Number of God our Creator who is one in Three and Three in one the Quaternary or Four is the Number of Man the Creature who is made up of the four Elements as are also all Sublunary things call'd Elementary compound Bodies hence it is that all things have a wonderful Harmony of Cohaerency and Rest in the Septenary Number hereupon Philosophy calls io Numerus primus Virgineus Sacer Quietarius 1 The first Number because it made up the first Week 2 The Virgin Number because great is its force and efficacy as a Virgin is in the Flower and Strength of Age so every Seventh Year is computed Climacterical and Seven Nines or 63. is accounted the great one as 7. Years in Law is the Term of a Mans life and 3 Sevens are aequivalent to 3 Lives 3 'T is call'd a Sacred Number because it flows from the Ternary which is the Number of God and the Quaternary the Number of the World as is abovesaid this Note savors not so much of Superstition as it Respects the Nature of Harmony hence the Poets Phrase Perfection of Prosperity by torque quaterque Beati a 3 sold and a 4 fold Happiness 4 'T is the Resting number because the Seventh Day and the Seventh Year in sacred Writ were Sabbatical Every week is call'd Septimana consisting of 7. Days and every Seventh Year produceth some material Alteration Beside the Seventh Number is call'd the Limit and Measure of all inferior numbers and any great number proposed whose Measure is Seven and may be divided by 7. exactly can by no other Means be more certainly sound out than by Division with 7. But above all the Holy Scriptures number all by Sevens accounting the 7th Hour Day Month and Year to be all Sabbatical and the Seven Seventh Year to be a Jubilee a Restitution of all c. And this Harmony between Hours Days Months and Years seems to be intimated Revel 9. 15. Thus also the Law required 7. washings or sprinklings of blood or water and the 7. Lamps in the Inner Court or Holy Place representing the 7. Planets in the Visible Heavens as the greatest Lamp stood in the middle of the other six having 3. on either side so the Sun is seated in the midst as Prince of the Planets having 3. above Him and 3. below Him all attending him as above All the walks of this glorious Sun are shadows of something within the Vail The Eve or Evening was as Eve was to Adam the Wife of the Morning the Jews and other Nations reckon the Beginning of Time as of the Sabbath at Evening and to them that are about the Aequator and to all ar either Aequinox the first 6 Hours brings the Sun to the Mid-night Nadir or Mid-Heaven of the Antipodes and six more to the Morning Horizon six more to the Zenith or noon of the upper Hemisphere six more to its setting again when the Sun hath taken all these Turns of Sixes 6. times over theh comes the 7th or Sabbath Day whereon the Cakes of the Shew-bread were changed 1. Sam. 21. 6. Every 7th Hour as well as every 7th Day made a Pauze or Rest the Sabbath of the Evening Ps 104. 23. of the Midnight or the Morning and of the Noon or Mid-day All Vsherd in by six Hours as the Sabbath is by six days and that 7th is the first Number wherein Heaven and Earth met together God and Man in the first Sabbath worship Numero Deus Impare Gaudet 7. is an odd Number and the 7th Day was not only a Resting but a Refreshing day to God Exod. 31. 17. would to God it were so to us above all the other 6. Days And I know not why this 7th Grand Revolution of those Planets may not bring in a blessed Sabbatism or some Extraordinary Rest and Refreshment seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Time of Refreshing or as the Gr. signifies or Cooling the Heat is promised Act. 3. 19. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Time of the Restitution of all things v. 21. wherein all Ruines by Sin shall be Repaired by our Saviour and Blessed Jesus shall take off the Curse and Corruption under which the Creature groaneth Rom. 8 19 20. 21. 