four Beasts in the third Seal in the very Reign of that Mirror of Magistratical Justice Alexander Severus presented with the Ballances in his Hand weighing out this Time just at the half Time or 202 years from the Resurrection or 237 of Vulgar Account from the Incarnation to which 202 Years added as the other half Time the Apostacy enter'd at 437 and then the Trumpets sounded to the Empires Ruine And how fitly is the daily Service at its just and even Ballance symbol'd by the exact care of just Weight and Measure according to the Charge on the Prince in the Prophet Ezek. without any Injury to the Wheat Barley Oyl and by Concomitancy no daily Oblation being without it Wine and as it were on purpose to shew us it was not the Levitical but according to the Unceremonial Simplicity of Gospel Worship the spiritual Sacrifice that is intended Barley is added which had no Place in the daily Levitical Oblation Now to explain this Symbol I desire a diligent Compare of Rev. 6. 6. Exod. 29. 40. Numb 28. 7. Ezek. 45. 9 10. c. Oh infinite and supream Dispose that changes Times and Remark Seasons as it pleases having first drawn them in an entire Table lying always before it where every Thing is beautiful in its own season and so every thing shall at last appear before Holy Angels and Saints and even extort the Confessions of Angry and Male-content Spirits How admirably hath it seal'd and open'd in this course of Seals and for his own Glory suffer'd a new sealing by surprise upon his Kingdom when that first sealing was taken off that he might bring Good out of Evil Light out of so long obscurity of the Apostacy that even then when the Empire or Vniversal Monarchy of the World was risen out of Heathenism into the Acknowledgment of the only true God and the one Mediator Jesus Christ suffered it to relapse into the new Heathenism of Antichristianism Even so Father who hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to Babes it seemed good in thy sight For thou hast what Time thou pleasest to whom a Day and a thousand Years are equal to display thy Kingdom in within the most perfect Measure of Time viz. a cubical thousand Years and then in a boundless Eternity To him then who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb who hath the sealed Book yet in his Hand and is even ready to unseal it into his Kingdom within Ten Years to be proclaim'd be Glory Blessing Salvation Dominion Obedience for ever and ever Amen An Explication of Daniel 's Grand Line of Time as given in his four last Chapters SECT I. OF the Vision of the Daily taken away and therein of the 2300 Ev. Morn or the Vision call'd the Vision of the Ev. Morn in general on Dan. chap. 8. Page 1. SECT II. That this Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy and the Proof of it Page 8. SECT III. In which a Line of 75 Years precedent to the 70 Weeks is asserted and endeavour'd to be proved Dan. 9. Page 24. SECT IV. Gives the Proof that the Time of the Words going forth was the first 75 Years of the 2300 Ev. Mor. Page 28. SECT V. Of the 70 Weeks themselves in brief the second Line of the 2300 Even Morn Page 32. SECT VI. Brief Remarks on Daniel's last and longest Vision are made from Part to Part. Page 35. SECT VII Of the whole Line of Time from the Resurrection of Messiah unto the Time of Blessedness in the Lotts of the New Jerusalem and its Royal Priesthood on Dan. 12. v. 4. c. to the end Page 45. SECT VIII Wherein is given a Prefatory Survey of the whole Apocalyptical Prophecy Page 52. SECT IX Wherein a Proof is given The seven Churches carry with them a Line of Time contemporizing with the whole Apocalyptick Time Page 62. SECT X. Of the third Line of Time in the Grand Line of 2300 Even Morn or of the seven Seals from the Resurrection shewing it extends to a space of 400 Years Apoc. c. 4 c. 5. c. 6. c. 7. c. 8. Page 72. Of the Great LINE OF Prophetical Time In XXII Sections viz. The 1260 Days of the Witnesses and the Woman in the Wilderness Apoc. c. 11. 3. 12. 6. SECT I. Of the Ninefold Repetition of this Line and its several Characters shewing 1. That Time Times Half a Time must each signifie first Years then Years of Years 2. That Days must signifie either first Days of Years in the 1260 Days and then each of the three Days a Year of Years and proportionably in the Half Time and Half Day 3. The Months can be no other than Lunar Months and so must signifie such Months of Lunar Years as are proportion'd to the 1260 Days as Lunar Time is to Solar THE Great Line of Time in the Eye of Prophecy Position and upon which it is most intent as drawn for the latter Times and approaching so near the final Accomplishment of all Prophecy at this very Time is the Time Times and Half Time call'd also Three Days and a half Twelve hundred Sixty Days and Forty two Months All of which even as each of them concurr though in different manner as shall be seen into One Line of Twelve Hundred and sixty Years and are coeval to the space of the six first Apocalyptical Trumpets That this Line may be better understood and Apprehended It is first to be well observ'd in these following Grand Heads or Generals of Discourse This Line of Time is nine times to be found in Sacred First General Prophecy Twice in Daniel it is called Time Times Half a Time once 1260 Days though concealed somewhat by Dan. 7. 