your selves I fasten upon that like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding I have told you formerly it is part of my witness and testimony which else is a poor broken thing but I say it is a part of my witness and testimony that the saints are the inheritance of Christ the riches of the glory of his inheritance is to be seen if you will take a survey and account of it you must behold it in the saints I have also delivered in this place that it is Christs spiritual and powerful coming and appearance in the saints that is the gteat object of our expectation and that which must do our business for us It is not his appearing in the clouds it is not his coming down upon the earth and manifesting his glorious visible person that will do our work if his spirit be not at work in our hearts if he doth not come in a glorious manifestation of his spirit within us it is that that doth and will quicken us now and make us live the life of faith and it is that that must quicken us at the last day and raise our bodies out of the dust and make us live the life of glory And that we may reconcile the personal appearance to and wlth his spiritual I told you that the personal appearance of Christ is the glorious ministry that shall call up the life of his spirit in his people that lyes bound there as in a sleep this is by way of preface to that which I would observe at this time Ye your selves liko unto men that wait for their Lord now that which I would observe is this that the great care and concern of the Saints that live in those times that are upon Christs coming should be that themselves may be prepared that themselves may be in all things like unto men of such a hope and expectation Our work is to have it brought home to our selves mark ye your faith must be grounded upon this coming which I understand by having your loins girded about and your profession must be shining which it may be many are apt to think is concerned chiefly in their Church-administrations but this is not all but you are to look to your selves to the frame of your hearts and spirits look to your selves you your selves If this had not been something more then your loins girded about and your lights burning it had been a kinde of tantology and repetition therefore there is an Emphasis to be put upon this your selves not your loins only not your expectations only nor only your profession Christ holds your selves a distinct interest from other men well but what are your selves what are your spirits you may cloath a man with the habit of a prince yet may he be far from the spirit of a Prince and from the true worth of a Prince profession is but a habit and many men wear other mens cloathes and appear in a splendour and equipage that doth not at all belong to them look and see what they are within and alas you will find them full of rottenness and dead mens bones and therefore you your selves look to your selves and why should men look to themselves but because your selves are the great interest of the Lord It is not your way nor your profession but it is your spirit that is the Lords bride and that is his Bride chamber into which he will enter that when he knocketh you may open to him that is the great business your spirit is the Lords Bride and the Lords Bride-chamber Now what are we to look to in our selves why first let us look that we be in nothing unlike unto servants that look for their Lord I tell you there were no end if we should begin to shew the unlikeness where do you find a likeness to such servants what unlikeliness is there even in the Churches Our Saviour tells us what is unlike viz. to be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and the cares of this life this is unlike such a day such a hope such an expectation Now what is the surfetting and drunkeness there spoken of surely our Saviour I conceive would not suppose that surfetting and drunkeness in the letter was chargable upon professors and I wish that many professors were not too much tainted with this even with gusling and drinking from one Tavern to another and from one good meeting to another but there is another kinde of surfetting and drunkeness you know what the Apostle says be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the spirit this drunkenness is set in opposition to the spirit wine to the spirit From whence I gather that whatsoever hath the form or appearance of spirit and is not spirit all that is cautioned in that place to be abstained from I remember the saying of a good man that came from a meeting as we may be his report was this that they were so drunk he meant not that they were drunk with wine but Drink with their gifts self-sufficiency this is surfeting and drunkenness and I wish with all my soul that they that do profess the Lord and those that think they are on the upper ground and have the advantage of others that they would take heed of this surfetting and Drâ—nkenness of surfetting of their forms of their attainments thinking they are come to Sion because it may be they are come to the letter of a poor administration Though alas as it is managed amongst many if not most at this very day alas it is a meer Babel the one sayes it is thus and another sayes it is thus whereas I tell you I am not against any of them I am not against the Baptist nor against the congregational way that do baptize their children the Lord doth bear them both and he is able to make them both to stand but this crying out Lo here this is the way and the others crying on t Lo that is the way whereas it is the right spirit in each that is that will justify each administration and except there be the unity of the spirit maintain'd in the bond of peace I tell you our Churches are a meer Babel and yet there are among them that do maintain this unity God forbid I should think otherwise There is a seed among the Churches that are of the large spirit and do not set up themselves over Christ but shine forth according to the light communicated to them therefore I lay no burden upon them But I say this surfetting and drunkenness is opposite to the very expectation of Christs coming alas are we so full now are you so well are you so happy what do you think that the New Jerusalem will be only snch a kind of thing as your Church-fellowship is that it will set the crown upon the head of your form and your way are you where you would be so as that you are at rest you
it but I have been perswaded in my own minde to cast my discourse at this time into another mould and to speak unto these two heads in this order First to make some further evidence of the times that we are in and that for this reason because it is the main argument and enforcement in the text here It is that that is to put us upon the disposing of our selves The preparing our selves It is that that hath a great influence upon this preparation that is here required and when I have spoke of that then I shall come to the preparation which is the second thing now in making evidence to you of this that this is the time when this exhortation is in season wherein it doth especially lye upon us to prepare our selves for the return of our Lord. I shall offer the evidence of this under two heads First to shew you that the time is fulfilled that was to precede the coming of our Saviour and secondly to shew you that the signes of those times have come up and presented themselves and shewed themselves before us if we had eyes to see and hearts to take notice of it First I say I shall begin with that that the time is fulfilled you shall see what my meaning is if you look into Mark 1.15 After John was put in prison our Saviour preaches saying the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand mark ye there our Saviour that had spiritual enforcements enough to have driven home his doctrine and instructions into the minds of the people yet he maks use of this argument this enforcement the time is fulfilled the meaning of our Saviour is clear to be this the times that were to precede my manifestation in the flesh they are fulfilled he says not to them Lo I am here the promised Messias though that was the thing they were to know but he bears in the acknowledgment of that to them he makes way for it by this consideration the time is fulfilled it is as much as if he should say my father did set the time when I should visit the world it my first appearance the time was set to a day to an hour that time is now fulfilled therefore under that consideration of the time being fulfilled look about you repent and believe the Gospel attend now the time is come says he is not this clear therefore that there is a