of Ground or an Inch of Power but what is given by him He therefore who has received from him the First Fruits of Power and Empire in England who has been preferred before all the Monarchs of the World being constituted his First Delegate He I say who has Received First ought to pay his Homage First and to Erect such a Monument of Gratitude as may be a Pattern to other Nations to all Generations I speak not so much of a Glorious City as a Tent Colledge or Tabernacle to shew the way and make a beginning And was it a City the thing is very feasible for if every little Village can rear a Church sure a whole Nation can quickly build a City In this Tent Colledge Tabernacle or City let there be built as for the Prophets of old a little Apartment for each Prophet putting a Bed a Stool a Table and Candlestick there and a sufficient Number being Annually chose out of all the Counties by Lot let them Twelve times a Year issue out and heal the Nation When this is done Righteousness will quickly cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea We shall have no dark Corners or barren Mountains but every thing will be full of Light and every thing will flourish and be green like the Paradice of God Indeed the Advantages of this most Excellent Administration are inexpressible and is worthy of the Great Contriver God Himself Then we shall know what the New Moons and the Sabbaths mean for Earth will Eccho to Heaven and we shall in a manner have a Sun Moon and Stars here below keeping due time in their Motions and Circulations with them above What the Sun is in the Heavens or the Heart in Mans Body the same will this City be in every Nation But Jerusalem in Palestine is to be the Head for to Her the great Stream of Promises belong The Text saith And Thou O Tower of the Flock to Thee it shall come even the First Dominion The Kingdom shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem Jerusalem will be the Royal Seat or House of Christ Kingdom for The Name of the City shall be THE LORD IS THERE That is He will be there in a most Glorious manner but not Personally His Name is called Wonderful Counseller 'T is extreamly probable his Presence will be there after the manner he was in the Temple of old viz. Oracularly And since I am come to the City of Ezekiel it will not be amiss to observe the position of it and of the division of the whole Land which is exactly like a Man For there are the Lot of Five Tribes above and Seven Tribes below and the holy Portion for the Priests and Levites in the middle and this City in the upper part of the holy Portion answering the Heart exactly the holy Portion below answers the Belly and Intrails which are esteemed holy And the Princes Portion lies on both sides the holy Portion East and West like two Arms. to guard and defend it And 't is said They that serve the City shall serve it out of all the Tribes of Israel This seem but Reasonable for this City being the Heart supplies the whole Body with Salutiferous Juyces The Preachers do issue out Twelve times a year to heal them and there is the greatest Reason in the World that the whole Tribes should serve it by Administring such Conveniencies and Necessaries as are suitable And that the Inhabitants of this City are Preachers tho' the Text be silent yet is a thing without all contradiction For the Waters that issue out first to the Ancles then to the Knees then to the Loyns and at last to be like a River not be passed over these Waters I say do plainly manifest that the Gospel and Preaching is meant hereby and their Salutiferous Virtue does confirm the same And another Prophet is more apposite to the thing saith he In that Day Living Waters shall go out of Jerusalem half of them towards the former Sea and half of them towards the hinder Sea in Summer and in Winter shall it be Here is the exact Method and Administration pointed at and the Continuance of the same saying In Summer and in Winter it shall be Now 't is not possible to spell any thing out of this so clear an Expression but the Gospel and Preaching The Apostle to the Jews levels the whole of his Discourse to this New Dispensation for as it were rejecting the former he saith Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of Laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment These all seem to be the matter of the last Dispensation and therefore he leaves them and designs to speak of something higher implyed by the succeeding Verse And this we will do if God permit And he makes Christ to be the chief Administrator in it saying For unto the Angels he hath not put in subjection the World Dispensation to come of which we speak And afterwards he tells them But ye are come unto Mount Zion and to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels To the General Assembly and Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant And to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel This City is of a Heavenly Nature ministring in Spiritual things in which the General Assembly of the New-Risen-Witnesses do convene The Latin Version is Conventum Concionem implying a General Assembly of Preachers and their Names being written in Heaven answers to that Conscript