to such an usefull and edifying Interpretation as is here given by the Expositor Ver. 13. Our Saviour's being cloathed with a garment down to his foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle seems to respect not onely his Priestly but also his Kingly Office the garment signifying the first and the girdle that righteousness which was the girdle of his loins and that faithfulness which was the girdle of his reins Esa. ch 11. v. 5. where he is described as a glorious spiritual Prince And as in the Epistle to the Philadelphian Church his calling himself holy and true respects both his Offices of Priest and King so his garment seems to refer to the one and his girdle to the Truth wherewith he was girded whereby he is our Prince Ans. That his Priestly office is here aimed at is without question and the Expositor is for such Expositions as are most unquestionable If what is added had been as certain he would have taken it in But it seems not onely uncertain but unlikely For Kings wear not their girdles about their paps but about their loins but the Priests did And Aaron's girdle was interwoven with gold See Cornelius à lapide on the place And lastly as for Holy and True Truth as well as Holiness respects his Priestly office according as the Seventy render Vrim and Thummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 15. To say that the voice of Christ being as the sound of many waters does plainly discover that Christ is here represented as in Union with his Church is scarce sense For the Union of him with his Church being spiritual can badly be represented by the sound of a voice Nor does what is said here of his voice signifie more than what is described Psal. 29. viz. That the voice of the Lord is upon many waters and is powerfull and full of Majesty c. And though waters in the Prophetick style are used to signifie a multitude yet it follows not that they must always do so but may also be used in a Literal sense as they are ch 20. v. 13. The Sea gave up the dead c. Ans. Whenas it is said expresly that his voice is as the sound of many waters and waters in the prophetick style signifie multitudes of people what can be more easie and obvious than to interpret it that his voice was as the voice of a multitude and how fitly does that then signifie that Christ is here represented in union with his Church through whose mouths by the breathing of his Holy Spirit in them he speaks to the world c. And it is not the Expositor's conceit alone St. Gregory Tychonius Haymo Seraphimus and Peresius interpret it of the sound of the Gospel which was preached by zealously inspired Emissaries and the truth thereof testified by innumerable witnesses in union with Christ by his Spirit And indeed what can better signifie the spiritual union of the Church of Christ with his living members than that all their voices should be as it were one voice breathed out from the mouth of the Son of God For that shews that they also have one heart and one spirit which is the Spirit of the Son of God with which they are all united Ver. 17. Iohn's falling at the feet of Christ as dead proceeded not from his fear that the Vision might portend great evil to the People of God but from such an astonishment as made Daniel chap. 10. on the like Vision of Christ there fall on his face in a dead sleep having no strength remaining in him and his comeliness turn into corruption and made a great quaking fall upon them that were with him though they saw not the Vision And as also made Ioshua fall on his face on his appearance to him as a Captain of the Host of the Lord. Ans. That it was not onely from the glory but the terrour of the Vision his legs standing in fire and a sword coming out of his mouth that caused Iohn to fall down as dead appears farther from his comforting of him in telling him that himself was dead but is now alive and has the Keys of Hell and Death c. to fortifie him against the dread of Persecutions that even then were exercising the Church and Iohn might well suspect that this Vision did portend greater Ver. 19. The things which thou hast seen respects the precedent Vision of the seven Churches The following words The things that are and shall be hereafter should be Both the things which are and shall be hereafter and so make the Vision contain both a Literal and Prophetical sense whereas the taking of the words in the sense supposed viz. to signifie the past Ephesine State of the Church and the present Smyrnean State of it and the future State of the other Churches destroys the literal sense and also spoils the coherence not onely with the precedent Vision but also with the following verse Ans. This Remark upon the Expositor is very impertinent he professedly having nothing to doe with the literal sense But that account which he gives in reference to the Prophetical is so easie unstrained and natural hast seen so plainly denoting the time past that D. Pareus on the place writes thus Ità rest Apocalypseos Christus ipse in tres ordines distinguit Quasdam jam viderat Iohannes inde ab exordio Evangelii sub Nerone sequentibus Imperatoribus ad Domitianum usque gestas quasdem in praesenti videbat majorem partem de futuris porrò visurus erat How naturally then the whole time of the Church being cast into seven Intervals Ephesine past Smyrnean current Pergamenian and the rest to come are those words Write the things which thou hast seen and the things that are and the things that shall be hereafter interpreted as the Expositor has interpreted them And how fitly do they cohere with what follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being the Accusative case shews plainly that the seven Candlesticks take in all the seven Intervals of the Church past present and to come Vpon the NOTES of Chap. 1. Rem 1. The seven Churches in Asia refers not to its signifying Fundamentum thereby to signifie all the Churches that keep the Apostolical foundation in doctrine and practice for that is implied in calling them Churches and Christ owns none to be Churches farther than they do so without which doing they cannot be united to him and so cannot be of his Church which is his body But Asia here alludes both to its signifying the Earth and also Action Of both which see Exposition of the seven Churches So that to the seven Churches in Asia does signifie To the seven Churches in their state of Action and Conflict or Militant State on Earth and this in distinction from that blessed state of Rest and Joy in that great Jubilee of the World the Millennium which the labours of this Militant State will end with And
Bloud of the Lamb so as to be exalted to the Heavenly station of ruling by the Man-child being caught up unto God and his Throne c. and obtained sentence against their Adversary to be cast out c. yet was that sentence executed as before by the War v. 7. Ans. See what head-strong prejudice will doe As if the Remarker shou'd say though this eleventh verse does imply that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors yet it was not But it does most certainly demonstrate that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the words are these For they overcame viz. the red Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death What can be a more express description of Martyrdom than this This is not a description of a War of Emperours against Emperours with their armies in the field where they fight upon equal terms but of Martyrs with the word of their testimony passively undergoing for their witnessing to the truth what their cruel Persecutors would inflict upon them Vers. 12. The Dwellers in Heaven are bid to rejoice by reason of the salvation and strength and Kingdom of God and power of his Christ which was to come and therefore surely must signifie them to whom the same came whose particular concern this matter of joy was whereas Angels and Martyrs are no farther concerned in it than in general as they are concerned for the welfare of the Church Nor can those that were exalted by preferments to the Political Heaven of the Empire be concerned in it farther than they were in such a state as to have the coming of salvation and strength and the Kingdom of God fulfilled in them For it onely respects those that are in such a state who are called dwellers in Heaven in respect of the Heavenly station that they were exalted to thereby after the Devil and his Angels were cast out and the autority of Christ established as Prince of the World For then they became the joyfull company with the Lamb on Mount Sion singing the Song of the victory c. who as they are there markt on their foreheads for preservation so they are the worshippers in the Temple and Altar or the two Witnesses meted for the same purpose and are the same that are called dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13.6 and are thus distinguished from those dwellers on Earth against whom the woe is pronounced by reason of the power the Devil will have over them still after he is cast out Ans. The Expositor has taken in both senses of Heaven political and natural they being both sure and consistent one with another and the joy of Angels and Martyrs at the welfare of the Church is too great to be slighted or omitted But to ramble into mystical senses and reach out to the company of the Lamb on Mount Sion is not to interpret by rule but to trifle All Apostolick Christians were concerned in this victory of the Church and most of those in high place in the Empire turned Christian. But the foregoing verse so plainly determining this joy to the victory of the Church in the times of Constantine which shews that the Kingdom of God and power of his Christ was come already and is said to be so v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not yet to come it is a strange vagary to ramble from the Antemedial synchronals to the middle synchronals which undoubtedly the company on Mount Sion belong to And for the Remarker's groundless conceit touching the worshippers in the Temple and Thysiasterion the vanity thereof has been above sufficiently shewn And for the dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13. v. 6. we shall consider it when we come at it But for this present place if the Dwellers in Heaven be those in high degree the Dwellers on Earth must naturally signifie those in low degree or common people as the Expositor has interpreted it Vers. 15. Arianism cannot be here intended more than the Catholick doctrine they both running into extremes and each maintaining their cause with like fumous Animosity But by the Serpent's casting out water like a floud seems to be signified the frequent tumultuating of the common people and Magistrates that continued Pagans against the Christians whereby great outrages were oft committed But such Arians and Catholicks may be also included who under a cloak of Religion did violently prosecute each other out of enmity or self-interest to the great reproach and ruine of Religion Ans. The contention betwixt the Arians and Catholicks is most certainly included and is that which History most of all rings of and most highly concerned the Church and therefore could not be omitted in this Opened-book-prophecy which concerns the state of the Church As for any other contests less notable betwixt Christians and Pagans they were such as could not hazard the Woman's being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her being carried away with the sloud None but a contention betwixt the Christians themselves and such as shaked the very foundation of their Religion could put her in that hazard So that this is a very lank sense which the Remarker gives of this passage Vers. 16. The Earth that helped the woman by swallowing the sloud may signifie the sober stayd sort of people who being either seasoned with principles of Religion or being of peaceable spirits and obedient to authority did endeavour to asswage all such tumults and discountenance and oppose all such furious Animosities and were for composing all differences in a legal orderly and peaceable manner Ans. Undoubtedly that sloud of contention was the hot Contest betwixt the Arians and Catholicks Could therefore the soberer sort of common people Christians or Pagans compose this difference What an absurd conceit is this The Earth that swallows up this sloud does not signifie the common people here though sometimes it is a Symbol of them But the sense is onely this That this floud of contention was swallowed down and dried up by the help of Oecumenical Councils as some rapid Torrent is suck't down by the gaping of the Earth This is enough But farther curiosity might invite a man to fanfie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence Oecumenical comes is alluded to or Earth in general put for clayish Earth which in Daniel is a symbol of the Ecclesiastical Power of which Councils did consist And then it fits obviously and exquisitely Chap. 13. Vers. 1. THE name of Blasphemy if it does intend Idolatry yet it hath a farther signification as All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost c. Where the malignant reproach of God's Spirit evidencing it self in the works of our Saviour is said to be unpardonable blasphemy And the like reproaching of the holy Spirit manifesting it self in the Saints is likewise blasphemy though not of so heinous a