25. and Dan. 12. 7. Dan. 12. 11. joyning it with Thirty more for twelve hundred and sixty are made to lye in the complex of Twelve hundred ninety Dayes In the Apocalyptick Prophecy it is first made known by Forty two Months* then by Twelve hundred sixty Days* Apoc. 11. 2. Apoc. 11. 3. Apoc. 11. 9. Apoc. 12. 6. Apo. 12. 14. Apoc. 13. 5. then by Three dayes and a half* then again by Twelve hundred sixty Dayes* then is again reassum'd the Time Times Half a Time* and lastly the Forty two Months are the second time assign'd the observation of which Repetition and Variation and Order of both in giving this space of Time is of great Instruction as we shall see in its proper place for the understanding Prophecy That then which I shall first address our Thoughts unto shall be to consider every Character of Time given us in Prophecy by its self with its Signification and Extent and the Assurances it is of such signification and Extent then the Balances of the Characters one with another and lastly their several Epochs and Periods The first Character of Prophetick Time is Time Times Half a Time or if translated exactly either according to the Character first
who was the fourth King richer than all the former viz. In compliance with that Character The History of Esther thus describes him This is that Ahasuerus that Reigned from India to Ethiopia Esth 1. 1. and according to best History He was the fourth to the three from Cyrus for Darius being of the Seed of the Medes and the Mede is not accounted among the Persian Kings the Three after Cyrus then regnant are Cambyses Smerdis Darius Hystaspis and Xerxes the fourth who as stirring up all against the Realm of Grecia near the very Time of the Jews Danger as Christ signifies by the King of Grecia coming when he return'd to fight with the Prince of Persia concerning Haman's Decree laid the Foundation of that War Alexander the Great a Prince doing after his own Will pursued so as to put an end to the Persian Monarchy and the Grecian succeeded And this I have treated the more largely because it confirms and farther clears what hath been said of the Words going forth 3. This Vision being drawn out of the Scripture of Truth that is out of the former Visions of Daniel which can be only Cap. 10. 21. suppos'd Scripture of Truth in relation to these things The Vision I say passes on to the Successors of Alexander and especially stays in the King of the South and the North the Egyptian and Graeco-Syrian Kingdoms the DHIL-KARNAIN Cap. 11. 5. c. or two Horns as the Mahometans call it or as this Prophecy also the two Thighs of the Grecian Empire in whose Motions the 62 weeks ran and the Troubles of the Jews were as Historians observe most concern'd but especially as Types of those after-Kings of the South and North to which the Prophecy tends For in that Acarith of the Grecian Monarchy as the former Vision ch 8. v. 23. expresses it that long after part the King of fierce Countenance and understanding dark Sentences arose viz. in the Time of the Southern Saracens Heirs of the Egyptian Potentacy and the Northern Turks Inheritors after of the Grecian Empire to which the Prophecy especially directs it self so leading on also the space of the Weeks to the Roman Empire till all things went forward to the Antichristian State wherein these three principal Things are especially in our Eye that are prepar'd to clear to us the Apocalyptical Prophecy into which this of Daniel Disembogues it self 1. The Confederacies betwixt Antiochus and the Apostatizing Jews are lively set out as very prophetically descriptive of the Gentiles and the other Beast first preparing for and after conspiring with the Grand Beast of the Revelation and so by all manner of Arts corrupting the Minds of Men into the Apostacy that the daily Service of God may be taken away and the Abomination that maketh desolate establish'd in its place and as They who in the Days of Antiochus fell under that Tyranny by Sufferings and would not accept Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection for even Heb. 11. 35 then the End was known and was for an appointed Time even so the Witnesses and sealed Servants of God were in the same manner resolv'd not to defile themselves but were purified and made white by Sufferings for the Glory of that End And thus in this Vision these shaded Lines of the Gentiles and the other Beast not given in the former Visions are now given and the End vigorously represented as encouraging the Saints of God in their Opposition to those Corruptions 2. The Agency of the Antichristian King is more fully set out in some Particulars that had been given some not at all some not so clear as before as in these three things 1. We have the Exaltation of himself above all Magistrates or deputed Gods every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or August Name that calls Properly the Name of August Majesty as Acts 27. 