time for every purpose under heaven There was a time for his first appearance and there is a time for his second appearance And when the time is come men should be up with their expectations if our Saviour that spiritual Doctor that was able to convince the spirits of men by spiritual power and evidence if he work by this medium and tell them of the time we may be allowed to take the help of this consideration now the question will be how we shall prove the assumption for the major is clear if the time be fulfilled we are to look for his second coming that is clear now how shall we make that out for this the Lord help us and be with us I desire not to go forth in any confidence of the flesh we are all yet subject to mistakes how many have been mistaken if I should tell you of an immediate revelation made to me that is not made to other Saints you might demur upon it I shall not go by that evidence that the time is fulfilled but only by the Scriptures and that is by a double computation a computation of Daniel and the Revelations compared together in Dan. 12.11 you have two numbers which were there revealed unto Daniel Upon his great solicitousness and earnest application to the Lord after the Lord had thrust him away as I may say and bid him be quiet yet Daniel humbly putting himself forward again the Lord doth so far yield unto him as to tell him the time how long it should be and from what date it should begin From the time that the daily sacrifice should be taken away there should be 1290 days this is Daniels first number and computation The computation of the Revelations you have in chap. 13. v. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power given unto him to continue 42. months These 42. months being resolved into dayes as they are in Revel 11. contain 1260. dayes which is the time of the witnesses prophecying in Sackcloth and it is the time allotted unto the beast and unto the Gentiles to trample under foot the holy City Now Daniels first number of 1290. dayes is more then this it is 30. dayes more then this 1200 and therefore how shall we make these to square why I shall briefly give you my sense of it I conceive they have one and the same Period of expiration though not one and the same rise they begin not at the same time but they end together This number of Daniels 1290. concerned the Jews shewing how long they should be trodden under foot by the successors of that Monarchy under whom they were at that present time broken and humbled The number begins from the time of Julian the Apostate and he says from that time that the sacrifice should bè taken amay and the abomination that was desolate set up which was the attempt that was made to restore Judaism which after it was abrogated was a desolating abomination from that time there should be 1290. dayes Now the Apostle John shews the time of the beast of the Roman beast the Roman Monarchy under the last head of it the Papacy and he sayes there is but 1260. dayes allotted to it therefore if these two numbers do expire together we must begin the computation of the Revelations 30 years after the time of Julian But happily you may say this is by guess only I answer I have this ground for the beginning the computation of the Revelations 30. years later then the time of Julian For Julians time was 360. and I begin this computation in 390. or thereabouts I say it began after because that that was the time of the expiring of the Dragons cause you know there are 3 enemies the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet that do exercise the Church of Christ till the Dragons time was out the Beast did not ascend the stage Now though the Dragon was cast out of heaven about the time of Constantines coming to the Empire in the year 310. yet he was not totally and finally vanquished so as to give up his cause till about the year 390. or 393. there is some difference in our Chronologie but it is not considerable when Theodosius obtained that signal victory against Engenius Now after that defeat Heathenisme never displayed banner in the field more and then was that power removed out of the way which did let the appearing of Antichrist 2 Thes 2. He that letteth must first be taken out of the way now then
make these tidings these publishings what need of them if to tell no more then was obvious and what Sion knew before it must be some unexpected news that makes these messengers so welcome their feet so beautiful Babylon was taken at one end three days before Belshazar knew of it the Jews were as men that dreamed when God brought back their captivity thence having either forgot or not studyed the promise The times of the man of sin may expire and the days of the son of man may commence and yet both their partyes may be ignorant both of the one and of the other in which sence that kingdome of God is said to come not with observation 4ly It is the gloriousest Testimony in the world to publish the reign of God nothing makes the feet of any messenger so beautiful as the bringing of these tidings the making Evidence of the drawing near of this day The very eye of the prophets testimony in the Old testament was Christs first appearance the glory of the prophets testimony under the New Testament is Christs second appearance Lastly the first notice of these blessed and joyful tidings is given to those that are upon the Mountains and by thâ—m are divulged and published to their fellows that like and with themselves have left the City Babylon ye and earthly Jerusalem too Luk. 21. that have forsaken the multitude that are on the mountains as doves of the vallies Ezek. 7.16 lamenting after the Lord as in Samuels days looking for his appearance such whether in Churches or out of Churches as mourn for the absence of the Bridegroom embracing mountains and desarts in spirit rather then sitting down in any buildings of men waiting for that building of God that Heavenly Jerusalem that hath the glory of God that are uneasy and cannot take up in any state of things that can corrupt to the joy of these will the Lord appear by these are these tidings brought to such as these they are sent and to every one of these they will be highly wellcome Wherefore now with the noble Bereans search the Scriptures whether these things be so you have the scales here put into your hands the Epocha's pitcht the Calculation made ready to your perusal the signes of the times opened the dark Characters uncipherd the types and ancient paralels applyed the series of the Apocaliptick visions and many of the Sinchronisms set before you what of them is fulfil'd and what yet to be fulfilled In reflection upon all which I may say with soberness without vanity and arrogating any thing to my self who for the light here offered am the greatest debtor of all that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see these things to see such evidence of our redemption drawing nigh but have not been favoured with it And if upon perusal of the evidence you find it so as is reported that we are come to the days of the son of man and are so far entred upon them then for a farwel be admonished of this one thing that as these days of the son of man are days of great expectation wherein all things that are to precede his glorious coming are to be fulfilled and that before this generation passe away so they are and will be found to be days of great temptation and tribulation to the last even till the Lord appears in person from heaven therefore as the expectation should make us lookup and lift up our heads and concern our selves about these things with a more then Ordinary concern for that as they are great so they draw nigh and according to our concern will our fruit be in this day so the temptation calls us to more then ordinary circumspection and watchfulness therefore our Saviour inculcates that warning so often in speaking of this day and that to his disciples laying before them the danger if they do not and the safety and advantages if they do Luk. 21.34 35 36. ch 12.35 36.37 38 Mark 13.33 to the end of the chapter And where the Lord shews such a concern as he doth about this watching there to think that watching and not watching will come to the same reckoning argues a great slieghtness if not a profaneness of spirit Though ye be believers as to the main and your part in heaven cannot be taken from you yet ye may lose your part in these days and may be removed in some displeasure and so lose the honour of serving in the works of these days the honour of being of the number of the watchers by whose decree in association with the Lord the great watcher of Israel that great tree is to be