and so thoroughly enlightening them with the Judgments of his Truth that they shall not need the light of the Sun or Moon viz. of those humane Laws and Policies c. So that Time shall be no more and the Mystery of God shall be finished does here answer to that great voice from the Throne at the pouring forth of the seventh Vial viz. It is done And to the same voice from him that sate on the Throne ch 21. who also there says Behold I make all things new viz. The Mystery of God being finished by the former things passing away a new state of things is to be introduced as is there after described Ans. At the expiration of the sixth Trumpet it is not improper to give notice that there will be no more time than what is contained in the seventh because the seventh is both contiguous to the sixth and reacheth to the end of the world as was noted above But that Time signifies Political Order and Government is a private precarious Notion of the Remarker without any ground or example in Scripture or the Onirocriticks And for his reason for which he imagines it signifies so it is over-lax Time indeed is divisible into Ages Ages into Years Years into Months Months into Days c. But what greater matter of order in this than in the dividing and subdividing of any other quantity Or if there be how does this Typifie Political Orders and Laws more than in Husbandry Mechanicks c. So that it signifying all things under the Sun done in any order or method as well as Political Laws and Government when this Time here spoken of shall be no more we may all put up our Pipes Tradesmen Husbandmen Students in whatever Arts and Faculties and fall asleep with our fingers in our mouths unless a spirit waken us that will drive us to act without order or government which yet can be no Apostolick Spirit because the Apostle's Precept is 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order How much better were it Sapere ad sobrietatem than to entertain such high-slown conceits as these In these best times undoubtedly there will be humane Laws and Polities that is Laws and Polities constituted by men but perfectly conformable and complyable with the Laws of God and dictates of his Holy Spirit and his guidance will assist in making them To fansie an Aziluthick State on Earth whenas a Briathick Constitution is consistent with the State of Heaven is a too too extravagant surmise As for It is done and All things are made New Here would be rather undoing than doing and nothing would be made new No new Heaven nor new Earth which certainly has a Political sense if there were no Polity in this renewed state And the Polity will be constituted by men though by the guidance of the Holy Spirit which will invigorate also both Governours and People to support the said Laws and to live according thereunto Vers. 7. The saving here is a great straining of the Text to uphold a crazy Notion For whereas it is said in the Notes on the Verse That the sense is exceeding imperfect unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving or except the common sense given of it is very clear and this new imposed sense so exceeding imperfect as to be really false And the several places cited to prove that it may be taken in this sense is no proof that it is taken so here Nor do those Citations prove that it is so taken in them For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or But will signifie the same with saving or except c. Ans. The Remarker here is very Magisterial and somewhat Scoptical But the Expositor is crazy neither in his notion nor the proof of it For no man that understands Greek but must acknowledge that our English Translation is out in rendring those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus When he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finished For it leaves out the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet makes but imperfect sense rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be finished whenas to make the sense perfect it should be rendred shall be finished but that would ill agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished That is the sense our English Translation aims at but then it should not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being left out which yet is intollerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be rendred unsutably to the words following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Evangelizavit as he told the joyfull news to his servants the Prophets Wherefore this Mystery of God containing that joyfull news it is very hard to conceive it not to contain the new Ierusalem and the Millennial reign of Christ. Which Mystery is not finished at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet but rather at the end thereof But now render but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving as it certainly does signifie sometimes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sound as it naturally signifies and all will run as glib as can be according to the most approved copies of the New Testament set out by Isaac Casaubon and Dr. Winterton which is the Cambridge Greek New Testament thus That there shall be time no more saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished Which shews that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet will reach to the end of the World But now according to these Authentick Greek Copies if you render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But not Saving or Except The sentence will not be sense thus That there shall be time no more But in the days of the seventh Angel when he shall sound or begin to sound and the Mystery of God be perfected What then what of all that one may well say This plainly is not perfect sense to any one that understands sense unless you take away the Colon and take but in the same sense that except has which is all that I contend for Wherefore it being so plain that the sentence is imperfect sense unless you understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and But to signifie the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Except if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does sometimes signifie so it plainly follows it signifies so here This is more than enough to this Remark I will onely here note which I intimated above on v. 3. That this Oath of the mighty Angel That there shall be time no more saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel plainly imports that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet reaches to the end of the World or of the Scene
the debauchery of the Empire by Pagan-like Superstition and Idolatry there he may have a positive influence and help on the mischief by his invisible Forces Vers. 3. The deadly wound of one of the Heads of the Beast is not the Ruine of the Pagan Empire by its Conversion to Christianity but it 's that wound by the sword vers 14. viz. the ruine of the Empire by the Incursion of the barbarous Nations and the extinguishing of the Western Emperours in Augustulus Ans. The deadly wound of one of the Heads of the Beast is the Conversion of the Emperour the sixth Head to Christianity which was the issue of the War betwixt Michael and the Dragon the War betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutours ch 12. as has been there proved against the Remarker And the wound by the sword v. 14. relates to that Battel It was by their faith in the Word which is the sword of the spirit that the Primitive Christians overcame their Persecutours This meaning is very easie and natural But that the Remarker would distort this passage to the Incursion of the Barbarous Nations and the extinguishing of the Western Emperours in Augustulus shews him less mindfull of that indispensable Rule in the Interpreting the Visions of the Opened-book-prophecies especially which set out the affairs of the Church That that Interpretation is to be preferred that points at the state of the Church and matters of Religion This is a most certain Truth And to shew how unsuccessfull he is by balking it it is said v. 3. that the Head that was wounded was healed So that this Vision represents the Ten-horned Beast whose ten horns were crowned and wounded Head healed at the same time under his healed condition though the perfection of his cure extended farther But in the Political sense this Western Head was not healed till Corolus Magnus his time So that by this account the Epocha of this Vision must be 800 years after Christ and the continuance of this Beast which is 42 Prophetical Months commence from thence Which I think is sufficiently absurd Vers. 6. His Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven may signifie three states or degrees of Saints in whom God was blasphemed by the contempt and reproaches cast on them by the Beast to represent them as evil doers and falsly accuse their good conversation in Christ. The first such as are but in a Legal state under a Christian profession and therefore are peculiarly characterized by bearing the Name of God because the loving and professing the same is the height of such a state Therefore Esay 63.19 makes it the distinguishing character of the Jews from other Nations that they were called by God's Name and on their revolt from their obedience Ier. 44.26 they are threatned that God's Name shall be no more named by any of them And our Saviour's first Petition in his prayer seems to respect this state as preparatory to that which he teacheth next to pray for The second such as by faith have attained to an entrance into life or communion with God by his Spirit but not thereby to such a full subjection to him or victory over the World whereby to live in a constant communion with him but his abode in them is as the sojourning in a Tabernacle and this state of Christians does answer to the outward Court which was left out and not meted to be preserved from profanation c. Rev. 11.1 2. Whence at the descent of the new Ierusalem which is at the Restauration of the outward Court it 's said The Tabernacle of God is with men The third such as answer to the Worshippers in the Temple and at the Altar and are measured for preservation when the outward Court is left out to be profaned and troden down during the Antichristian Apostasie These overcome the Beast and are those Inhabitants of Mount Sion that were redeemed from the Earth and follow the Lamb whereever he goes being without fault before the Throne of God c. In whom God is not a sojourner as in a Tabernacle but makes his constant abode in them by that communion with him in life which they enjoy as in a Temple and who though as being the two Witnesses they are described in a mournfull condition by reason of their being sorrowfully affected with the evils of the World they testifie against yet they are joyfull Harpers on Mount Sion ch 14. to whom that voice is directed ch 12.12 Rejoyce ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them But to make the Idolatrous worship of God or of Saints and Angels supposed here for the dwellers in Heaven to be signified by the blaspheming of him and them is a forced construction being what is done is out of a real design of paying due worship and honour to them Though it be erroneous and corrupt yet can it badly be called a blaspheming of them which imports rather a malignant purpose to reproach them than to honour them especially in reference to Saints and Angels who have by such worship more ascribed to them than is due though it may be in reference to God who hath thereby less ascribed to him than his due and so is dishonoured Ans. That there are two states of men in reference to Religion I allow a legal or exteriour state when out of fear of Hell and hope of Heaven they live as near as they can according to an external Rule and a spiritual state which is the state of Regeneration and of the spirit of life in the new Birth which may be less or more perfect whereby they have a sense of the sweetness and loveliness of the Divine life and are held thereby in communion with God And I allow also that this state may be either vincible or invincible So that the Remarker may imagine three estates if he will but by the like subdivision of the legal state there may be four For there may be such a strong fear of Hell in an unregenerate man that it may make him also invincibly resist all such Injunctions as are put upon him which seem repugnant to the word of God for fear of being damned and tormented in Hell So precarious is this conceit of just three states But grant just three states I deny that the men under these three states are signified by the Name of God by the Tabernacle of God and by the dwellers in Heaven First because men merely under such dispensations who yet are neither extraordinarily inspired Missionaries as Christ and his Apostles nor publick Magistrates which the Scripture calls Gods and the like are not capable of being blasphemed that is the phrase is not proper for them and therefore it is a sign they are not here understood Again the Remarker cannot produce any places of Scripture where the Name of God signifies Men in a legal state or the Tabernacle of God signifies men in a less perfect spiritual state or that the Dwellers in Heaven
as the Beast was revived when the former Politick state of the Empire was restored in the Ten-horned Beast so when the Pope created a new succession of Emperours it then became a complete Image of the former Beast So that the Beast and his Image are not so denominated from the affairs of Religion but from the Civil state of the Empire yet so as to include Religion as it is complicated with the civil affairs Ans. Here the Remarker again misseth the mark quite by not taking heed to that inviolable Rule in expounding the Opened-book-prophecy viz. that it sets out the state of the Empire in reference to matters of Religion and the pure worship of God and Christ and that these Expositions are the surest that respect that For what cares the Spirit of Prophecy for taking notice of the changes of secular States and Kingdoms but so far as God's true Church and the Purity of his Worship are concerned and consequently those that worship him according to the Laws he has appointed The Pagan Emperours of Rome were Pontifices Maximi as well as Emperours and the Pagan Religion part of the Laws of the Empire it being enacted and ratified by the Supreme Powers thereof as the civil Laws were Wherefore the Pagan Religion equally if not more being the very life and soul of the seven-headed red Dragon that is of the Pagan Empire which would cease to be the red Dragon if the Pagan Religion ceased than the Civil Laws themselves when the Pagan Religion was in a sort abolished by the sixth head of the red Dragon his turning Christian namely the Emperour Constantine c. Certainly that was the Head and then that was wounded to death and wounded to death in the fullest sense that the Opened-book-prophecy can be truly thought to take notice of as chiefly to aim at For what is the Church concerned in the affairs of Kingdoms but so far as they either hinder or further the pure worship of God and Christ And in the same sense that the Head was wounded to death is the Beast said to be wounded in this verse by the sword namely in the red Dragon's fight with Michael and the Martyrs the battel being described in the immediately foregoing Chapter and therefore where should he get his wound but there For the Martyrs sticking close to the truth of the word which is the sword of the spirit got the victory over the Beast they loving not their lives unto the Death Add unto all this that the Beast could not revive before his head wounded to death was cured Neque enim sanatio istaec factum aliquod posterius fuit sed ipsa Nativitas Bestiae novissimae as Mr. Mede judiciously concludes from the genuine sense of the Text of the Prophecy But in this civil or secular sense that the Remarker drives at his head was not cured till Carolus Magnus was made the Western Emperour But he is represented in this Vision in the beginning of it as with ten crowned Horns so with his head cured Such he was when he emerged out of the Sea he was revived again from his deadly wound Therefore the Epocha of this Vision as I noted before commenceth as low as the reign of Carolus Magnus according to the Remarker and the 42 Months of the Beast must end after two thousand years after Christ. And besides this according to the Remarker's sense of the reviving of the Beast and Beast's Head will continue dead near three hundred years after the body of the Beast was revived This it is to attempt to unlock the Apocalypse without that excellent Key the Rule I have so often