space but that yet that all Takers heed to prophecy Prophecy leads through the dark place with the Illumination of that Course of Time and how long it shall be until the dawning of the day and the shining of the day Star into the hearts of all his Saints by the glorious appearance of Christ and in the fulness of times or all Times Now all this is very evidently to a great and admirable end purpose and effect in the Apostle's Discourse in this Context and whole Epistle viz. to settle the hearts of the Believing Hebrews and of all Christians in the comfortable Expectations of that Kingdom in the midst of the greatest Darkness of the worst Times and it is with the greatest Wisdom of the Divine Spirit of Prophecy that at this very Advantage the Apostle goes on to set out this Apostacy at this very Joint of Discourse of the dark place which that very Apostacy was to create and at naming of prophecy and tells them that there shall be false Prophets among Christians as there were among the People of Israel of old So the Apostle John in the Revelations joins the Antichristian Beast and False Prophet in several Particulars opposite to the Apostles Doctrine concerning Prophecy and Interpretation of Scripture wherein they have Antichristianiz'd as the Pharises at that time had Prevaricated 1. In that insolent Pretence to Infallibility of Interpretation by a Pope and Council and their Clergy would engross Interpretation and the Power of Interpreting Scripture as their own Propriety Right and Dominion 2. In their Locking up Scripture from the people under this very Pretence They cannot interpret nor have right to interpret it so they cannot attend to the sure word of prophecy as they are commended here for doing 3. In their peculiar Enmity to the searching the Prophecy of Scripture and denying even to the most Learned to intermeddle with it seeing their own Condemnation in it contrary to the Apostle's most peculiar Commendation of those who give heed to Prophecy 4. In their setting up Tradition a thing dependent wholly on Human Will above Scripture whereas the Apostle commends Scripture and its Prophecy that it came not by the Will of man but by the Spirit 5. In their allowing to their own Votaries the Credit and Honour of their pretended Inspirations above the Close attendance to Scripture Prophecy and its Interpretation which the Apostle hath here so recommended to every Christian and without the least signification of Inspiration Given to All and his plain making former Scripture the Test of All following 6. By exalting their Fabulous Legendary Miracles above Scripture or the Prophecies notwithstanding even to the Transfiguration The Apostle prefers the sure Word of Prophecy Although That was no Cunning devised Fable and of so great an Excellency by which the Apostle seems prophetically to Glance most severely upon those Cunningly Devised Fables that should arise in the Christian Profession 7. The Apostle Foretelling those Scoffers in the last days who should set up the Mock Fifth Monarchy so earnestly recommends the Words of the Prophets and the Commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour the Great Messiah and Jesus whereby he hath also given a very damning Predictory Admonition of the Grand Antichristian Apostacy Now in all these it may be said to those Antichristians as it was to the Jews and their Rulers of old while they read these Scriptures and the Prophecys of Scripture in their own way they not understanding the Voices of the Prophets are most justly condemned in fulfilling them For thus ought the Antichristian Apostacy to do though most wickedly they do so that these Scripture Prophecys may be fulfilled All that hath now been spoken being by way of premisal and preparation I lay down these Propositions 1. That Scripture Prophecy is given by God for a Light that must shine in the dark place of the Antichristian Apostacy till the end of which the Kingdom of Christ is in delay 2. Christians do well to take heed to it as so shining and giving the time when the day of that Kingdom shall dawn and the day Star of it shine into the hearts of all Saints 3. Such heed cannot be given except there be a Right given to Christians and a power of interpreting Scripture Prophecies 4. It is a First Principle to Christians of the Apostle's setting and fixing that all and every Prophecy of Scripture and particularly of Time relating to the Kingdom of Christ is Open and Free and not a Private Record or of any way an Enclos'd Impropriated or Appropriated Interpretation For the more clear and illustrious arguing the Grand Proposition That all and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of a private or secret but of an open free and publick Interpretation I will first proceed by direct and down right proof and Argument that of all Scripture except that which lays down the Truths precisely and absolutely necessary to Salvarion The Prophecy of Scripture is in its Interpretation most Free open and most certain I will in the second place give Answers to the great Objections against this Proposition so prov'd I will in the Third Place consider what Standards according to Reason and Scripture-understanding may be given whereby we may judge whether any one hath given a true Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy viz. whereby the person giving such true Interpretation and whereby Any other may judge of it and find it so In the Fourth Place I will draw out in most publick view the Evidences I my self have within my self and have offered to others that I have given a True Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy All this I will do with most particular relation to prophetical numbers of Time I will Super-add a Judgment upon the state of Time Intermedious from hence to the Kingdom of Christ and shew that the Kingdom of Christ shall be very sudden and as Lightning And this I shall do by way of retractation and correction of Any thing wherein I have err'd in this matter and what will be as an Answer of an Objection that Glories in the present appearance of Things to Sense as if no such Kingdom were near I will recollect the whole in some very Brief Reflections for the settlement of the Judgment and practice in relation to Scripture Prophecy concerning Time I begin with the First The arguing the Proposition which shall insist upon these Four Heads or Topicks 1. I argue from the Infinite Ability of the Divine Spirit so to give Prophecy that the Interpretation may be Free and Publick 2. I argue from the necessity That whatever is written with sense and coherence of the things written and with the Harmony of Truth if the parts of such Discourses are diligently compar'd and sagaciously intermedled with by persons separating themselves thereunto a certain Interpretation must needs fly out to them 3. I argue from the gracious Assistances and Promises that the Holy Spirit will as the Spirit of Truth lead into all Truth shewing things that are to come and give the key of knowledge leading into the Sectets of Prophecy even wherein our Dulness and Slowness of Heart makes them so notwithstanding the Provision of the Spirit for
point yet They need no Proof but Require only to be Magnified Displayed and Illustrated Argum. 2. Any Author or Writer that can Write Sense and who does indeed Write Sense and Writes with some Largeness and Diffusiveness of that his Sense and does declare He would be Heard and Read and would have the Minds that have Wisdom Exercise themselves upon what is Written let him wrap up his Mind and Sense in such Figures that none but the Wise and Considering should find out his meaning and let it but be that he accordingly hath Framed his Discourse whenever such a Writer gives out and makes publick such a Writing he thereby puts it under the Dominion of every One that is Wise and Sagacious and who will allow the Time and Thought that is necessary to make such Observation and Compare of the Hints and Remarks that cannot be Avoided in Rational and Coherent Discourse however Involv'd in Symbols and Figures by which the Sense and Meaning may be Understood and Found out But now it is on one side most True that None as the Divine Spirit can Write Highest Truth and of Stupendious Significancy and Coherence and yet Veil and Hide it so as that it should be impossible to find it out but remain perfect Mystery till the time of Revealing it should come if he pleased so to have it But then on the other hand none as he can Write in Figures and under Veils and yet so mix the Lights and the Shades if he please to have it so that the Minds that have Wisdom shall find Light Arising and Springing out in Taking heed to the sure Word of Prophecy And if They are Inclin'd and stirr'd up to separate Themselves to Intermiddle with this Wisdom it cannot be but they must make great Discoveries If they faithfully attend and lay the parts one to another and it be the will of that Holy Spirit of Prophecy they should do so Now that it is his Pleasure They should do so is made known by the very Writing and Publication of Prophecy and no Prohibition of Searching it as also by the obligation that lies upon all when he Writes to observe and understand This is due in Measure to every Intelligent and Worthy Writer but without Measure to his the Spirits Writing It is known to be his pleasure Because there is a General Command to Search the Scripture Because All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is Profitable and there is no Interdict upon Prophecy as to the search nor Limitation as to the Profitableness It is known to be his pleasure concerning Prophecy because it is said by our Lord with Relation to the Prophecy of Daniel Let him that readeth Vnderstand Because the Apostle Peter hath said of the more sure word of Prophecy yee do well in Taking heed to it because it is written as in Golden Letters on the Portal of the Revelation Blessed is he that Readeth and they that hear the words of the Prophecy of this Book which must needs imply with Understanding Because it is the Epiphonema the Burden of every Epistle of it He that hath an Ear let him hear And if it be thus then all the Locking up the Mind of the Holy Spirit of Prophecy is that he may reserve the Secrets of it for the peculiar Friends I say not of his word in general but of his Prophetick Word and that they may whet up the sharpest Exercise of their Powers of Understanding to find the Golden Taches and Couplings and one Part of Prophecy may be joyn'd to Another and the whole peice be under view in all its Frame and Contexture As soon as ever therefore the Holy Spirit hath once Publish'd and Expos'd his Prophetic Writings and thereby and therein Affix'd them to the Pillars of the Temple They are by his Grace made the Right of his Servants to search into and to Understand For they then cease to be the Secret Things that Belong to God But they being Reveal'd become those that Belong to us and to our Children we enter into that Priviledg of the Israel of God To us belong the Oracles of God every servant of God that hath his Heart stirred up hath very good Right to search and his search is no Sacriledg nor shall be imputed to him as Curiosity or presumption It is his Right to Search even as among Men it is no Violation to Inquire into the Sense of any Author offering himself to the Publick and there is greater Encouragement in Searching the sure Word of Prophecy than in Searching any other Author or Writing as is next to be spoken Argum. 