to such an usefull and edifying Interpretation as is here given by the Expositor Ver. 13. Our Saviour's being cloathed with a garment down to his foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle seems to respect not onely his Priestly but also his Kingly Office the garment signifying the first and the girdle that righteousness which was the girdle of his loins and that faithfulness which was the girdle of his reins Esa. ch 11. v. 5. where he is described as a glorious spiritual Prince And as in the Epistle to the Philadelphian Church his calling himself holy and true respects both his Offices of Priest and King so his garment seems to refer to the one and his girdle to the Truth wherewith he was girded whereby he is our Prince Ans. That his Priestly office is here aimed at is without question and the Expositor is for such Expositions as are most unquestionable If what is added had been as certain he would have taken it in But it seems not onely uncertain but unlikely For Kings wear not their girdles about their paps but about their loins but the Priests did And Aaron's girdle was interwoven with gold See Cornelius à lapide on the place And lastly as for Holy and True Truth as well as Holiness respects his Priestly office according as the Seventy render Vrim and Thummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 15. To say that the voice of Christ being as the sound of many waters does plainly discover that Christ is here represented as in Union with his Church is scarce sense For the Union of him with his Church being spiritual can badly be represented by the sound of a voice Nor does what is said here of his voice signifie more than what is described Psal. 29. viz. That the voice of the Lord is upon many waters and is powerfull and full of Majesty c. And though waters in the Prophetick style are used to signifie a multitude yet it follows not that they must always do so but may also be used in a Literal sense as they are ch 20. v. 13. The Sea gave up the dead c. Ans. Whenas it is said expresly that his voice is as the sound of many waters and waters in the prophetick style signifie multitudes of people what can be more easie and obvious than to interpret it that his voice was as the voice of a multitude and how fitly does that then signifie that Christ is here represented in union with his Church through whose mouths by the breathing of his Holy Spirit in them he speaks to the world c. And it is not the Expositor's conceit alone St. Gregory Tychonius Haymo Seraphimus and Peresius interpret it of the sound of the Gospel which was preached by zealously inspired Emissaries and the truth thereof testified by innumerable witnesses in union with Christ by his Spirit And indeed what can better signifie the spiritual union of the Church of Christ with his living members than that all their voices should be as it were one voice breathed out from the mouth of the Son of God For that shews that they also have one heart and one spirit which is the Spirit of the Son of God with which they are all united Ver. 17. Iohn's falling at the feet of Christ as dead proceeded not from his fear that the Vision might portend great evil to the People of God but from such an astonishment as made Daniel chap. 10. on the like Vision of Christ there fall on his face in a dead sleep having no strength remaining in him and his comeliness turn into corruption and made a great quaking fall upon them that were with him though they saw not the Vision And as also made Ioshua fall on his face on his appearance to him as a Captain of the Host of the Lord. Ans. That it was not onely from the glory but the terrour of the Vision his legs standing in fire and a sword coming out of his mouth that caused Iohn to fall down as dead appears farther from his comforting of him in telling him that himself was dead but is now alive and has the Keys of Hell and Death c. to fortifie him against the dread of Persecutions that even then were exercising the Church and Iohn might well suspect that this Vision did portend greater Ver. 19. The things which thou hast seen respects the precedent Vision of the seven Churches The following words The things that are and shall be hereafter should be Both the things which are and shall be hereafter and so make the Vision contain both a Literal and Prophetical sense whereas the taking of the words in the sense supposed viz. to signifie the past Ephesine State of the Church and the present Smyrnean State of it and the future State of the other Churches destroys the literal sense and also spoils the coherence not onely with the precedent Vision but also with the following verse Ans. This Remark upon the Expositor is very impertinent he professedly having nothing to doe with the literal sense But that account which he gives in reference to the Prophetical is so easie unstrained and natural hast seen so plainly denoting the time past that D. Pareus on the place writes thus Ità rest Apocalypseos Christus ipse in tres ordines distinguit Quasdam jam viderat Iohannes inde ab exordio Evangelii sub Nerone sequentibus Imperatoribus ad Domitianum usque gestas quasdem in praesenti videbat majorem partem de futuris porrò visurus erat How naturally then the whole time of the Church being cast into seven Intervals Ephesine past Smyrnean current Pergamenian and the rest to come are those words Write the things which thou hast seen and the things that are and the things that shall be hereafter interpreted as the Expositor has interpreted them And how fitly do they cohere with what follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being the Accusative case shews plainly that the seven Candlesticks take in all the seven Intervals of the Church past present and to come Vpon the NOTES of Chap. 1. Rem 1. The seven Churches in Asia refers not to its signifying Fundamentum thereby to signifie all the Churches that keep the Apostolical foundation in doctrine and practice for that is implied in calling them Churches and Christ owns none to be Churches farther than they do so without which doing they cannot be united to him and so cannot be of his Church which is his body But Asia here alludes both to its signifying the Earth and also Action Of both which see Exposition of the seven Churches So that to the seven Churches in Asia does signifie To the seven Churches in their state of Action and Conflict or Militant State on Earth and this in distinction from that blessed state of Rest and Joy in that great Jubilee of the World the Millennium which the labours of this Militant State will end with And