mentioned Chap. 14. Vers. 7. IF the zeal of those Greek Emperours named were not a sufficient fulfilling of the monition of the first Angel the overrunning of the Empire by the Saracens would be far more proper to make it up both in regard of time and other respects than the subduing by the Turks But neither of them are signified being Visions belonging to the sealed Book Nor needs there any farther fulfilling than what was by those Greek Emperours Ans. The Expositor's words on this verse are these That this Angelical Monition was the most loudly and earnestly urged upon the Christian World at the dreadfull siege and storming of Constantinople and subduing the whole Eastern Church and Empire to the Turk Which makes neither the plague of the Saracens nor Turks to belong to the Opened-book-prophecy but lets them keep their place in the Prophecy of the sealed Book But implies onely that the voice of that Angel is not confined to the Greek Emperours onely but may be stretched to as many either secular Potentates or Prelates or other eminently zealous men and observant of the severe judgment of God against the Idolatrous Greek Church For ought I know those early Evangelici may come in for a share here who were Preachers of the everlasting Gospel that which was purely contained in Scripture and declared against the Idolatries and Superstitions of the Church of Rome and sealed their Testimony with their bloud I mean the Waldenses and Albigenses Who if they made any use of the judgments of God by the Saracens on the Empire as well as others might do of his judgments by the Turks and it can be made out I am not against it And from the end of the Albigensian War which was finished Anno 1242 to the taking of Constantinople which was in the year 1453 in that Interval there were many famous men declaring for the everlasting Gospel against the Antichristian doctrines and practices and they making the Pope of Rome the Antichrist could not but denounce this approaching judgment You may see their names in Alstedius and David Pareus And upon the taking of Constantinople by the Turk the voice of this first Angel would be louder in preaching the everlasting Gospel and denouncing the fall of Antichrist or Babylon till the second Angel could tell the news that it was done See Alstedius his Chronologia testium veritatis where you may easily make Collections to this purpose Vers. 8. The fall of Babylon viz. the commencement of it is most aptly applied to the separation of the Albigenses and Waldenses from the communion of it to which may be added the separation of the Greek Church from it before the subduing of the Empire by the Turks But to apply this to the Reformation will clash with the admonition of the third Angel Ans. The Waldenses and Albigenses could not be the Angel that declared that Babylon was fallen but were a people that were aggrieved that it stood but were an holy good people and truly Evangelical and preachers of the Everlasting Gospel and denouncers of the judgments of God against Babylon predicting that it would fall and therefore belong to the first Angel And though Mr. Mede would draw the affairs of the Waldenses and Albigenses to the voice of the second Angel yet he has not the confidence to say
labourers which were appointed out of the Temple nor the appointers of them were such as entred the Sanctum Sanctorum and approached the Throne c. And Mr. Mede expresly interprets this Angel's coming out of the Temple of the prayers of the Church in general as that from the Thysiasterion of the prayers more especially of Martyrs and Confessors How largely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies may appear from what is said Psalm 29.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his Temple does every man speak of his glory But it is not for every man to enter into the Sanctum much less into the Sanctum Sanctorum The whole Fabrick is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the Habitation of God as the Notation of the word implies And Iohn 2.19 where our Saviour says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this Temple the Jews presently understood it of the whole fabrick that included the Courts which makes them answer Forty six years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was this Temple a building c. Wherefore it is plain there is ground enough for the Temple representing the Church of God the Congregation of God or his people using solemnly to be gathered thither And our Saviour calls it the house of Prayer This Angel therefore coming out thence and speaking to the other Angel sitting on the cloud representing Christ to put in his sickle signifies whitherto the prayers of the Church tended Vers. 16. The reaping of him that fate on a cloud may signifie the ascending of the Witnesses in a cloud or rather the consequences thereof For their ascent will be the pitching of the Thrones for the Ancient of days to sit or a commencement of that judgment that is to be given to the Saints of the most high to take away the Dominion of the Beast So that the reaping here will be the separating of the people of God from communion with the Beast to associate themselves with the Risen-witnesses and to fulfill the Monition Come out of her my people c. Ans. Is he then that sits on the cloud the Risen-witnesses It 's pity but there had appeared another with him to make them two The description imports that it is Christ himself according to the usual sense of Interpreters even that son of man that comes in the clouds of Heaven and the Ancient of days gives him the Kingdom which he augmenteth here by this Harvest of the converted Iews this immediately preceding the Vintage which synchronizeth and is in a manner the same with the seventh Vial see Mr. Mede and with the battel of the Rider on the white Horse ch 19. which there immediately ensues the Marriage of the Lamb which in all reason is understood of the calling of the Jews The Rising of the Witnesses is certainly before the first Vial but this affair synchronizeth with the sixth So much out is the Remarker here Vers. 18. Here the Angel that hath power over the fire his crying to him that had the sharp sickle is said to be for vengeance on the cruel Murtherers and Idolaters but the vengeance taken by thrusting in the sharp sickle is said more especially to respect the converting them which is a strange vengeance And the making the mention of fire here to be because of the Martyrdoms inflicted by it is not sense But the Angel is said to have power over fire in respect of his executing God's wrath by causing fierce and bloudy wars consuming like a fire c. In which sense fire is used in the first Trumpet and the Censer of fire cast upon the Earth before the Trumpets And so likewise here the Angel with a sharp sickle being to reap the Vine of the Earth viz. to gather the Antichristian party to battel is odered thereto by the Angel that had power over fire viz. who as our Saviour came not to bring peace but division and to send a fire on Earth and as the Rider on the red Horse in the second seal had power to take peace from the Earth c. had power to cause such divisions and commotions as should incense and stir men up to the said battel c. Ans. Upon those words which had power over the fire Peganius writes thus Who in the Priesthood says he of the Heavenly Tabernacle was to have care of the fire upon the Altar whence now should be kindled the fire of vengeance Which is a sense no way inconsistent with mine viz. That this Altar is named in relation to the Martyrdoms under the Papal Tyranny and the fire the rather because their Martyrdom was much by fire they were burnt as Holocausts to the pride and covetousness of the Papacy And Peganius himself upon those words precedent And another Angel came out from the Altar where the souls of the Martyrs says he were kept and whose bloud the Lord would avenge at this time But the fire of the Altar does not signifie wrath and vengeance simply of it self as appears from Esay ch 6. where a live-coal taken from the Altar by a Seraphin and put to the mouth of the Prophet is a sign of his iniquity being taken away and of his sin being purged which is not vengeance but mercy And the use of this fire on the Altar was to burn their Sacrifices which were to propitiate God's wrath not to kindle it Wherefore these things being considered what a severe sentence is this of the Remarker to say That the making of mention of fire here is because of the Martyrdom inflicted by it is not sense For it is more perfect and adequate sense than the other The Altar and the fire that burnt their Holocausts compared with the burning of the Martyrs which the Pontifician Power burnt as so many Holocausts to their Pride Avarice and Cruelty being a more proper and efficacious Incentive to pray for vengeance against them than merely the heat of fire signifying that way which may as well signifie the warmth of mercy the ardour of love and zeal for the conversion of men as vengeance Nor does the fire of Incense Apoc. 8. of it self signifie wrath and vengeance else prayer which the fume of Incense signifies could onely be for vengeance which is extremely absurd But the coals of Incense there are determined to that sense because the prayers of God's people had been uttered that way And the Angel that had the care of the fire on the Altar fire signifying the flames of holy zeal and love as well as the heat of wrath and revenge may call to him that has the sharp sickle according to both these senses out of wrath to destroy one party and out of love and mercy to convert the other For that seems to be an affected mistake in the Remarker that he makes the Expositor to allot both vengeance and conversion to the same party So that the Objection is a mere Cavil Vers. 19. Here is likewise a strange Wine-press of the Wrath of God viz. Mens being pressed in
obstinate like the Fool in Solomon whom if you bray in a mortar with a pestil yet will not his foolishness depart from him the conceit of Infallibility has so far infatuated them What remains in the Remark is spoke with a great deal of confidence though what is alledged against the 1600 furlongs signifying Symbolically not Numerically is exceeding weak For the Numerical signification applied to the extent of the slaughter is so far from being plain and easie sense that it is a sense incredible yea impossible And therefore a certain Indication that this slaughter is to be taken in a Parabolical sense such as the Expositor has given Suppose an Army in the field of a square figure and that the men were so closely set together that each of them had but half a pace or five half-feet squared to turn them in and that this square Army took up near upon 200 miles let the Latus be but 14 miles and square it The whole Army will consist of Seven hundred eighty four thousand thousand men whenas one thousand thousand is ten hundred thousand men which therefore is near three hundred times a greater Army than that prodigious Army of Xerxes which Herodotus says consisted of 2641610 fighting men Can the Remarker believe that there will ever be such an Army so numerous meeting thus in one place But suppose it and the bloud of this Army even of every single Souldier of it to be wholly let out of his body which is scarce done in any one slain In a vessel of two foot and half square how deep would the bloud be Certainly scarce an Inch. But scarce thirty Inches deep will reach to the Horse-bridle So that the bloud of an Army above thirty times greater than what I have described and nine thousand times greater than Xerxes his Army will scarce suffice to make such a deluge of bloud though wholly effused as to reach 1600 furlongs I mean 200 square miles to the Horses bridles And the Saints the Executioners of God's wrath must be the Butchers to let out all this bloud What a monstrous conceit is this what more incredible what more impossible And if we should make our Hypothesis yet more modest and instead of the 200 square miles be content with 1600 square furlongs the root of which would be put 40 furlongs or five miles yet according to this Hypothesis bloud to the Horse-bridles for such a space will require the slaughter of above a thousand times more men than those in Xerxes his Army though his Army consisted of 2641610 fighting men Wherefore this is a certain sign that the sense is Parabolical and that the number is not Numerically but Symbolically to be taken Nor needed there any Intimation of extracting the square root here as there is in the Number 666 because that Number is not a perfect square number and the less need because this way of extracting the square root was freshly intimated before in the Number 666 and lay obvious to the eye in the 144 Regiments or Chiliarchies in the beginning of this Chapter and in these 16 Hecatontads it does lye as obvious here to an observant eye and unprejudiced judgment if he be acquainted with the Symbolical meaning of the Quaternary or Number Four The aptness of the Application whereof to the present occasion the Expositor has fully made out in his Exposition and Notes And it is notorious ignorance or prejudice in the Remarker no mistake in the Expositor if he be not thence satisfied Chap. 15. Introduction THE Introduction to this Chapter does make these three places ch 11. v. 15 16 17. ch 14. v. 8. ch 15. v. 2 3 4. to signifie the same Triumphal Song which is a triple errour The first being the Doxology at the seventh Trumpet the second no Song but the denouncing the commencement of Babylon's fall by the Waldenses the third no Triumphal Song of Victory though sung by the Victors over the Beast and his Image but of admiring and glorifying God for his judgments by the pouring forth of the seven Vials then in view in the Angel's hands so as to make all to fear and glorifie him Ans. These three places do most certainly refer to the same thing to the fall of the tenth part of the City of Babylon or the Rising of the Witnesses which is in a manner the same They are also three testifications of Ioy and Triumph upon that notable passage of God's Providence call them Songs or Doxologies or joyfull Annunciations it is all one to the Expositor The first is a Doxology at the seventh Trumpet but for the Rising of the Witnesses immediately mentioned before The second is the joyfull Annunciation of the good news of Babylon's fall in part namely the tenth part of the City which the Waldenses could not tell was fallen nor any for them in their time for it stood then entire and so continued for about 400 years after The third is a Song of Victory it being a Song of the Lamb in imitation of that of Moses when they triumphed over Pharaoh and his host after they were overthrown in the Red Sea What can be plainer And these are said to be Victors over the Beast and in the Song it self it is said All Nations shall worship before thee because thy judgments are manifested namely upon Babylon in the fall of the tenth part of their City and in the Rising of the Witnesses How clearly and naturally do these things hang together Which if it were not there would be no occasion nor object of this Triumphal Song For who but fools or mad men triumph before victory Nor could it be for the future pouring forth the Vails then in view For it is not said these Victors saw them but that St. Iohn saw them Nor did St. Iohn see them before this Song of the Victors was ended For the first verse is onely a general Title of the Chapter about the Vials The particular order of his seeing them is afterwards For he says expresly v. 5. That after this Song of the Victors he looked and behold the Temple of the Tabernacle of Heaven was opened Which implies it was shut or his eyes shut to it before And the seven Angels came out of the Temple c. And it is farther manifest from v. 7. For one of the four Beasts there mentioned had not given the Vials to the Angels till then How could the Victors then see them have them before they were given them So that this Song will have no Object of praise and thanksgiving Which is a plain demonstration that the Remarker is in a mistake Vers. 1. The Beast is not the Roman Hierarchy but the Ten-horned Beast headed by the false Prophet or Roman Hierarchy It 's sufficient to call the Vials the seven last plagues if they begin after the sixth Trumpet and end with the seventh especially the Trumpets belonging to the sealed Book and the Vials to the opened Book and so may rather