3. I Argue from the Infinite Grace of the Divine Spirit that as he hath Given to Man a searching Mind after all Knowledg so he would not give any part of Scripture as a Torment of wise Inquisitive Persons but give the Key of Knowledg to Them and that he will as the Spirit of Truth so Lead into All Truth and shew his Servants Things to Come with such Uprightness Faithfulness and Sincerity that there shall be no more Secresy or privacy in the Interpretation of Prophecy than is necessary according to the Laws He knows Just and Due and which he hath himself weigh'd out as so Just and Due to Prophetick Oracles even as in All other parts of Scripture he hath in Infinite Wisdom as he weighed out the Mountains in Scales and the HIlls in a Ballance so proportion'd to every point of Scripture-Truth its Exact measure of clearness of Revelation and so consequently of Interpretation the most necessary are the most plain and yet there are Truths of the Grace of God freely Justifying and Accepting sinners in Christ that call for the most Quicken'd and Awaken'd Faculties for the Interpretation of them as also concerning the inward Operations of the Grace of God in the Hearts of Men and yet in all These and such as These The Holy Spirit hath Wisely and Holyly Given out his Oracles in a most Righteous Scale between the Excellency of the Truth he Reveals and the Exercise he knows necessary to the Mind of Man in Searching out the Interpretation and so hath made the Manifestation more Ligtsome or Requiring Closer Attendance And thus in Prophecy according to the Vehemency of Search and Enquiry he hath thought fit he hath Dispensed This doth not make it yet Private Interpretation because there are such Lines of Communication between part and part Emblem and Emblem number of Time and number of Time between words in Prophecy and words used in the Time of Prophecy Fullfill'd between Rules of Time in Prophecy and celebrated Rules of Time among Men in Prophecy Fulfill'd between Prophecy and Vniversal History that all may be made Plain But beyond All this Interpretation of Prophecy is not Private because The Spirit of Prophecy who Knowes it because he gave it Even that Blessed Publick Spirit of Wisdom Truth Scripture is present to Assist his Servants Searching into Prophecy Leading
of the very Light it self what Prophecy Reveals is so contrary to the State they are in that they are as the Expression is in Job upon all appearance of such Light as it were in the Terrors of the shaddow of Death The Aspect of Prophecy upon both the Civil and Ecclesiastick State of the present World is most Terrible especially when it comes to the Determination of Time as near Thus the Lord makes Foolish the Wisdom of the Wise c. Esay 28. that they cannot endure it and so hate the Light and will not come to it least their State should be Reproved and Shaken and are Angry that such a Light should be flashed in their Faces But these are only the next or second Causes there is a higher judiciary Cause that sways Righteously and Holily and yet so as Permitting and leaving Men to themselves even this That Because men do not like to attend to the sure Word of Prophecy God gives them up to this Culpable Cause and Reason of all the Injudiciousnesses concerning the meaning of Prophecy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepossessions against the Interpretation of it as if it were private and Reserv'd and thus that his Wise and Just purpose purpose should be fulfilled that the dark place should be a dark place still while the Apostacy should according to the Oath of Christ for Time Times and half Time continue and till the Day down and the Day-Star arise in mens hearts and yet no Encouragement or Boldness ministred to it that it might continue so Dark without Great Sin And indeed though the faulty Cause of all this be the not Receiving the Truth in the Love of it on which God gives up the Apostacy to strong Delusions and to believe a Lye and because of the Few and Small Things he hath against his Suffering Churches of Pergamus and Thyatyra and the Sardian State of the Reformation that hath a Name to Live and yet is dead Upon all these Accounts Prophccy is so little understood saying the Glimmerings of Light given by a very Few and those very Little Acceptable Interpreters that do inlighten and shew by a Little how this dark place would be inlightned by taking heed to the Sure Word of Prophecy But I am about to say if Prophecy were as Fully and Truly Interpreted as the Publickness of its Constitution for Interpretation would give Leave to it would especially now so near the End so inlighten the dark place that there would be no Room found for the Darkness of the Apostacy but it would fly away like Shades of the Night at the Morning Appearance But as the Apostle says God hath concluded All under Sin so under the Apostacy either in Full as in the Antichristian World or in Part as in the Reformation-Part that in his own Time he might have mercy upon All. On the Heighth and Depth of the Riches of both the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his paths and his ways past finding out For of him and by him are all things to him be glory for ever 2. The Disagreement among the Interpreters of Prophecy and more particularly the Great Mistakes they have fallen into in point of Time seems a more formidable Objection against the Freeness and Publickness of the Interpretation of Prophecy and most as to Time For when Wise Learned Sagacious and very Diligent Zealous and Holy Persons have set themselves to inquire and find out the Mind of the Spirit and have not found it but have disagreed among themselves and so some must be in mistakes For they cannot differ and all be in the Right This is much more against the Interpretation of Prophecy being not private than if none had attempted For were it not under Reserve why have they not been more successful in finding that have so tryed and put themselves forth to the utmost therein Answ 1. We ought to be very wary to urge either Mistakes or Differences of Interpreters in interpreting Prophecy of Scripture lest we shut our selves out of all Interpretation of Scripture in General yea even out of Great Points of Faith and Truth of the Gospel Because in all these there are Great Differences of Explication and therefore Mistakes on some side Should we therefore Reason These are so Dark and Reserv'd as not to be medled with This would be an high Dishonour to our Christian Profession Let us much rather make our Attendances to Reading and Meditation more Inward Constant Serious Deep Humble with more earnest Supplications for Divine Assistance and Free Communications of his Spirit the Author of all Knowledg in the Truths making wise to Salvation and so in Interpretation of Prophecy Answ 2. Whensoever Any have fallen short or are mistaken in the Interpretation of Prophecy we must conclude there was a want of Due Attendance and God Left even Good Men and his Servants so to themselves that they have miss'd in what they have seem'd to themselves or even to others to have attain'd But in the mean time nothing is to be charg'd upon Prophecy of Scripture or the Nature and Constitution of it as to Interpretation as if it were dark and incertain and we could ne're be sure whether we had it aright or not so contrary to the Apostles Doctrine concerning it For as no Weakness or Indisposition of the Eye or Disadvantage in Avenues or Entrances of Light are to be charg'd on the Light it self so none of the Hallucinations or over-sights or Stumbles of the Interpreters of Prophecy are to be imputed so much to the Difficulty of Interpretation of it as in it self but to our Dullness of sight or hearing what the Spirit hath therein said to the Churches Nor is any one therefore to be discouraged but only cautioned not to be high minded but to fear Even as the many Miscarriages in persons seeking Eternal Happiness should not deter us from walking in the way of Life but oblige us to do it with an holy fear and trembling lest we should so much as seem to fall short Object 3. It will be said It is true Nothing is to be laid to the charge of Prophecy it self or to the Constitution of it for such Interpretation as God intended for it But it may hence be collected God intended Prophecies should be kept secret until either they shall be opened in such a glorious state of the Church as is signified by the Kingdom of Christ or till each Prophecy shall be fullfilled or at least till as near the Time of fullfilling as it was when Daniel by Beoks understood concerning the End of the Seventy Years Captivity Answ 1. Nothing of what is mentioned in this Objection will satisfy what the Apostle Peter hath here affirmed For that Prophecy should be a Light shining in a dark place can by no means be accommodated to the state of the Kingdom of Christ That could ne'r be styl'd by the Apostle a dark place although it is most True Prophecy