1. for civil Worship and Reverence according to God's Ordination so the Apostle out of this very Prophecy describes him 2 Thess 2. 4. 2. His marvellous Pretension to be the Vicar and Vice-Gerent of Christ on Earth in so absolute and immediate a manner as to swallow up Christ's own true Power This is a speaking marvellous Things against Christ the God of Gods or supreme Prince an opening his Mouth in Blasphemy against the most High because such a Power is a Blasphemy against Christ's Divine Power for it is to sit in the Temple of God as God shewing himself that he is God 3. His Prohibition of Marriage is shaded under the Not regarding the Desire of Women taking it either as what Women of Vertue and Honour desire Marriage honourable in all or Mens lawful Desire of Women in that Estate of Honour and the Bed undefiled in Detestation of Concubinacies and Stews and this Prohibition yet is on the pretended Accounts of Virginity and immoderately honour'd single Life but indeed for base Advantages of Riches and Power to which those Pretences are made serviceable while in the mean time all Impurities even the Deeds of the Nicolaitans are so allowed as to be made a Doctrine Thus the Apostle also brands the Apostasie as forbidding to marry 1 Tim. 4. 3. compar'd with Rev. 2. 14. 4. The Idolatry introduc'd by him formerly unheard of and unknown in the World an Idolatry committed under the Pretence of honouring Saints and Holy Angels the Mother of Christ and even Christ the Spirit God the Trinity Names the lowest of which are indeed of true and real Honour and Excellency according to the Scriptures but as thus manag'd A Blaspeming God his Tabernacle viz. The whole Worship of the Gospel call'd after the Language of pure Israelitism His Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Saints and Angels who are especially thus blasphem'd under the Name of Worship by putting upon them the Notion of Patrons Patronesses Defenders Tutelary Powers Presidiary Munitional or Municipal Saints which is such a new Host of Heaven such a new way of Idolatry so proper to this State of Antichrist as in just Propriety to be said A God that his Fathers not only of the Roman Ancestors of the Beast but even his first Father of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar had not known a God strange to the whole Auncestry of Idolaters that it is most fitly and livelily express'd by the Prophecy The Silver Gold precious Things with which their Shrines are honour'd Their Presidency over such Countries the Land or whole Territory of the Beast being divided to them for gain each Saint in his proper District or Division and so as to bring in Gain most advantageously And all these are thus honour'd upon the Account of a Supreme over them in Name and Title however often not only equal'd but even submitted under them in Veneration and Resort as we know the Name of CHRIST bears up the whole weight and yet is not only competitor'd by such or such a Saint in such a place or as they speak by our Lady but even by that very
same Account a Persecution of the Dragon for the Mahometans were from their very original Adversaries to this Sovereignty of the Lord 's Anointed substituting an Imposture of Sovereignty and Prophetism in the place of it and all this within the universal Roman Monarchy the Propriety of Christ Their Deluge of Power and People impetuously overflowing with a false Religion is then most justly call'd a Flood out of Sathan's mouth acting as a Dragon according to the Notion of abstract Draconism and so raging and foaming with hostile Opposition to the Kingdom of Christ notwithstanding some seeming Acknowledgment of him in Mahometanism as a Prophet but truckling under that infamous false Prophet This then being the first Account of Draconism it is very easie to give Satisfaction to the first Doubt for the same things that are remonstrated as the Judgments of God as permitted and order'd by him in his holy Government of the World and Execution of Justice and Judgment upon Offenders are also most maliciously and hellishly negotiated by Satan as is most evident in the History of David's numbring the People that same misdoing of David is attributed to the displeasure of God and to Sathan as may be seen by comparing 2 Sam. 24. 1. and 1 Chron. 21. 