by conviction can with no aptness be signified by the said expressions of the Psalmist it being a spiritual subjecting of men into a voluntary obedience contrary to the other Ans. The sharp sword issuing out of the mouth of the Rider of the white Horse cannot signifie the sharp sentence of judgment which he does first pronounce against his enemies for that is supposed to have been done in his Royal Tent at a Council of war but he is here upon his march with his squadrons of Horse following him Nor does it also but onely signifie that spiritual slaughter or powerfull conviction of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the rest of his enemies namely those distinct from the Beast and false Prophet which therefore are the Infidel party And as for Christ's obstinate enemies Turks and Infidels have been such and will be such till they be as Esay speaks ch 11. 4. smitten with the Rod of his mouth not the rod of his strength in the Remarker's sense which Forerius interprets of the Preaching of the Gospel And as for that passage in the second Psalm we are to take notice that the Prophecy there belongs first to David and is literally to be understood of him But in the spiritual and mystical sense referring to Christ his Kingdom being mainly spiritual his warfare and conquests are rightly understood to be chiefly spiritual also The Text runs plainly upon this sense viz. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword and this is in his march to the battel as I noted before that with it he should smite the Nations This therefore is his weapon of war whereby he subdues the Nations And he shall rule them with a rod of Iron alluding to Psal. 2.9 where for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reges eos the Hebrew has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conteres eos which aptly intimates that Contrition the Expositor mentions and farther confirms the sense of the sharp sword As also does that which follows And he treadeth the Wine-press c. which we have demonstrated above what a salvage mistake it is not to understand it in a Spiritual or Parabolical sense Wherefore the Vision of the Wine-press the seventh Vial and this present Vision synchronizing and indeed setting out the same thing and that of the Wine-press necessarily inferring a spiritual meaning and the Camp of Armageddon being turned into a City the Boanergeses thundred over which plainly puts off the conceit of a carnal battel in Armageddon and here the Commander on the white Horse being called the Word of God and the weapon whereby he subdues his enemies being a sword that comes out of his mouth and the Habits that both he and his followers are clad in being fine linen white and clean not white armour bright and shining all these things considered unless one be blinded with invincible prejudice how can he miss of interpreting all these of the spiritual warfare of Christ and the victories of the Gospel Vers. 16. The writing on the Thigh does not properly signifie his descent but his posterity or spiritual off-spring viz. That he is King of Kings in respect of those who through faith in him are begotten to be Kings and Priests to God ch 1. v. 6. Ans. The Thigh is a Symbol of Generation and consequently of Pedegree and Genealogy Which therefore may look both backwards and forwards in respect of the person whose Pedegree is considered Wherefore if any one will interpret this place both ways he has my free leave Vers. 17. As the Legislative power being the light of the World by which the affairs thereof are governed is in the Prophetick style called the Sun so the Kingdom of Christ having become now far the most prevailing Autority of the World Babylon being fallen and in almost an expiring condition he in the glory of his Kingdom on Earth is here called the Sun in whose power the Angel makes the following Invitation But to refer this so glorious a description of the great Battel and Victory of our Saviour to preaching of the Gospel and that in the time of so great knowledge when there will be so little need of it and the enemy will be so obdurate against it is an extravagant conceit So is it that the Beast and false Prophet gathered to the Battel should not be included in the slain and that for this wonderfull reason that they were cast into a lake of fire and therefore the Fowls could not feed on them Whereas their feeding on them is at the victory and the casting into the Lake follows which what it signifies see v. 20. Ans. This is a pretty conceit of the Remarker touching the Angel standing in the Sun but it is raised upon weak grounds For Sun does not signifie the Legislative power in abstracto nor yet in concreto unless it be Monarchical which is not according to the Hypothesis of the Remarker Nor is Babylon fallen before this battel in that consummate sense that to a carnal eye the victory could appear so sure on the Evangelical parties side And therefore though Christ were supposed here the Sun which renders the other Hypothesis needless of making Sun to signifie the Legislative power he in respect of his Kingdom being a Monarch the assurance of the victory is not to be foretold by a Politician from the visible power of Christ's Kingdom For this is the Philadelphian Army which Christ himself calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. small forces ch 3.8 and therefore no Politician could compute the success thereof from its Military power But these were some inspired Prophets of the Evangelical party that from the sure word of Prophecy and their experience of the marvellous effects of the zealous preaching of the pure Gospel in the power of the spirit foretell the success of the Battel in this Invitation standing in the glorious light or Sun-shine of the Gospel But to make the Angel that stands in the Sun to stand in the person of Christ the Monarch or Head of his Kingdom seems rude and incongruous This confident Invitation answers to that voice from the Throne from the Dabir or Oracle ch 16.17 It is done Nor need the Remarker judge the referring this so glorious a description of this great battel and victory to the preaching of the Gospel an extravagant conceit as there being then little need of it and the Enemy so obdurate against it For there will be great need of such preaching of the Gospel as we have described and the power of it predicted is not upon the Antichristian party which the Remarker fansies so obdurate but upon the Infidel party especially which are said to be slain with the sword of him that sate on the white Horse But the Beast and the false Prophet are not so slain and it is a wonderfull good and solid reason which the Expositor intimates for it Because the Fowls of the Air could not feed on them they being cast into the Lake of fire Nor could
For if those many were the greater number then the Laodicean state would not be applicable thereto if the less then the Titles of the Camp of the Saints and beloved City would not agree therewith and the purity of their external worship in all will not mend the matter unless Hypocrisie may entitle one to Saintship Ans. That the Church of Philadelphia though degenerated into a Laodicean state may be called in these straits the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City appears out of ch 11. The City is there called holy though trampled down and polluted by the Gentiles Nor is it any straining of the Text to make them called the Camp of the Saints because there were many Saints there though not all such whenas the greater part according to several degrees of Saintship might be Saints and these less degrees of Saintship an effect of the degeneracy and that the external worship in all was still pure and incorrupt and they that used it did it out of judgment and conscience being sincerely pleased in that they thought God was pleased with it this adds a farther weight to make the City both holy and beloved especially in comparison of the rabble of their enemies And therefore it was not Hypocrisie but a solid ground that entitled this Camp to Saintship And if we should suppose the most degenerate part to have listed themselves in the Army of Gog and Magog as it is exceeding probable the Holy City seeming in such imminent danger this is manifestly consistent with the Camp being called the Camp of Saints and the City the beloved City and likewise with the degeneracy of those times I mean the Laodicean degeneracy at once those degenerate persons being now drained out of the Holy City into the Army of Gog and Magog and so the City lest fit to retain the Title of holy and beloved still without any scruple or exception Vers. 13. Death and Hell are here made one to be the Species of the other viz. The first to signifie those dead by diseases and the other the whole Region of Mortality But surely it will be a better account of the Text to suppose this to be a like distribution of the damned into two parts as the twenty four Elders and the four Beasts is of the Saints viz. into the Governours and governed and that Hell signifies those children of wrath who have been Rulers in the World under the Powers of darkness and Death those that died in their sins in their private condition but were not publick Instruments of evil as to others And that this distinction of them is made by reason of the different state or degrees of punishment that befalls them after this life according to that saying The Lord soon pardoneth the mean but the mighty shall be mightily tormented This sense will well agree with v. 14. viz. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire but so will not the other sense For not all that dye of diseases much less shall the whole Region of Mortality be cast into the lake of fire c. Ans. Death and Hell are not here made the one the species of the other but rather the one a part of the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Hell signifies the dark invisible Receptacle of the deceased and Hell has its name from an Anglosaxon word that signifies to cover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore which is here rendred Hell is the common or universal Receptacle of all the deceased The Sea gave up the dead that were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the dead that were in them There was begun an Enumeration of the Receptacles of the deceased or by a Prosopopoeia of the Keepers of these Deposita viz. the deceased The Sea is one Those places that take in the bodies of those that dye of diseases another but to be short he abruptly names that common Receptacle or Keeper of all the deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Hell This is the plain meaning of the Text. But the Remarker's two parts are out of doors because if Death and Hell make two parts Sea will come in for the third and so spoil the conceit which otherwise had no harm in it For whereas he most of all applauds his exposition as so well agreeing with v. 14. Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire if he take in Sea too to cast into the lake of fire it will make strange work But the Interpretation of v. 14. by the Expositor does not suppose Death there to signifie either all that dye of diseases or none but those that dye of diseases but to signifie Death it self and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hell to signifie this Region of Mortality wherein he reigns as you may see in his Exposition where the sense is sufficiently clear and smooth Chap. 21. Vers. 1. SEA does not signifie here the unquiet multitude of the wicked but as it does in the second Trumpet and the second Vial viz. The over-spreading of worldly Dominion that does overflow and overwhelm men with power as the Sea overflows the Earth Ans. The nature of the Sea is to be tossing unquiet and moving which therefore very well sets off the disposition of the Mobile vulgus especially the wicked part of them that are easily ruffled into seditions and rebellions But when this new Heaven and new Earth that is this New-Ierusalem-Polity is settled there will be no such thing as the appearance of a fluctuating Sea or of a Sea by invasion breaking in upon the Land but all will be in settled peace and quietness as the Expositor has explained this passage But to interpret Sea and Waters not of multitudes of people but of worldly Dominions the ruling Part is quite out of the road of the Prophetick style But the worldly Powers and worldly Dominions hugely fill the Remarker's fancy Vers. 2. The New Ierusalem coming down from Heaven is not a Polity to be settled on Earth by Councils but it is God's taking up his abode among men to rule and govern them by his truth and life dwelling in them whereby they shall walk in the light of life and so not need the constitutions of Councils Ans. The New Ierusalem come down from Heaven is the new Heaven and the new Earth and a new Heaven and a new Earth in the Prophetick style is a New Polity See the Alphabet of Iconisms in Heaven and Earth And besides in that it is the City Ierusalem in opposition to the City Babylon it must be a Polity antistoechal to a Polity City signifying a Polity in the Prophetick style And a Council and Laws will be requisite yea necessary in the Millennium for there will be Draconists and Bestians though under the Hatches mingled within the Dominions of the Kingdom of Christ. And it is a childish conceit to think that through so vast a Dominion as the Millennial will be there will be none but
