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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	world_n	zion_n	15	3	8.7914	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71105	Generation-work, or, A brief and seasonable word offered to the view and consideration of the saints and people of God in this generation, relating to the work of the present age, or generation we live in wherein is shewed, I. What generation-work is, and how it differs from other works, II. That saints in the several generations they have lived in, have had the proper and peculiar works of their generations, III. That it is a thing of very great concernment for a saint to attend to and be industrious in, the work of his generation, IV. Wherein doth the work of the present generation lye, V. How each one in particular may find out that part or parcel of it, that is properly his work in his generation, VI. How generation-work may be so carried on, as that God may be served in the generation / by John Tillinghast ...	Tillinghast, John, 1604-1655.	1655 (1655)	Wing T1175; Wing T1177; Wing T1178; ESTC R17254	317,518	510

until seventy years should be accomplished God did not give any such positive commands unto other Generations After this in Ezra's Nehemiah's and Daniels time these Worthies and the Saints of that age had the proper work of their Generation which was to go forth of Babylon and rebuild the Temple of God at Jerusalem which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Thus all along in the times of the Old Testament Gods Church and people in their several Generations have had their several works Let us look to the New Testament which dawned in John the Baptist had not John the proper work of his Generation which was to be the Fore-runner and Harbinger of the Messiah to declare to the Nation of the Jews that the Messiah whom they expected and waited for was now approaching and that the glorious Kingdom of God in the pure administration of the Gospel was at hand and that therefore it did behove every one now to have their eyes and hearts turned from Moses towards him and his administration which was now approaching After him the Apostles in their time had the proper work of their Generation which was to go forth and publish the glad tydings of salvation which before were cooped up within the narrow compass of Judea to all the world beginning at Jerusalem to gather Saints together so fast as they were converted into Churches and to appoint over these Pastors and Teachers and also to give Rules and Directions for the right ordering and governing of the Churches unto the end of the world Let us come to the Saints of following Generations had not they likewise their proper works which was in some to bear witness before the wicked world and the Heathen Tyrants and Infidels of those ages wherein they lived to the truth of that Doctrine they had received from the Apostles before them by sealing the same with their blood and willingly giving themselves up as sheep to the slaughter to the cruelties tortures massacres of the Paganish world in bearing testimony to the truth of Jesus Afterwards the work of the next Generation was to bear witness by writing preaching and all sound Doctrine against the damnable Heresies of Arrius and his complices and others which through that little tranquility which the Church injoyed under Constantine crept in and overspread the Christian world In after ages for some hundreds of years together the work of Saints in their Generation was to bear witness by speaking and suffering unto the truth and worship of Jesus against the pernicious errors and false worship of Antichrist and the boundless and swelling pride and pomp of that man of sin In Generations since the work hath been to recover the truth and worship of Christ which was well nigh buried under Antichrists reign to its ancient purity lustre and beauty And so Luther and the Saints and Worthies of his Generation as their principal work did recover out of the jaws of the Beast the precious truths of Christs Priestly Office the glorious Doctrine of our justification by Christ alone which was well nigh swallowed up by the Antichristian innovations of Masses Crosses Pardons Pennance Purgatory Vowes Pilgrimages solitary and single life with other inventions of humane wisdom for the procuring a righteousness of our own And since him the great work of Saints in their Generations hath been to recover the Kingly Office of Christ which the Lordly pomp and tyranny of the man of sin and his followers had cast a mist upon to set up Christ as sole King and Governor in his Churches as well as the onely and alone High Priest of his Saints Thus Saints all along from the beginning of the world in their several Generations have had their several works proper and peculiar to the Generations they have lived in so as that what hath been the work of one Generation hath not been the work of another and what hath been the work of that other hath not been the work of that unless at such time as it fell out in the Generations of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and also the several Generations of the Saints under the Roman and Antichristian persecutions wherein the dispensations of God towards his people hath continued the same and for substance alike for divers Generations together there the work hath been the same for no substantial change in dispensation there is none in the work of out Generation it being variation of dispensation that causeth the work of our Generation for to vary Third General Head That it is