it But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it comes something near the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet can never be it or the same so it seems somewhat a-kin in sense to Super or Preternatural Emotion but at so great a distance It can never be Divine Supernatural nor like it but most Contrary to it and Abhorred of it For it is a word of very ill Intention and signifies the Force of Enchantment on the Enchanted Person a sense that can by no means be suffered to Enter into the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit the Spirits of his Prophets nor Agree to the Sacred scope and purpose of the Apostle But I will yet further Argue against any other word but Epilusis in Arguing against any other sense but that sole and single sense of Interpretation so that by Epilusis shall not cannot be understood as some would have it any kind of Dismission or sending out the Prophets to Prophecy For 1. The very same word differing only as a Noun and a Verb that is used here by the Apostle Peter is used in the very same Sense and in the very same matter and purpose Mark 3. 34. Only what is denied here by this Apostle is affirmed in another Case there viz. Our Lord Expounded his Parables but Apart or Privately to his Disciples There Epelue He Expounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apart Here the Exposition or Interpretation of Prophecy is denied to be Apart This Scripture in Mark therefore is as if the Spirit of God had on purpose provided an Assurance in what manner these same Words are to be understood in Peter viz. by the Certain Undoubted Sense of them in Mark And it is the more to be Noted if we give heed to the Ecclesiastic Memoir that the Apostle Peter super-intended the Evangelist Mark in his Writing that Gospel Observe therefore The same Divine Spirit by the very same Servant of his the Penman of this Epistle and the Supervisor of that Gospel uses both Words the word so much the same with Epilusis so undoubtedly in the sense of Expounded and of Privately or Apart in the Word Idios and that they are us'd both Affirmatively and Negatively in the same sense For what the Evangelist spoke Affirmatively viz. Christ did Expound or Interpret but Apart that the Apostle in this Text lays down in the Negative or denies concerning the same Exposition or Interpretation viz. That it is not Apart or Private This is so full in this kind of Argument that it seems unnecessary to add It is the word used by the Septuagint for the Interpretation of the Dreams of Pharaohs Officers by Joseph Gen. 41. 82. 2. But that which is indeed above All is The Reason and Scope of the Apostles Discourse require the word Interpretation and no other For the Apostle was not Pressing that the word of Prophecy is a sure Word That He knew was Agreed and most acknowledged between Him and the Hebrew Strangers scattered Abroad to whom He wrote and so the Apostle takes that for a most confessed Thing and that they gave heed to it as such but that which required immediately to be further spoken to was That the sure Word of Prophecy shines as a Light in the dark place in which the Churches of Christ are till the Day of the Kingdom of Christ dawn and He the Phosphor and Day-Star of it shine into the Hearts All His For that is every where the Character of that Kingdom it first dawns and then it shines and it shines into All Hearts possesses All Minds The Day of Gospel-Light and the Day-star of that had already shone for they were Established in the present Truth but that the Apostle intended was to come For He says Vntil it shine which could not be properly said of what is past Besides That could not be come that was yet in Prophecy and needed Prophecy to shine in the place of it which Place had been altogether Dark if it had not been for the Light of Prophecy And the Darkness of it was because that Day did not yet Dawn nor the Day-Star Arise Now to this Light of Prophecy saith the Apostle You do well to Take Heed you do well as it is your Duty so to do and as it is honourably well So it is said Blessed is He that Readeth and They that Hear But to this This Objection might well be made It is a great difficulty to understand Prophecy who or how few are agreed about the Sense and Interpretation of it and especially in what relates to the Time of it and those Numbers relating to Time so particularly in Daniel This therefore the Apostle would prevent and surprize before hand and He does it by laying this as a first Principle That All and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of Private Interpretation If it were so it were indeed vain to Take Heed to it as to a Light shining in a dark place for then it would be as dark as the dark place it self A Prophecy of the Kingdom that cannot be Interpreted can no way enlighten the Dark State of the Non-appearance of the Kingdom But the Apostle assuring the Sure word of Prophecy is not Private Secret Apart but of an Open Ftee Interpretation is full to the Purpose of Taking Heed or Giving Attendance to it as to such a Light And then the Apostles following words evince the same Thing Prophecy came not of old Time by the will of Man But Holy Men of God spake as they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carried Moved Inspired by the Holy Spirit as is further to be Explain'd Now this comes as a Reason of what had been said before as is manifest by the Particle For And it is indeed a great Reason why no Prophecy of Sceipture should be of a private Interpretation because it was given as shall be shewn from the Publick Spirit and not from a Private Spirit as every Created Human Spirit is But if we understand the word us'd for Interpretation to signify either Illapse or Inspiration these following words would be only words of Amplification and not of Proof and to be Interpreted as the opposite to Private by the Adversative But and not Ratiocinative as the Causal Conjunction For assures them to be And the sense must run thus No Prophecy of Scripture is of Private Interpretation But Holy Men of God spake moved by the Holy Spirit and if any one should put in For after Inspiration or Illapse suppos'd in place of Interpretation It is as if the Apostle had said It is not of private Inspiration and therefore of Divine For there can be no opposite to Private but Divine in the Apostles sense and therefore it is not of private Inspiration Because or For Holy men were not Privately but Divinely Inspired which is Amplification and not Probation But if we take as on all Accounts we ought the word to be Interpretation the For comes in most justly as introducing a Great
Reason Why Prophecy cannot be of private Interpretation because it is of publick Inspiration as shall be shewn How strong a Reason is this Now seeing Probation or Proof makes a Discourse stronger than Amplification only If there be any doubt concerning a word Whether This or That That ought to be preferred which makes the Sacred Text more Sinewy and strong and so does the word Interpretation here And seeing there is so much for that word and nothing against it it ought to be acquiesced in by All as offering so great a Truth That we ought as in Hearing so in Preaching to give the sense of Prophecy as it is said of Ezra and the other Levites and the People under them Nehem. 8. 7. They gave the sense of the Law and Caused the People to understand the Reading or Preaching that is the inward sense of it and not only the Syllabical Reading lost in Babylon as some may suppose For that is beneath the Holy Spirits notice And thus ought Prophetical Scripture to be Administred Because it is not of private Interpretation It and the Time of it ought to be opened and explained All and every part in all its Divine senses But that further yet This point of Interpretation may be settled and secured and not only so but highly illustrated I will endeavour to clear that the Grand Importance of the Context nay of this whole Epistle is Adjusted and Prepared to Assure That Prophecy of Scripture is not of a Private Interpretation in that greatest Point of Prophecy of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Time of it That Mystery of God to be Fulfilled Evangelized by All his Prophets that Restitution of All Things in that Kingdom spoken of by All the Prophets since the World began Now of this Kingdom and the Time of it The Apostles Affirmation The Prophecies of Scripture are not of any private Interpretation when and in what they speak of it hath the chief and most eminent place And therefore the Discourse upon so great a Scripture so levelled and prepared as I may say to all intents and purposes for the Justification of search into Prophecy concerning the Kingdom of Christ and what ot what manner of Time the Spirit of God hath signified is indeed a Magna Charta for Interpretation of it Now then the occasion of all the Context is the mention of the Abundant Entrance into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and That an Everlasting Kingdom Now of this Kingdom there is a Twofold state That which is now at present and by way of preparation or the Ministration of an Entrance and concerning that The Apostle says They were established in the present Truth 2. There is a Future State and Glory of that Kingdom which is that Everlasting Kingdom and to which this present Kingdom of Grace Ministers an Entrance and of this saith the Apostle I will not be negligent to put you in remembrance Upon this Basis or Foundation laid then I will first give great Arguments That through the whole Epistle and particularly in this Context the Apostle hath very great Relation to this Kingdom and most particularly to the Time of it 2. That the Context having so great Relation to this Kingdom and particularly to the Time of it also there is great Reason the Apostle should speak concerning the Interpretation of Prophecy as the principal Point and that Inspiration should Attend upon it In the first Part I will give Arguments First That the Kingdom is intended And then in the second place for the Time as intended also Argument 1. That which I have already said is most manifest That the mention of the Kingdom of Christ to which the Apostles Discourse before made haste and to which the whole Epistle after issues hath immediate Relation to this Context For the Connexion and Coherence is so close and strict that there is no dividing the one from the other as will appear in the following Particulars For 2. The Apostle gives notice what Kingdom of Christ He had regard to when He Styles it in Remembrance of that Kingdom Promised in Daniel the Everlasting Kingdom as it is there Styl'd C. 7. an Everlasting Dominion and a Kingdom that shall not be destroyed 3. In that so Emphatically He gives the Title of Saviour to Christ as the Apostle Paul joyns the appearance of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ together For therein above All Christ is seen and will be known to be the Saviour Restoring All that was Ruined by the sin of the First Adam 4. The great care the Apostle expresses They should have that Kingdom in remembrance although they were establish'd in the present Truth that Ministers but an entrance into that Kingdam as was intimated before 5. The Apostle as the New-Testament generally does calling the Kingdom of Christ his coming remembers the Admonition Christ gave him of hss dying or putting off that Tabernacle before he should so come whereas the Apostle had an expectation of that Kingdom immediately as they said Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel 6. The Apostle giving so full a Representation of the Transfiguration which was it self an admirable Landskip and a Model of iâ— gives it on purpose to foreshew it the Apostle therefore gives it in Terms most expressive of the Kingdom of Christ v. 16. to v. 19. 1. It is called the Power and Coming of Christ and the word Masesty imports Royal Greatness v. 16. 2. The sollemn Inauguration of Christ by the Voice from the excellent glory This is the beloved Son in whom I am well pleased like unto that other so great Declaration of him Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee when he set his Kingdom on his holy hill of Sion v. 18. 3. As the New-Jerusalem the Palace of the Kingdom of Christ is an exceeding high and holy Mountain so all this glory was on the holy Mountain 4. In that the Apostle is so apprehensive it might be suspected to be a cunningly devised Table which Caution of the Apostle is indeed a great Key of this whole Discourse and will lead us into the reason of this Context as shall appear after 5. In that the Apostle passes so immediately from the Transfiguration to the sure Word of Prophecy and to prophecy shining as a light in a dark place by which two Characters put together it manifestly appears the Kingdom of Christ intended is neither the Kingdom of Grace the Spiritual Kingdom the Gospel of Grace as we generally speak nor the Kingdom of Eternity not the Kingdom of Grace because not only Prophecy looks to things to come if still in Prophecy and to be fulfilled but also if it should be suppos'd That Prophecy shin'd in that Kingdom of Grace and of the Gospel by the Apostles so Illustrious Ministry that could be by no means called a dark or squalid or foul place For it was the Gloriousest State of the