Number which John mentions stood on Mount Zion and we cannot suppose that Heaven is meant thereby But this as I have before intimated for their Security in opposition to the Jewish Genealogies which are kept so strictly on Earth And for the Ministration of Angels God has always used them to Minister to Those which shall be Heirs of Salvation And no doubt but they will be imployed in a more especial manner in this most happy Dispensation This New Jerusalem can by no means be Heaven for Isaiah after having brought in God making a New Heaven and a New Earth he brings in the Children of Israel building Houses and inhabiting them and planting Vineyards and eating the Fruit of them which are things inconsistent with Heaven And 't is said The Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory into it which they cannot do into Heaven For Heaven needs no Glow-Worms to enlighten it And to represent any Church-state which is past there 's too much Beauty and Symmetry in it for that It must needs therefore presigure something to come And if it be
which by a New Predication will quickly over-spread the World This River shall receive no stop by the way as the last Satan being bound it shall run over all the High Mountains Isaiah saith And there shall be upon every high Mountain and upon every high Hill Rivers and Streams of Waters in the Day of the Grees Slaughter when the Towers fall Christ saith Every Plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up and this is the time of rooting up But God never pulls down but he builds up where he reaps he sows The falling of these Towers is nothing else but driving the wild Beasts out of the Forrest an overthrowing the Babylonsh Kings and their Buildings and this is done by the Sword Then comes the Word implied by these Waters and instructs and informs them in the Ways of the New Dispensation This is the last Dispensation which hitherto was to come The Text saith We give Thee thanks Lord God Almighty who art and wast and at TO COME This is that World or Dispensation to come which the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of It therefore being now come no more is to be expected Four do not bear Record in Heaven only Three the Father the Word and the Spirit And God having applied himself to Reclaim Men by Three several Methods they can in Reason expect nothing else And therefore the Text saith He that is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is Holy let him be Holy still implying thereby that no more Attempts would be made to reclaim them The first Approximation was by Angels very Terrible above them the Second by Flesh more Familiar and Kind yet without them the Last by his Spirit comes nearest of all even within them This is a most Gracious Approach and will leave the whole World without Excuse Men need not step out of Doors for any thing they have all things at home In the Propagation of this last Dispensation there will be no such Martyrdoms as before the bloody Beasts are driven out or chained up Old things are passed away and all things are bcome New The Martyrdom will lie inward a renouncing Self and the World and a crucifying the Affections and Lusts Nothing henceforward can hurt Gods True Church for Christ presides over the Forrestial Kingdoms and makes Kings the Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing-Mothers thereof 'T is said The Kings of the Earth shall bring their Glory and Honour into it 'T is an amazing thing to observe how tenacious Men are of their Old Models thinking that God will build so lasting an Empire as that of his Son upon such rotten and weak Foundations Whereas he has publickly declared to all the World that he would make all things New Let them henceforward think of nothing else but of being broken to pieces by the Stone out of the Mountain The whole Civil and Ecclesiastical World is now in the Crucible and the Fire of Gods Wrath will quickly melt it down and make it ready for a New Impression The Angel has his Sword in his Hand and only wants the Word to fall on Christ has granted his Royal Pattent to his Church it wants only the Sealing and the Wax is just now a melting When 't is Sealed when the Complex Birth is Circumcised or the Child Regenerate Baptized with the Spirit I mean Then all the World shall know That the Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ They are truly and really His now And never a Tree in the Forrest has any Legal Power but One But this World knows not But then they shall And all the Rest shall be found to be Usurpers Then wo to Herod Wo to Zebah and Zalmunnah For the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon shall do mighty things Then the Kingdom of the Forest will enter and every Man will be a Soldier to help to kill the wild Beasts Every Man then shall understand what is meant by the Man whose Name is the Branch And shall confess that God has given him for a Witness to the People a Leader and Commander to the People I care not to perplex the Reader with Numbers When the Sun is up there is no occasion to ask when he Rises Yet I could do it very exactly But this is anothers Province Before I Conclude I must desire the following Writers to take particular