in blind Enthusiastick Huffs and sudden Blasts that will tear all into Anarchy But we proceed Christ's Kingdom being spiritual says he the Kings and Rulers there will rule by a spiritual power Why so they will though it be such a Polity as I have described the Governours being endued with the Spirit of God and acting for the abovesaid spiritual ends and being autorized so to act by the Laws of Christ's Kingdom which their inward frame of spirit heartily closeth with and assures them of the truth and equity of them as also all the people of the New Ierusalem who will be found willing to subject themselves thereto in this day of Christ's power Is not this plainly and fully to act and rule by a spiritual power Nor does this ruling thus by a spiritual power presently make them Priests properly so called Christ is our King as well as our Priest And so there may be as well Spiritual Kings in his Millennial Empire as Priests according to the sense above declared they ruling and reigning in the same Christian spirit and for the same Spiritual ends that the Priests officiate for But to illustrate his meaning how they will be Priests he farther adds That they will be such as the twenty four Elders are to the four Beasts and such as they and the four Beasts will be to those they shall reign over But there is so much light in the Illustration that it discovers the darkness of his own errour For the description of the twenty four Elders is this chap. 4. That there were twenty four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thrones and on these Thrones twenty four Elders in white raiment and there were golden Crowns on their Heads What can be more expressive of Kings than Thrones and golden Crowns and of holy and righteous Kings than the white raiment they are cloathed with Which in all likelihood is white silk which is called soft raiment in Matthew and said to be fit for Kings houses But that it is left indifferent it is the more capable of having some allusion to the Priesthood likewise but then with a complication of Holiness in these Millennial Kings that they had the power of Kings and the holiness of Priests and were supreme Heads of the Church in Ecclesiastick causes also in their own dominions For the Kings in these times will not be so blind as to be led by the nose by the Priests but see what is fitting themselves and accordingly approve of it and the Priests will easily appeal to them they themselves being faithfull also to the true end of Christ's Kingdom If these Kings were Priests properly so called or Kings properly so called were not here meant instead of golden Crowns on their Heads they would have had golden Girdles girding their white raiment Wherefore it is plain that the twenty four Elders are properly Kings in respect of the four Beasts But they are Kings onely over the four Beasts the four Beasts comprizing the whole Israel of God that is the whole Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And therefore the four Beasts are Subjects nor are they Kings or Rulers over other people or Nations out of the Kingdom of Christ which is rashly and without ground asserted by the Remarker Wherefore the Remarker vainly insults over the Expositor in the following words And therefore to suppose as here is done that Monarchs or crowned Heads who rule by worldly power shall be Kings and Rulers c. This is to fly in the face of the very Text and pull the golden Crowns off the Heads of the four and twenty Elders For they are crowned Heads and reign and rule in Christ's Kingdom But that he may seem to have some wit in his wrath he would by crowned Heads understand such Monarchs as rule by worldly power But I have already demonstrated that the Monarchs in the Millennial Polity rule by a Spiritual power and that a Political and Spiritual Government are not terms inconsistent one with another nor need I again repeat it Whence it is manifest that the Remarker out of the ignorance of the state of Christ's Kingdom or something worse an affected singularity in high-flown Notions has erred in so material a point But he holds on to maintain it from that saying of our Saviour Luk. 22.25 which is the same with Mat. 20.25 but neither are any Reprehension of just Political Government which is managed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks Politic. lib. 3. cap. 7. but of that which Aristotle there calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of any kind of Government as he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyranny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a digression from the Regal Power and defines it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Monarchy constituted for the good of the Monarch which with Aristotle's leave it should be but I suppose he means exclusively to the good of the publick 'T is this our Saviour blames if any thing here in Monarchy not Monarchy it self merely as Political But mainly he spoke this to upbraid the ignorance of those of his disciples that were ambitious of high places in his Kingdom here on Earth they foolishly conceiting they should have the pleasure and riches whereby they may be inabled to be gracious Benefactors and splendour of worldly Potentates This concerns the Apostles themselves and the succeeding Bishops which were to be Rulers of the Church and therefore is rather a prediction for them than any Prescription to secular Christian Monarchs that should be afterwards the Apostles I say this seems onely to concern and the succeeding Primitive Bishops who were to live in mean rank as to the condition of the world and to care and toil for the good of the Church and bear the brunt of all Persecutions as our Saviour himself dyed for his Church This is the genuine sense of those two places But for such a Monarch as really rules for the good of the Kingdom of Christ that those places any thing concern such a Political Government is a wonderfull groundless conceit and quite out of the Road of Truth As that which follows is either grosly false or impertinent For if he mean that Political Government simply in it self will make a Christian Ruler or a Ruler that professes Christianity rather the more completely Antichristian it is wretchedly false as may appear out of what has been said already But if he mean by Political Government Worldly Government which serves the ends of the World rather than of the Kingdom of Christ this is absolutely impertinent to the present point and contrary to the Hypothesis which is that these Millennial Monarchs rule by such a Political Constitution as best serves the promotion and conservation of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom and best sutes with the Regenerate spirits both of the Governours and Governed Which he keeping to though himself were unregenerate yet is he far from being Antichristian but as it 's said in lower matters Malus homo yet Bonus
That no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end There is also another Scripture that he seems to intimate a false sense of Luke 4.6 Where the Devil says the Disposing of all the Kingdoms of the Earth is given to him and he bestows them on whom he will Which the Remarker says Christ does not gainsay insinuating thereby as if his silence admitted it for truth And indeed Christ himself in St. Iohn more than once calls the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of this World But that is onely to be understood in a Moral sense not in a Political For this Spirit of the World of which the Remarker makes so many words and which is the Image of the Devil in as many as it is as the Divine life is the Image of God and Christ in us nothing can more clearly nor yet more succinctly describe it than what we find 1 Ioh. 2.16 All that is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the World that is of the Spirit of the World And therefore he that is quit of these and is transformed into the Divine life which is the Image of God is really translated out of the darkness of this World into the Kingdom of his dear Son as the Apostle speaks and is a true Christian he in the mean time adhering to the profession of the ancient Apostolick Faith and holding communion with the truly Catholick Church Which others while they pretend to doe though they be plainly under an Antichristian Oeconomy the Spirit of the World according to St. Iohn's description reigning in them they are Morally reigned over by the Devil who obtains a wicked Tyranny over them driving them to Tyrannize or to be tyrannized over even in a Political sense And thus I confess the Devil by his Instruments has a great sway over those that are of the World in the sense above explained and holds them in great slavery and bondage while the softness of the flesh and abhorrence from death and hardship and the covetousness of the eye and the pride of life ambitious Aspires makes them subject to be led captive at his will In this sense our Saviour's calling the Devil the Prince of this World is true But the Devil's boast of being the Prince of this World in his own sense is as false as the other is true And as for that power he has over the bodies of men as to torturous diseases or death in which respect he is called Samael by the Cabbalists he looks there more like an Hang-man or Executioner than like a Prince So that it is hard to conceive what the Remarker would have by his Spirit of the World as to this place of Daniel that may refer to the Winds blustering on the great Sea more than the Expositor has offered already in suggesting that they are either Angelical Powers that bear a great stroke in all humane affairs or the busie and unquiet Activity of ambitious minds especially which St. Iohn calls the Pride of life which does not exclude the other two Concomitants But here has been too much said to such a needless Digression Vers. 4. The Eagle's wings being pluck't is spoken of the whole Kingdom represented by this Beast and therefore is not to be applied onely to the first King thereof much less to that humbling Providence of driving him from his Kingdom c. Whenas he was restored therefrom to his former Majesty Splendour and Glory viz. the wings wherewith that Kingdom was exalted by reason whereof it 's the golden Head of the Image and Babylon is called by Esay the golden City and this continuing the same to the end of the Kingdom the wings taken in this sense cannot be pluck't till then That haughtiness also wherewith the heart of Nebuchadnezzar was liftted up was inherited by his Posterity as appears by Daniel's reproof of Belshazzar ch 5.23 And therefore the plucking of the wings by reason of it ought to respect the one as well as the other The being made to stand upon the feet like a man and having a man's heart given it are two expressions to the same purpose and being as I said of the plucking of the Eagle's wings spoken of the Beast representing the whole Kingdom are not to be applied onely to the first King much less to that single Providence which befell him of his being restored from his delirancy But they signifie that though this Kingdom is represented by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wild Beast as well as the three succeeding yet is it not of so degenerate a salvage nature as they will prove but that the Spirit of a man will bear some sway in it to the furnishing it with some manly endowments viz. the Morality wherein Calvin makes one Kingdom to exceed the other as much as the metals do one another And the noted Chaldean Wisedom which though perhaps not greater than in the succeeding Kingdoms yet did more influence the Government in those less corrupt times And also the noted Majestick splendour of that Kingdom of which speaks Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.36 And for the glory of my Kingdom my honour and brightness returned unto me and excellent Majesty was added unto me c. And hence it 's not onely likened to the most noble generous spirited Beast but also the same hath Eagles wings given unto it which though they signifie the haughty aspiring aforesaid which is described Esay 14.13 14. yet it 's such as transcends the brutish nature and must proceed from the spirit of a man But to make the man's heart given to the Beast signifie Darius his humanity to Daniel is a strange conceit For if Darius was one of the Babylonian Kings yet what is spoken in general of the Beast which signifies the whole Kingdom cannot be appropriated to the last King and he of so short a reign But that the Babylonian Kingdom was finished in Belshazzar appears by Daniel's interpreting the hand-writing on the Wall with which Ieremy's Prophecy does agree of Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdom continuing to his Son and his Son's son And those who reckon the next Kingdom to begin in Cyrus it 's because Darius his reign was so short as to be hardly taken notice of and also during his time the Government was mainly in Cyrus though he bore the name of King Ans. Most of this Remark would have been spared if the Remarker had fully understood or sufficiently considered the nature of a Prophetick Henopoeia For in such an Henopoetick Type the Head or Horn of a Beast together with the body thereof make but one Beast to the end of the succession thereof And therefore what the Beast in any part of its succession does or suffers in any part thereof it is said simply of the Beast to be done or suffered And what by times or intervals is done by or happens to