a thing of very great concernment for a Saint to attend unto and be active in the work of his Generation Generation-work is the most neglected work of all others with the generality of Professors who either consider not that such a work there is or if they do yet they think that it belongs to others not to them to mind it but in case they be industrious in those common duties which lye upon them as Saints and those special duties which attend their Callings Stations Relations or present condition it is enough for them and matters not whether they be active in the business of their Generation yea or no. Yea many that are imployed therein do not sufficiently weigh the greatness of the work they have in hand I shall therefore here endeavour to shew of how great concernment it is for a Saint to attend unto and be active in this work which I shall lay before you in some particulars 1 God by his dispensations calls aloud for it The dispensations of God have a voyce and God oft by these bespeaks a duty or duties of his people Mic. 6.9 The Lords voyce cryeth unto the City What voyce is this why meerly the voyce of a dispensation Gods dispensations being commands Hear the Rod and who hath appointed it To disobey then the visible call of a dispensation is to disobey a command of God The hazarding our lives is a weighty matter and if done carelesly a great sin yet Hester upon the visible call of a dispensation viz. Gods cause and people of God lying at the stake ready to suffer runs this sore hazard to which though she was stirred up by Mordecai as one Christian friend now may stir up another in such a capacity as Hester was to befriend Gods cause were it now dying as then it was yet were not Mordecayes words her warrant he being not indued with a Prophetical Spirit norspeaking as such as his doubtful speech she weth Who knows whether thou art come to the Kingdome for such a time as this but the call of the dispensation Meroz was called by Gods dispensations to help the Lord against the mighty We read not of any particular command Merez had to do it only the call of a dispensation Gods people were under oppressors and God was up to deliver them which call Meroz neglecting Meroz is doubly and bitterly cursed by the Angel of the Lord for it Judg. 5.23 Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the

people have their li●erty and in that respect as to their particulars are well yet if they see the work of the time at a stand let it not be grievous or be imputed to discontent in case they mourn as did Daniel look sad as did Nehemiah groan and complain they are sick And sometimes I have thought that when Daniel did mourn and afflict himself before God the second time three full weeks Chap. 10.2 upon the account that the work of God in that age was put to a stand by the power as is by good men judged of Cambyses Cyrus Son reigning while his Father was abroad in the wars that had Cambyses been a good man or a man likely to have been prevailed with Daniel undoubtedty would as did the Prophets before him frequently to the good Kings of Israel have made other applications in that case and accounted the doing thereof his duty than barely to the Lord alone Nay it is a mercy to Governours themselves to have applications in things of this nature made unto them for Woe be to those Governors to whom Gods people fearing or being without hopes in making address when they so●esee sufferings coming upon his cause retire themselves and spread the affliction of their souls before the Lord alone Yet let me also say it is a thing most certain and that which is a prejudice to the very cause in the hearts of many and ought to be matter of grief to all that Saints in most places at this day whilst they are crying that their Fathers work might go on do act too much like men and shew too much of their own spirits yea are very consused as to the making out the things themselves would have and moreover have many falling into their party that injure the very cause they stand up in But I earnestly wish it might be considered that although the child when it cries cannot alwayes give a rational account of the cause of its so doing yea possibly may oftentimes discover much peevishness and passion in crying yet doth it not ever cry without a cause and the wisdome of the Father is not so intent upon the weaknesses of the child in crying as to find out the cause why it cries And farther should not many and great weaknesses appear in those who stand up for Christs Kingdome how should his Kingdome come without observation no greater observation than of holiness if so be the appearance of that in them were to be eminently visible John came with much outward Holinesse and hee came with great observation Yea whether when the strife rose first betwixt the Brethren of the Presbyterian and Congregational way in England did not many who yet had truth and Christ did afterwards own before the world strive in many things like foolish peevish Children and whether in the times of the Apostles throughout the Primitive ages and almost ever since have not the croud of errors alwayes run into that side where truth hath been the reason is because the grand enemies design is to sow his tares in his enemies filed his own where as yet his title is not questioned nor shaken he will not meddle with These things therefore with others of a like nature are not to be made definitive Conclusions as to a cause which oftentimes God permits for the trial of Rulers patience his peoples faith and the carrying on of his own cause in a cloud which is the way he