the distance is the greater from the present Age to the Millennium yet it being apt to beget a prejudice against Monarchy and civil Magistracy and to impress a false Idea of the reign of Christ in the minds of the Vulgar as if his reign was inconsistent with Monarchy and civil Magistracy And for as much as it is joined with the denying That the late Reformation is the Rising of the Witnesses which truth utterly routs that fond opinion against civil Magistracy and also with a belief that their 1260 days prophesying in sackcloth is but about expiring or but just expired upon which the Witnesses are to lye three days and an half slain c. which naturally tends to the impregnating mens minds with a fond expectation of a sudden completion of the Prophecy of their Rising which yet God be thanked is accomplished already and so to cause endeavours of Innovations and Tumults of Seditions and Rebellions as amongst the Jews by pretence of false Christs after the true one was come so amongst Christians upon a false expectation of the sudden Rising of the Witnesses when in truth they are risen already These things are of so great import as also the acknowledgment of the Symmetricalness of the Primitive Ages for the present peace of the Reformed Churches and the reconciling the Sectaries to the publick worship that I thought them alone a sufficient Motive to publish these Remarks and Answers for the stearing men off from such wild and disorderly conceits which so easily find harbour in Melancholick and Enthusiastick spirits and which other crafty and disaffected Politicians are over prone cunningly and designingly to serve their turns of See the Expositor's Pref. to his Apocalypsis Apocalypseos § 12. This usefulness made me with great alacrity publish these Remarks they giving me so fit an occasion to instruct and I hope to convince men of the errour of this false spirit that has gone out into the World and has I fear deluded too many And therefore the Remarker whether he has writhen and forced his Wit and Invention to personate an eager Impugner of the Expositor's Interpretations of the Prophecies of John and Daniel or has indeed seriously attacked them he has however done good service to the Church of God by drawing out Answers more fully to explain and confirm those important Truths so certainly exhibited in the Prophecies And if the Answerer seem at any time to be something quick and smart upon the Remarker or rather upon that Spirit he is actuated withall for he has no enmity against any man's person whatsoever I hope it will not seem more to an indifferent judge than the perversness of the matter or manner of uttering it by the Remarker naturally called for And not to shew a man's dislike of such things with some commotion of mind would but feed the humour of a conceited Enthusiast and make him fansie he has got the Ascendent of his tame Adversary and not impute his being gently handled to his Christian meekness and kindness of temper but to the power and dominion of his own tumid and delusive spirit that commissions him to ride triumphantly over the necks of all such as are not ready to submit to the mistaken Dictates of his false light And if this quickness and freeness of the Answerer should draw from the Remarker a bitter reviling Reply which is neither a desirable nor probable Event if the Remarker have that ingenuity as to rejoice and acquiesce in the Truth with whomsoever it is found yet it will not want its proper use For then it will be still more manifest that whereas the Remarker though not taken up into an exceeding high Mountain as Christ was by Satan and shewn all the Kingdoms of this World and glory of them yet fansying himself highly caught up in the Spirit has uttered such sublime matter in this exaltation touching the glorious State and Oeconomy of the new Jerusalem and things in tendency thereto as transcend the conceit and allowance of any sober and considerate man it will be hence I say still more manifest that it is not from the height of any Divine Rapture that he has discovered such marvellous Mysteries but that all this elevation of Spirit is nothing but the heaving of the Hypochondria and the vain delusion of the touring fumes of an over-heated Melancholy And that the sound understanding of Daniel and the Apocalypse does not belong to Fanatical Enthusiasts but to men of a more rational Genius serene mind and sober judgment Thus Reader thou hast as full an account as I can give of the publishing these Remarks and Answers together with the manner thereof How sufficient it is thou wilt best perceive upon the perusal of them Which thou wilt doe I hope with no small satisfaction if orderly as they are placed Chapter and Verse thou readest the places in the Expositor's Expositions of Daniel and the Apocalypse before thou readest the Remark and Answer And if thou hast not those Expositions by thee provided thou reade but the Verse in the Bible which the Remark and Answer relate to thou wilt seldom be at a loss for the understanding either of them But as for the Remarks upon the Apology if thou beest at a loss thou must have recourse to the Pages thereof which are constantly set down at the beginning of the Remark As for those two little additional Pieces Arithmetica Apocalyptica and Appendicula Apocalyptica I need say little of them The occasion of writing them is set down in each and the scope and end of them is much what the same with that of my Answer to the Remarks viz. to undeceive the World and free men from such false Notions of some passages in the Apocalypse as tend to unquietness of mind and unsetling the Church and State For my Answer to the Remarks upon the Apology which I would have the Reader thoroughly to consider so plainly demonstrating that the partial fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses is the Issue of the 42 months war of the Beast with the Saints Apoc. 13. v. 5 7. and with the Witnesses chap. 11. v. 7 11. which Issue is coincident with the close of the sixth Trumpet chap. 11. v. 14. And that all the Vials follow the sixth Trumpet and the three Doxologies or Triumphs And that the Reformation is the fulfilling of this partial fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses the Issue I say of the 42 months war being thus accomplished it naturally follows that the compute of the 42 months whatever that Number signifies expires therewith or is no farther to be reckoned upon For the Time of a Vision can reach no farther than the Vision it self But because he that gave me the occasion of writing Arithmetica Apocalyptica seems not aware of this Reason but doth notwithstanding his acknowledgment of the Reformation being the Rising of the Witnesses produce the Time of their Witnessing in Sackcloth beyond the abovesaid
so the prophetick sense of the Epistles reacheth but to the commencement of the Millennium Ans. It is sufficient that others would call those Churches that did not keep to the foundation but added doctrines and practices contrary thereto And therefore Asia's signifying Fundamentum is not needlesly superadded to design the truly Catholick Church That Asia signifies Action is granted on both sides but it is Illogical to deduce Conflict from Action and the Arguing à genere ad speciem as if one should say It is a living Creature Therefore it is a Man Though all Conflict is Action yet all Action is not Conflict This is foisted in to serve a false Hypothesis and to exclude the Millennium out of the Intervals and to make them reach but to the beginning thereof Rem 2. There 's no need of the Ephesine State of the Church its ending at the beginning of the Persecution in Nero's time but it may continue after as the Pergamenian State does continue through the succeeding Epistles For as the advancement of the Church to that State was from Christianity's being received by Autority so the continuing of Autority to profess that Religion is a continuing that State though from a new emerging condition the Church may receive a new denomination And so the Ephesine State being agreeable to the whole Primitive time though the emerging Persecution does give the denomination of a new State to the Church yet it destroys not the former that is consistent therewith That the Ephesine Church was not tainted with Nicolaitism is no Argument that it expired before the beginning of that Sect but rather of the contrary For if that Sect was not then in being it was no commendation of the Church not to be