Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	begin_v	year_n	zeal_n	19	3	8.0962	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66683	The breaking of the day of God wherein, four things are manifested : I. That the two witnesses are not in ki[ll]ing, but in rising from death, II. The three dayes and half, or 42. months of the saints captivity under the beast, very near expired, III. Christ hath begun to reign in his saints, and to tread their corrupt flesh under his feet, IIII. Christs dominion over the nations of the world, near the approach / by Gerrard VVinstanley.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3042; ESTC R40126	79,141	154

a little higher and yet below God too in the use of Gods Ordinances but in an outward profession to the flesh living by sense through a meer form and custome and humane These meet with woe sorrow for a literall profession exposed them to the lash but to worship God in spirit carries away the smart when the flesh is let loose it prepares misery to it self and to all that live after the flesh The third woe is yet to come and I have nothing to say of it only I greatly rejoyce in expectation of that universall glory which God will reveal to his Saints and into which they shal be taken up when those dayes come But the middle woe or the second in course is now in being And there are great troubles to be acted in the world but yet for the comfort of the Saints two things are to be noted First that under the sound of the sixth Angel that pronounces the woe The death of the Beast is declared and that his determinate time is quite finished and though he strive mightily like a dying hog for life at the last gaspe yet he shall never reign again in Majesty established by an usurped Law over Christ and his Saints as he hath done for his time times and dividing of a time his 42. months and his three dayes and half are upon the point of expiring And the Lord Christ is beginning nay hath begun to take the Kingdom and to reign of whose Kingdom there shall be no end Secondly note that under the sound of the sixth Angel the Witnesses are to be killed but to arise from death and ascend up to God in the Cloud And their rising is the Inhabitant of the earths woe even to such as have no hope but in this life it will be and it begins to be a time of woe to them for all creature comforts helps and communion shall be taken away and dead to them And I believe we are under that sound oppression and injustice doth so mightily abound in the Kingdoms and Magistracy of the world for when the seventh Angel sounds then Christ or the Anointing ●ho is King of righteousnes and King of Peace shall reign in the Kingdoms and Magi●tracy of the world for a certain space or a thousand years as the Scripture speaks which yet generally doth not appear though this Kingdom of Christ doth begin to appear in among the Saints that are scattered abroad The Beast is giving up his last breath and his violent kicking and sprawling troubles the whole world for a little time for the spirit of the Beast is the life of the Inhabitants of the Earth therefore I believe the Witnesses are not in killing but in rising from death and that the world must see ere long which will be a third woe to them when they shall see poor despised Saints whom no man regards to partake of the glory of the City of God and they themselves put by There is one passage of Johns Vision while ●his sixth Angel sounds which gives light hereunto the words are these Loose the four Angels that are bound in the great River●uphrates And the four Angels were loosed c. These are four evill Angels as I conceive which stir up the four quarters of the Earth to enmity against every appearance of God so that there shall be risings up of much bitternes in the East West North and South among the Sons of men against God though they think not so for they think their cruelty is godlines and they think their malice is zeal and they think their oppressing imprisoning murdering the Saints under the name of erroneous Round-heads doth God good service And it appears they are four evill Angels because they were bound up like prisoners in so bad a place as in the River Euphrates and they were prepared for this time that is For an houre a day a moneth and a year to slay the third part of men It appears they are four evill Angels if we consider first what the great River Euphrates is I believe this Euphrates is the spirit of the Beast or the very Serpent himself which like a great River overflowes every Son and Daughter of the first Adam And this River Euphrates is to be dried up when the sixth Angel powres out his Violl so that the way of the Kings of the Earth might be prepared The meaning to me is this That when this spirit of the Beast is dried up destroyed and subdued then the Kings of the East or such in and upon whom the Son of righteousnes rises first which are the Elect or City Sion they come and take the Kingdom and the Anointing in them who is the Lord our righteousnes reigns in the earth that is in mankind forever and ever The spirit of the Beast or Serpent is called Euphrates because as the River Euphrates in the History overflowed a great part of the Earth So this spirit of darknes overflowes man-kind and drownes them in ignorance pride covetousnes malice disobedience discontent deceived zeale but when this is dryed up as it must be when the seaventh Angel sounds then the Nations appeare for God And the