1. yea in that different Case viz. the Transaction of our Lord's Sufferings Satan enter'd into Judas to embolden him to do what supreme Wisdom and Goodness had contriv'd to redeem lost Man It is therefore nothing strange the Holy Angels and Sathan met in these Trumpets each in their Place and Orb that while the Holy Angels sounded an Alarm to the Instruments of the divine Vengeance Sathan had his Contrivance to persecute the Woman both by the Barbarians and Mahometans But besides this Draconism of profess'd Enemies to Christianity there is the Draconism of the Beast or the Dragon living and being worshipped in the Beast or Antichristianism beginning by the other Beast who is afterwards call'd the false Prophet speaking as a Dragon which was the Synagogue of Sathan in the first growth and his Throne in the farther Growth when the Beast came to his Image and Number and the depths of Sathan or his Government in his ripest Age and thus the Dragon gave his Seat or Throne and great Authority to the Beast that is Sathan the Supreme Dragon in the idolatrous and bloody Cesareate now became Residentiary in the Beast and conveyed both the Hostility to the Kingdom of Christ the Idolatry and the Bloodiness into the Beast and by his Negotiation under divine Permission order'd the very Seat and Power of the Imperial Cesareate to the Beast as the Heir both of his Idolatry Enmity to Christ's Kingdom and persecutory Tyranny and for the sake of all these in all Revel 16. 13. which Regards it may well be esteem'd Draconism to the last And God in just Indignation brings upon this Serpentinism of this Beast a Counter-Serpentinism of Infidelism a Counter Draconism for serpens serpentem devorans fit Draco as before explain'd But yet the Draconism of the Beast is a diverse Draconism its Hostility to the Kingdom of Christ is not by down-right Force and Resistance of open War to the Name of Christianity but by way of Surprise out of his Hand and held as in his Right and to his Glory and yet in such real Opposition to him that he hath sworn His Kingdom shall not come till that be at the full end of Time Times and half Time Its Idolatry is an Idolatry as it were consecrating it self to the Honour of Christ and is therefore as in it self so in the prophetical Symbol full in all its heads of the Names of Blasphemy under this Head all the former Heads are flower'd and as it were powder'd with the Names of Blasphemy all former gross Idolatries and Demonolatries are dissembled under True Religion and Heathenism under Christianity or more truly True Religion and Christianity are Travestied and Burlesqu'd into Heathenism and Paganism and therefore it is not Simple-Idolatry but Blasphemy as we shall see But yet notwithstanding all this Sathan is but on Earth for the Beast holding the Kingdom as in the Right of Christ Christ thereby is still acknowledg'd to be on the Throne and in that the true God Holy Angels and Saints are thus blasphem'd by Antichristian Idolatries and that Sathan and wicked Spirits are abandon'd and detested in Profession generally though his Kingdom hath sometimes portentously broken out in Acknowledgments as it were to the Devil himself by some of the Antichristian Cheifs His Seat is not then as before as in a Heaven he therefore in a Rage dashes one part of his Kingdom against another the Barbarian against the Antichristian the Mahometan against the Bestian because he as a subtil Computator of his own Time knows It can be but short compar'd with above four thousand Years Reign before and that as in Heaven too in the Idolatry perform'd to Devils viz. Fallen Angels or Damned Souls And for so great a Pledge of the future Fall of Sathan is that Doxology and Song of Praise concerted in Heaven Rev. 12. 10. as also in Prevision of the full Glory of Christ's Kingdom decreed to him by God from the infinite value of his own Blood and as a Retribution for the Sufferings of his Servants maugre all Sathan's Accusations in which the Accuser himself was condemn'd and cast out and notwithstanding the succeeding Antichristianism And from all this arises a full Solution to the second Doubt and not only a Solution but an admirable Harmony and Consent of the whole Prophetical Symbolism For when Satan fell from Heaven in that desolation of Heathenism not only by the Christian Empire of Constantine but the perfect Victory over it by Theodosius When the Devil and his Angels after the War in Heaven were finally cast down A Victory obtained by the Incense offered with the Revel 8. 3. Prayers of all Saints as a Signal of the Church yet continuing pure in the publick Worship and that then was so great Expectation of the Glory of Christs Kingdom as that Doxology exprsses now mention'd Now is the Kingdom of our Rev. 12. 10. God come At this very Moment to shew that though God was pleas'd to account the Church pure to the very moment it could in his Righteous Judgment be so accounted yet I say to shew its Purity was at a very low Ebb and that it had long wan'd as also to shew that God had design'd to permit a very different state of Things to the Kingdom of Christ the very next news of the Church is that the two wings Western Eastern of the Great Roman Eagle had convey'd the Church the True Church into the wilderness that Rev. 12. 14. it could not be found This had been mention'd before assoon as ever the manly v. 6. Birth was caught up to the Throne of God but that was only in preparation and to match with the other Symbols But