tainted therewith nor could it be said to have it Ans. It is sufficient that from a new emerging condition the Church may receive a new denomination and so begin a distinct Interval and thus will the whole Succession of time from the beginning of the Church to the end of the World be distinguished into so many Intervals So limited as History complying with the characters of the Prophecy will ratifie which is all that is intended And thus the Ephesine State or Interval will be naturally terminated upon the commencement of Persecution in Nero's time the Smyrnean then beginning And the Smyrnean end upon the emerging of the Church out of persecution by the Emperours turning Christian and the Pergamenian then begin But the Church quickly degenerating into Idolatry and persecuting the Apostolick Christians and so long a time continuing so from some remarkable change of the Modes of their Idolatry and Persecution and other degeneracies of the Church this Pergamenian denomination may cease and the degenerate Church be called Thyatirian and the true Church be said to be the Church in Pergamus and the Church in Thyatira because it was within the Jurisdiction of the degenerate Church so denominated c. As for that touching Nicolaitism it is a mere cavil or quibble For it plainly was a commendation of the Ephesine Interval that there was not yet that uncleanness found in it that was after set on foot by the Nicolaitans And the Nicolaitans being Christians they could no sooner appear but the Church ipso facto would be defiled by them Wherefore the Ephesine Interval of the Church being now defiled by them it 's a sign that Interval comes short of the times of the Nicolaitans Chap. 2. Vers. 11. THE promise here to the overcomer being onely that he shall not be hurt of the second Death gives no assurance thereby of being partaker of the first Resurrection The crown of life which is promised to them that are faithfull to death must certainly be meant of the reward in the other life And what reward would it be to the sufferers unto death to have their successours obtain the imperial Crown Besides take it to signifie the reward in the other life and it will so agree with what follows the Epiphonema the one promise explaining the other whereas the senses here given of both are so different as to make them badly sute for promises of the same Epistle Ans. The promise here to the overcomer according to the Elliptical intimations in the Apocalypse is the promise of partaking of the first Resurrection and so has the ancient Church expounded it And to ask what reward it would be to the sufferers unto death to have their successours to obtain the imperial Crown is to tell us without asking that selfishness or want of that unselfinteressed love which makes us prefer the publick good of the Kingdom of Christ before our own causes the Remarker to make such a weak objection as this And if the Crown of Life and not being hurt by the second Death explained each other and were but the same thing it would be a needless tautology whenas taken in these different senses it is a double promise to encourage the Smyrnean Church to suffer Martyrdom the one that their sufferings shall turn the Roman Empire Christian the other that they for their Martyrdom shall partake of the first Resurrection a privilege peculiar to Martyrs c. To which may be added that it is observable where there is any promise or threatning before the Epiphonema it indicates things Political touching this state on Earth but if placed after the Epiphonema the invisible state and concerns of the other world And why may not one Epistle use both these arguments they having both force to persuade to the same thing Vers. 13. The Pergamenian state commencing at the Emperours professing Christianity the testimony and suffering of Antipas is not to be applied to the Pope onely but does primarily respect that haughty imperious spirit which was generally observed in Patriarchs and Bishops after they grew so great through the protection and favour and bounty of Princes which begat such fierce contentions amongst themselves and furious ragings against their adversaries or opposers Ans. The sufferings and testimony of Antipas does chiefly respect those that were martyred by the Church of Rome under the Pope in this Interval which is bounded by the ending of the War against the Waldenses and Albigenses which were slain with the sword These things are certain and conspicuous as is made out in the Exposition of the seven Churches As for smaller matters if any have the like evidence let them add them that will Vers. 16. I will come unto thee quickly is taken in a distinct sense from the following words And I will fight against them c. Whenas plainly the coming quickly is to fight c. And this threatning to fight with the sword of his mouth is against the true Church which by transgression had deserved such sharp rebuke and therefore cannot be intended against the enemies of it Ans. What strange confidence is this upon no ground at all I will come unto thee I will fight against them Is not thee and them sufficient notes of
diversification that they are spoke touching distinct nay opposite parties the one his Church the other their adversaries whence he says he will fight against them To all which you may add That this is the Political Prediction preceding the Epiphenema Vers. 18. Thyatira does as in all other Epistles signifie the state of the true Church that 's written to and not of the Antichristian Church at that time and therefore it cannot refer to the making the Virgin Mary the daughter of God but alluding to that signification of the word may signifie that state of the Church wherein the autority of Christ began to gain the ascendent of worldly powers and which therefore may be reckoned the infancy of his Kingdom and in that respect the Church as to that time may be called a daughter though otherwise styled a woman Which time we suppose to commence from the expulsion of the Goths out of Italy whose Reign there was the seventh Head that was to continue but a little time immediately after which the Popes grew so great as to cause the Exarches first to remove to Ravenna and after to be expell'd Italy and so prospered with their usurped autority as by degrees to make all the foreign Nations that had overrun the Empire and setled in it to be subject to them He therefore gaining such rule by his false pretensions to be Christ's Vicar does evidence the reality of that autority by usurpation whereof he grew so potent as also did the Roman Hierarchy who oft proved able to sway the States of Kingdoms to depose their Kings c. Since therefore the usurpers of Christ's autority grew so potent and prevalent thereby such as were redeemed from the world to become members of his Kingdom and so were really accompanied with the power of his spirit proportionably to the state they had attained to must surely be likewise of great prevalency in their several stations though but of private condition Hence so great power is ascribed to the two Witnesses ch 11. And hence the great persecution and war at length was raised against the Saints by the Antichristian powers to suppress the emerging power of Christ's Kingdom in them which fulfilled the other sense of Thyatira by the multitude of Martyrs sacrificed c. Ans. In the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus Christ says I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is Which undoubtedly is the See of Rome and therefore the Church in Pergamus is