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
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 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
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
order It is said when the Stone cut of the Mountain came to smite the Image the stroke was upon the Feet that were of Iron and of Clay Again v. 35. when the Method is given as they say Analytically or the Image in the Breaking is Resolv'd from its Bottom to its Top from the Foundation to the Neck It is said Then was the Iron the Clay the Brass the Silver and the Gold Broken to Peices together and became like the chaff of the Summer Threshing Floor Before the Image was given from Head to Foot Here from Foot to Head But the Conjunction is kept most Inviolate and the Order considering forward First and then backward is the very same Now this Conjunction and order are so Essentially and Substantially Fix'd They can never be unfix'd any more This must be the Conjunction this must be the Order and nothing that Comes after it can Disannul it And yet when it comes to the last Catastrophe in the Interpretation of the Dream and so when the Event is suppos'd to come to its Complement that the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands Falls upon All and Grinds them to powder Then the Iron and the Clay are separated by the Brass that has nothing to do in the Feet but with the Belly and the Thighes only For they only were of Brass This is the very Order given by the Spirit of God in this last part of the Vision I Find upon search no Reason to doubt in the least there appearing no demurr on a Different Reading as it stands in the Chaldee Verity or the Syriac Version as may be seen in B. Walton's Polyglot Bible And yet it is as if the Feet of Iron were joyn'd immediately with the Thighs of Brass and the Clay removed out of their place and as if the stroke were on the Brass before it was on the Clay whereas it was made again and again and a third Time Certain The stroke is on the Feet of Iron and Clay before the Brass should feel the Force of it Now all these are so great Points of the Vision that nothing can unsettle them without subverting the whole Frame For then the Dream could not as he hath said be Certain nor the Interpretation be sure nor what is grounded upon it be unshaken It must needs therefore be That for the Truth of the Conjunction the Order of the Metals and of the Parts and the Order of the Stroke were all given before as they are were and shall be And that the Spirit of Prophecy presumes that none would think It either on purpose or Casually would Destroy its own Frame I offer therefore to deep search of others and the Consideration of All who have Regard for the sure word of Prophecy to Attend to the Reason He hath Assisted me the Unworthiest of all his Servants to give and I am Humbly perswaded he Foresaw He would so Assist me to give it in so publick a Ministry to his Servants in general And the Reason is this That God might make known to the King and in him to after Ages what should be hereafter As Daniel assures us Now the very utmost of that Hereafter is very near Come Even as Near as Ninety Seven as I have fully set out By comparing therefore the state of Things now with this Change in the Vision we may arrive to some good degree of Understanding in the Reason of the Change I say comparing it with the present State I look then upon the present state of the Ten Horns as Prophecy calls them or Kings and their Kingdoms I consider which of them of All others bears the Metal Iron at the greatest Lustre of Appearance at this Time and by plain matter of Fact that is the French Power and Kingdom Then I consider where that which was heretofore call'd the Brass in the Image of the Four Kingdoms now Resides and the Brass being the Grecian Kindom as All Interpreters agree The Grecian Empire is beyond all Contest known to be in the Hands of the Turk whose Port is known to be at Constantinople There are then two things God makes known to us by this Change in the Vision concerning that last State of this Image when the Stone shall fall upon it 1. That the Stroke shall be struck and the Fall of the Stone Grinding the Image to Powder shall be when the Iron in the most Illustrious Appearance of it near the very End shall be joyn'd to the Brass and in League with it So that tho the Iron even the whole Iron together with the Clay shall be broken before the Brass yet the Brass is Transferred out of its proper both Conjunction and Order not indeed so but as in a Figure to give a Watchword that when the Iron in an Eminency shall be signally Conjoyn'd with the Brass viz. That Turco-Grecian Power Then the Blow shall be given and the Brass not before the Clay but in its own Order shall be Broken viz. The Feet of Iron and Clay First and in their own Conjunction then the Brass and the Silver and Gold immediately upon it Now therefore observing the Iron in so Illustrious Appearance joyn'd with the Brass at a Time we know by the Line of Time the Blow is so near to be given It is a Concurrent Assurance It is very near 2. The Spirit of Prophecy is pleas'd hereby to Brand the Unnaturalness of the Conjunction of France with the Turkish Power a Kingdom belonging to the Feet and Toes mixed with the Hierarchic Antichristian Clay and giving Power to it and yet Uniting with the Brass or Mahometan Power a Woe upon that Antichristian State A thing as Monstrous as if the most Eminent Toe should separate it self from the Feet to joyn it self immediately with the Belly and Thighs so is the Papacies most Christian King Leagued with the Mahometan Enemy of Christianity as in the Antichristian State Rem 2. The second Remark I make on that Vision is from yet more undeniable if possible Letter of Prophecy that the management of the last Stroke when the Stone by its own Direction of it self shall fall on the Image and Smite it It shall be not by Humane but by Immediate Divine Power that tho it will Raise and Fit what Instruments it pleases Seven Shephards and Eight Principal Men yet the Stone it self will be Visibly seen Illustrious above All altho there shall be with the Lamb the Faithful and Called and Chosen yet the Lamb himself as by his Immediate Power shall be seen above All For the Stone that is Cut out of the Mountains is said to be in no Hand or which is not in Hands according to the Strictness of Translation or in any Hand of Man And when he comes to work it shall be as on the sudden and at an Instant For when Divine Power works Nullum Tempus Occurrit Regi Nothing can Lett Divine Power Altho then I most Sincerely and Earnestly Pray that the