such helps Jo. 2.25 The Divel knows but some of our thoughts at some times but God knows all our thoughts and secretest immaginations of our hearts and that cotinually And this is the reason because he is the alone Judge of the world therefore he must know all secrets else how can he righteously reward every one according to his works Eccles 12.14 Rom. 2.6 Observ 2. God in his distributive justice deals with all persons according to the equity of their works He who is Justice in the abstract will give unto every one what is his God will give good things unto good men and evil things unto evil men And that the certain rule and measure of this discriminating judgment will be in the last day according to our works Object But will it not hence follow That we may merrit by our works Answ It is not here said that God will reward us for our works but according to our works and so in Rom. 2.6 Works do not merrit at the hand of God Rom. 4.2 then we should have whereof to glory but not before God 1. Because the best are imperfect in respect of the most perfect Law of God requiring perfection in every punctillio and circumstance thereof 2. Our works being in themselvs imperfect and finite cannot merit before an infinite perfection as God is 3. Works cannot merit because they are not our own primarily but of God's efficiency 4. Because men do them as their obliged duties unto God their Creator but God is debitor unto none 5. There is no proportion between works and the reward the one being finite the other infinite both in time and measure yet howsoever though good works cannot be an even rule of merit with God as they are with men yet they are a manifest rule or measure of equitie For it is very equitable that it go well or ill with us as we have done either good or evil and so every one shall be rewarded according to his works Object But evil-works merit eternal death as their proper hire and why not good works merit Heaven as his due reward and wages Answ True The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life The one is of our selves most perfect and therefore deserves its wages and reward but the other is a free gift of the grace of God in respect our best and most perfect works are imperfect in his sight Vers 24. But unto you I say and to the rest in Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak I will put upon you no other burden Vers 25. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come Though God is a God of Justice and Judgments against Jezabel her Adulteries and their children their false doctrines and practises yet as unto those of Thyatira that had not embraced those wicked ways God is a God of grace and mercy unto them for he tells them But unto you I say that is even to the rest of them that are at Thyatira so many of you as have not embraced this divelish doctrine and have not approved those depths of Satan as they speak that is those misteries those high and profound speculations which are no better then Satan's own devices and stratagems Hence Note Observ 1. That Satan will have his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his misteries his profound speculations in his false worship as well as God shall have in his true worship The Devil will be God's Ape and as God has his wisdom his depths his heights and misterious doctrines so the Divel will have his profound speculations for his Disciples also if God will have true Prophets and Prophetesses the Divel will have his Balaamites Nicolaitans and Jezabels and those shall have their misterious doctrines as the Gnosticks of old who did walk in the way of high speculations and notions hardly intelligible to any sober christian somewhat like the Necromantick conjurations of the old Romish Priests or the sublevated alegorizing Familists and Quakers of these days who when they think they speak with most understanding when they are least understood either by themselves or others I will put upon you no other burden but that which ye have already Burden in the Prophetical writings of the Old Testament is taken for the doctrine of God's Judgments against his enemies Isa 13.1.15.1.17.1.19.1 and in the Gospel it is taken for the doctrine of any person as in Mat. 23.4 it is said That the Pharisees laid burthens on other mens shoulders that they themselves would not touch with one finger that is their strict and severe doctrines and mandates to which they would have others bound unto but would keep themselves at large in Mat. 11.30 Christ's doctrine is called his yoke and his burden his yoak is easie and his burden light And this is that burden that Christ will lay on the Thyatirans and no more but this to wit Christ's true and Apostolique doctrine which they had formerly received from John and other of Christ's Embassadors Hence Note Observ The Churches of Christ are to receive no other burdens or doctrines then what they have already received from Christ Christ himself will add no further burden then his first doctrine of truth delivered by himself and his Apostles But by what authority do over-presumptuous men under pretence of Catholique and Apostolique Traditions add unto the christian Religion which is pure and simple many of their own vain superstitious ceremonies and inventions against which Christ hath declared both here and in Mar 7. and Luk. 11. and other places Surely one day it may be asked of them Who required these things at your hands To walk by God's manifest and plain commands is a sure path and leadeth