the Apostolick Church within the jurisdiction of the Roman there termed in the Prophetick style Pergamenian and so undoubtedly Thyatirian in this Interval And therefore barely to contradict this without any reason added is mere wantonness and humour But now the Pergamenian Interval ending in the year 1242 when the Pope's Legate Amelin made an end of the Albigensian war with Trancavel Bastard-son of the Earl of Beziers what an extravagance is it to say that the Thyatirian Interval began near seven hundred years before the Pergamenian ended The faithfull Martyr Antipas by his account should be slain in the Thyatirian Interval whenas the Prophecy places him in the Pergamenian And that the slaying of Antipas respects and typifies those vast slaughters of the Waldenses and Albigenses with me there is not nor can there be with any one else that well considers it the least doubt imaginable and therefore I make no question but the Pergamenian Interval reaches so far as to include them whence the Thyatirian denomination must of necessity begin after their time nor can the distinct denominations which constitute the Intervals interfere one with another Again a Daughter in the Prophetick style is a delicate Damosel in her flourishing age not an Infant and Christ's true Church upon the expulsion of the Goths was so far from getting the ascendent over the worldly powers that she grew more and more enslaved under the power of Antichrist under the bondage of that Roman Pharaoh than which there is not a more worldly power under the Sun and was held under this power till the Sardian Interval viz. till the rising of the Witnesses that is to say till the late happy reformation begun by Luther c. This therefore is a very rude rush against manifest truth as if the Remarker did not mark what he did or said Else he would not say that the Popes caused the Exarches to remove their seat to Ravenna whenas no History that I meet with makes any mention of any other seat of them but that But such slips as these I could willingly wink at if the main of the remark had any solidity in it But how lax and lank it all is the intelligent will easily discern by these few hints I have given Vers. 23. I will kill her children with death seems here to signifie a spiritual death and curse ensuing the same and so will better cohere with the following words All the Churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and heart c. and is of the like signification with what is threatned Zach. 14. against such as fought against Ierusalem and would not keep the feast of Tabernacles Ans. Those two Expositions given by the Expositor are plain and events answerable But no events have answered or are likely to answer to the other as to the strange miraculous diseases And for her children to be killed by a spiritual death it would be no loss to her they would be the more alive to her and snug in her bosome and be the closer Thyatirians And for the coherence of what follows it is sufficiently perspicuous in the other plain and unstrained way Vers. 26. Giving power over the Nations respects not the Governours and people that were reformed For they gained no power thereby but freedom onely from the thraldom they were formerly under But if this respects any thing of the Reformation which I conceive it does not and that the Thyatirian Interval reaches not so far it must signifie the chief leaders in the Reformation who through the cause of God they were engaged in attained to bear so great sway and make so great changes c. Ans. Those that were under the rule and power of the Nations even whole Provinces and Kingdoms of them that is to say under the power of the Paganochristians shall vanquish and overcome the Paganochristians so as to turn them to their own Religion or those that remain of them unconverted to have them under their girdle c. This therefore is a mere cavil The easie sense is whereas suppose the Antichristian powers bore sway over the Kingdoms or Nations of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Swedeland c. under the Thyatirian Interval in the Sardian Interval the Apostolick Christians such as Christ speaks to in the Church of Thyatira shall bear the rule over these Nations And the ruling them with a rod of iron and breaking them a-pieces like a Potter's Vessel is shattering a-pieces the Antichristian Compages they
and so thoroughly enlightening them with the Judgments of his Truth that they shall not need the light of the Sun or Moon viz. of those humane Laws and Policies c. So that Time shall be no more and the Mystery of God shall be finished does here answer to that great voice from the Throne at the pouring forth of the seventh Vial viz. It is done And to the same voice from him that sate on the Throne ch 21. who also there says Behold I make all things new viz. The Mystery of God being finished by the former things passing away a new state of things is to be introduced as is there after described Ans. At the expiration of the sixth Trumpet it is not improper to give notice that there will be no more time than what is contained in the seventh because the seventh is both contiguous to the sixth and reacheth to the end of the world as was noted above But that Time signifies Political Order and Government is a private precarious Notion of the Remarker without any ground or example in Scripture or the Onirocriticks And for his reason for which he imagines it signifies so it is over-lax Time indeed is divisible into Ages Ages into Years Years into Months Months into Days c. But what greater matter of order in this than in the dividing and subdividing of any other quantity Or if there be how does this Typifie Political Orders and Laws more than in Husbandry Mechanicks c. So that it signifying all things under the Sun done in any order or method as well as Political Laws and Government when this Time here spoken of shall be no more we may all put up our Pipes Tradesmen Husbandmen Students in whatever Arts and Faculties and fall asleep with our fingers in our mouths unless a spirit waken us that will drive us to act without order or government which yet can be no Apostolick Spirit because the Apostle's Precept is 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order How much better were it Sapere ad sobrietatem than to entertain such high-slown conceits as these In these best times undoubtedly there will be humane Laws and Polities that is Laws and Polities constituted by men but perfectly conformable and complyable with the Laws of God and dictates of his Holy Spirit and his guidance will assist in making them To fansie an Aziluthick State on Earth whenas a Briathick Constitution is consistent with the State of Heaven is a too too extravagant surmise As for It is done and All things are made New Here would be rather undoing than doing and nothing would be made new No new Heaven nor new Earth which certainly has a Political sense if there were no Polity in this renewed state And the Polity will be constituted by men though by the guidance of the Holy Spirit which will invigorate also both Governours and People to support the said Laws and to live according thereunto Vers. 7. The saving here is a great straining of the Text to uphold a crazy Notion For whereas it is said in the Notes on the Verse That the sense is exceeding imperfect unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving or except the common sense given of it is very clear and this new imposed sense so exceeding imperfect as to be really false And the several