not to others when they are made known 3. It is even of Transcendent Remark that the Reformation at that so Agreed Epoch of it should be at 1517. as the just Point of Half Time beginning that necessarily casts the beginning of the Time and Times upon 437. according to my Fixation of it before I can Truely Appeal I had made a Reflection upon the Wonderful Service it does to assure the Line of Time and the beginning of those 1260 days at 437 but according to the Natural Progress of the 2300 Eves Morns in the Assignation of Each to their Proper Points of Time Adorn'd with their Suitable Events Each I say of the Collatteral Lines so Assign'd Led me to 97. Now all these Transcendencies of Evidence eoncerning the just Interpretation of Prophecy I have from Time to Time fully opened declar'd and argued in their Proper Treatises according to further and further Light Euidence and Assurance given in by the Father of Lights and which are in many Hands 4. That which it hath pleased the Lord further to open and manifest to his Unworthy Servant by way of Transeendency is That whereas I was led to fix upon 437. as the Beginning of the
not come to his End so soon but must do at last as is intimated concerning the Turkish King of the North Dan. 11. ult Now to keep France so within its own Figure is a Service so considerable to Providence according to Prophecy that it should make Princes and Nations Patient under the inconveniency of War to such an End And it may Answâ—r for a Confederacy of Protestants with Popish Powers so far as that it may be made use of by Providence to such an End as Restraining France Agreeably to Divine Determination And it may justly call us to the Observation of Providence in Ballancing Things so as this Last and former Years it has done so that while as with one hand God is pleased to keep the French Power at such a Height with the other he so Ballances that it should not exceed its Figure So we see it in all the Disposes of Things to this Day So in the Wonderful Preservation of the Kings Person when danger was so every way about and Death so near him Because he hath raised Him up as so peculiar an Instrument to that purpose to give a stop to the Exorbitant Power of France as also to be an Interposer against the Return of Papal Power on these Protestant Nations of England Scotland and Ireland 3. As it was said to Barak This Journey or Expedition shall not be for thy Honour because God would fell Sisera into the Hands of a Woman Judges 4 9 So the great Success of Finishing the War upon France in Conjunction with the Turks God hath reserv'd for the Stone cut oâ—t of the Mountains who is not in any Human Hand No Greater nor more Victorious Atchievements have been therefore Granted to the Confederate Armies nor any gradual Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ because the Glory is reserv'd to Christ so that all shall be done by him in an instant on the sudden at the very Time Appointed by God viz. in the year 97. so near Approaching These things shall be done The French Grandieur as it now stands in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ shall be ground to Powder The Witnesses both the Vaudois and the French Protestants at this Time under his Power and Tyranny shall see the Morning Star Dawning They shall be with Christ when he Breaks the Nations with a Rod of Iron They shall feel a Spirit of Life Entring into them and Causing them to stand on their Feet and they shall hear a Voice from Heaven saying Come up hither The Turkish Woe shall be clear Remov'd But then together with this The Confederate Princes as giving their Kingdom yet to the Beast or Papacy and even the Protestant Princes so Far as they enter into the Constitution of a Nebuchadnezzars Image the Papal Hierarchic Clay where ever it is Found with iâ—s 7000 Names shall all be Ground to Powder also 5. The Supreme Sovereign Event of Events shall then come to paâ—s The Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ He shall Reign in his own Name take to himself his Great Power and send out his Everlasting Gospel as on the Wings of Angels and Blessed is he who is not offended at these Things but Loves and Waits for them But indeed if God should please any way to bring down the French Power or Cause it but so much as to Lye still and to Dissolve the League between him and the Turkish Potentacy sooner my Hopes and Expectations might be that God were sooner also working by such Beginnings to much greater Things for the Change of the World In the mean Time I cannot but Represent things as Prophecy Represents them and I presume no further And that I find not to be till 97. Another Prophetical Note The Lord hath been pleas'd much to imprint upon my Spirit is that Habac. 2. 13 14. where the Prophet beholds in Litteral Babylon the Mystical Babilon the Town Built â—ith Blood the Intoxicating Soreeress Enchanting the Nations to the Exposing their Nakedness and Shame through Inebriating them with the Golden Cup of Fornication she holds in her hand and makes the Kings of the Earth Drunk with that they may commit the Whoredoms of Idolatry with her and in the beholding of this and the Foresight of the End and Destruction of it The Prophet is made to see in Spirit by the mighty Influence of that upon him while That bore and carried him alought and moved him and not any Created VVill but the Holy Spirit alone He speaks the State and Posture of Things that shall Confine and Border upon the Ruin and Destruction of that Babylon and the Manifestation of the Glory of the Lord Immediately Consequent upon it And this State he declares shall be by the peculiar Ordination and Constitution of the Lord of Hosts of him who has the Government of the whole Host of Heaven and Earth so that nothing shall be able to move to the Contrary The People shall Labour as in the very Fire the pure perfect Fire and shall weary themselves for very Vanity pure and perfect Vanity For so is it ordain'd by God that thus he may prepare for that great change of the World The very Reason why he orders it so is Because the Knowledg of the Glory of the Lord shall cover the Earth The Glory shall cover the Earth that the knowledg of the Glory of God may so cover it also even as the Waters the Sea that even as in the Sea there is nothing to be seen for Water even so in the Earth There shall be nothing to be seen for the Glory of the Lord it shall so take up the whole View througout all the Earth From hence therefore I Argue All kinds of Disappointment and Frustrations of All the Labour Undertakings Enterprizings that are in the World the Expectations from Princes Councels Governments From Trade and Commerce at Home and Abroad From Armies and Navies From Generals and Commanders of them and their whole Force and this not only in one part of the World but in the Nations and People taken together and in the Gross Such Labouring in the very Fire and wearying themselves for very vanity are no Argument against such a Glory of God being near and the Knowledg of such a Glory covering the Earth as the Waters do the Sea Such a Glorious Revolution and Change of the World being very nigh and at the doors so that they are rather an Argument for the nighness of it to us For God hath given us this as a Prognostick In the very same manner This Divine Prophet beholding that Great Vision of the Kingdom of Christ in its last Accomplishment when all his Enemies shall be under the Invasion with his Troops Intimates That even in the Labour and Service of Nature it self There shall be great Fâ—ustrations and Disappointments that the Fig Tree may not Blossom the Labour of the Olive may fail there may be no Fruit in the Vine