22. This great Scripture Truth Divine Plato Hammerd at in his Great Revolution when after many Thousands of Years He saith all things shall be again in statu quo prius as they were at the Worlds beginning in a state of perfection The World waxeth worse and worse and the last being but Dregs are the worst of Times yea not only the Earth but Heaven also grows faint and feeble through old Age. Insomuch that the Sun as Ptolomy saith Runs much nearer the Earth many Thousand Miles now than at the Creation If so then by the same Rule the Planets must do the same and then neither of them have kept their first perfection from whence some Salvo's to arising Doubts may be deducted if this Hypothesis should be taken for Granted But whatever may be said to Ptolomys Assertion I shall endeavor to illustrate that of Noble Tycho Brahe saying that all the 6. Great Conjunctions which only have happened since the Foundation of the World Exclusive to this 16. Century have been Auspicious to the World and Vsherd in some signal Mercies to Man-kind So this 7th in our Century will certainly exceed them all c. as the 6. Days Creation had each of them their Tob Good but the 7th Days Rest was attended with Tob Meod very good So the 6. former Revolutions all brought Tob good to the Church but this 7th suppos'd to be the last will undoubtedly bring Tob Meod very good things with it The Bridegroom at the Marriage feast reserves his Best Wine for the Last Time John 2. 9. 10. Take a short Land-skip of all the former 6. The first under Enoch 800. Years of the World his Name signifies Catechised as Gen. 14. 14. Chanikau Catechised or Trained up in Religion as well as Warfare He was taught of God to walk with God Gen. 5. 24. Hebr. 11. 5. Ecclesiasticus 44. 16. and 49. 14 A great Type of Christ in his Ascension living 365 Years before his Translation after a God pleasing Life and just so long did Christ live in the Purity of the Primitive Church to Julian the Apostate in the Year 365 after Christ He was as all the Patriarks were the Chief Bishop of his Time by whose Labours the Church of God was preserved in that prophane Age He prophecyed of the Destruction of Sinners before Noah did of the Deluge foretelling the Day of Judgment and the Coming of our Lord. Syr. Maran-Atha hence the Jews make him the Author of the great Excommunication Jude v. 14. 15. As Enoch is call'd the 7th from Adam the Church had some Sabbath or 7th Time of Refreshing by him a Rest and Respit from that Vniversal Destruction which came upon the World afterwards Thus Elijah Enochs Brother candidate of Immortality is
Stiled the 7th from Adam also not in Respect of Degrees or Gradual Descent as was Enoch the 7th Patriarch not the 7th Person but by way of Computation and in Respect of so many Generations as some Reckon between them Elijah is computed the 7th Prophet from Adam and the first sent to the Gentiles a great Reviver of the Church as his Brother Enoch was and a Restorer of the Law Now here be two 7ths from Adam both Translated into Heaven which may intimate that after the 6000. Year of the World comes the 7th from Adam or 7th Millennium with its strange Translation likewise However this Translation of Enach is call'd Annus Sabbaticus Calvisius Opus Chronolog Page 3. Enoch predicts as a late Reverend writer saith Judicium matutinum the Morning part of the Judgment Day explain'd Dan. 7. 7. 8. 9. as if then to be seen behold he cometh which was not to be till the 7000. Year begin and the Vespertinum or Evening part is after it explained in Revel 20. 7. The Second Climacterical Conjunction by doubling the Number 8 here and all along was in the 1600. Year of the World under Noah in which Century the Universal Deluge destroy'd the wicked World which was then drowned in wickedness before it was drown'd in water Yet the Church had then her Annum Sabbaticum a compleat Year of Rest in Noahs Ark for from November when Noah had laid up all his Stores of the Earthly Fruits and entred the Ark with his Beasts Fowls and Family he remained there till the Beginning of November following As Enoch had been a Cooler to the Church when the wicked world was Hot in wickedness by his contrary Profession prophecying and Practice for which God took him up into Heaven as thinking no place good enough for him upon Earth and whose Translation gave to the Church the first Specimen or Proof that God had prepared another Life after this for his Saints wherein they should live with him in Glory for ever So Noah as his Name signifies was a Comforter to the Church saving her from the Deluge which Reduced the World to its first Chaos or Confusion Gen. 1. 2. when the Waters above the Firmament and the Waters under met again together and brings the Earth once more into her first posture to be covered with Water 'T was a peculiar priviledge that Noah brought the Church nigh God in this great Floud of Waters Psal 32. 