places cited to prove that it may be taken in this sense is no proof that it is taken so here Nor do those Citations prove that it is so taken in them For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or But will signifie the same with saving or except c. Ans. The Remarker here is very Magisterial and somewhat Scoptical But the Expositor is crazy neither in his notion nor the proof of it For no man that understands Greek but must acknowledge that our English Translation is out in rendring those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus When he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God should be finished For it leaves out the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet makes but imperfect sense rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be finished whenas to make the sense perfect it should be rendred shall be finished but that would ill agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished That is the sense our English Translation aims at but then it should not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being left out which yet is intollerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be rendred unsutably to the words following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Evangelizavit as he told the joyfull news to his servants the Prophets Wherefore this Mystery of God containing that joyfull news it is very hard to conceive it not to contain the new Ierusalem and the Millennial reign of Christ. Which Mystery is not finished at the beginning of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet but rather at the end thereof But now render but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving as it certainly does signifie sometimes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sound as it naturally signifies and all will run as glib as can be according to the most approved copies of the New Testament set out by Isaac Casaubon and Dr. Winterton which is the Cambridge Greek New Testament thus That there shall be time no more saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall sound and the Mystery of God be finished Which shews that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet will reach to the end of the World But now according to these Authentick Greek Copies if you render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But not Saving or Except The sentence will not be sense thus That there shall be time no more But in the days of the seventh Angel when he shall sound or begin to sound and the Mystery of God be perfected What then what of all that one may well say This plainly is not perfect sense to any one that understands sense unless you take away the Colon and take but in the same sense that except has which is all that I contend for Wherefore it being so plain that the sentence is imperfect sense unless you understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and But to signifie the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Except if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does sometimes signifie so it plainly follows it signifies so here This is more than enough to this Remark I will onely here note which I intimated above on v. 3. That this Oath of the mighty Angel That there shall be time no more saving in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel plainly imports that the sounding of the seventh Trumpet reaches to the end of the World or of the Scene
Earth in the Prophetick style signifies a new Polity and this such a Polity where reigneth Righteousness b It is a mistake in the Remarker and that a gross one that he thinks the Expositor supposes the Antichristian party to be converted by these Boanergeses it is the Infidel partly that are Babylon remains obdurate but in virtue of the conversion of the Infidel party to the Purity of the Gospel the Evangelical party grows so strong that the power of Babylon is quite abolished which is the victory over them c That the pouring of the Vial into the Air should signifie the immediate pouring it on the power of the Devil the Prince of the Air is a conceit both uncertain and needless and therefore the Expositor omitted it It rather respects the consequent Thundering and Lightening in the Air c. The miraculous restraint of the power of Satan begins with the Millennium which commenceth with the third Thunder Vers. 18. The voices thunderings and lightenings signifie no such promulgation of the Gospel by the Boanergeses as is imagined but the great judgments that then befell the Beast and false Prophet as they signifie ch 8.5 and as the great Hail does plainly shew they do so here which therefore is advisedly not taken notice of Ans. These voices thunderings and lightenings do very fitly set out the promulgation of the Law of the Son of God alluding to the thunderings and lightenings and dreadfull voice of God like a Trumpet at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai Exod. 20.18 Deut. 5.24 and 18.16 But I do not deny but in some places it may signifie Wars in the ordinary sense But the circumstances of things determine otherwise here Nor does the mention of Hail hinder that determination which advisedly is defrred in the Vision and placed after the fall of the Cities of the Nations to intimate that the subduing of Babylon or victory over her was of another sort from that over the Cities of the Nations Wherefore the mention of Hail is deferred till the very last verse of the Vision and disjoined from the Thunderings and Lightenings that it may peculiarly respect the distinct execution done upon Babylon and such as followed the conversion of the Cities of the Nations Vers. 19. It 's a great reproach to the Evangelical party to reckon it part of the City of Babylon out of which they were come before in obedience to the voice Come out of her my people c. But the three parts of the City viz. that the Antichristian party was composed of are the Beast's the false Prophet's and the Dragon's party answerable to the three unclean spirits c. and the three parts it was divided into are as is mentioned on v. 16. Ans. The Evangelical party is not reckoned as part of the City of Babylon and therefore no reproach to them Nor can this great Armies gathered together in Armageddon which comprized the Evangelical forces also be conceived not to contain the Evangelical party in it For this great City is not Babylon it self no not according to the Remarker's account that makes the Dragon part of it and therefore it must be the most absolute great City that contained all the three parties met in Armageddon the Infidel Antichristian and Evangelical party The Remarker's Tripartition was sufficiently confuted before on v. 16. Chap. 17. Vers. 3. BLasphemy is to be taken here in the sense spoken of ch 13. as well as to signifie Idolatry and so far as it intends Idolatry it respects that which is committed by worshipping or idolizing the Beast as well as what is by the Beast's worshipping of Idols the former though not so heinous being of larger extent than the latter c. Ans. What a fond strained conceit that is of the Remarker to stretch the meaning of Blasphemy here to the sharp reproofs given to immorigerous Saints as some fansie themselves that deserve not the Title I have noted ch 13. But here is an Addition That by the Names of Blasphemy written on the Beast must be understood also the idolizing of the Beast or worshipping him By this rate all the Saints and Angels in Heaven will be full of names of Blasphemy