notice of what I have wrote The One is an Ingenious Man but more a Philosopher than a Divine He melts down the World Literally instead of its Civil Frame This is most Cruel and Inhospitable There might have been some better Correction found out than to burn Mens Houses about their Ears and Some Better Entertainment for wearied Guests and Strangers than to fall on them and kill them in their Lodging 't is not customary to turn men off before They have said their Prayers The Millennium is the Repentance of the world The Counterpart of a Voyage The Reversion of an Estate after an others decease But He cuts off the Entail Sinks the Vessel in the Harbour kills the weary Traveller and allows the Penitent no Benifit of the Clergy 'T is the custom of a Skilful Founder to Break his Metal before He casts it a new The Stone out of the Mountain is said to break the metal Image of the Four Monarchies to pieces This Breaking to pieces is nothing but the unravelling of all the Constitutions upon Earth Now Had He well considered This I Believe He would have left us our Good Old world standing during the Time of the Millennium For there is no doubt but It would Last us much longer were the Heavy weight of Mens Iniquities Swept off The Other is more a Divine than a Philosopher and would have Christ to come Personally and his Saints with him and to Live and Rule with him in a Heavenly Court over us in the Air dureing a Thousand Years and to have The Dead-Risen Saints to hold a Corespondence and Commerce with the Saints that remain alive below upon Earth as plainly appears by his Catichism and other of his writings Now having so plainly and fully proved The First Resurrection not to be Literal there needs no more to be said in Confutation This Castle in the Air as He himselfe makes it will quickly vanish The Man is a Pious and Good Man and has Great Communications of Light But Humanum est Errare 'T is much more probable That Christ will appear in an ORACVLAR manner as in the Temple of old rather than in a Personal On This account He is called Wonderful COVNCELLOR c. And The Prophet Saith Men shall Say no more The BVRDEN of The Lord But what hath The Lord ANSWERED This plainly Implies That He is to be Sought to for Councel and Advice And although The Name of The City be The Lord is There Yet an Oracular Presence is more Suitable to Reason Scripture and Gods
Swore to and under CRONOS All The Tempestates or Species of Time what soever are comprehended Having Swore his Death so solemnly one would have thought The Angel would presently have fell upon The Aged Monster But He gives him a little Respite coming in with a BUT or an Exception which Semper firmat Regulam But Saith He In The Days of the voice of The Seveath Angel Reckoning These Days from the very Time when He shall Begin to sound c. Did I Say He gave him Respite He gave him none but killed Him then and Raised Him again to life The Oath flew both Him and his Issue TIME here is of a Complex nature and may rather be suposed a She Monster And being Pregnant The Angel rips open the Belly and lets the Young live out all their DAYS which had otherwise perished in The Womb of Their Parent But Though These POST HUMES live yet Their life is only a Reprieve after Condemnation for They are not to propagate Their Death being really swore to in the Death of their Parent This BUT limits their Life which is during All The Days under the Sounding of the Seventh Angel Some Pious Men amongst us understand TIME here in a Relative and Restrictive sense affirming that The Angel means no more than that some of the same quality or sort should be no longer than the Beginning of the Angels sounding which Interpretation though acidentally true yet falls much short of The Angels Oath being only a part of his plain indubitable sense For nothing is more plain than that the Sense extends it self farther even to the END of the Days and consequently to The END of the world The Text at the very entrance confirms this making The Hysteron the Proteron or Puting The Days before The Beginning plainly implying thereby That we are to include All The days under The Angels sounding before his Oath of Time being no longer can take place We cannot suppose that God would send so Extraordinary in Embassador to The world on such a slight Errand as to acquaint them That when The Sixth Hour was past it would be Seven a clock or that The Time under The Sixth Trumpet should last no longer than The Beginning of The Seventh Such a Message would be very unworthy so Great a Courtier And was his Business to tell us That The Time in the sixth Hour would not be The same for quality with That in The Seventh This would not add much to the Dignity of His Office In short TIME Ends not as is vulgarly supposed when The Angel BEGINS to Sound But at the Expiration of the whole Days under his Sounding And the Angels Chief Errand is to point out to Men The PERIOD of The world And The END of Time And Methinks I hear Him Speaking to The world after This manner YE Sons of Men Take Notice The Old Glass of Time viz. of 1260 is just run out And I Am Sent to Turn it And I Here Turn it in The Presence of you All And do Swear By The Living God who Liveth