6 Enoch was a Prophet foretelling Christs coming and Noah was a Preacher of Christs Righteousness had greater Blessings than Adam having the Promise I will no more destroy c. Gen. 8. 21. 22. the Bow in the Cloud and a new String to his Bow the Everlasting Covenant the pattern of all Covenants with Israel oft mention'd by the Prophets and the Floud made such a Baptism to the Earth also as help'd to wash away its Curse which Cursed Earth shall become so Renewed so Blessed of the Lord yea so much Christs Darling that He Resolves to make it the Centre of his Glory as some suppose at the 7th Millennium or last Revolution of the Superior Planets Revel 5. 9. 10. where the Saints or Angels Rejoice that they shall come out of Heaven to Reign upon Earth thus God tells Moses in the Mount that the Land shall enjoy her Sabbath of Rest not only a Temporal Levit. 26. 34. 46. and 2. Chron. 36. 21. and Levit. 25. 2. 6. But an Eternal one Hebr. 4. 9. which the Lord of the Sabbath Math. 12. 8. Mark 2. 27. 28. Rom. 9. 29. Jam. 5. 4. hath made for man The whole Earth shall be filled with his Glory Numb 14. 21. He will Cover or Atone it Deut. 32. 43. God not Adam named the Earth Erets which signifies of Ratsah to Delight as If He meant to take his pleasure upon it when the Heavens that Canopy and Curtain now hiding his Glory shall pass away as a Scroll of parchment before the Fire God will come to keep his Sabbath of Rest on Earth and here accept his People then the Land of Canaan more accursed than all Lands while possessed by the accursed Nations shall be most blessed the Glory of all Lands The place of Gods Residence and Delightful Rest Ezek. 26. 6. 40. and 34. 26. 30. Hos 2 20 23. c. The Third great Revolution still adding another 800 falls out in the 2400. y. of the World under Moses when the Church had again another Sabbath of Rest from her long and groaning slavery in the brick bondage of Egypt this is so plain in Scripture History I need not inlarge upon it as upon the 2 former a word only the blessed Messiah which the 7th Revolution may bring in is greater than Moses as much as a Son than a Servant c. Hebr. 3 3 4 5 6. He will plague the Pharaoh of mystical Aegypt with sorer and severer plagues his Vials of wrath Revel 16 till He make him yeeld and let go his People as Exod. 12. 31. He will not only bring his Church into the Wilderness which was all Moses could do leaving the conquest of Canaan to Joshua but bring her also into the Heavenly Country The fourth falls in the 3200. y. of the world adding another 8 to the 24. under Solomon and the Kings of Israel according to incomparable Tycho Brahe this is likewise evident enough in Scripture that the Church had her Sabbath of Rest under Solomon that peaceable King as his Name signifies yea and the Ark of God that had from Moses time hitherto no better harbor than in a Moving and Tottering Tabernacle found a Sabbath of Rest in a standing and stately Temple the wonder of the World not only for his time but for his Godly Successors also Still our Saviour whom the first Revolution ushers into the World in y. 4000. is greater than great Solomon Math. 12 42. He is the Prince of Peace the maker and matter of our peace our Sanctuary and Salvation in whom alone our Souls find a Sabbath of Rest Math 11 29. This needs still less Illustration Go forward then 800. y. more to the Sixth Epocha or Revolution in 4800 y. of the world which brings in Charles the great under whom as the Roman Empire was in its Zenith or most flourishing estate at Christs Birth so now it was translated from Rome into Germany This must be insisted upon a little because 't is beyond Scripture History 't is true the Church could have but a slender Sabbath of Rest in his Time for then Antichrist was Regnant and Leo was Rampant Leo the 3d was then Pope who prostituted his Keys to the Emperors feet for which the Popish People whipt him like a Rogue If not plucked out his Eyes and cut out his Tongue c. Prideaux Introduction pag. 96 yea in this 8th Century Pope Joane made a good proof that the Church of Rome was a Base Whore so that the â—â—st of the Church in this Age