this Argu. 1 Prophecy speaks of their King He is the Angel of the bottomless Pit whose Name is Abaddon in the Hebrew Tongue and in the Greek Apollion Now by this Description it is most evident some Potentacy is describ'd that hath its place in the World and whose very Constitution should of all that hath ever been in the World be such a one as Sathan himself who is the only proper Angel of the bottomless Pit hath and would choose to appear in be the immediate Intelligence of and the Spirit that acts it above any Potentacy that hath been in the World to this day But it is in the first place to be consider'd that as the Locusts and Horse-men we shall find plainly united in their empoyson'd Tayls of Serpents so they are in their King and his Title is therefore set in the joynt between the fifth and sixth Trumpet to communicate with both The Potentacy then must be a Potentacy on Earth and it must seat it self in the Hebrew and Grecian Acropoles or chief Cities as the Hebrew and Greek Tongues imports like as the Inscription upon our Saviour This is the King of the Jews was providentially written in Latin Greek and Hebrew to shew the chief Residency of his Kingdom in those so known parts of the World I appeal then to all Christians whether since the days of Christ or indeed since the Creation there hath been an Empire in the World that may be compris'd in one word viz. Mahometan that for the foule fordid base Impostures of its Religion and Alchoran the ignorance and bruitishness of its very Profession the Cruelty and ravage it hath made upon humane Nature to the utmost signification of the Words Abaddon or Apollion or wherein Sathan hath most immediately appear'd as the Enemy and Destroyer of Mankind can be said to be under the Angel of the bottomless Pit as its King with such propriety as the Mahometan Abating the confession of one God and the abhorrence of Image-Idolatry there is not any thing in which the utmost Effects of the Angel of the bottomless Pit have not been seen and even that good in that Confession of one God is improv'd by his Malice against the Knowledge of the true God in the Son and Holy Spirit and so may well be couch'd in the very Words Abaddon and Apollion as the every way most incomparable Dr. More hath with highest Ingeny and Learning observ'd The fallen Star that had the Key of the bottomless Pit who is sathanick enough in whom the Dragon also inhabits who hath been bloody to great Extremities yet is even essentially enough distinguished from him He is a Star fallen from another Sphere descends with the Key and ascends and lets out the Smoke but is in regard of the true Religion he professes still and maintains however debauch'd by Antichristianism not a Native of the Abyss as this Angel is he holds the Scripture while he lets out the Smoke also But this Angel of the bottomless Pit hath no more of God but what Hell hath that believes one God trembles in the acknowledge of him All else is perfect Hell The Time most eminently and illustriously agrees For after the Roman Western State was in Justinians Time so wholly unenlightned after the Christian three Woes proclaimed by Pope Gregory the first after Vniversality given by Phocas and receiv'd by Boniface and that there was some time for opening the bottomless Pit and letting out the Smoke out of that Smoke comes Mahomet the false Prophet and King of the Locusts inhabited and possessed by the Angel of the bottomless Pit of which his Epileptick Fits were an Emblem if not the Effects of a very possession according to the eminently judicious Mede upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the possessed in the Gospel he comes I say a false Prophet in Armour leading these Men-locusts who have a King over them for Solomon observes Proverbs 30. 27. those natural Insects have no King that we may thereby know These are Men-locusts This Mahomet upon his Persecution for his hellish Imposture makes a flight from Mecha and sets up for Prophet and King that flight becomes in the Judgment of God a famous Hegira an Era or Date of Time at Anno Dom. 622. from thence this Prophecy draws a Line to the taking Constantinople 1453. of just 830 years of which allowing five Months and five Months to the Locusts and their Action and an interspers'd five months after the manner of Locusts before between and after the heat and height of their Action their share will be to 1057 that is Four hundred thirty five Years when the Turkish Sultany entred into a remarkable Appearance in the World in Tangrolipix as then prepar'd for an Hour a Day a Month and a Year Which is most exact as to point of Time as will appear in that part to 1453 when Constantinople became the Ottoman Port. The Symbols or Parables of the Prophecy and the Parallels of History are most exact The Locusts came out of the Drought and Smoak of the Apostacy Thus Mahometanism sprung as is observ'd out of the Idleness Stupidity and Superstition of Monkery for Sergius the Monk