grub'd up whose body is hewn down before Never are men yea good men in more danger of sleeping then when sleeping is most dangerous as we may see by the disciples whose eyes were never so heavy as when their Lord was in that bitter agony Wherefore to conclude if these be the days of the son of man set these days always before your selves to comfort and support you in all shocks and dangers say as he said Caesarem vehis fortunas Caesaris they are Christs days and Christ will have the day of all his enemies And bring these days and hold them up before the son of man call him to his own days ye that are the Lords Remembrancers such should all believers be keep not silence give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth it is his work but it is our interest say if these be the days of the son of man then let the son of man appear in his day The sword of the Lord and of Gideon the faithfulness of Christ and the faith of the saints must be in association and then the like wonders will be done as in the day of Midian when the host run and cryed and fled The First Sermon Luk. 12.35.40 Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that look for their Lord when he shall return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediatly c. IN much of this Chapter our Saviour is discharging his disciples and followets of worldly cares which is a very merciful consideration of our Lord who as he knows that we have need of these things so he also knows how great a burden and hinderance the care of these things are unto us how they do let and hinder our speedy following after him Now in order to this he administers several considerations ot them to discharge their cares by the ordinary providence of God towards all his creatures even towards the very plant which he suffers not to want his moisture and the poor sparrows the providence of God watches over them but after all these considerations the Lord brings a powerful one in consideration for good and all and that you have in the 33. verse fear not little flock it is your fathers
that there is an interest of man a fleshly a formal interest by which we are in danger yea the best of men are in danger of Savouring such an interest of espousing it of carrying it up against the spirit For my part I do profess this that let the Churches manage their affairs in liberty in love and in humility waiting for the further appearance of Jesus Christ the further breaking forth of the spirit and let them keep their form till Christ comes from heaven for me I shall never have a hand to strike at them but that which is an evil signe upon the Churches is First their divisions among themselves Secondly their exceeding rigid and censorious carriage towards those that do not jump with them Thirdly they are every one overweening and magnifying and crying up their own form against and in barr of all others Whereas the Scripture tells us that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty the spirit holds forth in a great latitude him that eats and him that eats not him that observeth a day and him that observeth it not that both may do it so to the Lord and both may be accepted the Lord can make both to stand and the spirit tells us that love is the great law of Christ and that if a man have all gifts and all knowledg and all faith and not charity and that charity what is it Why it is the holding tho unity of the spirit in the bond of peace it is not in breaking that unity for any different apprehensions about this or that I tell you that is Christ that is the great tye and obligation of Christians one to the other and the Church of Christ is built up only in him and his blood is the only cement that makes all these stones cleave together His blood and his spirit are the foundation of the Church of Christ If you say that all the Churches do not strike upon this rock I answert I hope so too or at least that there are many among all the Churches that are unconcerned herein there is a found part that falls not foul upon Christ and the spirit but why do they not purge themselves from those that do if ye do then shall ye be vessels of honour But where is there a testimony born to the spirit nay is there not a great jealously of the spirit and of the prevailing of the interest of the spirit I tell you those that look askew on the increasing glory of the spirit and of Christ in the spirit they stand very dangerously the day of the Lord will be heavy upon such and let my brethren of the Churches look for the conversion of the Jews so do I both of the ten tribes and the two tribes But let me tell you this that the Jews will not be converted till the vaile be taken off your hearts and you be turned to the Lord there is a mistical Jew as well as a natural Jew And what is the mistical Jew you may know them in allusion to the natural Jew as as to the natural Jew you know what the Apostle says the Iew seeks after a signe there was such as sought after signes and stuck in the letter and gloryed in outward priviledges in their Temple their services and sacrifices So I say now there are such nay where shall we finde among the generality of Professors any other the Lord help us the vail is too much upon all our hearts and I say that induring Christians are no friends to the conversion of the Jews We say also that Antichrist must be destroyed and that he is a great let and hindrance to the conversion of the Jews but I say that Antichrist will not be wholly removed untill we be more spiritual then we are in our converse in ordinances and in our manageing of spiritual affairs There is a great deal of Antichrist lies lurking here there is an old Church-spirit an old testament-spirit the spirit of the Jew much to be found among the Churches now therefore it concerns us if we would be found helpers forward of their conversion to be more spiritual for as Antichrist is to be destroyed by the brightness of his coming which some might take for his personal appearance I will not be positive in that But I say there must be such a brightness of his coming in his people at the last to vacat Antichrist and discharge him and I say likewise tha there is a text Rom. 11.31 Which doth import as if there should be a signal restitution or resurrection-spirit among the Gentile Christians before the calling of the Jews that shall provoke them to jealousy for so the Apostle sayes That through you mercy they also might obtain mercy now that which I would argue from hence is this if the Apostle means only the Gentiles receiving the Gospel that hath been these 1600. years and yet the Jews are not wrote upon therefore I look upon this mercy here spoken of to be some eminent mercy that the Gentiles shall be partakers of towards the end some eminent mercy that shall be shewed unto them to make them shak themselves from their dust to arise and shine and this shall be a provocation unto the Jews when they shall see their Messias in the armes of the Gentiles I tell you my brethren it may be I speake it rudely but yet I speake as if I were to appear before the Lord immediatly that I fear the present posture of the saints and of the Churches and the managing of their affairs is not to the service of Christ nor the service of the Jews nor the promoting of those great designs of God which he hath revealed to us in his word but we tread in the same steps of those that are gon before us as it is said in Eph. 3.6 I have cut off the nations their towers are desolate hearken ye my brethren hath not God cut off the nations the national Churches before the eyes of the Churches we have seen it in our days we have seen the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood National Churches cut off the Towers faln this should have been for instruction of those that came up in the room of them in the room of rhose national Churches do you think I pray do but consider they were cut off because they were wicked why are you come past corruption was there not a beauty upon them in their day what have some said to me lately why all the Martyrs were of our religion say they It is true there was a virgin spirit in that degree of reformation in it's first coming forth and there was a freshness upon it but it quickly corrupted now may not the same corruption grow up in others in other forms and if it be so is God any respecter of persons I wonder that men should be offended at those that speake what they see when we see the signes upon us must we not