Kingdom and of Prophecy fulfill'd in it that had been ever before or hath been since or that shall be till that very Everlasting Kingdom of Christ come into its succession then it could not be the Kingdom of Eternity For the Kingdom of Eternity is not the manifestation of Prophecy but one of the plainest and most Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel and of Christianity I come therefore to the second thing that this Epistle of the Apostle Peter is adjusted to and that is to the shewing the time of the Kingdom for which I give these Arguments 1. That the Apostle calls it the Everlasting Kingdom by which as was before intimated he refers to Daniel's Prophecy of that Everlasting Kingdom and Dominion Dan. 7. 27. which is postpon'd to four Kingdoms and Monarchies the last of which was then in course when the Apostle wrote this and to the last state of which viz. the Feet of Iron and Clay and the ten Horns and a little one chief of the Ten there was an allowance of Time Times and Half a Time before the Kingdom of Christ could come into its Succession 2. The Apostle by saying The sure word of prophecy shines as a light in a dark place intimates it foretels the time of that glorious Kingdom how could it shine so effectually as to enlighten the dark place if it gave no Knowledge when Prophecy should be fulfill'd For that Prophecy does not pass immediately into effect made the space between the appearance of Christ in Flesh and in Glory dark and therefore the light of Prophecy gives us a direction upon the Time when the eflect of Prophecy shall be the hope and assurance of which Enlightens 3. The Apostle according to other Scriptures distinguishes between the day dawning and the Day-Star arising one signifying the succession of the Kingdom of Christ the other the glory of that Kingdom So the Mystery of God is to be fulfilled in the days of the Seventh Angel and then Christ appears in his Glory So the Apostle distinguishes between Christ blasting the man of sin with the Breath of his Mouth which is by the mighty power of the Everlasting Gospel and then utterly consuming and annihilating Him with the Brightness of his Coming or Appearanee 4. The Apostle describes the Apostacy that should so long delay the Kingdom of Christ in mystical Terms under the shade of Nicolaianism and Gnostiscism so fit to type out the Idolatry impurity of Manners and all the Abominablenesses of the Antichristian State of which Antichrist the little Horn in Daniel whose representation Daniel gave as thinking to change Times and Laws until the time of the Kingdom of Christ Now of this very changing Times and Laws is the Second Chapter of this Epistle a delineation and most prophetically and at greatest advantage after the mention of Prophecy it is given 5. His Third Chapfer most plainly and exprsly refers to Time for he answers not as some think the Atheists but the Antichristians Objection those great Burlesquers of Christianity into Fables called therefore Scoffers who say That all things from the Flood having continued as they were there is no such change as of the Kingdom of Christ to be expected and so all that which concerns the Kingdom of Christ hath passed with them for Millenarian Heresie The Apostle hath therefore laid down the Rule and Standard of Time accounting the Six-days of Creation each as at a Thousand Years and in the Evening or as between the two Evenings of the sixth Millenary begins the Sabbatical Milenary or the Seventh Thousand which is with the Lord that is with relation to the Lord or the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to his Kingdom but as one day often called the Day of Judgment and that Sabbath Day in which Saying of the Apostle That a Thousand Years is as one Day there is a manifest foresight of the Divine Spirit what it would make known by John even that number'd exactly Numbered Time of a Thousand years which the Apostle Peter affirm'd to be with the Lord viz. as Time designed and set out to the Lord as his own Times That one Day Now as this view of this Epistle gives us a clear apprehension how full to the purpose of Prophetical Scripture this Epistle is written how it simpathizes and is contemporate with the whole Scope and Spirit of it so the Words and Sense of Interpretation is exactly fitted to all and no other can fit it For there were two things all the Hebrews both unbelieving and believers were fully agreed in 1. That the Prophecies of Scripture were of Divine Inspiratien that Prophecy of Scripture came not by the will of man but was from the Holy Spirit This the Believing and Unbelieving Jews were both most zealous of 2. That Messiah had a Kingdom assured to him in the Prophesies of Scripture This even the Unbelieving Jews were all in highest expectation of at that very time and the Believing Jews also were earnestly at that time in expectation of To these the Apostle therefore cannot be supposed to direct the force of his Discourse But that Jesus Christ was not to be owned as the true Messiah the Son of God and the King of Israel notwithstanding his Kingdom did not immediately appear was a Point the Unbelieving Jews are to this day scandalized at even to their rejection of Christ the True Messiah and the Christian Hebrews were very tender in Therefore that Jesus Christ was the True Messiah and that great Prince the Apostle gave first the proof of the Transfiguration as hath been shewn And that he with James and John were Eye and Ear-Witnesses Three Witnesses in the Mouths of whom it was establish'd and no Cunningly devised Fable to shift off the Scandal of the mean Appearance of our Lord in the days of his Flesh But saith the Apostle We have a more sure word of Prophecy as hath been opened to which you do well to take heed But the Objection still remains That the Prophecys run all upon a Glorious Kingdom of Messiah at that time to appear as the Unbelieving Jews thought and therefore the Scribes Pharisees Chief-Priests Elders their whole Sanhedrim determin'd against him with a high hand that he was a Deceiver The asserting therefore the Divine Inspiration of Prophecy could not be to the main purpose but that it is not of Private Interpretation but that serious Christians may find the sense and meaning of it and that it is not within the Enclosure or Embarasse of any Sanhedrim Council or Infallible Breast This is indeed highly to the purpose and that according to the Sense and Meaning of the Divine Spirit in it one part compared with another by the Assistances of the same Spirit it would appear that as Daniel's Seventy Weeks brought down Time to its fulness viz. at the Death Resurrection and Ascention of Christ that a dark place or Interval of delay and patience for that Kingdom must needs be for a long
their Interpretation Argument I. The Divine Spirit hath an Infinite and Infallible Prescience of things that are to come to pass Known to him are the Works of God from the very Foundation of the World to the end of it with every particular Accident to the very least Circumstance and therefore he can foretell all things as clearly as he pleases and so that they may be interpreted and understood He searcheth all things even the deep things of God whose Counsels of old are faithfulness and truth who calleth the End from the Beginning and can declare it For he worketh all thingsafter the Counsel of his own Will which Will he knew from Eternity within himself This Prescience of the Divine Spirit is acknowledg'd by All Christians except some few who least deserve the Name of Christians who deny the Actual Determinations of Free or what we call Fortuitous Agents to be Scibilia or Knowable I make not therefore here any dispute concerning the High Mystery of the Supreme Prescience how or in what manner God foreknew when the things fore known depend on causes acting so freely that what they will choose seems impossible to be known before hand or so fortuitously that if it could be foreseen how they would be cast the Fortuitousness seems destroyed But that God does foreknow I take for granted even as it is much the more generally agreed and in several greatest Instances of each kind it is most evident and undeniable in Scripture God hath foretold the Events of each sort God magnifies his own Divinity and challenges all False Names of Deity upon this very Point For thus he says Declare to us things to come that we may know you are Gods Isa 43. 