Saints are called Kings of the East for their knowledg and for their faithfulnes to God for as the wise men or Kings of the East found out where Jesus Christ lay when he was born but would not tell Herod who laid wait to kill him but went another way So these spiritual Kings of the East or as Daniel calls them the wise or understanding people They know where the Anointing appears and they know that the Kingdom of Christ is spirituall for the Anointing teaches them all things and they have experience of the love sincerity humility peace and the like which are the Laws and walls of that Kingdom And likewise they know that the spiritual powers of darknes as ignorance pride envy discontent hypocrisie self-love and the like is the Serpent that would destroy Christ or the Anointing for if pride ruled which is the Serpent in the Children of disobedience then humility which is Christ in the Saints must be destroyed And if malice reign then love which is Christ in the Saints must die And so of all the rest And the Saints knowes this therefore in the second place they are called Kings of the East because they do not betray Christ into the hands of Herod the Serpent but they hold forth the power of Christ in faith and patience till God finish his work thereby destroys the enemies Now when pride covetousnes injustice envy self-love and the like is dried up like a River that cannot run Then the way is prepared for these Kings of the East to take the Kingdom and to reign in with Christ and righteousnes for ever and these four Angels were bound up in this River Euphrates and were

he was the Son of God when he was supposed to be about 30 years of age as Luke speaks we read not of any thing that he did till this time that he was baptized and the Spirit descended upon him And from that time till he was crucified as I have gathered by books it was supposed to be about three years a half which is about this account which the Spirit calls 1260 days according to the days of a week it is but about 17 dayes difference The like number of dayes is spoken of Rev. 12. And the woman fled into the Wildernesse where she hath a place prepared of God 1260 dyes This I conceive was the same tearm of dayes according to the number of the dayes in a week that one Saviour did prophesie here in the world among men And this points out unto us the time of the battell that was fought between Michael our Prince the seed of the woman and the Dragon or the power of darknesse ruling in the corrupt posterity of Adam For if the Serpent and his seed could have made Jesus Christ to have sinned by their temptations then the Serpent had conquered him and had broken Gods head But Jesus Christ held out to the end and sinned not as he that saw it bore witnesse and his witnesse is true therefore he broke the Serpents head and became a faithfull witnesse to his Fathers counsell Now all the time of this bettell the church was kept by the power of God at a stand and there Were no voyces heard but silent for the space of halfe an houre that little time of 1260 dayes and God and Angels Saints and Men were spectators of this great battell between the Serpent and Christ But when Christ had finished his testimony he laid down his life and the Serpent and his seed thought they had conquered him and began to rejoyce and make merry as Revel. 11. 10. And then was made manifest in heaven that is in and to the Church by the Father the Spirit of truth That Christ by death had overcome him that had the power of death which was the Devill Then there was heard a loud voyce in heaven in the Kingdome and victory of Christ Now is come Salvation and Strength an● 〈◊〉 Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our Brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night And they the Church overcame him the Serpent by the blood of the Lamb● the death 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ and by the word of their testimony the Fathers promise That the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head And they loved not their lives unto death They would rather dye as the Martyrs did then they would deny this testimony of Jesus One thing note here That as the silence in heaven for the space of halfe an houre points out the time of tine battell between the Serpent and Christ in the flesh so likewise it points out the spirituall combat between the Spirit of Christ and the flesh or the Serpents power in every beleever For so long as the Flesh and Serpent accuses their consciences before God day and night and every disobedient action that will breake their peace is laid before them they cannot sing praises but mourn bitterly for as yet God hath given them no testimony of his love in pardoning of them and of receiving them into his enjoyment this is the writing time or the halfe houres silence till God give deliverance But when the Anointing sets the poor souls free from these accusations by a satisfying discovery of his love then there arise voices of ●raises and thundrings-forth of thankesgiving ●o God day and night even as the accusation formerly was day and night And truly here is great comfort to every particular member of Zion to know that the wisdome and power of their corrupt flesh which fights against the Anointing and accuses their consciences day and night before God presenting God to be an angry God to them when as indeed he is loving yea and love it selfe to poore sinners I say for them to know that