unto eternal life but to make superstructures of our own or kindle sparks of our own fire and warm our selves thereat at least notwithstanding those we may ly down in sorrrow What burdens did the late Prelatical party lay on the consciences of the godly which they never had received from Christ or his Apostles and therefore they were truly burdens unto them and very grievous to bear but Christ's burden is easie and his yoke is sweet Mat. 11.30 Every thing of Christ is pleasant unto the enlightned soul though his yoke be heavy unto flesh and blood yet it is nothing irksom but rather sweet as hony to the regenerate and spiritual christian Observ 2. That true Christian Doctrine is a burden or yoke He that takes up a burden must go through with it and tugg under it and pass through all difficulties or else he may loose his reward It is not a burden or yoke taken up by our selves for of our selvs we would not willingly come under it it is tedious to flesh and blood and therefore Christ is said to put it on us he makes us first willing by his spirit of grace and then we are ready to yeild our
wherein sin is but not in the sinfulness of the action as the Sun that emits his efficacious beams upon a dunghil yet it self is undefiled from the corruption of the dunghil so God that has his hand and efficiency about sin is far from mixing with the obliquities of the creature neither can he be said to be the direct author of it nor the next proper cause thereof sin is only a moral being or entity and it hath subsistence alone in our corrupt natures but all our physical actions are good wherein God hath a concurrence and they become ill or sinful by our own depravities and so the divel and our own lusts are the mixt proper authors and fountains of all sin So let God be justified and all men lyars Secondly Yet I say God hath his hand and efficiency about sin several manner of ways and for distinct method sake I shall briefly set them down 1. God foresees and pre-ordains it else as I said it could not come to pass seeing God is omniscient and omnipotent to hinder it if he would Acts 2.23 Christ was delivered by the fore knowledge and determinate counsel of God What was a greater sin then the betraying the innocent and that too the Saviour of the world Yet this was pre-ordained of God and he meant to draw excellent good out of it and Gen. 15.19 20. Joseph tells his brethren As for you ye thought evil but God meant it for good to bring it to pass as it is this day to save much people alive 2. God permits it God's Decrees imply a necessity that sin shall be but do not impel or enforce thereunto We being left to our free choice God is not bound to hinder us he suffered them to walk in their own ways Acts 14.16 and we being left unto our own choice without God's special grace we are sure to chuse the worser part 3. God hath his concurrence in every action wherein sin is but not in the obliquity of it all our actions and motions are from God but the sinfulness thereof is from the lusts of the heart of man 4. God withdraws his preventing Grace or suspends it from a sinner for God is not bound up to Laws and conditions unto us and he may do it out of Soveraignty and he will do it somtimes in wisdom to try us and see whether we will seek after him and keep close unto him as he did to Hezekiah 2 Chron. 33.31 God left Hezekiah that he might know what was in his heart So somtimes he withdraws his grace in Justice and Judgement Psal 81.12 I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels 5. God gives a concession and permission to wicked Instruments to stir up and move to evil as 1 Kings 22.22 I will go forth and be a lying Spirit in the mouth of Abab's Prophets And God said Go forth 6. God wisely disposes his Providences that they become a snare unto the sinner and yet no dishonour to God for his acts of Providences are in themselves good and are rather motives to holiness and duty if our hearts were sound then temptations to sin yea his very mercies will become unto them a snare Psal 69.22 Let their Table become a snare and their Welfare a Trap. A sinner like the Sea will make all it receives brackish though ever so sweet that runs into it 7. God's hand is conversant about sin as some of his judiciary punishments that he afflicts the sinner with as Rom. 1.26 2 Thes 2.11 God gave them up to vile affections and gave them strong delusions When we leave God and his ways justly may he give us up to our own lusts and perverse ways in a Judiciary way and to a reprobate sense 8. God limits sin Thus far thou shalt go and no farther Psal 76.10 The wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder thereof shalt thou restrain So far as God gets glory by the permission of sin God will let the sinner take his swing but it shall not exceed its bounds but can presently destroy it or stop the current of it in an instant And so the remainders of wrath thou wilt restrain 9. God disposes the events and ends of all sin to his glory God would never permit sin if he could not bring good out of it Rom. 3.7 Adam's sin as one wittily said was a happy sin because it made way for the grace of God to be more clearly manifested unto the creature Many of God's attributes would never be so clearly advanced if it were not for sin to wit his mercy in pardoning justice in punishing wisdom in ordering power in over-ruling it Let us never therefore murmure against God for pre-ordaining and permitting sin for though the wages thereof be death yet