the Spirit of Prophecy that came upon them 10. Whereas the four Beasts are upon the Throne and the twenty four Elders surround it sitting on their seats in their Kingly and Princely Habits signifying the Heavenly station they are exalted to by the Spirit of God being a Principle of life dwelling in them from which new nature they become as active spirits to doe what the others have no power unto but by the adventitious acting of the Spirit of God upon them 11. The living Creatures appearing like burning Coals and Lamps may signifie the burning zeal or spirit of Elias they are acted by in distinction from the pure serene Christian spirit of faith working by love which answers to the still small voice which afected the Prophet more than the precedent strong Wind and Earthquake and Fire Hence though our Saviour calls Iohn the Baptist a burning and shining light yet he says He that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he 12. That the Temple-Vision designs to set forth such a perfect legal state of righteousness and the Spiritual communion attending the same as aforesaid seems concludible First from Chap. 43.10 11. where the Prophet is commanded to shew the house of Israel the pattern of the house that they may be ashamed which if they be he is to shew them all the form and Laws and Ordinances of it that they may keep and doe them So that all the Laws and Ordinances given by the Prophet after the manner of Levitical Law are of the same import and to be taken in the same sense with those delivered by it which they had before broken 13. Secondly from the Oblation of the holy portion being 25000 Reeds square and the City being 5000 and the Sanctuary 500 square which all are symbolical Numbers of a natural or fleshly state So that as the Number of the Beast 666 the root of which is 25 sets forth a complete carnal politick state according to humane natural Wisedom so here seems to be signified the perfection of a people in a natural state by being solely under the conduct and government of divine Laws and the righteous Judgments of God agreeable to that state 14. Thirdly from the 18000 measures which is the compass of the City being the Perimeter of the Cube of 12000 furlongs which is the Cubical measure of the New Ierusalem as appears by Mr. Potter whereby seems to be signified that the one represents the state of a people under the Rule of Divine Laws and the righteous Judgments of God according to an external legal state so long as they can perfectly conform thereunto And the other such a solid state of righteousness or inward Dispensation of life as does inable men to a perfect walking with God by fulfilling all his righteous Judgments But as our Saviour hath taught us first to cleanse the inside of the Cup that the outside may be clean also so it 's onely by the inward Dispensation of the latter whereby we become able to fulfill the righteousness designed by the former So that the waters out of the Sanctuary becoming a River and the Trees growing on the banks thereof with what else in this Vision agrees with that of the New Ierusalem signifies what would have been fulfilled in the Israelites in that state if they could have been ashamed of all their iniquities and kept all the Laws Forms and Ordinances then given and what will be fulfilled in that righteous state wherein all the Statutes and Judgments of God shall be duly performed 15. As to the difference of the Mosaical Laws and the Laws of Ezekiel's Temple the Reason thereof is That the one delivers to them what was required of them that they should doe the other what they ought to doe to live up to the height of that Dispensation whereby to become partakers of the Blessings thence signified But enough of Conjectures about things so obscure and mysterious Ans. The Remarker according to that competent share of confidence Nature has endued him with thinks it may be safely concluded that the living Creatures and Wheels are not Angelical But does he think it so safe a thing to conclude of his own private opinion against the sense to say nothing of the consent of Christian Interpreters of the whole School of the Iewish Rabbins who as they call their Natural Philosophy Bereshith so their more abstruse Theology touching God and Angels they call Mercavah which is this very Vision of Ezekiel and signifies Currus a Chariot And that the Chariot of God is Angelical is plain from that in Psal. 68.17 The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels and the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place In which Sinai Moses also saw this glory of the Lord Exod. 24. And chap. 25.18 he is commanded to make two golden Cherubims in imitation of this Cherubick Chariot which Ezekiel afterwards saw which were to be placed upon the Ark where was to be the Throne of God in the Temple And Psal. 18. he rode upon a Cherub and did fly c. Where Grotius thinks that of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rechub currus was writ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherub But it tends all to one the Cherubims being his Chariot And what follows He came flying on the wings of the wind the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Spirit as well as a Wind and so the whole sense may be he rid on his Chariot viz. his Angelical Chariot and was carried swiftly on the wings of his ministring Spirits that readily execute his word And Psal. 99. He sitteth between the Cherubims c. And these living Creatures in this Vision of Ezekiel ch 10. are at least ten times called Cherubims And are not Cherubims Angels And the same may be said of the Seraphins Esay 6. which is a like Representation of the Divine Majesty are they not Angels But the Remarker alledges Reasons why the living Creatures in Ezekiel's Vision are not Angels First because these four living Creatures agree in number and name with the four Beasts Revel 4. and therefore they signifying a successive body of men Ezekiel's four living Creatures must signifie a body of men also Secondly they all four have the likeness of a man and a man's hand under every wing and therefore they must be men that are signified thereby Thirdly they have Calves-feet which signifies the laboriousness of men under the Sun Fourthly and lastly A spirit is said to be in them and in the Wheels Wherefore Angels cannot be signified by either Angels being called Spirits and not described by any Spirit abiding in them But in answer to this I say First that this Vision is an Ideal Symbolum or Symbolical Idea of the glorious Majesty and Empire of the God of Israel over the whole Angelical World divided into four parts the Cabbalists give names to them Azeluthick Briathick Ietzirathick and Asiathick he
the overthrow of the Antichristian Party at the seventh Trumpet and the seventh Vial there may be a long time spent before all the corruptions introduced by the Beast and false Prophet in each of their Governments be eradicated to the accomplishing of that saying of our Saviour Every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up For as the main Rise of those Corruptions was greediness of gain so mens Interests will be so interwoven with them as to make an absolute extirpation of them a work of time and difficulty And this work may be signified by what Ezekiel speaks of burning the weapons of Gog and burying all his multitudes in the Valley of Hamon Gog and cleansing the Land And also by the Hailstones of a Talent weight and the casting of the Beast and false Prophet into the lake of Fire viz. as to one sense of the lake of Fire according to what is said of them in my Remarks Ans. That the 2300 days have a plain literal sense is manifest from the Text it self which saith The Vision of the Evening and Morning is true In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is It is a plain Truth not aenigmatically or symbolically expressed For in the other sense all the Visions of Daniel are true which passage here would imply they were false unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had this signification in this place and the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has in the foregoing Vision v. 16. and 19. which Munster in his Chaldee Dictionary saith is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And our English Translation in both those verses says I asked him the Truth of all this and I would knew the Truth of the fourth Beast not that Daniel doubted but the Vision was true but he would know the plain Truth or meaning of those Symbolical Representations Whence it is plain that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth in these cases is not opposed to Falshood but to Symbols Parables or Aenigmes And therefore the Expositor being assured that the literal sense of the 2300 days was true and being more solicitous of writing nothing but what was true than adventurous upon things uncertain though he took in the Typical sense of the little Horn as it denoted Antiochus Epiphanes yet he would not at that time declare that the 2300 days were Typical also and signified so many years which is nothing so certain as the other But if they be Typical as the Expositor has thought of it before he see these Remarks nor was averse therefrom the Epocha in all likelihood is to be taken from the profanation of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes as the Epocha of those Numbers is chap. 12. From whence it will follow that it will be from the present year about 450 years till the Church of Christ be cleansed from its corruptions and his Millennial Reign begin upon Earth Which 450 years partly belong to the Residue of the first Thunder which contains the seven Vials and partly to the second Thunder in which is the descent and settlement of the New Ierusalem the City or Polity Antistoechal to the then ruined Babylon But how much of these 450 years is to be allotted to the Residue of the Vials and how much to the second Thunder the event must shew if the 2300 days have also a Symbolical sense But that after the overthrow of Babylon there will be such a huge while till every evil plant be rooted out of the Church is a mere conceit of the Remarker If things were lest to his sancifull Anarchical way worldly Interests might the more easily slacken the dispatch but a truly Holy and a truly Oecumenical Council whose Laws shall bind all Christendom will expedite the business in a competent time So that the Interval of the second Thunder need not be so long nor the burning of the weapons of Gog and the burying all his Multitudes in the Valley of Hamon Gog and cleansing the Land take up so tedious a time By which if the overthrow of Babylon is signified that passage in the Apocalypse chap. 20.5 But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished though it most naturally and certainly intimates a Physical Resurrection preceding of the Martyrs may also haply insinuate a Political Resurrection of those multitudes buried in Hamon Gog that they shall not rise again till the thousand years be past but after that they will so multiply that they will besiege the Holy and beloved City and seem to hazard the true Apostolick Church her being brought once again under the yoke of the wicked The Hailstones of a Talent weight and the lake of Fire belong to the first Thunder rather than to the second Vision 4. Vers. 25. THough there be no Mystery in breaking the number here yet sure it 's not an insignificant Hebrew Idiom but that there 's a reason for the doing of it as there is in the mentioned Gen. 5. where it's so oft used viz. To distinguish the time of those Patriarchs lives before they began to have children from the time of their lives after But as to the instance of Gen. 8.3 there 's no such breaking of the number there And as to Ezekiel 45.12 there 's also a reason for it viz. The Maneh being sixty Shekels is said to consist of 20 25 and 15 Shekels because those three were several sorts of Coin which together made up the Maneh And so the Text here does plainly import a reason of breaking the Number viz. that it would be seven Prophetick weeks before the building of the Temple and City be completed and that it would after continue to built for sixty two such weeks till the Time of the Messiah c. Ans. This is the onely place where the Remarker may seem to have got the Expositor upon the hip But he will fling two men at once then Grotius and the Expositor that adheres to him The words of Grotius upon the place are these Duo hîc notanda Hebraeos numerum perfectum in particulas scindere ut Ezek. 45.12 deinde verò numerum minorem praeponere majori ut Gen. 5. saepissimè Gen. 8.3 alibi saepe The Expositor has followed this Copy exquisitely and in Grotius his order and the Remarker should have done so if he would have done fair Grotius from Ezek. 45.12 observes that the Hebrew sometimes divides a full number into parts Twenty shekels five and twenty shekels fifteen shekels shall be your Maneh This dividing of sixty into 20 25 and 15 Grotius took onely to be an Hebrew Idiom he finding so little reason otherwise for it and though some with the like confidence the Remarker does give the same reason with him yet Vatablus and Clarius the one says sortè and the other opinor to the business which are indications of their uncertainty therein And shews the cautiousness of Grotius that he would rather resolve the business
peace which are to flourish in his Kingdom yet this King so acknowledging him and honouring him with splendid superstitious devotions shall notwithstanding continue the same iron Kingdom as formerly though mixt with Clay in the sense mentioned Vis. 1. viz. the same Kingdom of violence and war Ans. Nothing was ever writ with more judgment elegancy and solidity in Explication of Prophecies than what that excellent Interpreter Mr. Mede has writ on this and the foregoing verse Which yet this conceited Remarker very superciliously calls a conceit and says is very remote from the intended sense of the Text when nothing is more congenerous thereto the Prophecy intending to describe the State of the Church as to Religion and Divine Worship in that space of the Time and Times and half a Time when the little Horn which is this King of Pride should rule the rost And therefore we may be sure it will not omit to perstringe the Idolatry then sprung up I mean the Pagano-christian Idolatry or an Idolatry of a new Mode For it is said of this King of Pride v. 37. That he shall not regard the God of his Fathers i. e. either none of the Pagan Gods he shall regard none of them or if you will more particularly he shall not regard that proper God of his Fathers viz. Mars whom Grotius would have understood by the red Dragon Of which Mars Romulus and Remus were born and he is the special Presidentiary God of the Roman City and Empire as Grotius himself also will have it This God of his Ancestors this King of Pride does not regard but is one who with his Hierarchy professes Celibate forbidding to marry a single life for him and his Adherents being most sutable and for their ambitious designs and preferring his own Politick ends before any God or Religion it follows v. 38. according to a true skilfull and faithfull account of the sense out of the Hebrew Together with God he will in his place or Temple where he is worshipped honour the Mahuzzim not Mars the proper God of his Ancestors but these new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mahuzzim may signifie from the Seventy's Translation Psal. 31.3 these new Numina defensoria of his Empire even with a God his fathers knew not which is Christ shall he honour them with gold and silver and pretious stones c. This is the onely easie and genuine sense that can be made of the 38 th verse And it being thus plain to any unprejudiced eye that these Mahuzzim are the Daemons that S. Paul speaks of 1 Tim. 4. where he tells us that the Spirit has foretold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly that those that forbid to marry c. will bring in the worship of Daemons which express Prediction is no-where but here and the degenerating Church looking upon the Relicks of Saints and their consecrated Images whose form of consecration does sometimes specifie their intended virtue against the Invasion of Enemies to be the Defence of the City where they are and the Saints themselves to be their Mahuzzim their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Martial and Warlike Defenders of the City where Temples or other places are consecrated to them What a groundless Cavil is this of the Remarker to except against Mr. Mede's rendring the sense of this present verse thus which is exquisitely according to the