it is conquered and the life and power of it is taken away by Christ the Anoiuted it is comfort And when Christ who is the Lord our righteousnesse is pleased to cast the Serpent out of your flesh and to take possession and dwell in you himselfe then you shall be freed from all those accusations and from the malice of the accuser and be made able to sing by experience Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ to my soule for the Prince of Darknesse and powers of my flesh that fought in me against the Anointing or Spirit of truth is now cast out For God hath pardoned all my disobediences and taken me into his own rest Therefore honour and glory be to him that sits upon the Throne and to 〈◊〉 Lamb for evermore And now the Dragon being vexed and 〈◊〉 of wrath because he is conquered and c●st out of heaven even every particular member of Zion he rules strongly still in the children of disobedience or in the Serpents 〈◊〉 in whom he dwels and raises all cruell per●●cutions against the church out of whom he is cast and in whom the Anointing rules And of whom according to the flesh the Lamb Jesus Christ was born And as Paul spake of Isaac and Ismael that he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that Was born after the Sprit even so it is now he or they in whom the Serpent rules persecutes him or them out of whom the Serpent is cast and in whom the Anointing rules who is the Lord our Righteousnesse But saith John unto the woman or church was given two wings of a great Eagle that she might flie into the wildernesse into her prepared place where she is nourished for a time times and halfe a time from the face of the Serpent I conceive that the soule by the wisdome and love of God is carried into a condition of sensible barrennesse both in it selfe and in others in which condition the soule is under Gods protection from the face of the Serpent so that this Wildernesse spoke of is a very safe condition or hiding-place from the Serpent wherein the soul is fed and nourished by God and not by any creature for a lime times and halfe a time that is the Church and every particular member is fed and protected by God all the severall degrees of the dayes of The Beast as hath been shewed And here I shall mind two things First what this Wildernesse is not Secondly what it is First ☞ when men are in a good conceir of their own Wisdome Learning and Strength as the Jewes were that thought they had all knowledge to discerne Truth from Errour and therefore when Christ

figurative worship which was a little before the dawning of the new Testament or of Gods being manifest in flesh in the man Christ Jesus For Daniel did prophesie in the first year of Darius which was the full end of seventy years of Israels captivity in Babylon Now from the carrying away into Babylon till Christ came was fourteen generations but 70. years of those fourteen Generations were now expired so that the dawning of the new or better Testament was near at hand in the time of those Prophets And now upon the delivering of Israel after the flesh from that Babylonish captivity God reveals to Daniel in a Vision his Councel and purpose to send his spirituall Israel which are the believing Gentiles into a longer captivity under the power of mysticall Babylon For Daniels Vision reports three things First the nature and power of this mysticall Enemy Secondly How that the house-hold of Faith in the latter dayes shall lie under that Antichristian power for a certain time Thirdly It points out the Saints deliverance from this Captivity and the ruine of that tyrannicall Beast And all the time of this mysticall Captivity it is called by the spirit of God the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth Now to Daniel God revealed the Vision more dark and hidden for Daniel himself did not understand the mystery of the Vision for saith Daniel I hear but I understand not then said I O my Lord what shall be the end of these things And he said go thou thy way Daniel for the words are closed and sealed up till the time of the end for thou shalt rest and shalt stand in the lot at the end of the dayes But when Jesus Christ the Lamb of God was come and had shed his blood and was gone to the Father again and was found worthy and able to open the book of the mystery of godliness and of the mystery of iniquities and to loose the seven Seales thereof that is To make known to sinners that by his bloud a sweet harmony and consent was made among the seven attributes of the God-head and so fully declaring their reconciliation to God according to his eternall councell in him Then did God give the full Revelation of all things to this Son that he might reveal them again to his Servants For God doth not speak to us out of his Son but in his Son and by his Son And it shall come to passe that that Soul that will not hear the voice of this great Prophet which God hath sent into the world that we might live through him shall be cut off from among the people And now Jesus Christ being in this last age of the World fully revealed to be the seed of the woman the Messia the holy and just one and by his bloud hath worthily deserved to be King of Saints and King of the World he doth now clearly shew by his spirit the right understanding of all those Books dark sayings of old and Visions that were sealed up to the Prophets Many truths he hath made known already yet I beleeve there are many more truths which are not yet made known