thanked be God we have Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Observ 4. Another Note from the words The Divel shall cast some of you in prison is That it is the Saints great comfort to know that their imprisonments and afflictions comes from Satan and his wicked instruments Saint Peter's rule was 1 Pet. 4.15 Let none of you suffer as an evil doer The comfort of sufferings will be quite abated by the guilt of sin neither must the Saints sufferings be voluntary and out of choice for unto such it may one day be said Who required these things at your hands There must be a just call unto afflications that must make them comfortable to us It is but a fond presumption to cast our selves upon imprisonments and tribulations Satan and his wicked instruments will be apt enough to do it and in that we may truly rejoyce that Christ hath thought us worthy to be Martyrs to his Truth Acts 5.41 Matth. 5.12 and hath given us so sure and strong a token of our Interest in him together with a sight of that glory of our interest which we then under that condition must virtually and strongly enjoy in him by faith but such are very fond that will desire to fall into imprisonments and tribulations out of an affectation to Martyrdom as many of the Quakers of these days do and Christ hath taught us to pray Lead us not into temptation and this had not been taught us had it not been grievous and evil to fall into it whether it were either the temptation unto sin or temptation of affliction or the cross for Christ himself prayed when his soul was troubled within him Father save me from this hour and Let this Cup pass from me John 12.27 though Christ submitted to the will of his Father and freely chose death and sufferings as our Mediator yet as a private person he would manifest the same affections that are in us and deprecate the evil of sufferings if possibly he could Therefore for us to desire or rush into them would be a mad zeal and irregular and not according to sound knowledge but if we desire to wait on God sincerely and live godly
gracious principle in the whole word of God What a doing tugging and patching of counsels there was for the upholding of Idolatry and Image worship in the church of Rome for many ages All were Anathematiz'd by her that would not joyn in that false worship and it is to this day maintained by them in the face of the Sun which is the great scandal and stumbling block to the Jews and Turks to keep them off from the faith unto this day O most sad that professed christians should be the greatest and most obstinate Idolaters amongst the Nations round about them And this is not all they have their adulteries too and fornications professedly owned avowed and allowed else what meaneth the publique Revenues that cometh into the Pope's Coffers from the Stews at Rome and elsewhere under his Jurisdiction which were authorized and erected by Sixtus the fourth at Rome And Pope Nicholas the first that prohibited the Clergy Marriage deprived a Priest of his benefice at Placentia for having a wife and children but the said Priest afterward proving the said woman to be the wife of another man and only his concubine he was again restored O abominable and doctrine of devils honorable Marriage forbidden and Adultery and Fornication allowed and countenanced And this is not a private opinion or of some persons in that harlot church but it exceeds that of Pergamus for they had but some amongst them that held the doctrine of Balaam but it is here more general as catholick as their church is so catholick are those their errors wicked practises for as far as the church of Rome's Jurisdiction reach esso far the worship of Images her Idolatries adulteries reach also But let us turn our eye from this great Scarlet Whore and look a little and reflect upon our own reformed churches at home and see whether there is any thing there maintained and upheld as the Doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans amongst us It is no evil to enquire an enemy discovered is half vanquished I hope we have but few of the late generation of Baal's Priests left among us of that prelatical party that endeavour'd with might and main to bring in the doctrines of Balaam and of their abovesaid mother Jezabel amongst us 'T is true they endeavour'd to lay a stumbling block before the true Israelites of God in their travelling towards their celestial Canaan they enticed and invited the faithful ones of this Nation to the Sacrifices of Baal Peor and to commit Fornication with the Midianitish women and many precious ones did stumble and fall thereby but God gave them a day of sorrow and repentance for it Now their Idolatries and Adulteries consisted in their Altar worships pompous gorgious Services cringes and congies at the cross Musical church-services c. all which are but part of the garment of the Scarlet whore but also they commited Fornication with the daughters of Moab that is they mixed Interest and relation with Antichristians and joyned counsels with Jesuites c. and took up professedly Romish principles and practises As the doctrine of free-will liberty of plays on the Lord's day and conformity to all outward ceremonial rites and services on purpose to ensnare the conscientious and godly and to make them fall And yet this was not all but like true Balaamites they taught Balack to lay a stumbling block before the children of Israel that is they incited and stirred up their Prince and Soveraign to do the very same and