23. And as he foresees and fore-knows with infinite clearness and perspicuity even so he is able according to the nature of Prophetick Language which he hath constituted and fram'd taking the Example from none but giving it to all to Express all things Prophetically He employs the true Laws of speaking Prophetically and shewing things to come he knows by his own Wisdom so to govern the speaking of his Servants the Prophets that prophetical things may be compar'd with prophetical Prophetical things in the Old-Testament with prophetical things in the New Even as he hath taken care in all Spiritual Things in General as the Apostle shews at large 1 Cor. c. 2. That they may be so express'd that Spiritual things may be compar'd with Spiritual Even so that Prophetical Emblems Figures Iconisms Types Numbers of Time in the Old and New-Testament may be compar'd and co-ordinated one with another that They as face to face or as Tally to Tally may answer and agree the one to the other and may not be of any such private Interpretation as not to be search'd into or understood He also foresaw there would be and took care there should be Monuments of clear undoubted and Universal History to correspond with Prophecy as Testimonies of a mighty and powerful providence that should ratifie it by event and that there should be among all Nations in their Historical Records witnesses thereunto Nay beyond this by the Infiniteness of the Divine Foresight the Holy Spirit hath chosen out such Words as should themselves give great Light and Confirmation in the Explanation of Prophecy by their own Light by falling in with the Words made use of in the time of Events coming to pass For the Holy Spirit having a certain Foresight of the Words that should be at any time in general use could point to them many Ages before for his own service in Prophecy and being so pointed to and coming so into use they make a very considerable Character to distinguish both Times and their just place in Prophecy In the same manner the Holy Spirit foreknew what celebrated Rule or Number there would be found necessary in any Age for the Adjustment and Mensuration of time to such purposes as he had to remark upon in his Prophetical Frame and when he is pleas'd to make any Allusion to it it is of singular use to the Explication and assurance of Prophetical Time and whereabout in Time we are by concerting one with another viz. One such Note in History and Event with such its correspondent Note in Prophecy many particulars in each sort of these shall after be remarked and they 'll plainly shew that Prophecy was not intended nor design'd for secrecy and reserve from All Interpretation Now in all these Particulars I use the Word Foreknew or Foresaw to avoid any dispute on the Word Fore-ordered which else I altogether prefer God therefore in scorn to the Dark Oracles of the Devil as well as to the Black Dens and Caves out of which he gave them says thus Esay 45. 19. I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth I said not unto the seed of Jacob seek ye my face in vain viz. my Counsel and Will in Prophecy as they that seek to the Idols of the Heathen For I the Lord speak Righteousness I declare the things that are Right Right in Regard of Infinite Understanding and Fore-knowledg of all Events I speak Things That are All plain to him that Vnderstandeth and Right to them that find Knowledg It cannot be suposed that the Divine Spirit can have any necessity upon him to speak Darkly or Ambiguously concerning things to come if he please to speak at all of them as undoubtedly he hath been pleased to speak of them or that in that Regard Prophecy of Scripture should be of any reserv'd or secret Interpretation For all things however to come are so Open and Naked before him with whom we have to do that he need not Darken Counsel by words without Knowledg either as they do who know not Themselves nor Vnderstand and so cannot beget Knowledg in others Or that would deceive For he knows All so as to speak plainly clearly certainly concerning Them He understands them fully the certainty of their coming to pass He is neither Nescient nor Doubtful concerning any Thing or the Manner or the Time of its comming to pass and therefore how long soever he speaks of them before hand yet he needs not so to speak as to hide himself in his Prophecy concerning Them or seek Subter-fuges or Ambi Dextrous expressions concerning Them any more nor so much as any Other He that looks most downright on things present For as Darkness and Light are all one to the Father of Lights so Yesterday and to Day are all one to him who Inhabits Eternity and who is without any Variation or Shaddow of Turning All these Things are so undoubtedly certain so Universally Agreed and Acknowledg'd that altho they themselves make a High Argument in this
them into the Treasures of it Springing Thoughts into them all of the Sudden Bringing Things to their Remembrance that else would not have come there and so Enabling them to Match and Enterweave All those Foremention'd Indentings one with another and thereby raising in them Assurances equal to Demonstration He also foresaw what Humble Enquirers into these Things he would stir up and Assist in every Time and what measures of Assistance he would Allow them And yet this does not make Interpretation Private to such persons apart because such Accesses to All the Means of Interpretation and to those Assistances of the Spirit are free and open to one as well as another and what is given in Interpretation to any one ought to be freely Communicated and in the Reasons and Grounds of it It lies open to All And they who are thus Assisted are not Assisted for Themselves only but as Lights set on an hill that they may not be Hid. Now this Assistance of that Blessed Spirit as a Spirit Graciously present to the Searchers into Prophecy is an Encouragement beyond what any Author in the World can give to them who search into their Writings For who as he can be so always present to the Minds and Understandings of Those who Read and Meditate upon them Who as he can Recompense the Love Reverence and Diligence of those who wait upon Him Who can as he Prompt to Them summon to their Memory keep them in Doubt and so urge them to further Enquiries refresh their Researches and so make Things further known to Them so settle confirm and assure Them that they may know the Certainty of the Words of Truth This is an undeniable Priviledg and Ground of Hope to All who set Themselves by Prayer Desire and Humble Endeavours to Search and so seek out the Misteries of Wisdom to be found out in the Book of Prophecy why then should it be Thought a Hopeless Undertaking or an Incredible Thing that any one should be so Assisted that doth Humbly Profess he hath so waited upon God in his Word Or that That Key of Prophetical Knowledg should be vouchsafed to such a one when so gracious Assistances are Promised from and by the Divine Spirit the Publick Spirit of Prophecy and its Interpretation Now All this I have Discoursed in General I would particularly Argue concerning Prophetick Time and by an Argument most peculiar to it For not only in general If All and Every Prophecy be Constituted of a not private Interpretation then not Prophecies by Numbers defining Time to the Kingdom of Christ For as hath been said if All Scripture as the Apostle Paul says be of Divine Inspiration Then Prophecy So if All Prophecy be not of Private Interpretation then not that very particular Part of Prophecy which Defines Time And as Prophecy is so excellent a part of Scripture so the Numbers Defining Time are an excellent part of Prophecy and therefore cannot be of private Interpretation if Prophecy be not so For every General includes all especially chiefest Particulars But I shall further Argue with a Peculiar Respect to the Prophetick Numbers of Time that they of any cannot be of Private Interpretation For Number Weight and Measure are Things of so great Exactness that the whole Communication of the World Depends upon them and Scripture puts upon them great Honour also requiring above all that they be Exact as the Rules of all Enter-Course Now therefore when Scripture takes Number and Measures of Time into it self if these are not well understood how can they be such Standards of Enter-course Seeing then Prophecy hath so many Numbers 2300 Eves Morns Time Times Half a Time 1290 Days 1335 Days in Daniel 1260 Days with Time Times Half a Time Three Days and an Half and 42 Months 2 Times mentioned in the Revel if these Numbers that so evidently speak a Fitness for Calculation of Time with greatest Exactness If these by a due Search and Compare one with another cannot be understood what spaces of Time they Define when they begin and when they End They of all the Points of Prophecy tho they carry the Face and Appearance of Greatest Significancy yet would be indeed of all the most Insignificant Now seeing an Insignificancy in the Highest Points of Signification can by no means be imputed to the Wise and Holy Spirit of Prophecy I conclude that even these Prophetick Numbers in a peculiar and Eminent Manner may be understood both what space of Time they Emensurate or Line out to us and also when they Begin and when they End and so I have finished the First Head of Discourse I proposed I come now therefore to the Second Head proposed to give Answers to the great Objections that are Levyed against this Proposition viz. That All and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of Private or Reserv'd but Publick Free and open Interpretation Object 1. If Prophecy of Scripture be of so Free Publick and Unreserv'd Interpretation how comes it to pass that so few have so much as Attempted the Books of Prophecy that Fore-tell Great Events and the Times of Them Yea that Most judg it so Unpresumable and Undertaking as to Reject all Interpretations of Daniel and the Revelation that Debate Things throughly to their utmost point and issue and that search what or what manner of Time is signified by the Spirit in them or is more than by way of ordinary Comment as if they were the Performances of only Fanatical and Imaginative Men and upon the Evidence but of such an Endeavour condemn them immediately as such Ans Let God be True and every Man a Lyar Now God hath said Every Prophecy of Scripture is so Descended that it is not of Private Interpretation that they do well who attend to the Light of it shining as in a Dark place and so Enlightning it if then it were Dark it self how should it enlighten a Dark Place for it would be Dark to Dark which increases Darkness still whatsoever enlightens must be it self Light This main Truth ought therefore at all times to remain Stable and Firm. The immediate Cause therefore of this so general prejudice against search into Prophecy however Coloured over with Modesty and Reverence of Divine Mysteries and secrets into which Men pretend they would not Pry are these 1. There is so great a Darkness upon the present state that though the Light Shines in it yet it as Darkness comprehends not the Light of Prophecy shining upon it 2. Hence as Men in the Dark they are Afraid of every appearance of Difficulty They say concerning All Interpretation of Prophecy There is a Lyon in the way It is as the Sons of Anak to them that cannot be Encounter'd and as the Walls that cannot be Scaled so difficult and unintelligible is Prophecy that it cannot be Interpreted It is as a Sealed Book the Learned cannot Read because Sealed nor the unlearned because not Learned 3. How many are they who are afraid