was like the Rest that the Ark of the Covenant had in the midst of Jordan and that of the Priests of the Lord who attended it Josh 4 9 10 16. with 3 13. The Feet of the Priests that bare the Ark did Rest in the midst of Jordan there they stood and must not stir out of their station until 600000 people were passed over the 4000. Cubits of dry Land within the banks there they stand they Rest in the midst of Jordan with hideous Mountains of water hanging over their Heads a most Ghastly and frightful sight without all peradventure yet there they stood till God cal'd them off betwixt the People and Danger so do all good Ministers in all Ages the first shock falls on them The Church hath such short Restles Rests or Sabbaths sometimes as Act 9 31. then had the Churches Rest and such a Sabbath she enjoyed in this Emperors time whom Eginardus writing his life calls a most pious and glorious Emperor He waged his Wars principally to Extirpate Heathenism and to propagate Christianity more than for Enlarging his Dominions Pareus Med. Hist Eccles pag. 257 He trode in the path of his Father Pipin and of his Grandfather Charles Martel of France in that great Service of Christendom against the Saracens had an Averseness though he Reconcil'd the Pope and People from allowing the Popish upholding of Images which appear'd in a Councel held at Franckford and his writing against the 2d Councel of Nice He gave for his Motto Christus Regnat Vincit Triumphat Christ Reigns Conquers and Triumphs This was much even then when Antichrist began to be both Regnant and Triumphant in this 8th Century Prideaux Introd pag. 229 230 as this Motto expressed his Christian Humility in the midst of his Grandeur and Greatness to the great shame of the Popes Pride and Ambition in that time so it Demonstrated his prophetick Faith that Christ in due time would Trample Antichrist underfoot and Triumph over Him He is said to give unto the Empire not only a new Body but a new Soul too by promoting Religion in all his Conquer'd Countries Alsted Encuclopaed pag 3019. He made Amicable leagues with sundry Infidel Kings and Princes that they might be more Favorable to their Christian Subjects Pareus Med. Hist Eccles◠pag. 258. Alcuinus our Oxford man and one of Venerand Bedes Pupils was this Emperors Tutor by whom he gave a large Testimony against Popish Errors Illyr Test Vers pag. 704 and 724. and by whom the Holy Scriptures were translated into the Mothers tongue the Pope at that time not contradicting it Alsted 3020. and Prideaux 230. pag. to conclude though this Great Emperor had some Tincture of Superstition with his piety saith Osiandor yet was he a Zealous promoter of Christianity insomuch that Christ had his Churches in this 8th Century even in all Lands Where they had a little Sabbath or Rest and kept their Sabbaths as the Centurist saith in Palaestine Aegypt Greece France Germany yea and in our Britain as at London York Beverley Crowland Canterbury c. All named Osiand Epst Hist Eccles Cent. 8. lib. 1. Cap. 12. pag. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. would to God our King may become another Charles the Great to protect the Protestant Religion in all Lands Helvicus saith Aaron King of the Saracens gave this Charls Mount Calvary in Jerusalem and the Sepulchre of Christ God give to our Charls a share in Christs Kingdom Now come we to the 7th or Sabbatical Revolution which makes the former 8th to be now the 16th Century The beginning of which makes the World five Thousand six Hundred years old As the sixt climacterical Conjunction turn'd the Empire from Rome to Germany in the 8th Century So this 7th may both turn it and burn it with the House of Austria and the Pope of Rome out of the World As the 8th Cent. gave a little Rest or Sabbath to the reformed Religion which hath been miraculously Rested though Arrested by the malice of Rome both before and since Charls the 5th but this 16th or last may be a Sabbath of Sabbaths and proclaim a Jubilee of Triumph To apply this General Discourse particularly to our present purpose as also to obviate Objections some Observations both Astrological and Theological may be here usefully added 1st Astrological 1 observe in the General there is no Arrival at perfection in Astronomy the best Artists have erred even in their best works Humanum est errare the best Astronomer may say with the Man in Terence Homo sum Humanum à me nil alienum puto Men as Men yea the best of Men may mistake The very Masters and chief Luminaries in the Astronomical orb such as Mercator Maginus Morinus of France Lord of Knudstrobe Andrew Argol of Padua learned