to enact heavy and penal Laws against all Non-conformists to their forms and false worships and received from Balack their foe the wages or hyre of unrighteousness It is not he that preaches the Gospel and lives by the Gospel that receives the wages of Balaam as some Fanatiques of these days would have it but very sutably it maybe applied to such Prophets that will teach their Prince and Soveraign to set up and command a worship which hath none of Christ's stamp upon it and to enforce it on the consciences of the truly godly on great penalties thereby to insnare them and make them stumble if they may These are true Balaamites indeed and for this their Antichristian service they expect great revenues encouragements and honors as wages due unto them and this is the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet 2.15 which Balaam loved There is another sort amongst us that hold professedly the doctrine of the Nicholaitans and Balaam that hold no difference betwoeen good and evil and that good and evil consists only in opinion not in reality and these are high flown Anti-Scripturists and Antinomestical Atheists and are not so much as to be conversed with as christians but to be looked on as aliens and strangers to God his Laws and the Commonweale of Israel The Lord open their eyes to see their madness and folly if it be his blessed will Observ 2. The true worship of God and false can never stand together Dagon and the Ark cannot be competitors under one Roof Christ will not endure the doctrines of Balaam Idolatries and Adulteries to be practised in his churches if his church will entertain such doctrines and teachers he will hate them for it and he will no longer be their teacher but will become their enemy and come against them with the sword of his mouth We cannot serve two Masters Christ and Mammon at once either we must love the one and hate the other For there is no fellowship between light and darkness the one alwaies expels the other Observ 3. That false Teachers as Balaam may carry a high and fair hand of profession and yet still Balaamites in their hearts Balaam was a Prophet and prophesied very clearly of Christ Numb 24. and carried a very fair hand in profession as to desire the death of the righteous and yet still loved the wages of unrighteousness So many false Prophets of our days may profess fairly and Prophesie many excellent things of Christ and his truth and yet still Balaamites in their hearts loving the wages of unrighteousness willingly they would curse the godly blast them it they could but God providentially by his wisdom hath overpowred them yet though they know that there is no enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel they will teach Balack as sly Machiavilians to lay snares to entrap the true Israelites of God and make them fall advising as cunning Politicians their Soveraign Authority to enact strict Laws for conformity unto their false and wil-worships on purpose to make the conscientious godly to stumble against the just authority of the Magistrate and so to sin and perish And hereby that honorable and just maintainance which Gospel Ministers may rightly receive and demand of their flocks is become unto such the wages of unrighteousness The Papists at this day carry a high hand of profession and who higher then they Who more costly in their services and worships Who more desiring the death of the righteous as
cap. 18. The Beast and false Prophet joynt companions in evil the one upholding and confirming the other the one by an unrighteous and tyrannical Sword the other by false doctrines and miracles till at last both are caught by Christ and his Armies and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Rev. 19.20 And if common tribulations were not enough for false teachers and their folowers Christ will cast them into a bed wherein they shall roul themselves in grief cover themselvs in grief and with great tribulation and if all this will not do to bring them to repentance for their wicked deeds and practises Christ hath another bed to cast them into a bed of death and destruction in the next verse And I will kill her children with death except they repent of their deeds Repentance is the only remedy against divine judgments turning from sin and turning to God will turn God's wrath from us and his love towards us See more hereon about repentance ver 5. and 16 of this cap. Vers 23. And I will kill her children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reines and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works As the true church of Christ hath her children begotten and fostered up by the immortal seed of the word so false Teachers and Heretiques have their children also begotten by the spirit of deceit and falshood and nourished by errors and wickedness So this false Nicolaitish Prophetess had her children followers of her Fornication and Idolatry In the former verse we read of her Adulteries that doth commit fornication with her and promote her doctrines of Idolatries equally with her self and that Christ would cast them together into great tribulation except they repent and here we find their Issue children of the same cursed stock which Christ will aso shew no mercy to but kill her children with death that is will sweep them away in judgment not only with a violent and precipitant deatnh â—ut will also slay them with a death eternal Hence Note Observ 1. That children that tread in the steps of their wicked parents are