ascention there was 40. days wherein he was as I may say preparing himself for his ascention to heaven I might give you twenty Parallels of it but now I come to the application of these things to these days and as for the standing up of Michael that is the first thing I would assume that Michael is raised up Michael hath stood up for several years if others in other parts of the world do question this yet we in those parts have no reason to doubt of it it is much if we are not convinced of it of the Lord Jesus his standing up and addressing himself to promote and serve in his own and his Churches interest above all interest and all kingdoms of the world that interest of the kingdom of God that hath lain hid in the faith of the Saints and in the promises unto this time if you say what evidence can be made of this it is a question not becoming those that have seen the great works of God as we have done have we not seen Michael standing up have we not seen him rousing himself have we not seen three nations bowing in his name have we not seen an heaven and an earth passing away have we not seen a dissolution of the Church and state have we seen all this and do we question whether Christ hath set a foot his title or no you know that kings when they are proclaim'd in this land they begin in the Palace yard they are not all over proclaimed in one moment So I say the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be a rising and a growing kingdom of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end and why may we not say that this Island or these three nations may resemble the palace yard where Christ is first proclaimed he hath been brought to the Ancient of days by clouds of witnesses who have pleaded his interest with God you know it hath been the subject of the saints prayers these 30. years yea nothing hath relished upon the spirits of the saints that hath not related this way if Christs kingdom hath not been at one end of it it hath been no prayer no sermon if it have not had that at one end of it yea hath not the Lord Jesus exercised his kingly power hath he not made many overturnings hath he not dealt with many Adonijahs how many would have set themselves up in his room This is the account of all these quick revolutions these overturnings this is exceeding declarative of his being near whose right it is I shall therefore conclude with a word of use or application and it is this Let us lift up our heads for the day of our redemption draws nigh I have already formerly once and again told you that these 45 days from the end of the 1290. days spoken of in Dan. 12. are that generation as I conceive in which our Saviour says all things shall be fulfilled for so were the generations from David to Christ those 14 generations 43 years one with another So in those 45. days in Daniel wherein Michael shall stand up Daniel is told that all should be fulfilled in that time and I say these times began in the year 1650. and we are now in the middle of them we are very forward and I do more suspect my self for the setting my post too far off from Christs appearing then of setting it too near I say I more suspect my self for that and the Lord knows i.e. if you subdivide this last watch or space of 45 years into lesser watches in which of the watches of this last watch he may come in the second or in the third watch but we are neer to it let us look up and lift up our heads You see what evidences have been given of these days Obj. But if Christs coming be so near would the times be so evil may some say I answer was not Sodom at the worst when Christ came with the other two Angels to destroy them and so the old world Yea but you will say the people of God would be better then they are if Christs coming were so near Answ They shall be made better by his coming the summer spoken of is the very appearing of Christ you know that when the trees puts forth summer is night but it is the appearing of Christ is the summer would you have fruit before summer your fruits are growing in the winter and in the spring they are coming forwards but you have not your fruit till the summer Christ is preparing his people by the present dispensations and they shall shine but all that Christ doth now is emptying work cleansing work as when a man pulls down his old house in order to building it anew Christ is removing house and he is taking away joy from the earth the old joy trade is going the joy of the earth and the very husbandman may loose the fruits of the earth this year And if you look within O what desolations are there alas though the Lord give us our wits and our sences yet we hear of one in one place under a spirit of dispondency Gods fire is in Sion in this day and his furnace in Jerusalem and there is none of us but have our back burdens if it be but being companions of suffering ones it cannot but go to our hearts this is the sowing time yea but you will say possibly Obj. There is a promise of the spirits pouring forth and therefore these cannot be the days of the son of man I answer the spirit is not the first grace the leading grace as in those promises made to Israel in the letter of bringing them back to their own land Ezek. 36.24.32 They must be in their own land and setled there before the spirit is poured forth lest they should reflect too much upon their own qualifications least thy may be ready to say it is for our reformation that God hath visited us Therefore will the Lord at he t last as at the first take his people in their blood and in their unworthiness Obj. But you may say we see nothing of the Jews being called and Antichrist destroyed Answ Antichrist hath but a mystical destruction till Christ comes and there will be a Pope for ought I know till Christ appears but his time is legally out and determined and when a time is out what is done afterwards is an usurpation and Antichrist shall pay dearly for all at the last But as for the Jews it is a material objection we cannot look for the appearance of Christ till they come in though on this occasion let us be aware that there is a mistical Jew that needs to be turned to the Lord as well as a litteral Jew but as to the litteral Jew though we see him not come in yet we know not how soon we may for it shall be very suddenly a nation shall be born at once mark the expression
a day wherein he will judge the world it is not now but it is appointed so the Apostle directs the hope of believers to another day and you will not say but that Christ was come to them in the spirit yet they waited for a further day the Apostle himself says he had not yet attayned nor was as yet perfect so that I say this doth strike at the order of Gods working and appearances and as the Apostle says concerning the resurrection those that say the resurrection is past destroy the faith of some It is a destroying of our faith and of our comfort to hold forth this to be the day of Christ to be the time of Christs appearance the all that we were to expect I confess it is not to be wondered at in the Prelatical Church that they would have us to expect nothing but tribulation in this world and persecution the Church of Christ say they must travel under the cross nntil the last judgment until they come to heaven though they minde not to do so themselves nay this they preach to others that they themselves may ride upon the high places of the earth they would keep the people still in ignorance and blindness of that day of Christ which when it comes will abase all the pride and loftynes of man as you have it in Esay 2. It will abase things that are high and exalt things that are low the vallyes shall be exalted and the mountains and hills shall be brought low But that any that are spiritual should go to destroy the faith of themselves and their brethren by taking the present dispensation for the full performance of the promise is that which may be justly wondered at and it is not certainly without a great designe of Satan thus to beguil them and through them to endeavour to beguil others of the comfort and the hope of Christs appearance and of the redemption of the body It is true there may be a revelation of the day of Christ in the spirit and this may be given forth at any time Abraham saw Christs day though he lived many ages before Christs time and so John was in the spirit on the Lords day but yet notwithstanding John tells us that this day of Christ was to come on orderly there is such a series of times and providences so many scenes that are to be presented before that concluding scene before Christs sitting on the white throne There were so many seals to be opened so many trumpets to be sounded it is true there was a glorious day in the primitive times but that was but the first fruits And it is called I conceive the first fruits because it was answering to