Hecker and Kepler himself are all found faulty and in some things committing Errours especially in the places of the slowest paced Planets as are Saturn and Jupiter None agree in all points nor is it one man or one Age that can set these Differences to the Rights as Mr. Gadbury ingenuously acknowledgeth in his Epistle to the Reader both before his 10 y. and his 20. y. Ephemerides 2 observe in particular neither do astronomers Agree among themselves in Assigning the Time of this 7th Clymacterical Conjunction in our 16th Century but have differing sentiments about it Alsted that aliquis in omnibus Universally learned in all University Learning says that it happened in the Year 1603. December 24. 'tis 14. in another place at Noon in Sagittary Encuclopoed pag. 1105. 1106. and 1215. 1216. and 1285. 1286. in the first of which places he calls it the 8th Conjunction since the Creation Reckoning the first Inclusive at the Beginning of the World as if it shadow'd out not only the Christian Sabbath which is on the 8th Day or first Day after the 7th on the 8th Day was Circumcision celebrated and the Psalms on Sheminiths or Eights but also that Sab. of Sabbaths the Millennium Sab. to be Vsher'd in thereby Yet in his second place quoted He calls it but the 7th Conjunction pag. 1216. where the first at the Creation is exclusive and not Reckon'd in the Number to Represent it more purely Sabbatical in the 7th Number In his Third place He adds that this 7th Revolution portends not only great and Universal Commotions in Church and State but also some glorious Reformations which be saith cannot be accomplished without great Concussions in Kingdoms and Countrys But Engl. prophetick Merlin contradicts this not only in its Computation as to time affirming it to be on Decemb. 7th at the 7th hour 45. minutes pag. 22. but also in its Denomination as to name for saith He pag. 57. that Conjunction may properly be called Magna and was no other but it had been Absurd to have call'd it Maxima it was Great but not the greatest or Climacterical because it was not in Aries which is the first of the Zodiack
Jovis Martis and Veneris c. Desiring to shun all Semblances of Idolatry and fearing to countenance those Heathenish Dunghil Deities Reverend Beza saith he had rather still Retain the Hebrew Names Has Chesil and Chimah than call them Arcturus Orion and the Pleiades which have beenn so much Abused with the obsceen Fables of profane Poets I am Constrained to call those Planets by their common Heathenish Names for Distinction sake and by way of Recital as Baal Rom. 11 4. and Castor and Pollux Acts 28 11. are mentioned by the Apostle non Honoris gratia sed tantum Recitative not to pay them any Honor but in the way of an History only it being there an Historical Relation Gualtherus hath an Excellent Note upon Zeph. 1 5. c. them that Worship the Host of Heaven upon the House-top saying let those that profess Judiciary Astrology observe this they worship the Stars no less than did the Heathens of old and do openly bring in Heathenism again while first they call the Stars by the Names of those Heathenish Deityes which ought to be Abolish'd as above 2dly they put the Event of all things in subjection to those Stars yea even of Man himself as touching all his Manners and Fortunes which as the Scriptures Affirm do Depend upon the Eternal Providence of God Alone I add a 3d to Gualter their putting the Government of the World under 7 Planetary Angels giving names and Times of Government to them Unscripturally This is Intolerable Impiety and they that fall into it shall not escape the Just Judgment of God Great Augustine calls this no better than the Doctrine of Devils saying this kind of Divination was of the Devils Teaching De Civit. Dei lib. 5. cap. 1. pag. 70. par 2dae Yet in propriety of Speech that is not Divination which speaks from Signs and Causes but from Impulses and Inspiration Beza Ep. 29. now to propose the Planets as both Signs and Causes not only of Natural but also of Voluntary things without any Respect either to the Free-Will of Man or to the Free-Grace of God Reducing All under a Fatal Necessity and Determinations of Planets This must needs be both great Folly and gross Idolatry No Doubt but the Planets have a mighty power over the Bodies of Men yet 't is wicked to say that the Soul also is subject to Stars and though they may have some Influence