envolved under the same judgments with themselves If we be partakers of our Father's sins it is just that we should be partakers of their punishments If we follow the steps of our faithful parents we shall have the same reward with them of our faithfulness in the latter day God giveth to every one according to his works the child shall not dye for the sin of his parent nor shall the child be saved for the faith or obedience of his parent For the Soul that sinneth shall dye And he that believeth shall be saved But as for the little ones that are uncapable of actual sin or faith their salvation or damnation is according to his will that sheweth mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens Rom. 9. Quest. But if it be demanded How will it stand with the justice of God to cut off little children which are innocent nor ever yet done good or evil together in judgment with their parents Answ Little children that had never committed actual sin even babes new born or in the womb doubtless perished in the floud and many in Sodome and yet without impeachment of or derogation to divine Justice First God can do it out of Soveraignty and absolute dominion which he hath over his creatures He is the Potter he that made the Vessel can break it he that gave life to babes can take it away and who can say why dost thou this Secondly all Infants are defiled with original sin and as the wages of sin is death so God can justly inflict death on them both temporal and eternal as the due wages thereof together with their parents Thirdly Little children are part of their parents substance and family and God may justly punish the living parent in his child by death as well as any others of his stock and substance as by a temporal punishment Fourthly Though God may often sweep away in his temporal judgments many little innocent children as by the Sword Famine c. and yet they not perish eternally for violent or sudden death is no Argument of God's hatred to them for many precious souls expire by a more terrible and violent death then that of the Sword Pestilence or Famine Fifthly and lastly For the comfort and the better support of the hopes of faithful parents for the well being of their little innocent dying infants whether they are taken off by God either by an ordinary death or in a common judgment let them understand for their comfort that God hath made an everlasting covenant of grace and salvation with Christ for all his Elect ones Gal. 3.16 Isa 53.11 12. and though the Infants of believers die before they can receive the promise of the Spirit by faith yet the chosen ones in Christ are secure by virtue of God's eternal love towards them in Christ being chosen in him from all eternity Ephes 1.14 and let me with reverence speak it Christ may as soon perish as one of them he being the head they the members making up one mystical church Had God ever cloathed himself with flesh in the person of the Son had it not been to lay down a sufficient price and ransom to divine Justice for all his ever beloved chosen ones And where there is such a predeterminating love as God's is towards his Elect and such an inestimable and compleat price paid for them as Christ's death is how can any such possibly perish without violation and impeachment both of divine Love and divine Justice This is a surer ground of the salvation of some dying Infants of believing parents then that that some Arminianising persons of these days do make to wit the parents faith the condition of the Infant 's salvation Dying Infants with those of that perswasion I leave these few following considerations First They should do well in the first place to produce that grant which they pretend to be in the Gospel covenant that the parents faith is the condition of their Infants salvation dying so but this will be done ad Graecas Calendas it savors too much of works of Supererrogation and Popery to be true Secondly If some dying Infants of believing parents are saved on the condition of their parents faith then all are so saved that dyes so before they have forfeited their condition by their own actual transgressions and if all of them are saved dying so then happier would faithful parents be to see all their children dy whilst Infants and innocent for then they should be sure of their salvation then to see them live for some of them must become reprobate and wicked for few godly parents have ever had all godly children Abraham had Ishmael as well as Isaac Isaac had an Esau as well as a Jacob Jacob had a Reuben Simeon and Levi. brethren
over all the Nations and Kingdoms of the earth by his rod of Iron during the thousand years and this is that which is called Christ's own special Throne Rev. 3.21 and Christ's own Kingdom which he hath purchased and merited by his death which Kingdom after the destruction of the new raised enemies of the church miraculously by fire from heaven in the Gogigan war at that time when they encompassed the Saints of the most High and the beloved City about the finishing of their millenary Imperial reigne on earth I say that that Kingdom shall then expire and be delivered up by Christ unto God even the Father But in the Fathers kingdom both Christ and them shall reigne for ever and ever Rev. 22.5 And observe that Christ's kingdom and the Father's are diversa but not contraria or rather that Christ's kingdom is but the morning prelude prodromus or first part of that everlasting one of God even the Father Christ's millenary kingdom was