the Virgin Mary especially But what Pen would ever set out the Idolatrous worship given to them from multitudes of people by describing them full of names of Blasphemy This it is to affect freaks and conceits of ones own contrary to the current of all Expositors Vers. 8. The Ten-horned Beast signifies the Civil Politick State of the Empire and so hath its denomination from the corruptions thereof viz. the violences oppressions and crafty fraudulent management of affairs which attend worldly Governments Therefore though their being Idolatrous may influence them to make them more corrupt yet it makes no alteration in the Civil State of affairs to give a new denomination thereto So that the sixth-headed Beast continues the same after the Empire being Christian till it receive the deadly wound by a sword viz. till its ruine by the Barbarous Nations and the seventh-headed Beast that is to continue but a little while is according to Forbes the Ostrogothian Kings adding thereto the preceding Reign of Odoacer about the expiring of the reign of which Kings happened divers Prodigies significant of the false Prophet or two-horned Beast viz. the eighth Head beginning to reign And if the said Kings be not the seventh Head they will be taken no notice of in the Prophecy though their reign be almost as long as the Christian Emperours who are here made the seventh Head and how much shorter it is than the reign of the other it sutes so much the better with that Head its being to continue but a little time And the dominion of those Kings was so absolute that the eighth Head could not begin to reign untill their expulsion c. And if they were the seventh Head then the Heathen and Christian Emperours make but one Head and so the same Beast continues as I said under the reign of both and therefore is not so denominated on a religious but on the civil account aforesaid Which is farther evident from the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. a wild Beast and the Beast is so named for the same reason that Ierusalem is called a Lioness and her Kings Lions Ezek. 19. and Nimrod a mighty Hunter c. And how early all worldly Rulers were noted for violence and oppression appears by that saying of Iob ch 9.24 The Earth is given into the hands of the wicked he covereth the faces of the Iudges thereof if not where and who is he And Solomon says He beheld the place of judgment that iniquity was there the place of righteousness that wickedness was there And the oppressions done under the Sun made him praise the dead more than the living And Psalm 82. God reproving the Rulers of the Earth for judging unjustly and accepting the person of the wicked and neglecting to
founded yet not excluding an allusion to such qualities in any of the stones as will bear an apt application But straining here to give a particular account of them all hath caused a strange luxuriancy of fancy Ans. To slubber over the Mystery of the twelve stones with those two significations onely in general of splendour and solidity is again to make the Spirit of Prophecy to trifle And being thus niggardly as to admit of but two properties it is still worse in that one is less proper for a Wall which is a structure for defence rather than for beauty and ornament But take them both in if this were the business one kind of stone would have served better than all twelve and that is the Diamond which out-does them all for solidity and splendour What stone so hard and invincible as it What stone so beautifull and splendid But yet in a better mood he seems inclined to admit of an allusion to such qualities in any of the stones as will bear an apt application But if in any why not in all He saith straining here to give a particular account of all hath caused a strange luxuriancy of fancy But how can that fancy be luxuriant that is not exorbitant but keeps within a prescribed compass and takes notice of no virtues in any of these stones but what tend to the safety and security of the City to preserve the Philadelphian State therein and hinder it from lapsing into the Laodicean But that is the very thing that the Remarker has a pique at the presumption of the Expositor for that he would give an account of every stone in the Wall they several of them supposing and so aptly complying with his Hypothesis of making the Philadelphian state and New Ierusalem state all one and the Laodicean to succeed so that he cannot endure it and upon that account calls that strained fancy in the Expositor which is strickt and unexceptionable Reason as any one that examines it without prejudice will find it Vers. 23. Christ's Kingdom being Spiritual the Kings or Rulers there will rule by a Spiritual Power by which they will be also Priests such as the twenty four Elders are to the four Beasts and such as they and the four Beasts to those they shall reign over And therefore to suppose as here is done that Monarchs or crowned Heads who rule by worldly power shall be Kings or Rulers in Christ's Kingdom shews little understanding of the state of it or something worse Of that Lordship which the Kings of the Gentiles exercise and of their being called Benefactors our Saviour says It shall not be so among you but he that is chief as he that serveth Luk. 22.25 And their profession of Christianity while they rule by the same Worldly and Political Government cannot make them Christian but rather the more complete Antichristian Rulers But the Autority that those Spiritual Kings and Priests will have in the Millennial State over those they govern may be likened to that Rule and sway which the Nobility Gentry and Clergy have over the Commonalty saving the great difference that whereas the one is gained by worldly means and managed for worldly interest to the much grievance and oppression of the people the autority of the other will be exercised with a true Christian spirit to the full satisfaction and joy of those who are governed and so will cause the fulfilling of what was told at our Saviour's Birth of great joy and gladness that should be to all people and of that Doxology ch 5.13 of every Creature in Heaven and on Earth Blessing honour glory and power c. Ans. This is one of the oddest Remarks of the whole pack We will therefore consider each passage therein more strictly Christ's Kingdom being spiritual says the Remarker the Kings or Rulers there will rule by a spiritual power by which they will be also Priests Here we are first to consider in what regard the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth may be called spiritual in such sort as to be inconsistent with its being a Kingdom Political which is settled by Councils and ordered by Laws and Decrees For certainly the Kingdom of Christ was a spiritual Kingdom from the Apostles times and onward at least till the Christian Religion became the Religion of the Empire and yet the affairs of the Church were regulated by Laws and established by Councils There was at least twenty Councils before Constantine's time So that the Church was both a Spiritual and Political Kingdom of Christ at once In what regard therefore was it spiritual It was spiritual first in regard of its Erection which was not by an arme of flesh or worldly forces as other Kingdoms ordinarily are raised but by the Spirit of God in powerfull preaching of the Gospel and in doing of Miracles Secondly It is an holy spiritual Kingdom antistoechal to the Kingdom of evil spirits against which this Kingdom of Christ was erected to rescue us from their Temptations and the thraldom of sin and wickedness under them And St. Paul declares Ephes. 