shall lye open as a Volume most clearly and fully understood in the Hall as I may say of that Palace of the Kingdom but not as in a dark place but as Light uniting with Light unto perfect Brightness Then it is the Day shall dawn and the Day-star shine in the very Hearts of all the Servants of Christ and the Light of one Day be as the Light of seven Nor can the Apostles sense be made good by Prophecy being understood when fullfilled For indeed the Disputes are as Great concerning the Time at which Prophecies that undoubtedly have been long ago fullfilled were fullfilled as concerning Prophecies yet to be fullfilled And though it may well be allowed that there have been some Bruits and Noises of the Things foretold by Prophecy that they were coming to pass at the time they did come to pass yet there are Two Things evidently intended by the Apostle as the Great Scope and End of his Discourse much to be considered by all that would find the Purpose of the Holy Spirit by him 1. That there is one Glorious Day and Day-Star to break out and shine in the World which is the Great Point at which Prophecy aims and into which it shall unite as a Lesser Light with a Greater and more Glorious which is indeed the Kingdom of Christ and to which the Apostle had respect as is to be shewn throughout this Epistle This is that Time of the Restitution of All Things of which all the Prophets have spoken since the World began as that same Apostle Peter spoke Acts 3. 21. This is the Mpstery to be fulfilled as he hath spoken or Evangelized as Happiest Tydings by All his Sevants the Prophets Rev. 10. 7. Prophecy is therefore a Light shining till then and guiding to the Time when it is to begin and then falls in One with it as the forenam'd Scriptures shew 2. There is a very particular dark place that Prophecy shines as a Light in till then and it is indeed the whole Time from the Delay of the Kingdom of Christ at his Resurrestion and Ascension till it dawns and rises as a Day-star but it is yet more particularly the Time and State of the Apostacy which is as a Smoak darkning the Air even the whole State of Christianity in the very Heavens of it Prophecy shines therefore as a Light in a dark place giving Assurance of and shewing the Time of that Day and Day-Star dawning upon the World till it shall Illuminate into the very Heart with its mighty Influences and Beams of Glory Object 4. It is to be further urg'd If the Time of this Kingdom and Glory be not generally known and agreed upon it can do but little Service for the Inlightning the dark place of the Apostacy and that we do not find it hath been and if Prophecy be not in its own Constitution of private Interpretation yet if it hath Eventually proved so how is the Light of it seen Answ 1. It is very agreeable to the Wisdom and Glory of God that the Fountains of Truth should be running and the Lights of it shining though the Streams and Rays are not received nor have their kindly Effect as the Evangelist John says The Light shineth in darkness though the darkness comprehend it not God left not himself without Witness among the Heathen though we know of Few who received the Testimony Acts 14. 17. How many have the Gospel-Light without its proper saving Effect Answ 2. There hath been a strange Collineation or Levelling and Aiming of the Servants of God upon the Years of this Last Part of this Seventeenth Century for the Glory of Christ's Kingdom and besides some Later a Prophecy found in the Study of Justus Lipsius transcrib'd into the Preface of Dr. Mayer to the Volume of his Interpretation on the Prophets Great and Small is perpendicular on the Year Ninety Eight in such a Language as speaks Effects begun and in their Course as at Ninety Seven as shall Appear in a short Appendix to this Treatise But to All that hath been said it may be added in satisfaction of the Principal Objection that supposes Prophecy hath not been understood till fullfilled It is very plain we cannot give a certain Account what Light God may have given his Servants into Prophecy in any Times He gave Noah the Exact Time of an Hundred and Twenty Years before the Flood to Abraham Four Hundred years from the Time of that Oracle to his seed Returning from the Egyptian Nation after God had Judg'd them Till which time They were under that oppression According to which Moses very Probably thought His brethren would have understood God would deliver his people by his hand Because it grew so near the time and Moses was a person so signalized by God in his miraculous preservation and his having the offer of being called the Son of Pharoahs daughter and yet Refusing that Glittering Honour as mark'd out by God for much Higher viz. In the deliverance of his People with whom he Chose to suffer Affliction rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Of all which I have no doubt He had the notices from the four hundred years He knew were Given to Abraham The Children of Issachar were men that had Knowledge and understanding of Times and Knew what Israel ought to Do 1 Chron. 12. 32. And undoubtedly some Oracular Instructions they had Joyn'd with Jacobs Prophecy by which they knew Judahs being a Royal Tribe and that the Lyon of the Tribe was the Emblem of it even till Christ the Lyon indeed of it and they Collected Davids Royalty should then begin Daniel understood by Books not onely the Book of the Prophet Jeremy But as we may very Reasonably suppose by the Books of other Servants of God that Kept or Searched Records of Times according to Jeremies Prophecy I doubt not Simeon Waited for the Consolation of Israel according to Daniels Seventy Weeks What Light God gave to his servants in the First times of Christianity we have not such certain accounts as might be desired But as it is reported to us by Ecclesiastick History It was foretold of Julian he was Nubecula cito Transitura a Cloud tbat would soon vanish But this I am sure was according to Prophecy that Sathan being cast down by the change of the Pagan Empire into the Christian Empire After Constantine there could be in the Roman Empire no place found for him any more of continuance in its Heaven though some short Attempts there might be as of Julian Eugenius Argobastes Maximus in his Pagan Supremacy altho under the Name of Christ as it were in his Right and as the Vicar of the Fifth Monarchy of him the Manly Birth on the Throne Satan crept in as an underminer and in the Anti-Christian Supremacy He hath a Throne as on Earth whether therefore the Speaker had his Ground it self in Prophecy The thing it self had and it could not be otherwise
but that the Empire of an Apostate to Paganism must be very Short even as of a Prince relapsing to Popery in these Nations It was the business of Anti-Christianism to suppress the Interpretation of Prophecy that had so dreadful an Aspect upon it self as much as it could yet the common Fame and Bruit of Anti-Christs coming was spread far and near when the Christian Empire which was the Let according to Thes 2. c. 2. was taken out of the way the joynt being so Natural between the Christian Ceasing and the Anti-Christian Begïnning to supplant having so much of the Name Christian The Voicing the Papacy to be that Antichrist lifting up himself above what ever was called Sebast or August as he did about that Time was heard all along from the time of Petrus Waldo till the Reformation and since the Reformation how many Eminent Servants of Christ have Labour'd with success in the Interpretation of Prophecy notwithstanding some particular mistakes with whom I humbly joyn my self a Fellow Labourer and one that hath taken part of their Labour and now the Fields are white unto the Harvest when many others shall enter into our Labours according to that saying One soweth and another Reapeth and yet he that Reapeth shall yet receive wages unto Life Eternal so that they who have sown and they that reap may Rejoyce together And indeed the Time is now so near that whatever Influence That nearness may be hop'd to have upon Interpretation of Prophecy according to Truth I may humbly hope for For tho the Time of Daniels public Interpretation upon the Seventy Years was nearer to their End yet the Time of his understanding was undoubtedly earlyer The Time of his Prophecy was designed to be close upon the very end of the Seventy Years and that so sollemn Prayer for else it is Evident The Time of his praying was every Day towards the Desolations of Jerusalem with his Windows open'd Three Times with foresight of the very time Seeing then the very Time of Ninety Seven I have now for some years pitch'd upon as the very Time when the Desolations of the Sanctuary shall be Accomplished and the Kingdom of Christ be in Succession of which I find dayly new Confirmations and Assurances as the Time Approacheth Therefore I hope I shall be Enabled and many Servants of God with me to set our selves dayly by Supplication and Prayer and so much the more as we see the Day approaching Obj. 1. It may be said what is the Good or Advantage of Knowing the Secrets of Prophecy or the Times more especially Defined by it have we not such plain Doctrines and Rules of Scripture that are every way sufficient to take up our Time and Thoughts that are more sure and certain in their tendency to God and have less of Scruple and Dispute in their Sense and Importance Ans 1. Whatsoever is vouchsafed to us by God as a Manifestation of and Revelation from himself to us in his Word not to regard receive and improve it is in the Scripture Phrase a wearying of God Isa 7. Ahaz made a fair and plausible Pretence of Trusting God without a Sign when God so Gratiously offered it to him he said He would not Tempt God and yet this his Refusal was called a wearying of God God understanding much better what is necessary for us and to our advantage than we do our selves and if he hath given us a Rule of Times it will be found to be our great Sin and Neglect if we do not search and enquire every one in our places What of the Night and also how near the Morning is Comming Esay 21. 