incubated the Alcoran Their Power as the Scorpions of the Earth have Power their having Stings in their Tails and their hurting with them are all significant of their false serpentine Religion and their false Prophetism which Scripture compares to a Tail Now the propagation of this their Venome is the great pretence for their Cruelty and this envenom'd Syrma of a devilish Religion strikes under and for the sake of which their enslaving is worse than Death it self Their hurting neither the Grass of the Earth nor any green thing nor any Tree speaks the universal Blast of the Apostacy and its Drought that there was no such thing in Appearance to be hurt the Witnesses the Worshippers the Servants of God were all close The Woman in the Wilderness where the Serpent could not find her as before explain'd No green Olive Tree appeared tho' still secretly they emptied their Oyl but in the Time of these Locusts Elijah's Drought had withered all Appearances but what was secretly in the Temple in the House of God Psal 52. 8. The Emblems of their Warlikeness are very admirable their Likenesses were as Horses prepar'd to the Battel on their Head was the Glister of their Helmets like Crowns of Gold their Faces as of Men their Arabian Locks like the Hair of Women their Teeth as of Lyons their Breastplates of Iron the noise of their Wings was as the sound of Chariots and Horses running to the Battel and a warlike King over them All these are demonstrative Emblems of armed men The description of Locusts Joel 2. is so like this of the Apocal. 9. that I cannot think but that besides the litteral sense it had a prospect upon them And These as They came out of the Drought describ'd c. 1. of that Prophecy viz. the universal
Period to be prov'd Till that 1517 then They lay dead in the Street or Breadth of that Great City which extended it self over Nations Tongues People as the old City Rome did The Sons of the Church-Rome were as the Burgesses and Citizens of that City every where This spiritual Sodom and Egypt is for the sake of this very Type call'd the City where our Lord was crucified and lay dead three days as the three Witnesses three and a half and is the very same City and Church But the Nations Tongues and People furnishing new Successions of them suffer'd them not to be buried that their Prophecy might continue 1260 Years for the finishing their Testimony was not the finishing their Prophecy which was to last the 1260 Days but their Testimony as it was Testimony without Martyrdom was finish'd and the Testimony of Martyrdom and dying begun which from its Beginning was to continue three days and a half or the inward season part of Time Times Half a Time viz. to 1697. And to shew when it began Prophecy besides killing makes use of the Propriety of the Interdict Proscription or Outlawry of Excommunication That none should buy or sell who did not receive c. whether Great Rich or Free pointing on the Emperours on whom the Interdict so conspicuously fell then on Small Poor Bond signifying the universal Death of the Witnesses by the extent of the Nicean Anathema's at 787. All which is so clear a notice of the Time that one would think it impossible to be denied Now that the Beast might be every way mounted to the height to compleat his Number 666 at 725 or 26 and that the Divine Prophecy is cautious in not setting it too hastily may be easily believ'd when we consider the early aspirings of the Bishop of Rome who before the Year 200 in the Controversie concerning the time of celebrating Easter had by Victor otherwise a good man and Martyr by way of Presage began to mannage the Key of the bottomless Pit in the Excommunication of the Eastern Churches or if we consider what Accounts Ammianus Marcellinus a grave Heathen Historian in the Time of Julian the Apostate about 360 gives of the State and Grandeur of that Bishop in his Time insomuch that he does profess the secular Glory Richess and Splendour of it might tempt him to embrace Christianity if that Bishoprick might be the Reward of his Conversion And although this Greatness must needs in the calamitous State of Rome be much depress'd yet it is plain it waited all opportunities of lifting up its Head and at this Time to that height that by infallible Judgment of this Prophecy the Beast was come to his Number at 725. And to conclude this matter from all that hath been spoken of this Number It cannot except by accident predict the end of the Beasts Time for however that Denunciation Revel 14. 