6.12 That we wrestle not against flesh and bloud as if we had any carnal or worldly design of wrestling the dominion of the World into our own hands that we might enjoy the World but against Principalities against Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the present Princes of the dark World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syrus legit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Grotius against the evil spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the airy Regions which is an Hellenism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answering to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which often signifies no more than the air And Drusius on the place cites one of the Commentators on Liber Aboth who tells us A terra usque ad firmamentum omnia plena esse turmis praefectis infra plurimas esse creaturas laedentes accusantes omnésque stare ac volare in Aere c. Which shews plainly that Drusius is of the same mind with Grotius In this sense therefore is the Kingdom of Christ a Spiritual Kingdom in that by the working of the Spirit in his servants it wrestles with opposes and finally overcomes the Kingdom of evil spirits tempters to all manner of wickedness and debauchery under which the Souls of men were enslaved Thirdly and lastly The Kingdom of Christ is a Spiritual Kingdom because the proper aim and scope thereof is merely spiritual viz. the end and aim of it is not worldly and temporal things but things spiritual and eternal The Polity Laws and administration thereof by those that have the Spirit of God tend to this scope that all the Subjects thereof may advance in the state of Regeneration by the power and working of the Spirit of God in them here that they may be Heirs of that Heavenly invisible spiritual and eternal Kingdom in the world to come Whatever more than this is imagined of the spirituality of Christ's Kingdom will end I fear
That no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end There is also another Scripture that he seems to intimate a false sense of Luke 4.6 Where the Devil says the Disposing of all the Kingdoms of the Earth is given to him and he bestows them on whom he will Which the Remarker says Christ does not gainsay insinuating thereby as if his silence admitted it for truth And indeed Christ himself in St. Iohn more than once calls the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of this World But that is onely to be understood in a Moral sense not in a Political For this Spirit of the World of which the Remarker makes so many words and which is the Image of the Devil in as many as it is as the Divine life is the Image of God and Christ in us nothing can more clearly nor yet more succinctly describe it than what we find 1 Ioh. 2.16 All that is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the World that is of the Spirit of the World And therefore he that is quit of these and is transformed into the Divine life which is the Image of God is really translated out of the darkness of this World into the Kingdom of his dear Son as the Apostle speaks and is a true Christian he in the mean time adhering to the profession of the ancient Apostolick Faith and holding communion with the truly Catholick Church Which others while they pretend to doe though they be plainly under an Antichristian Oeconomy the Spirit of the World according to St. Iohn's description reigning in them they are Morally reigned over by the Devil who obtains a wicked Tyranny over them driving them to Tyrannize or to be tyrannized over even in a Political sense And thus I confess the Devil by his Instruments has a great sway over those that are of the World in the sense above explained and holds them in great slavery and bondage while the softness of the flesh and abhorrence from death and hardship and the covetousness of the eye and the pride of life ambitious Aspires makes them subject to be led captive at his will In this sense our Saviour's calling the Devil the Prince of this World is true But the Devil's boast of being the Prince of this World in his own sense is as false as the other is true And as for that power he has over the bodies of men as to torturous diseases or death in which respect he is called Samael by the Cabbalists he looks there more like an Hang-man or Executioner than like a Prince So that it is hard to conceive what the Remarker would have by his Spirit of the World as to this place of Daniel that may refer to the Winds blustering on the great Sea more than the Expositor has offered already in suggesting that they are either Angelical Powers that bear a great stroke in all humane affairs or the busie and unquiet Activity of ambitious minds especially which St. Iohn calls the Pride of life which does not exclude the other two Concomitants But here has been too much said to such a needless Digression Vers. 4. The Eagle's wings being pluck't is spoken of the whole Kingdom represented by this Beast and therefore is not to be applied onely to the first King thereof much less to that humbling Providence of driving him from his Kingdom c. Whenas he was restored therefrom to his former Majesty Splendour and Glory viz. the wings wherewith that Kingdom was exalted by reason whereof it 's the golden Head of the Image and Babylon is called by Esay the golden City and this continuing the same to the end of the Kingdom the wings taken in this sense cannot be pluck't till then That haughtiness also wherewith the heart of Nebuchadnezzar was liftted up was inherited by his Posterity as appears by Daniel's reproof of Belshazzar ch 5.23 And therefore the plucking of the wings by reason of it ought to respect the one as well as the other The being made to stand upon the feet like a man and having a man's heart given it are two expressions to the same purpose and being as I said of the plucking of the Eagle's wings spoken of the Beast representing the whole Kingdom are not to be applied onely to the first King much less to that single Providence which befell him of his being restored from his delirancy But they signifie that though this Kingdom is represented by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wild Beast as well as the three succeeding yet is it not of so degenerate a salvage nature as they will prove but that the Spirit of a man will bear some sway in it to the furnishing it with some manly endowments viz. the Morality wherein Calvin makes one Kingdom to exceed the other as much as the metals do one another And the noted Chaldean Wisedom which though perhaps not greater than in the succeeding Kingdoms yet did more influence the Government in those less corrupt times And also the noted Majestick splendour of that Kingdom of which speaks Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.36 And for the glory of my Kingdom my honour and brightness returned unto me and excellent Majesty was added unto me c. And hence it 's not onely likened to the most noble generous spirited Beast but also the same hath Eagles wings given unto it which though they signifie the haughty aspiring aforesaid which is described Esay 14.13 14. yet it 's such as transcends the brutish nature and must proceed from the spirit of a man But to make the man's heart given to the Beast signifie Darius his humanity to Daniel is a strange conceit For if Darius was one of the Babylonian Kings yet what is spoken in general of the Beast which signifies the whole Kingdom cannot be appropriated to the last King and he of so short a reign But that the Babylonian Kingdom was finished in Belshazzar appears by Daniel's interpreting the hand-writing on the Wall with which Ieremy's Prophecy does agree of Nebuchadnezzar's Kingdom continuing to his Son and his Son's son And those who reckon the next Kingdom to begin in Cyrus it 's because Darius his reign was so short as to be hardly taken notice of and also during his time the Government was mainly in Cyrus though he bore the name of King Ans. Most of this Remark would have been spared if the Remarker had fully understood or sufficiently considered the nature of a Prophetick Henopoeia For in such an Henopoetick Type the Head or Horn of a Beast together with the body thereof make but one Beast to the end of the succession thereof And therefore what the Beast in any part of its succession does or suffers in any part thereof it is said simply of the Beast to be done or suffered And what by times or intervals is done by or happens to