11. Ans 2. Let us ask what Good it was to Noah that God told him The Old World should have only the Reprieve of an hundred and Twenty years before the Flood What Good was it to Abraham when God told him It should be Four Hundred years ere his Seed should be brought back What Good was it to the Church of the Jews to be assured the Babylonish captivity should be but Seventy VVeeks and that there should be but Seventy weeks of years from the full Restoring Jerusalem to the comming of Messiah Such as was the Good of these Manifestations to the Servants of God such is the good that arises from the Knowledg of Time Times and Half Time the 1260 1290 and 1335 days of years given as the measure of the Antichristian Times as the Measure of the Preparation for the Kingdom of Christ till the Glory of it such is the Knowledg of the 2300 Eves Morns from the Babylonish Captivity ending to the Justification of the Sanctuary in the New Jerusalem according to the Vision of Ezekiels Temple And Lastly such is the Good of the Knowledg of the 1000 years Glory of Christs Kingdom manifested to us and then of the Kingdom Delivered up to God and the Father the Last end and Consummation of All. I have thus far argued the Grand Assertion that All and every Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation and therefore not prophetick Numbers of Time but that there are Standards of Interpretation in laid into Prophecy it self and such Assistances from that publick Spirit vouchsafed to All that wait for them that it is justly to be stiled not private but publick Interpretation I have also counter-argued all the Objections I could discover I come now to the Third Head Head 3 d. The Third Head shall be to consider What Standards according to Scripture-Reason and the Ballance of the Sanctuary there are by which the Interpretation of prophecy may be judg'd to be a True Interpretation when it is offered us by any one that hath made it or whereby the person that hath himself made it may know it to be Just and according to the Sense of the Holy Spirit of prophecy and his Conduct into that Sense The Standards of Tryal for the True Interpretation of prophecy I would lay down are These 1. When the Types and Symbols of prophecy in the Old and New Testament are taken All as under One intire View and Consideration and so Analogized and shewn in their Agreement one with another as to make up a Full and perfect Portraicture and Table each Part appearing in its proper Symetry and Proportion in its own Scituation in its Lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beauty and Lively Air of prophecy This is like a philosophick System of the Creation solving All Phenomena But if we take some single Parts only though there may be handsome and fine plausible and probable Descants upon them as they stand by themselves and if they alone were to be answered for Yet when they come to be examined by the rest of prophecy and it be considered how one part answers another in the whole Frame of prophecy and one single part under such or such a Descant Those Descants will be discovered to be only worthy of Rejection This therefore I have endeavoured and most closely
Sun Witnesses Martyrs of Jesus to whom the same Constant and Allowed Doctrine of Scripture will Allow them although in this Thick and Gross Atmospher they are Bandenitoe'd with other Names as Hereticks Schismaticks Factious or Fanaticks 5. The Crowning and Topping and most Assuring Standard for the Interpretation of Prophecy is when a Thread and Line is Laid from some Plain and Litteral Interpretation of Prophecy by the Holy Spirit of Prophecy it self in one Place to such Litteral Interpretation in another place till we come at last to that Issuing Point of All Prophecy The Glory of the Kingdom of Christ We have the Beginning of the Four Monarchies in Nebuchadnezzars Image by very Litteral Interpretation settled in Nebuchadnezzar himself For Daniel said to him Thou art this Head of Gold Dan. 2. The Persian and Grecian Monarchies are in the same manner by Litteral Interpretation of Prophecy assured Dan. 8. In the same manner the Epoch of the Revelation is Assured by the Apostles being in the Spirit on the Lords Day of the Resurrection Rev. 1. c. 5. By the Mention of the Lamb Newly Slain The Fourth Monarchy is Assured to be Current in the Time of the New Testament by Augustus Caesar Censing all the World Luke 2. By the Litteral Interpretation of the Great Whore to be the City Reigning then or that at that present was Holding the Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth which could be no other than Rome For no other had then the Kingdom besides the Seven Mountains on which she Sate is Litteral The Seven Successions of Government are given Litterally And that under the Beast is Affirm'd to be the Seventh Succession as Head and the Eighth as King The Sixth Succession is Litterally Affirm'd to be then in Being or now is that the Seventh King being the Christian Emperours was no Head It is Litterally Assur'd the Eighth King but Seventh Head call'd The Beast goes into Perdition and the Kingdom of Christ immediately Succeeds Now all these do so lead us in the True Line and Course of Time that we cannot be surer of the Course of the Seasons and Months that run along and fall out between Season and Season then we are of the Things which in Event or Matter of Fact and History run along all this Time from the Resurrection of our Lord and Answer the Symbols and Images of Prophecy Hereby then the Seals the Trumpets with the grand Events Compriz'd under Them are made most certain to Run along the Time of the Roman Empire from the Appearance of Christ in the Flesh at the Fullness of Time to his Appearance in the Fullness of Times or of All Time at the Kingdom of Christ Now if any one should say These Standards of Interpretation of Prophecy of Scripture are not sufficient to secure Interpretation according to them to be also according to the Mind and Sense of the Holy Spirit of Prophecy I should be Bold to say he either Contradicts what the Apostle hath said That Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation or he must suppose the Sense of the Apostle in these very words All Every Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation are as or more Dark and more Hard to be Understood than the Darkest Prophecy of Scripture it self and Further That things may be made by Art or by Chance to fall into an Exact Harmony with the Word of Prophecy or that even a Serious well grounded Research of Scripture according to all the Commands and Encouragements of the Word of God and a keeping close to all the Rules of Scripture and Reason in such a Search may be all to no End or purpose we are never the Nearer to the Truth and Mind of the Holy Spirit of Prophecy than if we had never search'd at all which how Opprobrious and how near to Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit It is so to say I leave to every serious Considerer to Judg. Now as to what I have my self done I cannot without Transcribing a Considerable Part of what I have already Written and made Publick shew How close I have kept to these Rules and Standards given by my self for Interpretation of Prophecy Nor will I presume to say any thing in the gross concerning it I will only first make my Humble Petition to any Person able to Weigh and to Consider and to Compare one part of Things with another that if I have been wanting in any one he would please by Free Entercourses to Remonstrate it to me and to allow Liberty of Debate upon it that so a due Care may be Taken to Vindicate Enlarge Strengthen or if necessity should so Require to Retract or Reform I will therefore here subjoyn but some of the grounds I have rested upon in the Interpretation of Prophecy according to a few Notes on these Standards as the Next Head of Discourse Proposed I First according to our General Scripture Account Fix Historical Time For the drawing then into one View the Types and Symbols of Prophecy from the Time the Spirit of Prophecy was pleas'd to Compose it into a Scheme and had prepar'd so to do I have consider'd the Archetypal Vision of Ezekiel's Temple and City c. 40. to the End Representing the Kingdom of Christ in its Glory and the New Jerusalem also having the Glory of God Now when this was once given it becomes a Standard gives Types to the State of the Church of god from that Time among the Jews before Christ and in the Days of our Lord in the Flesh then of the Jewish and Gentile Christian Church in all the States of it either in the Dartings out of the Glory of it or the Stops Stays and Darknings of its Glory because as is Evident both by Scripture and Experience that Glory hath been and yet is under so long a Delay from the Time of that Vision given to this Day Now this I have all along observ'd from Prophetick Vision to Prophetick Vision through the Prophecy of Daniel and of the Revelation in those Express References to that as I justly call it Archetypal Vision from the very giving it to the End And I Account it as a Pole-star like the Star that Led the Wise men to Christ so this Vision shapes an Unerring Course to the Kingdom of Christ And because one Principal Point in that Vision of Ezekiel was the Throne â—eading to the Throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem Ezek. 4. 3. 7. and Rev. 22. 3. And that there was to be as I have said so long a Delay Soon after the Vision of Ezekiel given There is a Vision given to Daniel c. 2 in Nebuchadnezzars Image and of Four Beasts c. 7. describing Four Monarchies as Four Thrones which should successively reach to the Kingdom and Throne of Christ And then as it is expresly said the Thrones were cast down these Counter Thrones to the Throne of Christ and the Throne of the Son of Man Established alone
Lord of Hosts would Please to give Success to the Arms of the Protestant Princes and States and most particularly to our own So far as may possibly consist with his own Wise and Holy Determinations Yet I am Bold to make these Prognosticks from this Light of Prophecy I have first Receiv'd and now Offer'd Partly to Arm with Patience and Submission to the Delay of such an Issue as we Naturally Desire partly to Encourage and Assure as to some great Points at the Present and Especially to Ascertain that Grand Issue of the Kingdom of Christ in the End Prog. 1. Seeing the Time of the Fall and Stroke of the Stone is not upon the Iron and Brass till 97. and that it is to be upon them in Conjunction and upon the Iron as it shall in any Part in an Eminency be Conjoyn'd Therefore neither the Eminency of France as the Iron and so in League with the Turk nor the Potentacy of the Turk who is so to continue a Woe upon the Antichristian State shall be brought down till 97. Let therefore no Impatience at the Disappointment of an Expectation herein seize us For thus it is Determin'd by the sure word of Prophecy They must both continue in a Conjunction till that Time and the Stroke with it so fall upon Them so far as can be Found by Prophecy Prognos 2. Notwithstanding this Let what can be done France shall be kept within his own Bounds to be but one of Ten and the Turk shall be but in a Low Tottering Condition to be Supported only upon the Aides and Help of France that he may not come to his End so soon but must do at last as is intimated concerning the Turkish King of the North Dan. 11. ult Now to keep France so within its own Figure is a Service so considerable to Providence according to Prophecy that it should make Princes and Nations Patient under the inconveniency of War to such an End And it may Answer for a Confederacy of Protestants with Popish Powers so far as that it may be made use of by Providence to such an End as Restraining France Agreeably to Divine Determination And it may justly call us to the Observation of Providence in Ballancing Things so as this Last and former Years it has done so that while as with one hand God is pleased to keep the French Power at such a Height with the other he so Ballances that it should not exceed its Figure So we see it in all the Disposes of Things to this Day So in the Wonderful Preservation of the Kings Person when danger was so every way about and Death so near him Because he hath raised Him up as so peculiar an Instrument to that purpose to give a stop to the Exorbitant Power of France as also to be an Interposer against the Return of Papal Power on these Protestant Nations of England Scotland and Ireland 3. As it was said to Barak This Journey or Expedition shall not be for thy Honour because God would sell Sisera into the Hands of a Woman Judges 4. 