the first fruits under the law for there were three seasts three times in the year all the males in Israel were to appear before the Lord there was the feast of the passover and the feast of the first fruits which was at Pentecost the very time when the spirit came down upon the Apostles as fulfilling that feast and there was the feast of ingathering or the feast of tabernacles and it was in the feast that you finde written in Joh. 7.37 In the last day that great day of the feast Jesus cryed and said c. This feast of tabernacles held several days there were 7 days that it was kept and so this feast that in the Antitype answers to the feast of tabernacles may take in all this generation that I speak of the 45 years of this last generation the days of the son of man But mark ye in the close of this time that is the great day then will Christ appear in his glorious equipage with all his holy Angels then will he come both in his own glory and in the glory of his father and of all his holy Angels and till Christ hath his full glory we cannot expect the full effusion of his spirit The spirit will not be poured upon all flesh the earth will not be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea till that great day of the feast till that last and great day of the feast So that I say take heed of taking part of payment for the whole t is true these are the days of the son of man and I do believe that from this time you shall see the interest of the son of man riseing and growing more and more all things shall work unto that glorious issue those that are wise shall see it every day to them day unto day will utter knowledge I say the interest of Christ is on the rising hand still and all opposite interests are in the way of declyning and therefore let us prepare for him we have seen something already of the day of the Lord upon things that have been high and lifted up let us look to see it yet more the Lord will abuse the loftyness of man both of one sort and of another I tell you there is a great deal of haughtiness which the Lord will abuse even in his own people and in their spiritual affairs it is said in Zeph. 3.11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings whorein thou hast transgressed against me for then will I take out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain this Scripture doth hold forth unto you the process of the day of God or of these days of the son of man they are humbling days to all God by these dispensations which have passed over us hath been bringing his people to this passe he hath been working upon them that necessarie qualification of making them an afflicted and poor people I remember very well that the first time I spake here when your desires gave me a call to make a little supply of that place that was destitute by the removal of that eminent help that did appear usually in this place before I told you then that for my part I was one that was spoiled by this day of the Lord and I must own and confess unto you that there is nothing doth relish nor can relish with me of the old glory of the excellency of man though I know that all of us have a young tooth in our heads as the proverb is and we should willingly be something among men but the Lord hath mercifully shut the door against any such hope or expectation and therefore let it not enter into our hearts for God hath forbid the banes we must never touch with any such things more for God is stayning the pride of all glory though spiritual discoveries have all along unhorsed and I may say unmanned us I mean the Lords people yet 't is now the work of the day more eminentlie What was Paul in his time rude in speech I come not to you in excellency of speech or in mans wisdom he accounted all those things dung
consider that I desire to draw out my heart to you it is the greatest comfort I have when I finde weaknesse in my self I have a great desire to live to see the glorious time of the Church and when at any time as the devil is wonderful busy to cast in his fiery darts and discouragements into the soul when I finde I am either assaulted with a sudden fear or that I cannot see how that little vigour and strength I have should hold out I finde a great deal of comfort in reflections of this nature that the Lord is more concern'd in and for me then I am in and for my self and whoever can do so shall finde and feel the benefit of it hath not the Lord given his son for me and he that gives his own son how shall be not with him freely give us all things are we not his peculiar treasure then I say leave your selves to God and say look thou to it we may with a holy freedom say to the Lord look thou to it it is not for us though we are to serve the providence of God and the publique yet it is Gods concern he is to look to it cast it upon God but 3ly A third consideration is his I have told you once and again and now also that I cannot bring tho time neerer the time of our hopes then I have done but yet consider this this time that is yet to run out before that very period comes wherein he is pronounced blessed that waits comes to that time I say those times that are to run out will be filled with wonders and with glory that shall give strength unto us from day to day from year to year to await the end to the last issne for although it is not said that Daniel shall stand in his lot until the end of those days and then it is promised he shall ye I say there may goundedly be an expectation of higher more transcendent and wonderfull works of God that shall entertain his people during their watching and waiting for you know who is there that needs watchers at any time but will provide them entertainment during their watching they shall have strong-waters or something by them and so shall the Lords people you will say what entertainment shall we have I must tell you I look upon the 45 years as well night half expyred which is the time in which Christ employs instruments for the throwing down of the remainder of his enemies throughout this whole western world and the Eastern too the great Turk the whole seat of the 4th Monarchy all the enemies in these two Empires the Eastern and the Western Christ takes this time to bring them down and wonderfully brought down they must be and come to their end this abundance of Scriptures tels us he will shake heaven and earth and the desire of all nations shall come and so he says in Joel he will gather the heathens to the vally of Jehoshaphet and so Zach. 14.3 But in Revel 16. you read that at the pouring forth of the 6th Vyal the great river of Euphrates shall be dryed up he is drying up Euphrates at this day and this will be a glorious work to see how Christ gets ground of his enemies and how the house of Saul grows weaker and weaker indeed it would be very little comfort to see destruction and desolation if the new state did not put off the old state as the old nail gives way to the new or as Jacobs supplanting Esan though that new state is not to be seen vulgarly or visibly yet the saints finde it coming on in the spirit and this if you be reasonable men will satisfy you God will satissy his people ere he hath done and it is your mistake if you are not satisfyed with this way he takes so did Israel dig up fouutains and their rock followed them The 4th consideration is this that if we did understand things aright we should rejoyce with all our souls it would turn to us for a testimony that the Lord holds us in so long suspenee being an argument of the greatness of the transcendency of the things that are promised otherwise God would not exercise his people so long in the wayting for them think you that God will exercise his people with waiting for a trifle Esa 64.4 From the begining of the world men have not beard nor perceived by the ear neither hath any eye seen besides thee O God what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him if you expect Christs glorious kingdom any otherwise you will be mistaken there is no common or ordinary thing in that day expect nothing but wonders things that are to put your faith to it to acknowledge them when they come to passe that you will be ready to say are we in a dream as when the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion this is that which makes our patience so lame we represent the kingdom of God in such a pittiful poor way and manner what is the utmost glory that men present it in why that it will be a time of pure ordinances and the ministers shall recover themselves with their people alas alas is this all is this the kingdome of Christ I saw no temple there God will bring his people to immediate converse with himself they shall see eye to eye God intends to bring his people to a state without sin past this state of infirmity I confess men may give such an account of Christs kingdom that may not ballance the charge or trouble of working it about Do you think that God would have suffered Paradise to fall but that he had a better state to bring forth Do you think that the temple had been suffered to miscarry but that he had a better state to present Do you think that the primitive state had been suffered to decline but that he had a better state yea better then the Apostles better then the Prophets We see say they through a glass datkly but in that day Christians shall be known to whom they belong you know a waterman by his badge the name of God shall be written in the foreheads of his people If you look for any thing but wonders in that day you will be mistaken things being working to that issue I say you will see wonders One word more till Christ comes in person let us emprove his spiritual presence with us which by promise shall never be taken away And I tell you as I have told you formerly it is the spirit of Christ in the Saints that is the power by which they shall be changed Christs personal appearance from heaven bears a part it is the glorious example to which we shall be conformed and it hath a ministry likewise of enouragement and strengthning it will call up our faith and the life of the spirit into exercise in us but they must both meet the shout of our faith with the shout
heaven though to them a tryal but with all a service fetching them off more fully and more home to God their true rest And for the outward part of this wo if this be the same time spoken of Rev. 12.15.16 as I have formerly hinted in this discourse it is the earth shall help the woman and open her mouth to swallow up the flood as we may observe it hath done thus farr hitherto But yet there is more comfort behinde for as in this tryal the devil comes forth in person I may say and it is the Dragons second appearance so will Michael standup yea he doth stand up and Christ will appear in person the second time to rescue his beloved city from this violence So that here is all the comfort can be desired the very action is a service to us to bring us to God and the issue will crown our joy in bringing down Christ unto us look on the deliverance of Let and Sodom the very type of this where you may finde all the parts and the whole contexture of this scene even to the fire that came down from heaven and the lake into which those filthy citties were cast but just Lot is delivered and the Lord appears in person to his deliverance look on the old world another figure of this all drowned but upright Noah saved in the Ark so shall it be with the Lords Noahs and Lots in this day when the enemy shall come in like a flood and when the Lord shall send his flood of his wrath upon them nay when he shall rain down fire from heaven upon them therefore his is the Lords call this day to his Lots to his Noahs to abandon Sodom to flee out of Babylon and to deliver every man his own sou let the Churches hear this and all that walk with them to arise and depart out of every form and appearance of things of holy things Church or ordinancé that is polluted that is destitute of the spirit where Christ and his spirit is not in rule in power is not predominant striks not the great stroke bears not the great sway that state of things is a Sodom and Egypt a Babilon it is not something of God or something of the spirit being there makes it otherwise if the spirit be not there in rule and dominion God knows how to save that something and will do it as he did Lot out of Sodom but that shall not save Sodom It is true the last Vyal is poured out upon the air the prince of the power of the air and his whole party not Ecclesiastical only but corrupt civil formes and constitutions also but with ths civil or rather uncivil rule of corrupt men the Lord will put down also very specious and glorious religious forms that are not in the spirit for the shall put down saith the Apostle all rule and all authority and power 1 Cor. 15.24 yea the same Apostle tells us in the third chap. of the Epistle v. 11. and 16. that though the foundations be right yet they that build bay and stubble upon it shall suffer losse in their work and though themselves shall be saved yet so as by fire therefore we see we had need to take heed not to our foundation only but also to our building The Apostle Peter tells us that all these things must be dissolved he saith not simply all things but all these things not the works of God for whatsoever God doth is for ever for as all Christs words so all Gods works are spirit and life therefore we reade in Revelation of the ark and the tabernacle taken into the temple in heaven as typically they were into Solomons temple and that at the founding of the 7th trumpet they were seen there the true spiritual substratum of every ordinance creation and institution of God when a higher glory is revealed is carryed up and taken into that glory but the earthly part of it falls to the earth how much more all the works and buildings of man and all his pleasant pictures Esa 2.16 and as all civil foundations pollicies constitutions built with blood and unrighteousnesse shall dash and break one another in peices so will these spiritual buildings that are so in name only be dasht in peices like potters vessels and that in great part by their own divisions Gog and Magog also are used in this work who as the Assirian of old are sent against an hipocritical nation Esa 10.6 to take the spoil to take the prey and to tread them down as the mire in the streets this is one way that the earth shall help the woman and drink up the flood the dragon designes the holy the beloved city but that shall not be given into his hand but there is an hipocritical nation which yet all themselves of the holy city and are so esteemed by one another being called by the name of Israel and come forth of the waters of Judah these shall be given into his hand and when these things are judged and dissolved the Churches enemyes destroyed and her self purifyed then shall appear the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwels righteousnesse Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Errata PAge 6. line 7. for charge reade change p. 12. l. 23. for the large r. a large p. 14. r. acknowledging p. 15. l. 21 for about r. above p. 18. l. 1. for him r. them p. 27. l. 13. for tax r. taxt p. 30. l. 16. for bottle r. bottles p. 36. l. 9. for or r. for light p. 41. l. 28. for inducing r. Judaizing p. 42. l. 13. for tha r. that p. 45. l. 16. for Phocus r. Phocas p. 56. l. 21. r. subjects p. 61. l. 30. r. I should p. 65. l. 1. for might r. nigh p. 65. l. 32. for be r. the. p. 72. l. 8. for creating r. treating p. 72. l. 28. for go r. so p. 76. l. 31. for abuse r. abase p. 86. l. 6. for men r. man p. 92. l. 17. r. lost p. 114. l. 23. for one r. our p. 117. l. 5 for John r. Jehu FINIS
although we do not hear of them every day I should now come to shew the nature of this coming of Christ which is here held forth to us in these words When he will return from the wedding but before I come to them I must make a little use of that word I have already hinted Use First if it be so that we are in the days of the son of man that is in that generation which Christs speaks of in Math. 24. and the other Evangelists when these signes of his coming are to have their course and in the rear of them all Christ is to appear I say if we be in that generation which probably is that 45 years spoken of by Daniel at the end of 1290. days and which 45 years I have told you by computation is one half of it run out or very near for there is but this difference between chronologers of a matter of 3 years from whence the 1290 commence either in 360 or 363. from Christ All agree it was in Julians time and some say in 360 others say in 363. there is but that difference and so accordingly they came out in 1650 or 53. so that I say there must be half or very neer of the 45 days following expyred Use Then in the first place this shews us that there hath been nothing in all that cry that hath been of the day of the Lord which hath been proclaimed by several voices and by several spirits and indeed the disreputation that hath been brought upon it by some mouths and spirits that have been the trumpeters of it hath made others I say it hath made many sober and cautious spirits decline it and to have no pleasure in it But if that would be a good argument against the truth because the devil himself doth acknowledg it surely