9. intimates the possibility of worshipping the Beast and his Image and receiving his Mark viz. by impenitent Perseverance in that Apostacy even after not only his intimate Time expir'd but even after the end of his 1260 Days as I expound that Voice of the Angel yet it is not to be suppos'd that the Holy Spirit would give the Number of the Name that was to be receiv'd as a Test of Subjection to the Beast as a Hieroglyphick of his End For what service were it to the Beast or what dishonour to Christ to carry the Hieroglyphick of the Time God had determin'd to the Beast's Destruction Seeing the Mark the Name the Number of the Name and of the Beast are as hath been declar'd all substantially wreath'd and wrought one into another and import close and deep Subjection to the Beast When we compare intimate Time in its beginning and Arg. 5 ending with the other Symbol of the Witnesses shutting Heaven that it should not rain in the days of their Prophecy it is a very visible Resemblance of that Time with the Apostacy of the ten Tribes through the Seduction of Jezebel in the days of Elijah and of that Drought of three Years and six Months at his Word As then the Seducements of a spiritual Jezebel that maketh her self a Prophetess led away those that by the Profession of Christ should be his Servants to Idolatry and Fornication even so the same Jezebel Rev. 17. is plainly declar'd as in the Church of Thyatyra so the Witnesses contemporary with Rev. 2. 20. this Jezebel have a power to shut Heaven that it should not rain in the twelve hundred sixty Days of their Prophecy but at their Word But then as we have shewed Elijah's three Years and six Months comprehended such an Intimate Time that a part of the first year and a part also of the last six months and the two years whole comprehended the whole Time And thus in the Parallel of the Witnesses we may begin the first Year near the Time of the Star falling when the Heaven became shut as to any Rain or Dew of pure Evangelical truth but we most certainly know that when there was a great sound of Rain as of the seven Thunders viz. from 1517. Although it was but a Cloud as big as a man's hand that then appear'd we know I say that Intimate Time was past and that there could be from thence but 180 Years which must end at 1697. Then it was Thou O God didst send a plentiful Rain whereby Psal 68. 9. thou didst renew thy Inheritance when it seem'd as it were quite lost and become perfect Heath and Wilnerness And had not the Thunders been seal'd the Rain had been by this time as the great Ocean swelling with the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea but at the prefix'd Time the seventh Trumpet shall sound as the seventh Look of Elijah's Servant 1 King 18. 33 34. and the Rain shall be so great as to put a final stop to the spiritual Ahab the great Antichristian King How much farther this Pillar erected within Intimate Time may guide us upon the Periods of Time remarkable after the Reformation we shall have opportunity to research upon that Juncture as also concerning the due Application of the Number of the Beast upon both that and the next distribution of the Line we are to entreat upon I conclude then this great Character of Time viz. 666. under the Apprehension of its Root at 25 from the Resurrection to 725 with this short Remark By this sure Word of Prophecy we may see the danger of returning Remark to Antiquity Antiquity not Cannoniz'd Antiquity without the Assurance of the Word of God and solid Reason to bear it up in all its Behests It would be to repeat over again the steps of the Apostacy and to produce the Number of the Beast a second Time it would be no better than Nicodemus's returning to his Mothers Womb to be born from whence he would certainly come with the same Corruption double Even such would
be the State of Christian Religion if roll'd back into the same Womb of Antiquity not keeping close to the absolute measure of the Word of Jesus Christ It would prove a renewed Womb of Apostacy it would grow up to a second Six hundred sixty six SECT 12. In which is given an Explication of the Woe of the sixth Trumpet especially to the taking of Constantinople and by Proportion to the Reformation and the end of that Woe and an adjustment of the Hour Day Month and Year to the whole Time upon Revel 9. 12 13 14 c. HAving now settled the whole space of Intimate Time by the number 666 as it reaches from 725 to 1517 and also the Times of the first Woe Trumpet by the Reign and Ravage of the Mahometan Locusts or Saracens I come now to the second Woe or of the Turkish Horsemen and to observe the prophetical Gauge of Time or that most notorious Period they made by taking Constantinople styl'd as we have prov'd killing the third part of Men at 1453 and so to judge of their Gourse of Time running down to 1697 which they complete there with the ending of the Witnesses 1260 days and of this whole Line of Time in all its Denominations and joyn in the proof that then it must end Now that this Trumpet is the Symbol of the Turkish Horsemen I shall first by the compare of the universal Knowledge that not only History but even common Experience gives of them with the prophetical Scheme make it most credible they are here intended 1. They are describ'd as four Angels bound in the River Euphrates that is according to this mystick Prophecy wherein the invisible angelical Powers represented the Powers of this World as guided and conducted by them like the Spirit of Ezekiels four living Creatures in the Wheeles of worldly Events Ezek. 10. 