goes in in most of his works of wonder Governors because of these miscarriages may inflict civil penalties if they will yet let it bee considered that the great King is now coming to his Throne and there is not a Ruler in the world but hath his standing only protempore to whom as all must give an account so must they shortly surrender their Crowns or they shall be taken from them and if any of the subjects of this mighty King whilst they see their King upon his march and are followed with hourly intelligence that he is neer and such and such things must be done in order to his entertainment by speaking some words for their King that things may be in a readiness and by giving abroad what intelligence they have to that end shall offend and suffer any thing for it let it be remembred that when the righteous King is sate upon his Throne these things will not be husht up but it shall then be known whether such as shall so do exceeded their Commission or not did their own or the Lord Christs will My Lord That through multitude of words I may neither tire your patience nor incur the censure of being one that loves to hear himself speak I shall wave some things which otherwise I would yet have added and draw to a Conclusion only leaving with your Highness three or four plain sober and in my opinion necessary words 1 Let your Highness oft remember and set before you the example of that good man Asa who though he were a man of much zeal for God and his Worship destroying the Altars of the strange gods and the High places breaking down the Images cutting down the Groves c. a man of a tender conscience therefore removed his Mother from being Queen because she made an Idol in a Grove a man of much faith in the field by which faith of his he vanquished the huge host of Zerah the Ethiopian yet having made one eminent turn from God as one turn from God makes way for another he is afterwards in a rage at reproof and casts the Prophet into prison that reproved him and at the very same time oppresseth the people of the LAND and after all what will Sin bring even a good man to When Gods hand is upon him for this he seems as a man stubborn and seeks not to the Lord but to the Physicians which that it may never be your Highness case is my prayer 2 Let your hand be no way lifted up against any of the Saints in this Nation It was a good Position laid down by Dr. Goodwin in a Sermon preached upon Psal 105 14 15. before the Parliament that was at the time when the Brethren of the Presbyterian way had the turning of the Wheel and as well proved viz. That the dealing well or ill with the Saints is and hath ever been the great interest of States and Kingdoms that on which their welfare or ruine depends All Sodome made not the hands of those four Kings Abraham routed Gen. 14. so weak as their fingring one Lot 3 Pursue not too hotly every righteous principle It is an Observation of Dr. Owens worthy never to be forgotten preached when time was in a Sermon of his upon Ezek. 17.24 to the aforesaid powers concerning principles that men take up his words are these page 21.22 The most tremendous judgement of God in this world is the hardning the hearts of men Now saith he first Look on Pharaoh of whom it is most signally spoken that God

Generations nor matter of exaltation to our selves who have nothing but free Grace to boast of nor any other reason to give why it should thus be but this onely so it pleased him Yet as then when truth came forth in being the new light of the Generation did oftentimes offend persons living in those Generations so as they could not see the work of the Cerations as the persecutions that many of the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New did suffer from the men of those Generations for the same doth witness So now when truth is coming forth in regard of discovery the new discoveries of truth have been and are a continual offence to the men of these last Generations even to the opposing the very work of the Generation they have lived in as the sufferings of those Witnesses of Jesus who stood up for the Priestly Office of Christ about Luthers daies by the Papacy and the persecutions of those Worthies since who have maintained the Kingly Office of Christ by the Prelacy and the several Nick-names of truth in this our age and new light the common by-word of the Country doth clearly and fully evidence Secondly At those stumbling blocks which usually are laid in the work of the Generation It is a thing to be noted that almost in every age God hath laid some eminent stumbling-blocks in the work of that age both for the trial of the faith of his own people in getting over them and for his Enemies to stumble and fall upon which stumbling-blocks as they have exercised the faith of the one so have they been continual Rocks of offence unto the other In Noahs time when the work of that age was to expect and prepare for a universal deluge what a stumbling-block in reason may we think was it to the Old World to hear of such a thing one hundred and twenty years before it comes to look for it year after year one hundred and twenty years together and yet no appearance of such a thing might they not well conclude before half that time was expired that Noah's preaching was a fable and his building the Ark a fancy for no such thing as he expected would ever be When Moses was sent of God into Egypt to deliver Gods people thence which was the work of that age what a palpable stumbling-block was it to Pharoah and the Egyptians to behold the very same miracles which were wrought by Moses to evidence his