for ever and ever That It shall never be turnd more But when The Sands are run out or when The Days of the voice are Ended Reckoning Them from the Beginning of his Sounding or Tuning of his Trumpet Then The Glass shall be broke and TIME of whatsoever Denomination shall never be Measured more but be swallowed up in the Great Ocean of Eternity Two Things The Reader must Note First That That TIME which The Angel swears the Death of is of a Simple and indefinite nature and that The Time which He Excepts is of a Complex nature Because there are Days in it Secondly That The Angel is Seven year in sounding viz Betwixt The Second and Third Woe These things being premised Though there may be so me seeming difficulty when to Commence The Excepted Time and when it Ends or Expires Yet really There will be none at all For We are to Begin These Excepted Days Not when The Angel has sounded or done sounding But when He Begins to sound Not When The Clock has struck all But at The very First stroke of Seven The Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quum futurum est ut Clangat That is When He shall First begin or be about to begin to sound The very Tuning his Trumpet or his Preparing himself to sound comes into The Account 'T is usual to say T' is Seven a Clock when it has struck Seven But This is our Errour For it was seven at the First stroke at that very Instant when The Sixth Hour Lapsed or The Second Woe to The True Church Ended The Reign of a King Commenceth Not from the Time of his Proclamation But From The Exact Time of His Predecessors Death There is no Interregnum Time being not discontinued So The Reign of Christ Commenceth from the very moment of the Angels Beginning to sound which was in The Later part of 1688 When The Witnesses Rose The Spirit puts an Emphasis on The word beginning God being unwilling that Men should be ignorant of the Exact Epoche of Christs Reign Because it is The Index which points out The Final Day of Judgment Now In The second Place How long These Excepted Dayes will Last or when they will Expire and Time be Finished is alike plain and manifest For The Sands In The upper part of the Glass will be no longer in runing than in the lower part The Lease of The Bride If The Indentures be compared will be found to be cut out of the Same sheet of Time with that of the Whores Now The Whores Lease was for 1260 Years or Time Time and halfe a Time under the Sounding of the Sixth Angel And The Brides under the Sounding of the Seventh will be the Same viz 1000 for The Millennium and 260 for The Little Season In which Satan shall be Loosed which Ballances exactly Then Time shall be no longer The Turning the Last Glass or the Angels Begining to sound Is the Finishing of time Inchoate And Its vacuity or Expiration of the 1260 Years Is the Finishing of time Consummate These things must needs be very plain The Sounding of the Seventh Angel Is the worlds Passing Bell Judgment then begins and They are Destroyed which destroy the Earth and in the End are thrown into Hell when the Quick and Dead will he judged These Last 1260 Years being the Dawn of an Eternal Day to the Godly But the Dire Crepusculum of an Eternall night to the Wicked These Days Began in the Latter part of 1688 But had no Solemn Commencement 'till An. 1689 ' when The Man whose NAME is The Branch was Crowned King Now would The Inquisitive know what the Last Year of the Seventh Angels Sounding will Issue in Let me tell them T is very probable 't will Terminate in a Most Glorious Appearance of Christ Pouring down the Spirit from on High at Pentecost For He is Now Considered under the Following Relations viz As the Son of A Great King or an Heir Adult Claiming All the Kingdoms of the Earth As a Bridegroom come to marry His Bride As a Great General come to Conquer the World whose Name is called The WORD of God As an High Priest or Chief Administrator in His Millennian Kingdom and Lastly As a Young Infant in His Church Regenerate The Pouring out the Spirit so often promised may Refer to all These As He is a King 'T is the Great Proclamation As a Bridegroom 'T is The Marriage Supper 'T is the Sealing His Commission as a Souldier His Installment as He is an High Priest As He is married 't is the Sealing His Bride a Jointure of Power For a Thousand Years and as He is an Infant 't is his Babtizing and Lastly 't is the TEMPLE OPENED not of which The Plagues do Issue forth with a Full Commission to Destroy all His Enimies who would not have Him to Rule over them No Sort of Christians will deny that God hath made to Men a Promise of a NEW COVENANT in the Latter Days Obliging Himself thereby to write his Law in their HEARTS c. Now He never makes a NEW Covenant but He Break The OLD one Nor is it his Custom ever to Introduce a New or Cancel an Old one with out the Greatest Solemnnity After what Manner and with what Solemnity He Broke The old one I have plainly hinted in my Preface to the King The Introduction of the New one there being Two SEDE VACANTES by Cancelling the Old one is but the Reverse of That And That It will be Introduced with a Joyous Solemnity is The Rational Expectation of all Good Men. THE END * O. C. T. Burnet T. Beverly M. Jurieu