13. and Mutations so various so full of Revolution that it is cry'd to them Oh Whele Oh World 2. A People they were near the River Euphrates both in their Original and their after Potentacy always ready to overflow but that they were bound till their due Time appointed by God and four either as a number of Universality or that they eminently appeared in four Branches till the Ottoman surmounted them all and strengthen'd it self into Glory and Power 3. They were loosed at the Voice that sounded from the Altar of Incense from the Prayers of the Servants of God worshiping there while the Gentiles trod the holy Court and City of outward Profession There was a cry of the souls under the Altar of Sacrifice in the fifth Seal while the Church Revel 6. 9. Revel 8. 5. was in a State of Purity though declining On which followed the first desolation of Heathenism by Constantine there was much Incense offered with the Prayers of all Saints under the seventh Seal and by Coales taken from the Altar of Incense while the Church was retiring hither as at its last Gaspes of general Purity the Effect of all was the final Desolation of Heathenism by Theodosius's Victory over Eugenius and Argobastes as before expounded at the measuring the Temple the Altar viz. of Incense within it and casting Revel 11. 19. out the outward Court and its Altar of Sacrifice to be us'd by the Gentile-professors of Christianity which was the taking away the daily Sacrifice the Servants of God retired to the Altar of Incense as in a Temple shut and not opened till the seventh Trumpet and from hence as in the deepth of their retired State the Voice came as the Effect of their Prayers and the Vengeance of the Temple upon the profane Gentiles treading the holy Court under their bestian Princes Protection 4. The vast number of Horses agrees to the huge numbers of Horsemen the Turkish Princes have by general Custom brought into the Field and used in all their warlike Expeditions and Assaults and as this Prophecy when it would have any point of Truth made both most certain and most remarkable it uses some such vehement Remark as this I Revel 7. 4. heard their number and saw their Horses in a Vision as I heard the number of the sealed I John saw the New Jerusalem c. 21. 2. c. so here I heard their Number 5. Their excellent polished Armor like Brest-plates of Jacinct and Fire or the blue and livid Flame of Brimstone Their insolent and terrifying Grand loquence Their false and serpentine tayl'd Religion or imposture which with its Success was become Head of Policy pretended Argument and Reason of Imperial Power and Grandeur on pretence of which they claim'd universal Power and with which they made so loud a noise in Disdain of Christianity that with their Mouths and Tails they were so hurtful and which is most critical of the Time near the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the Great those Guns and great Pieces formerly unknown Engines vomiting out Brimstone or the sulphurean Powder Fire and Smoak were of signal use in the taking Constantinople or killing the third of men All these agree 6. That monumental period it self determines all for what so great as the final desolation of the Grecian Imperialism call'd the killing the third part of men And herein is the difference most remarkable betwixt Casting Rome as a burning Mountain into the Sea and smiting the third of the Lights of Heaven Then Rome reviv'd and the Bestian Glory inlight'nd it But this third of men are kill'd and shall n'ere revive to be an Antichristian Empire 7. Now to all these so lively Emblems and Pictures of this Ottomanick Power in which the Turkish Dynasties both centred and ascended their height let us adjust the Assignation of the Time The Day the Month the Year make in prophetical Account 395 years and they both ascertain joyn'd with the former years from the Mahometan Hegira so great a space as 830 years of the 1260 they parallel the days of years the Month of years the year of years us'd in descyphering the Times of the sufferings of Gods Servants and of the Beasts Tyranny and are therefore compounded of lunar and solar Time and as in signification of the cleaving and parting the Bestian Night-piece there is most of solar Time The Hour is of most particular and signal Importance both as it is set as it were on purpose to answer the one Hour of the ten Kings receiving Power with the Beast and also as an Hour signifying an intire Season at the setting out of the Turkish Time and when the Day the Month the Year are run out the Hour remains an Hour still and makes a just season to the passing away of this second Woe at the end of the 1260 days which long Time of Duration seems imported in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hereafter signifying a liesurely Motion but the seventh Trumpets Motion is as we shall find very sudden quick and dispatchful The Hour the Day the Month the Year reaches then