being sent of God done by their Magicians might they not well say is this man sent of God then are our Magicians for they do the same things as he Afterwards in the wilderness did not this lie as an apparent stumbling-block before that Generation that Israel should there wander to and fro forty years till the whole Generation of men that came out of Egypt were consumed before they must enter that Land they were brought out to possess At the time of the building the second Temple upon Israels coming out of Babylon which being in the latter times of the Jewish State was I take it the Type of Christs building his Church in the last days upon the coming out of Antichristian Babylon what a stumbling-block was it that the great work of that time the which they were come from Babylon about should receive such a nip at the very beginning as to be at a stand forty years together before it could go on might not Gods people fear and Enemies conclude this work would now surely come to nothing who will wonder that Temple-building hath been at a stand for many years since the comming out of Babylon mystical that considers thus it was upon the coming out of literal Babylon and their Temple was the type of ours Christs coming into the world was accompanied with two notable stumbling-blocks First He was born of mean Parentage when as he was looked for amongst the Royal or Priestly seed Secondly He first appears out of Galilee and by vulgar esteem is a Nazarene whereas all knew the Messiah was to come out of Bethlehem These two so visible rocks of offence as they drew the generality to oppose him pleading against him and for themselves Shall Christ come out of Galilee Hath not the Scripture said That Christ commeth of the seed of David and out of the Town of Bethlehem where David was Joh. 7.41 42. So were they sore tryals to the faith of the godly who not strictly inquiring into Christs descent and the place of his birth but taking things upon trust from report of the vulgar a weakness too incident to many true meaning souls made that their stumbling-block which rightly understood would have been a confirmation of their faith as appears in that good plain-hearted Nathaniel who was without guile could not tell how a while to get over this Joh. 1.46 Can any good thing come out of Nazareth And to say no more When Christ sent forth Apostles into the world about the great work of that Generation did not this lye as a sore stumbling-block before many to see the learned ones the Doctors and Rabbies of the times set by and in this glorious work a company of poor illiterate Fisher-men imployed And as it is most evident that in Generations formerly God for wise ends hath ever laid stumbling-blocks in the work of the Generations So he that shall but narrowly observe Gods dispensations towards his people of late in these our times shall find this verified nothing more there having hardly been any great Victory obtained or any thing remarkable performed which hath not had his stumbling going along with it and happy is he whosoever is not offended thereby 3 At the declared dissents or the private discontents or murmurings of a religious party against the work of the Generation God in his secret providence unsearchable wisdom hath so thought it good that Generation-work should meet with its affronts not only from the tumultuous confused rabble of the world but also from a religious party who should either repine at dissent from or make opposition against the same It was a religious party the whole Congregation of Israel being a professing people amongst which undoubtedly very many that came out of Egypt were truly godly who yet sinned with the Congregation and fell in the wilderness that in the days of Moses did so heap up their murmurings murmuring upon murmuring against the visible dispensations of that age It was a religious party yea and that too upon a religious ground as well as a politick Joh. 11.49 50 51 52. that gave wicked counfel for the putting of Christ to death It was a religious party the Jews and the devoute women that raised persecution at Antioch against the work of the Gospel expelling Paul and Barnabas the faithful Preachers thereof out of their coasts Act. 13.50 A religious party have always had a finger in opposing Generation-work And observe when a religious party hath opposed this their

glory to him for the hour of his judgement is come Chap. 12.12 Therefore rejoyce ye heavens and ye that dwel in them Wo to the Inhabiters of the Earth and of the Sea for the Devil is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time Chap. 11.18 And the Nations were angry and thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the Prophets and to the Saints c. LONDON Printed by R. Ibbitson for Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head-Alley 1655. The Epistle Dedicatory To all those who love and patiently wait for the Appearing and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ Grace and Peace be multiplied Dearly beloved in our Lord IT is reported of the Primitive Saints that these words the KINGDOM OF CHRIST the KINGDOM OF CHRIST were so frequent in their mouths that their malicious Adversaries willing to mistake the simplicity of their meaning and intention did make the words matter of Fact charging them hereupon with Treason as if they had driven on some design to get for themselves the Kingdom Whether the simplicity of the Saints in the age we live in who being come to the very dawning of the day and beholding the Lord going up to his Kingdom cannot hold their peace but must cry out HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST may through the subtlety of the old Serpent have any such abuse put upon it or no I wave at present But this I am sure of the first ages had not the Kingdom of Christ so much in their mouths but after ages had it as little their hearts were not so warm to it but the generations since have been as cold And indeed it was necessary it should so be for the Beast Antichrist being to rise in the world who after his rise must continue to reign two and forty months Rev. 13.5 it was needful therefore to the end he might be revealed that there should be as the Apostle tels us 2 Thes 2.3 a falling away which falling away above all things was necessary that it should be in the Truths of Christs Kingdom no Truths being so diametrically opposite to Antichrist as these others shake off his leaves these pluck him up by the roots If therefore the policy of the Dragon had not found out a way to brand these Truths and by making them odious to hold them down his Kingdom must have fallen many ages since for he should have had no Beast to resign his Power Seat and great Authority to It stood him greatly in hand therefore by some means to cloud these which by continuing to shine would have nipped Antichrist in the bud and this the wisdom of God permitting to accomplish thereby in the end a more glorious design which he effectually did Hence within the fourth Century at the end of which the Beast arose the Truths of Christs Kingdom before generally received began to be condemned and to go under the odious name of Heresie Hence also we finde not in the Revelations any mention made of Christs Kingdom nor any noyse of such a thing in the world all the time of the Beasts reign but the great cry of the dwellers on the Earth is The Beast the Beast who is like unto the Beast yea the whole world wondereth after the Beast Rev. 13.3 4. But now in the latter days as the Beast begins to go down so do the precious Truths of Christs Kingdom again begin to revive and have a resurrection Hence we finde that as the world by degrees gets rid of the Beast so is the cry in it still louder and louder of Christs Kingdom First Amongst the Saints in the world who no sooner have got so much footing as to stand and face the Beast which before trod them down and trampled upon them but presently they make the world ring again with the noise of Christs Kingdom Rev. 15.2 3 4. And I saw them that had gotten the victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name stand on the Sea of glass having the Harps of God And they sing the Song of Moses the servant of the Lord and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name for thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest Secondly After this the Beast having received a more fatal blow the cry of Christs Kingdom that was before among some Saints onely is now more general and runs among the multitudes yea the great ones too of whom till this day we hear little as Rev. 19.6 And I heard as it were the voyce of a great multitude and as the voyce of many waters and as the voyce of mighty Thunderings saying Allelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth Thirdly and lastly Yet after this upon the sounding of the seventh Angel when Christ comes to take his Kingdom it is then openly proclaimed with a great voyce Rev. 11.15 The Kingdoms of this world are be●ome the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and ●e shall reign for ever And as an echo to this voyce ●he hearts of Gods faithful ones reply v. 17. We give thee ●hanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wert and ●rt to come because thou hast taken to thee this great ●ower and hast reigned Thus the noyse and cry in the world towards the latter end of Antichrists reign is very different to that which was in the time of his reign then the cry was The Beast The Beast now the old cry is up again The Kingdom of Christ The Kingdom of Christ Yet notwithstanding the cry of Christs Kingdom shall at this day be so loud shall not the ears of all no not of the Saints themselves be open to hear it but some of them as well as others shall be so deeply wedded to the sweetness of Antichristian wordly interests that to maintain these they shall rather choose to sit by the waters of Babylon than with the loss of them to stand with the Lamb upon Mount Sion else what need would there be of any such Proclamation to be made as we read is immediately before Romes ruin Rev. 18.4 Come out of her my people that yee be not partakers of her sins and that yee receive not of her plagues And these who thus shall do are not to be reckoned among those who in this great business followed not the Lamb at all but among those who followed the Lamb some part of the way towards Mount Sion but upon some turn or falling in with some worldly pleasing interest by the way did quit his company before they came thither For this cause the hundred forty and four thousand which