for Ruling Judging and Reigning over the obstinate enemies of his until all by his rod of Iron are brought subject to him and destroyed that opposed him and so shall have an end when that work is done and delivered up unto God even the Father whereupon begins that heavenly one of the Father's wherein the Son himself shall be also subject unto him that put all things under him 1 Cor. 15.28 so that thereby there will be no loss to the Saints in the expiration of this of Christ's Mediatory and Judicial kingdom when they are translated into a more glorious and heavenly Kingdom and City whose Builder is God and wherein there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him Rev. 22.3 The great work in this New Jerusalem is praise and Hallelujahs to the most high and beatifical Vision as it is in the fourth verse and they shall see his face and his Name shall be in their foreheads all tears sorrow and the curse shall be quite wiped off in this new heaven-like state of the Father's Kingdom which were not from all persons in the former of the Son 's happy millenary Kingdom for though Satan was bound therein that none was found to hurt in all that holy mountain or that happy Kingdom yet still subject under it there remains the Nations of the four quarters of the world during the whole term of that holy Imperial reigne or else whom had the Saints to reigne over and govern during that time And otherwise How possibly could they convene as the sands of the Sea-shore to make war against the holy city under Gog and Magog cap. 20. 8. by the instigation of Satan let loose among them And if those Nations shall still remain as evident they shall during the Saints dominion and Empire doubtless though Satan and they shall be restrained from opposing the peace and quiet of the Saints in their Reign and Kingdom yet they shall not be so restrained as to be void of corruptions sins and impieties among themselves which therefore are not void of the curse as respecting themselves nor consequently of tears and sorrow and death the most due wages of sin Neither shall I ever think it reasonable to conceive that Gog and Magog and their numberless followers in that war against the camp of the Saints and the beloved City were all innocent sinless creatures all the time of the Saints Imperial reign over them for doubtless they had sins enough and wicked dispositions sufficient within or else they would not be so ready unto the entertainment of Satan's delusions and promoting his designs against their Lords and Rulers the holy Saints of Christ towards the latter end of their Reigne and in casting off their bonds if possibly they could In short I conceive Satan and they during the Saints Imperial Reigne to be bound up from open opposing hurting or violating the peace comfort or interest of the Saints but not so as Satan should not tempt the Nations subject unto the Saints that they thereby should be free from sin which will be alone the priviledge and prerogative only of the reigning Saints and therefore I am of opinion that the Saints thousand years Empire is but the beginning and first fruits of their happy new church-state and heavenly city that comes down from God and is transitory and shall pass away after all things are made subject unto Christ But another more glorious shall immediately succeed in the room thereof which is from God even the Father and is everlasting and this city had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21.23 and to conclude this I am of the minde notwithstanding That Christ's Kingdom and the Father's do only differ in the administration and in the equality of glory but not in glory it self both are sinless both sorrowless both deathless both glorious but herein they differ That that of the Sons is a Kingdom of Justice and judgement which shall have an end and therefore less glorious then that of the Father's though in it self most glorious but that of God the Father's is a Kingdom of praises and Hallelujahs to the most High endless and everlasting Grant O God that thy poor servant may be kept faithful unto thee and become a true Philadelphian overcoming his temptations in this life that he may be made at last a pillar in thy New Temple a partaker in the great hopes of the Saints in the Kingdom of the Son and of God even the Father Amen And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is new Ierusalem which cometh down from heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new Name There is a threefold name to be written on the conquering Saints of Philadelphia of God of the new Jerusalem and the new Name of the Son This name shall be set upon the overcoming Saints to denote whose they are as the followers of the Beast and Antichrist have the mark of Antichrist and the Beast upon them Rev. 13. that they may be known and manifest so God's peculiar chosen ones have also his mark upon them to declare forth unto others whose they are And this name herein promised is not the ordinary name of God that the Saints bear this present time of holy godly or the like for this is to be written on in the future that all may see it without hesitating or doubting that they are God's in that time when that new Jerusalem comes down from heaven The Saints had always and at all times the name of God and Christ upon them being called godly christians c. But here is a new name of Christ and God to be written on them which formerly they were unacquainted with and what is that name of God but El-Shaddai