9 So the great Success of Finishing the War upon France in Conjunction with the Turks God hath reserv'd for the Stone cut out of the Mountains who is not in any Human Hand No Greater nor more Victorious Atchievements have been therefore Granted to the Confederate Armies nor any gradual Appearances of the Kingdom of Christ because the Glory is reserv'd to Christ so that all shall be done by him in an instant on the sudden at the very Time Appointed by God viz. in the year 97. so near Approaching These things shall be done The French Grandieur as it now stands in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ shall be ground to Powder The Witnesses both the Vaudois and the French Protestants at this Time under his Power and Tyranny shall see the Morning Star Dawning They shall be with Christ when he Breaks the Nations with a Rod of Iron They shall feel a Spirit of Life Entring into them and Causing them to stand on their Feet and they shall hear a Voice from Heaven saying Come up hither The Turkish Woe shall be clear Remov'd But then together with this The Confederate Princes as giving their Kingdom yet to the Beast or Bapacy and even the Protestant Princes so Far as they enter into the Constitution of a Nebuchadnezzars Image the Papal Hierarchic Clay where ever it is Found with its 7000 Names shall all be Ground to Powder also 5. The Supreme Sovereign Event of Events shall then come to pass The Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ He shall Reign in his own Name take to himself his Great Power and send out his Everlasting Gospel as on the Wings of Angels and Blessed is he who is not offended at these Things but Loves and Waits for them But indeed if God should please any way to bring down the French Power or Cause it but so much as to Lye still and to Dissolve the League between him and the Turkish Potentacy sooner my Hopes and Expectations might be that God were sooner also working by such Beginnings to much greater Things for the Change of the World In the mean Time I cannot but Represent things as Prophecy Represents them and I presume no further And that I find not to be till 97. Another Prophetical Note The Lord hath been pleas'd much to imprint upon my Spirit is that Habac. 2. 13 14. where the Prophet beholds in Litteral Babylon the Mystical Babilon the Town Built with Blood the Intoxicating Sorceress Enchanting the Nations to the Exposing their Nakedness and Shame through Inebriating them with the Golden Cup of Fornication she holds in her hand and makes the Kings of the Earth Drunk with that they may commit the Whoredoms of Idolatry with her and in the beholding of this and the Foresight of the End and Destruction of it The Prophet is made to see in Spirit by the mighty Influence of that upon him while That bore and carried him alought and moved him and not any Created VVill but the Holy Spirit alone He speaks the State and Posture of Things that shall Confine and Border upon the Ruin and Destruction of that Babylon and the Manifestation of the Glory of the Lord Immediately Consequent upon it And this State he declares shall be by the peculiar Ordination and Constitution of the Lord of Hosts of him who has the Government of the whole Host of Heaven and Earth so that nothing shall be able to move to the Contrary The People shall Labour as in the very Fire the pure perfect Fire and shall weary themselves for very Vanity pure and perfect Vanity For so is it ordain'd by God that thus he may prepare for that great change of the World The very Reason why he orders it so is Because the Knowledg of the Glory of the Lord shall cover the Earth The Glory shall cover the Earth that
but if it was so It Argues There was some Observation Defer'd to it by him that he gave that Paper a place in his Study which Foretold Rome as the Catholick Church should become one of the most notorious Fables in the World and be exposed as one of the greatest Cheats upon it Altho he seem'd to adhere to it I say He seem'd for of so great a Wit I question it However bigotted he appear'd in Writing the Virgo Hallensis But that which is enough to me and will be I suppose to others in this Kind is That it hath undoubtedly been extant in Print above Forty years and so in the Hands of many persons and that any one may see it at any Time that Pleases Now it must needs be Dr. Mayer knew it a Prediction of some Age in his Time in Assigning it to Lipsius his Study who Died near Fifty years before and how long before it came into Lipsius his Study it cannot be said Yet indeed Forty years in this matter is as much as an Hundred and Dr Mayers Preface in this Case as much as Lipsius his Study For the whole stress lies here that such Events were Foretold so long before that there was no Train of Causes leading probably to that Ninety Eight more than any other year and that there be sufficient Assurance of this by the Predictions being in well known Hands Now both these are uncontestable concerning this Prediction by being so long ago in Print in Dr. Mayer and Dr. Mayer's Works in many Hands The Sum of the matter is This Prediction was so long before 98 an undeniable matter of Fact in Print and known to be so But I must not conceale There is a Prediction in Stows Annals p 749. According to which This I am Discoursing most probably was Form'd as appears by several Allusions of the one to the other so plain as not to be Denied It is a Prediction upon that famous year 1588 running thus Post Mille Expletos a partu Virginis Annos Et post Quingentos Rursus ab orbe Datos Octagesimus Octavus Mirabilis Annus Ingruet Is secum Tristia Fata Feret Si non hoc Anno Totus Malus Occidet Orbis Si non in Nihilum Terra Fretumque Ruant Cuncta Tamen Mundi sursum Ibuntque Retrorsum Imperia Luctus undique Grandis Erit There Englished thus When after Christs Birth there shall be expir'd Of Hundreds Fifteen years Eeighty and Eight Then comes the Time of Danger to be fear'd And all mankind with Dolors it shall fright For if the World that year shall not fall If Sea and Land then Perish ne decay Yet States and Kingdoms then alter shall And men to ease themselves shall have no way Now this last Recited Prediction is said to be written by Regiomontanus that most Famous Astronomer of his Time in the year 1475. the year before he died at Rome And the Prediction I now Recommend may seem to be a meer Imitation of it and so to be the Diversion of a Fanciful Poetical and Adventrous Pen wantonizing upon a Former Prediction and Running Counter to it and that therefore there is no Regard to be had to it But I shall argue the contrary and that upon Due Compare of the one with the other That in Dr. Mayer will be much advanced in Repute I do grant That it was written by one that had laid the Prediction of Regiomontanus before him Nay I make no doubt he writ it after the year 1588. when the Remarkable Events of that Famous Year had given Reputation to the Prediction upon it Whoever therefore writ the Prediction before us Coasted and Glanced along upon that of Regiomontanus grown into Esteem by Things Answering it and grafts a far greater Prediction upon so much as would serve his main purpose and Leaves the Rest And this he did to give it some Remarkableness by appearing in some of the Garb of what had obtain'd a Degree of Honor by the Effect Following it But it indeed far exceeds its Copy and since I know it is so Truly according to the Sure Word of Prophecy I am assur'd whoever writ it writ it either from a Judgment enlightned by deep Enquiry into Scripture Prophecy or by some Divine Impulse and far above the Copy And as Reasons of my Assurance herein I make these Observations upon it 1. In the other Prediction there is nothing but what falls within an ordinary Human imagination supposing the world in an Hurly-Burly and Confusion but such a Series of Events known only to Scripture and its Prophecy not to be Read in the Stars nor in the Book of Nature but the Book of God only shews a much higher Original than Human Imagination taking Copy from one much lower than it self but either a mind Divinely Taught by Scripture Prophecy or at least Providentially Impell'd as Caiaphas's was John 11. 51. and not speaking of it self 2. Whereas in the other Prediction The Events though signified to be great yet are but General and Confused and no one Express In this Prophecy all is very great each Event is of the greatest that can be Thought of within the state of the whole present World each is Distinct Firmly declared Like one that knew he spake on great ground this Poetry and Fancy do not use to do 3. Whereas a mere Fancy or Humor of Foretelling would have chosen some nearer Time than above a Century beyond that 1588 to raise a quicker Expectation and thereby a greater Amuse this Prediction carries steddily to 1698 so far off 4. A Naked Fancy or Incertainly guided Arrogancy of Foretelling if it had born so Aloft and at a Distance from the Time of the Former Prediction would have hardly miss'd of the Crime of 1688 Answering 1588. For we see common Expectation hath of it self run upon that year and has not been greatly mistaken in Regard of the Revolution in this Nation wherein All the European World hath been so much concern'd also to carry therefore the Prediction as from one 88 and not to stop and quarry as one may say upon the next 88. but to fall Perpendicularly upon 98. is a higher flight than of a Fancy 5. The words chosen out by whoever was the Predictor so susceptible of so ready to Fall into and to Cope with the words and Images of Scripture Prophecy are a very great Argument and Assurance He either from Great Acquaintance with Scripture Prophecy and Assistance from it in that mediate way or some more immediate Inspirings of that Holy Spirit of Prophecy or at least from a Providential Impulse or Motion of Mind was Enabled to use words which the Holy Spirit Teacheth comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual 6r That which above All Assures me there was a Divine Extraordinary either Explorating and searching out of the Testimony of Jesus in the Written word or from some Emotion of the Spirit of Prophecy in some Holy and Sanctified Person or at least from some Providential Impulse of that Spirit upon the Person that writ the Prediction is that he hath fallen upon that very time I have by exact Calculation found to be the very Time for the Coming of these great Events to pass in a settlement in 98 after their beginning 97. FINIS