then men should have disowned Christ in this day For you know that spirits of divination and unclean spirits did confess him and acknowledge him and such as were reputed devilish but the truth was nevertheless the truth for being taken up by unclean lips The intent of this Use is that we may gather up and not lose even that testimony which hath been given of the day of the Lord and that from good evidence from the sence of it the experience of it the feelings of the workings of it in the spirits and affairs of men Surely there can be no account given of these wonderful changes that we have seen not only in this outward world but in the inward world too unhinging and unhorsing and bringing down all the glory of man I say no other account of it can be given but that the days of the son of man are come in It 's true they are mixt days and so I told you all along Neither day nor night neither clear nor dark as Zachariah says in his 14. chap. They are days by themselves as I may say days full of trouble as Daniel says it shall be a time of trouble such as never was and yet days that have in the womb of them such a birth such a glorious birth and blessing for the world for the whole creation as well as the people of God as no former times have had They are days as I may say wherein Christ is in the mount with God ereating and taking instructions as I may speak with holy reverence for the administration of his kingly office in this world as Moses the typical mediator was in the mount 40. days and 40 nights receiving his instructions for the people let not the expression offend you it is said in the Psalms give thy jadgments O God to the king and thy righteousness to the kings son Which need be no more strange to us that Christ should receive his judgments from the father then that he should receive the revelations from the father which he owns the revelation that God gave to him to shew unto his servants things shortly to come to pass Now because I have mentioned that of Moses do but consider what fell out in the mean time Moses was in the mount with God and although the people had seen the Lord coming down upon the mount after such a terrible manner yet while Moses lingered and stayed in the mount they fell to Idolatry they made the calf is not this a wonderful thing that they should go turn aside I tell you there hath been as great an apostacy from these days of Christ from that hope and that witness that was given of the day of the Lord but it is no other then what our saviour himself had foretold us Math. 25. there you finde the virgins going forth to meet the Bridegroom it is said there was a cry at midnight saying behold the bridegroom cometh and yet after all this while the Bridegroom tarryed they all slumbered and slept and so it is at this day these days of the son of man are not exclusive of trouble and of strange spirits the devil when he sees that men are awakened and he cannot hinder it but they have an expectation of the Bridegrooms coming he will mingle heaven and earth together if it be possible He rushes in with all his delusions he seeks to blast this hope these expectations of the saints all manner of ways and if we had been well advised as I may say and had known the Scripture we might have expected a storm to be poured out upon us even a storm of inward exercises and tryals as well as outward troubles These days of the son of man are days which none of the wicked do understand as Daniel observes but the wise shall understand they are days wherein Christ comes privately as it is here intimated that when he cometh and knocketh you may open unto him immediatly it is that which is not unusual among men for Embassadors of Princes to come in privately at first and to be advised with about their publick reception before they make their publick entry Christ comes also privately to his own and his glorious appearance in his adequate person man as well as God comes in the rear of all So that I say let us not lose the things that God hath wrote It is true there is danger on the other hand that is of crying up the present day for the time of Christs appearance and if it were worth the while or that I were competent for such a business we might shew you that this notion of Christs being come and of the day of the Lords being come shutting up all the expectations of the saints within the present performances doth offend several ways it offends against the order of the works and appearances of God who hath set times and seasons for all his purposes If Christs day be as much as it ever shall be it doth mix and confound all things together it makes Antichrists day yea you may as well confound his first and his second appearance together it is said he hath appointed
set it up with himself before the world was he hath set it up in Christ let me tell you there is nothing lesse then eternal life that God thinks worthy of his people or that they are to account an interest Therefore now if the things we hope for be eternal things then they were before the world was in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began yea he not only promised it but he did exhibit it in the person of our Lord Jesus 2 Cor. 5. We wait to be clothed upon with our house from heaven the building of God eternal in the heavens this eternal habitation is that that Job speaks of he shall know his habitation and not sin This eternal fair record of our persons and of our life in Christ is that which was by him when he made the world as in Prov 8. Let me tell you this state of ours this contracted dead state which we are in at this present time which is as the rude draught of that suture state that we expect why this state of ours and this seed was comprehended in that state in glory above and did flow as it were from that state grew from that glorious plant and tree it descended by creation into this state of nature that here it might dye and might rise again through a mistical death into it's first state for Christ that is our pattern hath declared the divine processe of this mystery Christ tells us that he was in the bosome of the father before he came into the womb of the virgin and while he was here on earth he had his apartment in glory his rooms his Lodgings in heaven nay the whole was his he was the son of man in heaven though he did come forth from that state into this poor narrow thing the son of man on earth yet he had his relation to that still therefore he says glorify me with that glory that I had with thee before the world began this is the noblenesse of a Christians relation and that consists in two thins especially The one is that the whole work is transacted in the person of Christ we are saved in him circumcised raised in him and the other is that there is the pattern in the mount of all that we shall be that is eternally existent with God in which he doth behold all his works his very last and concluding scene and that is the righteousnesse that sustains him under all the riskes and the adventures that his works do run through in this world and it is a great ground of hope to the saints that they descend from such a state if you could suppose a spring in the city that was as high as the highest tower though it might fall as low as the lowest part of the ground of the whole city yet it would rise again as high as the place from whence it comes and so I say this is a great confirmatiou unto us that we shall arrive at such a pitch because we set forth from such a glory Let others call this a notion if they will I am sure the Scripture gives ground for it I will be bold to say that all that glory as it is in heaven above so it is likewise shut up in narrow bounds in that principle of regeneration that is in the heart of a saint these heavens as they lye in the spirit and person of our Lord Jesus so do they in the principle of regeneration of saith and love as it is in Christ Jesus faith and love you must not understand to be only of Christ efficiently but to be in Christ subjectively our graces would never endure nor keep sweet if they were not kept in Christ because we derive our selves from those dear bowels of the father when he brought forth Christ who is the eternal son of god he brought forth his whole body in him all his members were with him and all the glory that ever they shall have was put upon them there in that pattern in the mount The Second evidence of it is The interest of our Lord Jesus in this whose children whose branches whose seed we are when he shall appear we shall be like him if so be that such poor inconsiderable things as we might alwaies be whelmed under a bushel is Christ so inconsiderable