to the Sons of men for indeed our weakness is not able to bear all truths at once But at the sound of the seventh Angels Trumpet when the mystery of God is finished and Temple of God is opened in Heaven that is when Christ in spirit is made known to Saints and I believe that the time for this Angell to sound growes very near if not begun already Then the Saints shall see clearly into the mystery of God which they have so long time earnestly desired to attain unto Now among many other truths which God hath promised by his spirit to lead his Saints into which must be made known in the time of the end There is one mystery of God concerning Gods two witnesses spoken of by St. John and what the meaning is as they conceived many dear servants of God have writ very largely which I shall neither contradict nor condemn but only adde what I understand and so cast in my mite into this treasure of God according to the measure of the gift of Christ which I have received Revelations 11. 3. I will give power to my two Witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes cloathed in sackcloth Some by these two Witnesses do understand the Law and Gospel and others conceive them to be Christian Magistrates and Ministers Some understand them to be faithfull Men and Women that have been martyred for the testimony of Jesus And others conceive them to be only the Ministers of the Gospel as the margent notes in the bible shew and others do say they be two particular eminent Saints whom God will raise up towards the end But the Scriptures of truth will not give their harmoniall consent to any of these so laid down neither will they own any of the like terravid and fading subjects absolutely to be those two Witnesses which the spirit in that place speaks of Therefore according to the proportion of faith received in declaring of my perswasion therein I shall endeavour to shew First What the testimony is which these two Witnesses do bear witness unto Secondly to shew you who these two Witnesses are Thirdly to shew you what the meaning is as I conceive of the 1260. dayes which is the time appointed them of God to prophesie in and when they must be slain Fourthly to shew how the two Witnesses are slain and how long they have been dead and how long they are to lie dead before the spirit of life from God enter into them and set them upon their feet Fiftly to shew what falles out in the World upon the slaying of these two Witnesses and why they of the Nations People Tongues and Kinreds will not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves and buried Sixtly What shall follow upon the resurrection of the two Witnesses from the dead And seventhly I shall endeavour to shew what I have given me to understand by those dark words phrases and termes of time which are expressed in that eleventh Chapter of the Revelations under which this mystery of God concerning his two faithfull Witnesses doth lie folded up But I do declare what I conceive of the words and phrases all along this discourse as they necessarily fall in the way CHAP. II. What the Testimony of the two Witnesses is NOw for the first of these to shew what the Testimony of the two Witnesses is I conceive it is to bear witness of the eternall will and Councel of God That the seed of the woman should brusse the Serpents head and that this seed is Jesus Christ his Son a perfect man after the flesh as he was called the Child Jesus or the Sun

pretended divine worship that he may advance himsel to be the onely teacher of truths in the hearts of his Saints And in the effecting of this great work God shakes and will yet shake Kings Parliaments Armies Counties Kingdomes Universities humane learnings studies yea shake rich men and poore men and throwes down every thing that stands in his way opposing him in his work And this is the earthquake here spoken of which is the history of things which followes the other which is the mystery For as all outward abominations in mens practises came from the indwelling of the Beast in every mans heart so when God first shakes down and casts out the Beast out of mens hearts the outward abominations and unjust practises in church and State shake together and fall presently And truly this is one main testimony that God is shaking down the corrupt flesh in many and is in raysing of his Witnesses in regard we see so much shakings of Kingdoms Assemblies Churches and corruptions out of them which have been brought in and upheld by the Beast all the time of his Reign And in the Earth-quake the tenth part of the City Babylon fell off from the Beast and begins to submit to the Scepter of Jesus Christ and the wisdom love justice and peaceablenes of the Saints or rather of Gods indwelling and teaching of them shall appear so bright and the Government in their hands becometh so righteous more peaceable and more safe for the well-being of men then the former Customs Laws and Directories were all walking in love and justice as Members of one body Christ knit together by the same Anointing that the very enemies shall give glory to God and say his wayes and actings are more righteous then mens And then multitudes shall come in and enquire after Sion with their faces thither-wards the beauty of Sion shall be so glorious By tenth part of the City that fell in the Earth-quake I believe it is a tenth part of the Nations of the world that have been deceived by the Beast and that have acted for the Beast against Christ and wondered after the Beast for when the ten horns or ten Kingdoms that formerly had given their power to the Beast begin to hate the whore and to take back their power out of the hand of that Ecclesiastical whorish spirit the forty two months being now ended and the words of God fulfilled Then the whole ten Kingdoms shall joyn together to advance God in Christ and shall make the beastly whore desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire And there is some good hopes that these three Kingdoms England Scotland Ireland though three yet united under one State-Government is the tenth part of that great City that shall first fall from the Beast and submit to Christ and then we shall see the witnesses are in rising which I believe with rejoycing that God is raising of them and that this violent storming of the Beast in this tenth part of the City Babylon shall ere long droop and hang the head like a dead man that hath no strength to strive any longer the discoveries and manifestations of God in his Saints shall come in so plentifully like a showre of Hayl that shall sweepe away all the refuge of lies before it But if this threefold Kingdom be not the tenth part nor the Land which God will honour the first of Nations in raising up his Witnesses in and in casting off their Sack-cloth here The Saints must wait but a little longer with patience upon their God for I am mightily perswaded and filled with a sweet joy in the expectation of it That there is a tenth part of the City Babylon falling off from the Beast and striving to set the Crown with shouting upon the head of Jesus Christ And in this tenth part the two witnesses must first throw off their mourning Garment and Sack-cloth but whether it shall be these three united Kingdoms or no I leave that to our Father and submit to him wishing in my heart that England Scotland and Ireland might live before God in this glory I rejoyce inwardly that this shall be the tenth part I have no doubting in my heart about it I have strong perswasions in my spirit that it shall be I greatly desire in my soul that this Land may be the tenth part Yet not my will but the will of my Father be done And as there fell in the Earth-quake the tenth part of the City so in the same Earth-quake were slain of men seaven thousand By seaven thousand I conceive are pointed out the compleat number of those false Witnesses for seaven implies a perfect number whereby the Beast hath deceived the people so that all false Prophets false Ministers either of Justice of Divinity which have reigned with the Beast shall be destroyed with the Beast in this Earth-quake or as John speaks in Revelations 19. in that great battel of God-Almighty the beast was taken and with him the false Prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had the marke of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone That which he called the seaven thousand in the eleventh Chapter he calls the false Prophet in this nineteenth for it is one and the same conjunction of power that doth mannage the cause of the Beast in his severall shapes in his three dayes and half I do not believe that Kingly Authority or Parliamentary Authority is reckoned in the number of the seaven thousand for these two Authorities are Gods Ordinances or the higher Powers which God hath ordained for to preserve peace in the World But all usurped powers from these are Clergical Ecclesiastical Classical which are stolen by craft from those kings of the earth on purpose to make war with the Saints and to stand up against the Prince of Princes these are the seaven thousand and this is the false Prophet that must be broken without hand even the bright appearing of God in Saints shall consume that Beast And by the number of seven thousand as God points out the compleat number of such ●as do mannage the cause of the Beast so he points out that the number that shall be deceived are not a few in the rank of hundreds but many very many in the rank of thousands so many as he calls them the whole World but all that seaven thousand or compleat number that upholds that cause of the Beast are to be slain in the Earth-quake But this slaying is not meant the killing of their bodies though it may possibly fall out that in so great troubles of he world some may be slain in that sense For their slaying points out the slaying of their Cause the destroying of he Beast with all the wisdom Authority

bloud of a dead man that is to corrupt and dye for ever And every living soul within the Sea dyed That is All the strength glory and being of the beast dyed And the place and power fleshly wisdom and actings against Christ and the Saints was seen no more And this suites with the Oath that the Angel swore in Daniels hearing and in Johns hearing likewise That when the beast had accomplished to scatter the holy people all those things in the vision should be finished and time should be no more For when the seventh Angel had powred out his vial upon the Ayre or the element wherein the beast lived which is a humane magisterial power got from the Kings of the Earth when they and she committed spiritual fornication together after that God had limitted the beast a time to reign in Then there came a great voice out of the Temple of Heaven that is from Christ saying it is done And in that day saith God I will make a Covenant of peace for Israel and I will break the bow and the sword and the battel out of the Earth and make