Iohn's Time than in Daniel's and as if about 600 years nearer approach to the event predicted enabled him to count the duration of the little Horn with eyes in St. Iohn's time to the punctuality of a year whenas in Daniel's time he could count it onely according to those large measures of Semitimes each of which contains 180 years This methinks looks very uncouthly and absurdly Indeed if he had not counted the reign of the little ruffling Horn with eyes by any parts of time but onely predicted that such a Polity would appear during the fourth Kingdom and then after in the Apocalypse told accurately the time of its duration whether 42 months or 1260 days prophetical it would look unsuspectedly but things being as they are they plainly look derogatorily to that perfection of Prescience in the Spirit of Prophecy to fansie he foretold the time of the Event an hundred and eighty times more punctually at 600 years nearer approach thereto viz. in St. Iohn's time than he did at that distance in Daniel's time as if he wanted that advantage then which he had afterwards Secondly It is plainly suggested by the Spirit of Prophecy chap. 12. from those two places compared together vers 6. And the woman fled into the Wilderness that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days and vers 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the Wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time It is plainly I say hence suggested That the expressing of the duration of the Medial-Visions by 1260 days is not for any more accurate account from some known Epocha of the time of the predicted Event For then the time of the woman's abode in the Wilderness should have been expressed in the first place by those more general and lax measures of a Time and Times and half a Time or seven Semitimes but then afterwards by that more strickt and minute measure of a Day as intimating the event to be predicted even to a set Prophetical Day But it being quite contrary it is a plain insinuation that Daniel's seven Semitimes is the Prophetical measure to estimate the true time of the events by and not those lesser parts of time a Prophetical Day or Month this measure of Daniel being placed not onely after the 1260 days in this and the foregoing Chapter but also after the 42 months there mentioned to be a key to the right understanding of these Variations Thirdly It is apparent that the variation of the seven Semitimes is not intended for any more punctually and restrictively predicting the event for that the variation would then have been onely into 1260 days Prophetical But it being also into 42 months it will entangle the account and make the Prophecy seem to contradict it self and imply things impossible to be possible that is that the Prophecy shall predict true as to time and not true at once For if the Event predicted fall within the last part of time suppose the last Prophetick Month though but a little after the beginning thereof the Prophecy is true but the same or what is necessarily and intimately Synchronal to it not falling out in the last of the 1260 days according to which expression it should do it makes the prediction false And indeed there is the same reason of the last Semitime In the fifth month whereof if the woman go out of the Wilderness the prediction is true but sith it is not in the last month nor in the last day it is doubly false Whence it is manifest that those variations of the seven Semitimes into 42 months and 1260 days are onely Cortical in the external Celature of the Vision are mere Numeral Diorisms not Prophetical Numbers restraining the event to any closer pinch of time than if the duration of the Medial-Visions had been in every place expressed by seven Semitimes Fourthly In the Vision of the two Witnesses who while the Outer Court is troden down by the Gentiles for 42 months do mournfully prophesie 1260 days which is the same time in other Terms the Spirit of Prophecy reducing all at last in this Vision Apoc. 11. vers 8.11 to three days and an half does himself set his Seal to this truth That as to the restrictive prediction of the event there was never greater preciseness intended than what that latitude of numbering by Semitimes did require which is very lax And that by three days and an half three times and an half or Daniel's seven Semitimes are signified that Assertion by invincible demonstration in the Apology I mean by those six solid arguments which the Remarker as eager and keen as he is upon the business to invalidate them has but shewn his own weakness in attempting it is made good to any intelligent and unprejudiced Reader Wherefore by the Reduction in the close of the Vision of the 42 months and 1260 days to Daniel's three times and an half expounding Day by Time first as it does most certainly sometimes so signifie and therefore from the abovesaid arguments as certainly so signifies here we may be assured from the Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy himself that the onely standing Authentick measure of the duration of the Medial-Visions is Daniel's seven Semitimes But there is a necessity of reducing the signification of Day to that of Time first because a Prophetick day signifies but one natural year but a Time a Prophetick year which is 360 natural years Fifthly The nature of the things predicted to come to pass at the expiration of the Time of the Medial-Visions is such that their accomplishment cannot be effected in the space of a single Prophetical day Such is a considerable breaking the entireness of the Dominion of the little Horn with eyes or of the two-horned Beast the false Prophet or Whore of Babylon the fall of the tenth part of the City and Rising of the Witnesses at which such Acclamations as these are heard in Heaven The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ chap. 11. vers 15. And chap. 15. that Song of Moses and the Lamb is sung by the triumphant Harpers on the Sea of glass Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways O King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name For thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are manifest Surely all this must not signifie such small Atchievements as can be brought about in one single year And as Rome was not built in one natural day no more could so great a ruine of the Roman Polity or Hierarchy though but partial be effected in one Prophetical day Which unless we reckon by Semitimes must of necessity be the measure we reckon by Wherefore it is plain from the nature of the things