Hebrew viz. And he shall make the Holds of the Mahuzzim jointly to the foreign God understanding it of Churches and Monasteries For the Mahuzzim being once such Warlike Defenders expressed so under that Notion and their help being supposed to come from the places consecrated to them what an easie and obvious Analogy is it to call those consecrated places strong Holds or Forts a And the Prediction is not of what they would be in Reality but what they would be thought and reputed Which therefore is a foretelling of those delusions in the Church under the reign of the King of Pride That the people should put their trust and confidence in such vanities b What the Remarker would substitute in lieu of this excellent account of Mr. Mede is very frigid and jejune it giving notice of nothing but that the King of Pride will be for war as well as other Potentates and so making him to honour the God of forces he makes him still a worshipper of Mars the God of his Ancestours contrary to the Text. Besides there is this other Incongruity in this conceit in that this Prince of Pride is not a Sword-man but Rex sacrorum and his power lyes merely in a manner not in Martial forces and feats of Arms but rather in Magical Incantations and lying Miracles and prestigious charming of people into such superstitions as make most for his own advantage and such whereby he has an hank upon the Empire and deludes them with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness c And as for the Antithesis in professing Christ who is the Prince of Peace and yet to be given to War Is not the Antithesis at least as full when Christ came to introduce a pure divine Worship to Worship the Father in spirit and in truth that this King of Pride has filled all with superstitious Rites and Idolatries towards the Mahuzzim the Daemons or deceased Saints And lastly there is another a more near proper and immediate Antistoechy or Opposition betwixt the Genius of this King of Pride and his Ancestours in Mr. Mede's way they worshipping the God Mars in a gross Pagan secular sense he the Mahuzzim which are as it were so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Paganochristian Mavortes in a sense more Spiritual and Ecclesiastical To all which you may add That Grammar and Criticism will not so easily comply with the Remarker's way But I have been too long on this Remark already Vers. 44. Thy tydings out of the North is surely more likely to be meant of the Germans Poles Muscovites c. than of the Tartars both because they are directly North of the Turks whenas the Tartars are as much East as North of them and also because the End here foretold against the Turks is more likely to be executed by the Christians than by those of the same Religion with the Turks especially whenas it is sent upon them in reference to the advancement of Christianity which is the occasion of its here being foretold Ans. That the tydings out of the North is surely more likely to be meant of the Germans Poles Muscovites c. than of the Tartars is spoke with more confidence than sound assurance of Reason For the Tartars being North-East of the Turks but much more properly North than the Persians it is easie and natural to conceive that the tydings out of the East being out of Persia that the News of the Stirs in Tartary would be called the Tydings out of the North the Tartars being a people so hugely more North than the Persians Any one that but casts his eye on a Map
will at first sight discern this So that the Tartars having a capacity of an Eastern consideration as well as of a Northern they will fit both the sixth Vial and the present passage of this Prophecy too and therefore have a privilege above the Germans Poles and Muscovites to make part of the Kings of the East which the sixth Vial mentions And by that time this comes to pass the Mahometan and Pagan Tartars may be turned Christians and being fresh Converts may have more zeal and activity in the behalf of true Christianity than either Germans Poles or Muscovites Besides it is a mistake in the Remarker that he surmises that it is the Turk that comes to his end v. 45. when it is the King of Pride that comes to his end For the Vision drives at him plainly from v. 36. to the very end of the Chapter And this last verse Luther in his Letter to Count Schlikius And he shall come to his end and none shall help him interpreteth it of the Ruine of the Pope The Letter is in Martinius Horzovinus his Collation of Huss and Luther p. 118. And how absurd it would be to suppose the contrary the Expositor has signified in his Exposition of the last verse of this eleventh Chapter which is needless here to repeat I will onely here add to what is said there that this Vision of the Scripture of Truth being for a long time ch 10. it is the more unlikely not to reach to the utter overthrow of the King of Pride and that being so notable a Providence not to skip over it Vers. 45. It 's strange to run so far as old Rome for interpreting this verse whenas it may be much better applied to new Rome 1. For Constantinople being seated in the point of a Promontory between two great Seas is much more properly said to be seated between two Seas than Rome which is at a large distance from those Seas it is seated between especially from one of them and is no more seated between them than any other part of Italy 2. Also the Title of glorious holy Mountain is much more applicable to Constantinople than to Rome because Constantine there setled when by reason of the hatred he contracted for professing Christianity he could abide no longer at Rome and also because many Emperours reigned there who were zealous against the Idolatrous corruptions of the Roman Church and many noted Councils also held there in one of which under Constantinus Copronymus the Worship of Images was condemned as Idolatrous And also because before the Ruine of the Eastern Empire they separated from Rome for its corruptions 3. And new Rome may farther be called so from what flourishing state Christianity shall be in there after the ruine of the Turkish Empire whenas old Rome shall have the same fate befall it with old Babylon according to what is pronounced against it Rev. 18. 4. Also it 's plain that in new Rome the King of the North has placed the Tabernacles of his Palace and the word Tabernacle may be perhaps used because of the following words Yet shall he come to his end viz. The Turks will not have a settled Empire there but it will be destroy'd 5. But whereas the planting the Tabernacles of his Palace being related after the tydings out of the East and the North seems to signifie what he shall doe at the end of his Empire it may notwithstanding be understood in the sense I have given For after the describing of his Conquests this planting of his Tabernacles comes as an additional Character of him Also the tydings out of the East and the North may respect not onely what shall befall him at the end of his Empire but also his almost continual conflicts during his Empire with the aforesaid Northern Countries and with the Persians 6. That the planting of his Tabernacle c. should signifie the taking of Rome by the Turk and so fulfilling what is said of casting the Beast and false Prophet into a lake of fire is not onely for the reasons aforesaid a groundless conceit but also disagrees with what the same Pen writes on Rev. 19. For there onely the Remnant of the Beast and false Prophet unconverted are made to be cast into the lake of fire c. And of the lake of fire no account is there given and better none than what is here given For it 's plain there that the casting of the Beast and false Prophet into the lake of fire and so extinguishing the Western Empire as it is there called must be by the Army of the Rider of the white Horse and consequently not by the Turks 7. Ezekiel's Prophecy of Tyre is no Type of Antichrist as is imagined and so gives no countenance to the applying the words Glorious holy Mountain as here is done Both his and Esay's Prophecy of Tyre as they are intermixt with their Prophecies of other neighbouring Nations so there 's no appearance of their having any other meaning than what those other Prophecies have viz. what concerns onely those Nations And the reasons given to the contrary in Synopsis Prophetica Book 2. ch 16. are of no moment 1. For Tyre is properly called an Harlot and said to commit fornication with all the Kings of the Earth by reason of the subtile deceits and allurements with which Merchants and Trafickers enveagle their customers 2. And Tyre being forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King viz. of one Kingdom as King is usually taken is plainly enough understood of the Babylonian Kingdom which was to continue seventy years according to Ieremy's Prophecy And Tyre being taken and ruined by Nebuchadnezzar did continue so till the end of that Kingdom 3. But the fansied Cabbalistical sense of those seventy years will soon vanish by considering first that the Christian Caesars belong to the sixth and not to the seventh Head as is shewed in the Remarks 4. And next that Antichristian Rome which is supposed to be Typified by Tyre was not in being before the Christian Emperours and therefore cannot be said to be forgotten during their Time 5. As to the description of the Prince of Tyre for which he is supposed to represent some great Priest in the Church first being threatned with the Death of the uncircumcised is no more than what is threatned to Pharaoh in Ezek. chap. 32. and is said to befall all the Princes there spoken of 6. Next he is not said to be adorned as is supposed with the high Priest's vestments but onely with pretious stones to signifie the perfection of beauty and splendour which by great wisedom he had attained unto 7. By reason whereof he is said to have been in Eden the garden of God in like sense as great Kings are called Trees of Eden in Ezekiel chap. 31.8 Then as to his being called anointed Cherub and his being upon the Mountain of God and walking in the midst of the stones of Fire they all
Reformation which Anger is made to be the first Vial but cannot be so as is shewed in Remarks viz. whereas the Devil having great wrath on his being cast down from Heaven went thereon to make war with the Saints the Beasts warring against them by his instigation persecuting not onely with death but with all other subtile and mischievous Antichristian Practices is that Anger of the Nations for which it is said Thy wrath is come viz. to reward them as they had rewarded the Saints chap. 18.6 and to destroy them that destroy'd the Earth So that this wrath cannot be applied to the third or any other Vial but to the whole judgment of God which ruined the Antichristian party and inflicted due punishment on them b The Temple of God does signifie as is shewed in Remarks the Emperours embracing the Christian profession so far is it from being applicable to any of the Vials Nor does appear any reason why it should be applied to the sixth Vial unless because it is supposed the Iews will then be converted Which if they be they will be then no more concerned in the Temple of God and Ark of the Covenant than the Christians The Earthquake and great Hail supposed to belong to the seventh Vial signifies as is shew'd in Remarks the great Revolutions in the World by shaking the powers thereof which would be caused by Christianity being autorized by the Emperours for the Religion of the Empire c The Acclamations in Heaven at the seventh Trumpet are no ways applicable to the Rising of the Witnesses and nor they nor the Doxology of the Elders do answer to the Triumphal Song chap. 15. which indeed is no such Song as is shewed in Remarks And lastly all those Thanksgivings signifie a much more flourishing state of Christ's Kingdom by the absolute vanquishing of his enemies and subduing them than can be at the Rising of the Witnesses d The fansied glances chap. 14. at the things of the fourth fifth sixth and seventh Vials are as slight conceits as the said slight Intimations But it was advisedly done to omit instancing in the words that do so glance because it is so hard to doe it e Nor does it appear of what use the so glancing at the affairs of the Vials here and the slight intimations of them aforesaid at the seventh Trumpet can be save onely what they are invented for viz. to give colour to that crazy conceit of placing the Vials within the seventh Trumpet But there is so little or nothing said for them that they are not worth saying so much against them especially I having given such account of the same Scriptures in my Remarks as will sufficiently shew the vanity of those conceits if it be not apparent enough already f Which account does make the 8 th verse which is supposed to glance at the second Ioint of the Prophecy to respect a much higher time viz. the revolting of the Waldenses And the following to the 13 th which is supposed to glance at the fourth Vial to respect all the Vials as a Monition To which also belongs the next verse viz. v. 13. which is supposed though no appearance why to glance at the fifth Vial. And the said Account does make from v. 14. to v. 17. which is supposed to glance at the sixth Vial to respect the Rising of the Witnesses and the consequences thereof And from v. 17. to the end of the Chapter which is supposed to glance at the seventh Vial to respect the preparation of the Antichristian party to the great battel at the seventh Vial and the seventh Trumpet and the issue thereof g And as to the adding the Visions of the Vials in chap. 15. and 16. as a supplement to chap. 11. though it be said here thereof We may be sure it is sound and right yet it is as groundless as any thing I have spoken to as appears by my Remarks and what I have said or shall say against the placing the Vials within the seventh Trumpet Ans. The next argument of the Expositor for the placing the Vials within the seventh Trumpet is that placing them at the second Ioint their Position will be such that they will more fully illustrate those times of the foregoing Visions in which things are more scantly and obscurely represented namely the times after the Rising of the Witnesses chap. 11.18 but are such as relate to some of the Vials As the wrath of the Nations to the first The wrath of God to the third The Ark of the Covenant to the sixth And the Earthquake and great Hail to the seventh And there is no question but the plagues of the Vials are Vials of Wo to the Beast and any one unprejudiced will say that they are the plagues the third Wo-Trumpet or the seventh Trumpet is charged with For presently after the Rising of the Witnesses and fall of the City it is said the second Wo is past and behold the third Wo cometh quickly and there is nothing but the Acclamations in Heaven and the Doxology of the Elders interposed as an Interlude and the Vision goes on What then can it go on to but to some manner of description of the third Wo which was to come quickly which are the plagues contained in the third Wo-Trumpet For upon the saying the second Wo is past and the third Wo cometh quickly it is likewise said immediately And the seventh Angel sounded c. Wherefore what can be expected after that short Interlude but some kind of description of the plagues of the third Wo-Trumpet which is the seventh Trumpet which I say are the Vials which are more obscurely and defectuously here intimated The first the intoxicating Cup of wrath which dementates men and infatuates their counsels This is hinted at by that short passage And the Nations were angry Which anger according to the sense of all Expositors is their Anger and Envy conceived at the Rising of the Witnesses and fall of the City and exquisitely Antithetal to the Acclamations in Heaven and Doxology of the Elders These things strike so powerfully and strongly to raise this sense that a man must be very dull and stupid or wilfully blind that does not perceive it and readily agree to it a And yet the Remarker does not stick to say That the Nations Anger is that for which the wrath of God is there said to come upon them and not their Anger or exulcerate Rage at the Reformation which anger is made to be the first Vial but cannot be so as is shew'd in Remarks c. But I say this Hellish Envy and immoderate Rage they being given up to evil spirits to actuate them that this is the very first Vial poured upon them I have sufficiently proved against his Remarks in its proper place and therefore need not here repeat it And Thy wrath is come refers to the revenge on these Bloud-suckers who by this intoxication will make themselves obnoxious thereto Which therefore is rightly