upon the passions and Affections of the Soul which do naturally Arise from the Temper of the Body yet can they not Incline much less Inforce the Will of Man but least of all the Will of God and therefore cannot afford any Certain Divination Besides the Planets are but Universal and Remote Causes at the most and there be other more near and more particular causes Intervening which may having a power of their own either Resist or Remit that force descending down from the Stars This probably may be the True Reason why the very Conjecturers themselves do so much disagree among themselves in their own Conjectures Suppose Pythagoras and Plato's Notion hold True that the Motion of the Celestial Spheres call'd Motus Trepidationis a Trembling Motion makes a most Melodious Musick and suppose that Musick being Celestial should make a greater Impression upon the minds of Men though they hear it not by a Virtual Contact than any Terrestrial Musick as is aforesaid can do yet this occult Quality as to the matter of its effects as well as to the manner of its Operation cannot Afford any better than an occult or obscure Divination from the obscurity both of the Causa and of the Causatum which have the same Quality Now if the Devil himself can foretel nothing but such as are in causis cognitis operantibus in their Causes both known and in their very working too much less can any Mortal Man far short of his Subtlety sagacity and experience Declare moral matters long before there is any working in their natural Causes by Astrological Rules such predictions must needs be Uncertain Vain if not false yea sometime Blasphemous There be some such predictions we would have gladly prove true quod Volumus facile credimus as this That Mars never leaves Leo and goes into Virgo but then the Enemies of the Protestants go down c. on the contrary that of Cambden that Saturn never passes through Leo but he leaves a plague upon this City of London God forbid it To conclude then with not peremptory Conclusions but some probable Conjectures partly Astrolog and partly Theolog 1 give me leave to say with Nuntius propheticus Page 35 my Nature hath hitherto abhorr'd predicting Events by the Stars yet seeing the Congress or Conjunction of the 2 Superior Planets have an I had of Evils mostly attending them to fall some where so must portend great Matters yet it is beyond the Knowledge of Man to make any positive Prediction from them upon whom it will fall or precisely when that Great Sabbath or Time of Rest shall come upon the Earth He reckons many Reverend men some that lived while the Bloud of Christ was yet warm who taught freely and fully of this Golden Age or great Sabbath to come with the Applause of all and contradiction of none c. Which future Felicity of Gods Servants upon Earth may well be portended by this 7th Sabbatical and Climacterical Conjunction 2 concerning the precise point of Time when this Day of Refreshing Acts 3 19. and of the Restitution of all things v. 21 shall be no mortal Man can determine indeed so many Men so many Minds One Author assigns this Year Another that a third differs in his Account from both And in truth such is the Vncertainty of Chronology that it is impracticable if not impossible to fix any Certainty herein The Computation of Time from the Creation to Christ is made in that Variety that Alsted reckons up about 24 several Accounts and Conjectures thereof in his Encuclopaedia Page 2993. Now if there were so much Vncertainty in that Chronology before Christ wherein the Records of the Old Testament run all along as a Thread for Guidance in that Labyrinth how much more since Christ which hath not a Scripture-Chronicle to direct us beyond the first Hundred years And in the very first Century there must be much Obscurity for the Pagans who were so Cruel as to Kill the Authors would not be so Kind as to Keep their Books See my Discovery of Antichrists Rise Reign and Ruine pag. 147 148 149. c. 3 Notwistanding the Variety of Minds in stating this great Matter as to Time yet all do agree vnanimously and there is a Concurrence of Sentiments on all Hands that this thrice happy and golden Age is now at hand the Nearer we may well suppose it because the 7th Conjunction must be attended as all the former 6 have been with Great Revolutions The great Champion of this Sabbatical Doctrine Alsted doth confidently enough determine the