think you shall not he be set on a Candlestick shall he not have his time to appear Till we appear with Christ Christ will not be compleatly glorifyed and when Christ doth appear we cannot but appear with him why so because as we are called in a body so is Christ called in a body too Christ cannot avoid being afflicted in our afflictions I tell you there is no weather-glasse that shews changes in the air as Christs glorifyed person shews all the changes that befals his members and so they represent his glorifyed person as in a glasse and there ill be spots in this moon till the saints are glorifyed with him therefore it is Christs interest the glory of the saints when he shall come to be glorifyed in his saints and admired in all that believe not by them but in them 2 Thes. 1. Therefore let this be the comfort of poor saints that travel under a load of corruption a body of sin and of death of it shall not always be so with the sons of God they shall not always be so kept it shall not always be so with the son of God with the son of righteousness he shall not always be hid with a cloud no no he hath his time to appear the great and only Potentate king of kings and Lord of Lords he must shew this great sight and he will shew it in it's appointed time 1 Tim. 6.15 and lastly now to shew you a little of the power by which it shall be done which possibly will not get an easy entrance into our belief what is the reason we stick at the believing of things but because we do not credit the power by which it shall be done it shall be by Christs appearing It is no more but for Christ to look forth and to present himself and to shew himself and the work is done we may truly say let God arise and his enemies shall be scattered you see every day how that champion the sun comes out of his quarters as a bridgroom out of his chamber and how he no sooner sets forth but all darknesse flyes before him Oh! it is not the stoutest of enemies that thou hast nor that the Church hath can bear the presence and the looking forth of the Lord Jesus but they will presently cry hide us from the face of him that sits upon the throne and from the presence of the lamb my brethren this glory in which Christ shall appear if you do but consider it that the state in which he was upon the earth was but as the seed and in that first appearance bore no greater a
proportion to the glory of his person and his spirit now in the 2d appearance then a sed a little dark sed doth unto it's plant or tree Do not think your Saviour will be seen by you as in the days of his flesh no he will come in the glory of his father what do you think your Saviour to be is he not God as well as man he will come in the demonstration of his Godhead and what shall be hard or unpossible unto Almightiness it self he spake the word and they were created Thus will God plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the new earth even by the word that he hath put into the mouths of his poor witnesses in sackcloath when he shall appear to back this testimony Oh! how will this living word back this testimony and how will it kindle and set on fire the foundations of the mountains and whatever doth cover this glory when the Lord gave the word great was the company that published it not only the Angels but every creature shall take the word and publish it and transmit it to the very end of the world I will give you but a little demonstration of it and that is from all your experience look what power the hitherto appearances of Christ have had in and upon the world upon the saints in the world Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith what great things hath it done see what those worthies did by faith in Heb. 11. By faith Enoch was translated through faith they subdued kingdoms wrought righteousnesse stopped the mouths of lyons quenched the violence of the fire women received their dead raised to life again c. Now faith you know is but seeing at a distance but when Christ shall draw near when he shall hold forth himself immediatly to the soul oh what a glorious power shall we be sencible of from thence so if we should reflect upon revelations what great things have revelations done ye know when Paul was by the revelation of the Lord as he says 1 Cor. 12.3 taken up I knew a man in Christ says he he was not sencible whether he was in the body or not as much as to say I was not concern'd about that now this is all that I would say unto you I would have you to understand me aright it is not only a bodily sight of Christ that I drive at though that shall also be and the bodily eye shall be able to take in the glory of his body and person But there is an intellectual sight of Christ taking him in by spiritual sences Christ is God as well as man and this is that I would only say that the sight of Christ is the power whereby we are changed into the similitude of Christ by a true sight of him in the spirit in the glory of his spiritual person this is that which will transform and change us so that we are changed after a divine manner I say it is not by any methods or ways of the creatures acting I cannot put you into a way and tell you of such a process as your Chymists do that you must proceed thus and thus no but I say it is his exhibitting of himself in a clear light upon the soul enables it to copy him forth as I may say and to be brought forth into the same similitude Vse first let us bear up under our present unlikeness unto Christ truly the present unlikeness is made many times more unlike by temptations which God sends upon his people and by desertion as if they were not low enough by the general common and constant attendants of the fall God so dispences his people many times as to fall into deeps and darkness that they have no sence of what they were or of what they are or of what they shall be bear up under these for there is a day of brightning promised And my second word is this it is Christs work and not yours you are passive in it and under it pray what do the heavens do to their own enlightning but lye under the beames of the sun when the sun which knows his time ariseth and comes forth into the firmament Let this comfort poor souls that are concerned for holyness that are concern'd for the image of God and likeness unto Christ Let it comfort us for the Church and for the whole creation all which have promises first the first fruits the Church first and then the world first the dead in Christ are to arise every one in his order now I say that is our hope and our hope is laid upon our Lord Jesus and upon his appearing and therefore do not dispond do not say how shall this be done consider but the word in Phil. 3. chap. According to the power whereby he is able to subder all things to himself I tell yon there is no such power in matter or in body as there is in spirit the Lord Jesus Christ he changes us after a spiritual manner we are changed by the spirit of the Lord that spirit which works in an instant therefore it is said in a moment or in the twinkling of an eye My second Use is this Oh! travel travel in the knowledg of Christ and in the discoveries of Christ oh wait to know Christ and to have him open'd and revealed to you in the Scriptures and by the spirit in all the means you are under I say wait for this when we shall see him as be is we shall be like him Oh! it is nothing but the hiding of Christs glory from us that makes us to partake so little of his glory because I live ye shall live also the very sight of his life will import life unto us so the sight of his glory will put glory upon us for when he shall appear we shall appear with him in glory The Eighth Sermon Luke 12.35.36 Let your loines be girded about and your lights burning And ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding that when he commeth and knocketh they may open unto him immediately I Have been long upon these words but the subject is very copious which will excuse me my aim in first pitching upon them was both to acquaint my self and you I say that we might all of us be acquainted from the Lord and from his spirit amongst us with that preparation that becomes us for the Lords appearing to this end I have spent much of my time in holding forth to you the grounds of my expectation of the Lords coming to be neer very neer begining with the signes which our Saviour himself gives us of his day in handling of which I was cast upon that phrase of the days of the son of man which I endeavoured to clear up unto you that they did hold forth a tract of time from the end of the beasts term which we meet with in Rev. 13. where we fynd it precisely limitted within