they that doe such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God But the fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance And as to the former he saith That they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And as to the latter he admonisheth If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit But now if we crucifie the one and live and walk in the other shall we not then be in reality no conceited and presumptuous Saints so fansied by our selves onely or by our own party but truly become such in the sight of God and all discerning people And this assuredly those may attain unto who under the dispensation of God's Providence are called unto the Communion of the Church of England if they be not wanting to themselves in the use of the advantages thereof And if so what can the cavilling at and calumniating the Constitution of things what the vilifying and speaking contemptibly of them and what the Insensibleness of the wickedness of Schisms and Divisions what can these proceed from but from the Spirit of Pride and Hypocrisie which would seem some extraordinary thing in Religion when indeed it 's nothing but its mere self that is a proud Hypocritical and many times Hypochondriacal Spirit fermenting and swelling it self into a conceit of its affecting a more perfect state of Holiness and Saintship than is consistent with communion with the publick Religion established by Divine Providence here in England suppose but in the mean time it self neither crucifying the flesh nor the lusts nor ill humours thereof as Hatred Variance Emulations Strife Wrathfulness Schismaticalness Fierceness of Spirit c. nor walking in the Spirit of Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness and Meekness whenas the Wisedom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle c. And therefore this is a false satisfaction of a tumid mind that has no real thirst after true Holiness and Righteousness indeed such as the Spirit of God has exhibited the light of to us in the Scriptures but this false spirit would cloathe it self in a counterfeit shew of Saintship of its own devising and rellishing which being extravagant and out of the road of the established Rule it fondly hopes will approve it self to be extraordinary And truly this is the ordinary cheat whereby spiritually proud men impose upon themselves and others that are no wiser than themselves They think themselves extraordinarily holy and singularly Religious for their extraordinary zeal against or contempt of the publick Religion appointed by the special Providence of God and the Sovereign Autority of the Nation and deem it in a manner profane because common or publick Whenas if they would but cast their eyes upon those Texts above cited that set out so fully and expresly the works of the Flesh and the fruit of the Spirit and examine themselves by that Rule that is so intelligible and wherein there is no freakishness nor canting and resolve to indulge themselves in no sin as there is no sin required as a condition of Communion with the Church of England and out of a firm faith make their earnest addresses to God for strength and assistence to overcome all our inward corruptions and perfectly to mortifie the old man that we may attain to that newness of life through the Spirit of Regeneration and so be wholly quit of the works of the Flesh above enumerated by the Apostle and walk in the spirit and the fruits thereof I say if they would examine themselves whether they doe thus or no whether they have mortified or at least do sincerely endeavour to mortifie all those works of the flesh there mentioned or any other any way a-kin to them and whether they be revived into those fruits of the spirit there specified and have a real savour and rellish of them and are ashamed in themselves and perceive it a burthen to them to find themselves in any other Temper this is the onely way for them to discover their own Hypocrisie and to bring them into a true method of becoming real Saints indeed And this they may be holding communion with the Church of England as I shew'd above But to bear themselves high in their own conceit for their pragmatically fansying rather than espying faults in the Constitutions of a Church so well established and to have a huge zeal for a purer external Reformation of the Publick while that private internal Reformation upon a false satisfaction of mind from that zeal for an outward is so blindly neglected this is the most effectual method I know to make them become and ever remain haughty and headstrong Hypocrites and as to all true and real spiritual Religion very cold and dough-baked Christians This high haughty but really empty Schismatical Spirit is the very pest of the Reformed Churches and I pray God it may never prove the utter Ruine and Destruction of the Reformation And let this serve for a Return to the Remarker's rude and irreverent scorn and contempt he has cast upon the Reformation wherein Divine Providence it self suffers and his Spirit of Prophecy who has plainly declared it to be the Rising of the Witnesses as has been above demonstrated mauger all the pretended Objections of the conceited Remarker But now lastly Whereas the Remarker will have the Reformation sufficiently prophesied of by the second Vial onely it is a thing utterly incredible that so glorious a passage of Providence should be passed over with so short and slight an intimation which is onely this The second Angel poured out his Vial on the Sea and it became as the bloud of a dead man and every living soul dyed in the Sea This is all according to him that prefigures this stupendious passage of Providence whenas the Victory of the Primitive Christianity over Paganism is set out most magnificently and copiously at the opening of the sixth Seal chap. 6.12 as also again by the victory of Michael over the red Dragon chap. 12.7 and there are great Acclamations and Rejoicings thereupon But according to the mind of the Remarker the victory of the Evangelical Christians over Antichrist and horrid Enemy of the Church of Christ and over Pagano-christianism consisting of many gross Superstitions and multifarious Idolatries and execrable Cruelties and Butcherings nothing inferiour to those of the red Dragon all this is hudled up into two or three lines without any Acclamations of Ioy Doxologies or Songs of Thanksgiving for such an inestimable Mercy which yet to such a vast atchievement of Providence according to the usual mode of the Apocalypse ought expresly to have been annexed Wherefore though the second Vial may be a Type of the settled state of the Reformation after some short Reciprocations of affairs after the Rising of the Witnesses yet it cannot be in any reason or congruity of sense reputed the Type of the Reformation it self in its first and fresh
to the affairs of the Church and the seventh saith he contains both the Trumpets and Vials and the Vials relate to the affairs of the Church and therefore three or four of the Seals being clearly and confessedly descriptive of Church affairs why should the others be of a different nature from them it being the very argument Mr. Mede himself uses against those that would interpret some of the Trumpets of Heresies and othersome of warlike Invasions and so bring things of a different nature under one Name This is the main of the Annotatour's justification of himself for his deserting Mr. Mede in the Interpretation of the Seals And To this I answer That the true Church of Christ being so mingled with the body of the Roman Empire it will be hard to find any thing to fall out on the one but it will some way or other concern the other but the distinction of sorting the affairs to the one and to the other is to be taken from the opposition of the true Church of Christ to the body of the Empire and the Religion thereof as counter-distinct to that of the true Apostolick Church And therefore those Visions that relate to the state of the Empire so described as to a fit object of them must be the Visions appertaining to the state of the Empire but those that in such a sort relate to the state of the Church must appertain to the Church that is to say The pure Religion of the Church or its body must be the Object in the one and the false Religion of the Empire or its body must be the Object in the other And this therefore it is I declare in the behalf of Mr. Mede that the Visions of the first six Seals and the first six Trumpets which are part of the seventh Seal that is to say that all the Visions of the Sealed book so far as it has pleased the Spirit of Prophecy to unseal them before he descends to the Visions of the Opened book are rightly said to respect the state of the Empire remembring also that Axiome that Denominatio est à parte potiori Wherefore I answer as to the first and sixth Seal that they do most palpably and eminently set out the intended Conquest and final overthrow of the impure Pagan Religion of the Empire and the Imperial Crown is given to the Rider of the white Horse and the success of this Heros is against the Religion of the Empire and the sixth Seal the overthrow thereof to omit the affairs of the Iews and the siege and sacking of Ierusalem which concerns the body of the Empire and is referrible to the Rider of the white Horse Nor was the overthrow of the Pagan Religion under the sixth Seal without large effusion of the bloud of the body of the Empire So that five of the six Seals plainly respect the state of the Empire as their Object And if the fifth did not yet Denominatio est à parte potiori as I said But under that Seal the Christians being part of the Civil body of the Empire and the vast effusion of their bloud there intimated though it was Semen Ecclesiae yet a weakening of the Empire and the Empire threatened therefore that Seal plainly respects the Empire also In brief the fifth Seal is a most terrible commination of a dreadfull vengeance on the bloudy and Idolatrous Empire So plainly is the Empire the Object of that Seal And for the seventh Seal the Vials are no part of it but belong to the Opened-book-prophecy the Object of the Vials is the true Churches gaining ground upon Antichrist till the utter Subversion of his Kingdom But the seven Trumpets belong to it viz. to the seventh Seal and as they are Martial Instruments so they every one of the first six of them betoken Invasions and war and spoil and destruction on the Empire and Mr. Mede's application of History thereto is very apposite and fit So that it is plain that the Sealed-book-prophecy so far as it has pleased the Spirit to unseal it respects the Fate or State of the Empire in the six Seals and six Trumpets But the seven Thunders that succeed in the place of the seventh Trumpet as the seven Trumpets did into the place of the seventh Seal what they uttered Iohn is commanded for the present to conceal So that the Annotatour's reason for his interpreting the Seals all of them of the affairs of the Church quite vanisheth and in so doing he must needs find himself in a wrong box or others will easily so find him he not interpreting the Visions according to the genuine meaning of the Prophetick style as Mr. Mede does but according to his own private fancy But that I swell not my Appendicula to an undue bulk I must not enter much less insist on these things We haste therefore to what follows In Sect. 7. The first thing that occurs is his allowing the Doctour's dividing of the third Period or seventh Trumpet into seven Thunders to be an ingenious Invention but withall perstringing it as a Notion that has no ground in the Text. But what we have answered to the Remarker in his Remarks on the tenth Chapter of the Apocalypse will sufficiently demonstrate that this Invention of the Doctour is plainly grounded upon the Text and confirmed therefrom and so is not onely ingenious but also true To which Answer therefore I refer the Reader and proceed to what occurs next which is his Assertion that the things prefigured by the Inner and Outer Court of the Temple do synchronize The absurdity of which conceit I have abundantly demonstrated against the Remarker upon chap. 11. Whither I might again refer the Reader But because the Annotatour here in his Preface pretends to prove his erroneous Assertion which he follows Mr. Durham in by no less than six arguments I will briefly hint the weakness of every one of them Arg. 1. His first Argument insinuates that the Coherence betwixt the first and second verse of chap. 11. is no other ways to be understood than by allowing what things are signified by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize V. 1. Rise and measure the Temple V. 2. But the Court that is without or rather according to the Greek but the Outer Court of the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast out or pronounce to be rejectaneous For it is given to the Gentiles and the holy City shall they tread under foot Of which two verses the most easie and natural coherent sense is this That Iohn is bid by the Angel to arise and measure that is forthwith to set himself to the measuring of the Inner Court as denoting the present state of the Church which he should find symmetral to the Rule But as for the Outer Court denoting a state of the Church to come that should bear the same proportion of time or duration to the present state of her that the Outer Court does to the Inner of