them lie down safely And there shall none hurt in all Gods holy mountain any more as the Beast hath done hurt But secondly when these waters are applied to Nations Kinreds Tongues and People as they be for saith John The Waters which thou sawest whereon the Whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Then they point out unto us those people men and women in whom the flesh rules in all her self-actings and inventions against Christ and in either of these senses that is either the multitude of fleshly inventions arising from the spirit of self-love or the multitude of people in whom the flesh works so powerfully or both these joyned into one body make up the City Babylon And all those phrases as Mystery Babylon Beast Whore and Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth are to be applyed hereunto And when the waters are thus turned into bloud by the testimony of Gods two Witnesses that is the wisdom inventions and actings of the flesh are now destroyed and proved evil and the men in whom this wisdom appeared against God are ashamed and confounded then it is manifest That the seed of the woman Christ the anointed hath broken the Serpents head I heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art righteous O Lord which art which wast and shall be because thou hast thus judged For they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy And by these phrases thus made manifest it appeares that Jesus Christ in his two-fold appearance in the flesh and in the Spirit as hath been declared are Gods two faithfull Wit●esses and can be meant of no creature CHAP. IV. What is meant by one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes which is the time given to the two witnesses to prophesie in cloathed in sack-cloth AND now I come to the third particular to be minded that is to shew the meaning of the thousand two hundred and sixty dayes which is the time given them of God to prophesie in and when they must be slain and who it is that slayeth them In handling of this I shall observe three things in prophesie First to prophesie is to fore-tell either in plain or dark language what hereafter shall come to passe And this did God the Father when he said The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head And this is both a Promise and a prophesie Secondly to prophesie is to make such things plain and easie to the understanding of others which appeared dark and hidden before And this did Jesus Christ when he made the mysteries of the Kingdome of God plain and easie to the understanding of his● 〈◊〉 which were spoken indark sayings 〈◊〉 ther 's and this is Gospel-ministery by the 〈…〉 of truth Thirdly to prophesie is to give testin● 〈◊〉 or proofe of such things to be true by 〈◊〉 Discoveries which God hath 〈◊〉 or fore-told heretofore should 〈◊〉 passe in the latter dayes And this did Jesus Christ when he by his Death and Resurrection did experimentally prove himselfe to be the seed of the Woman that broke the Serpents head And so the Spirit of Christ in the cōversion of sinners to God doth provelikewise by many cleare experiences that those sinners so taken up to God are part of that seed of the woman in whom the Serpents head is broken And they shall prophesie in Sack-cloth saith God and so they doe For first all those abusive slanders mockings oppressions and death which was laid wrongfully upon Jesus Christ for his enemies confesse they found no fault in him and yet they would crucifie him doth not all this shew a cause time and houre of mourning or wearing sack-cloth And this was the condition of Christ whilest he was in the world bearing a visible testimony to his Fathers counsell And this is the same condition of his church for as he was in the world so are ●hey The world knew not him neither doth the world know them The world hated him ●nd it hates them Secondly Sack-cloth implies the absence of ●ome friend plenty honour comfort c. And did not our Lord Christ leave his glory in Heaven and came and took upon him the forme ●f a Servant nay took upon him the curse ●ue to sin which is death that he might ●reak the Serpents head and free sinners from the bondage of that power of darknesse And ●oth not his Church goe on weeping carrying ●heir Sheaves with them like Pilgrims and ●●rangers looking for a dwelling place in God ●nd waiting upon him till he wipe away all ears c. And thus they prophesie in Sack-●loth Thirdly Jesus Christ prophesieth in Sack-●loth while his heel is bruised by the Serpent ●nd his seed for in all their afflictions he is ●fflicted with them Therefore it is a time of ●●ourning to Christ to see such cruelties and ●ppressions to be inflicted upon his Church ●hom he doth so dearly love And it is a Sack-cloth time to his church ●hen they see the Name the Truth end Testi●ony of their Lord Christ Whom they love to 〈◊〉 blasphemed rejected and persecuted in the ●orld And now I shall observe the time that God I ●ath given his witnesses to prophesie in and that is 1260 dayes The number of 1260 dayes is to be understood as I conceive in a two-fold sense yet both pointing out the mystery of God the first more Literall the second more Mysticall As first I conceive that these 1260 dayes are reckoned according to the dayes of a Week that our Saviour Christ Jesus did beare witnesse to his Father from the time of his Baptisme and descending of the Spirit upon him to the day that he was crucified For he began his visible testimony that