all the Powers subjected to the Beast the Power of the German Empire is called the Dragon vers 7.13 5 Hence it follows That those attempts made against the Woman or any of her seed by that power which the Dragon properly governs and rules and which in the phrase of the Holy Ghost used in this Chapter takes denomination from him are to be called the attempt or war of the visible Dragon against the Woman but those attempts which through the subtilty of the old Serpent secretly creeping into and acting other powers than those which he properly and commonly rules and governs and which do not take denomination from him are made against the Woman or any of her seed it is more proper to call them the War of the invisible Dragon This ground gained from the manifest truth of the Text I come now to give in my answer which is That I conceive That as the Dragon throughout his Chapter goes under a two-fold Notion or conndera●●on 1 The invisible Dragon Satan which is the Dragon governing 2 The visible Dragon in ancient times the Roman Empire in latter times the German which is the Dragon governed so shall there be a double War raised against this remnant of the Womans seed First The invisible Dragon who acts the visible and therefore is before him shall in the first place attempt a War upon this remnant Quest But how shall he do it Answ Look how the invisible Dragon acts in killing of the Witnesses so shall he act in this The invisible Dragon kills the Witnesses by acting the power of the visible Dragon or the German Empire to do it accordingly the invisible Dragon shall attempt a War upon this remnant of the Womans seed by acting in an invisible way those powers under whom this remnant of the Womans seed shall be Now that such a War within this time shall be made upon this remnant by the invisible Dragon is clear because as I have formerly said it is a thing both rational and of great use That the whole mystical body should come under some measure of sufferings in that time wherein the Witnesses lye dead Now because this remnant shall not come into the mouth of the visible Dragon for therefore as I conceive are they called a remnant because kept and reserved by God from the mouth of the visible Dragon at the time their Fellow-Brethren are in it it is therefore necessary to the end there might bee in this remnant a sympathie with their Brethren in their afflictions that they should within this time have some attempt made upon them by the invisible Dragon Secondly The visible Dragon shall also towards the end of this time make an attempt upon this remnant which is clear because that Dragen that kills the Witnesses doth afterwards make an attempt upon this remnant but the Dragon killing the Witnesses was not the invisible only but the visible also therefore the visible Dragon as well as the invisible shall attempt a War upon this remnant Quest But how shall he do it Answ By drawing together the whole or a principal part of the Papal power whereof the visible Dragon or German Empire shall bee chief to ingage in an open War against this remnant if it may bee to cut them off but what the issue of this attempt shall be we shall see presently in opening the fourteenth Chapter which as I have said follows as the next thing in order after this I onely say here That this remnant of the Womans Seed shall not suffer greatly either by the attempt of the invisible Dragon or the visible for observe it is not said He made War but went to make War 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. endeavoured the thing but ere the invisible Dragon or the visible can do this remnant much hurt Christ steps in and prevents Thus much concerning the twelfth Chapter CHAP. III. Wherein is shewed the state of the Witnesses about and in the time of their rise from Rev. 14. opened SECT I. THE stream of Expositors as they make application of the things Prophesied of in the 12 Chapter to the first period or the time before the Beast arose so also do they of this Prophecy that concerns the 144000 to the second period or the 42 months of the Beast judging these 144000 to be those Saints that should in several places within this time bear witness against the Beast and accordingly they look upon the fulfilling of this Prophecy to be a thing past For my own part as I saw my self constrained not out of any desire of singularity but for truths sake to baulk the common road and seek a new way upon the 12 Chapter So have I the same constraint lying upon me here to dissent from the common opinion and seek another My Reasons are 1 Reason because this 144000 have their station upon Mount Sion which noteth a fixed state Psal 125.1 Those which trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever But the abode of the Church all the 1260 dayes is in the Wilderness noting a moveable uncertain condition which at that 〈…〉 in 〈…〉 the Church and people of God in time of old to whose state doubtless we have here an Allusion could not be said to be footed upon Mount Sion whilst they were wandring in the Wilderness no more is it proper to say that these 144000 in the Churches Wilderness-state should yet stand upon Mount Sion yea it seems to me that this Character is given the 144000 and that in opposition to the Womans former state which was and for a long time together had been in the Wilderness In a word it notes thus much to me that this 144000 are a People whose condition after once they are gotten upon their legs shall be fixed and stable and not subject to such motions and mutations as was the Womans former state in the time of her Wilderness-condition 2 Reason because all the time of the 42 months the waters were subjected to the Whore who sits upon them Rev. 17.1 Come hither I will shew thee the judgement of the great Whore that sitteth upon many waters but at this time there is a voyce of many waters crying against her vers 2. And I heard a voyce from Heaven as the voyce of many waters 3 Because the condition of the Church all the 42 months the 1260 dayes is a sad mournful condition they wear Sackcloth they are under the power of Babylon and therefore hang up their harps as did Israel of old whilst in Babylon Psal 137.1 2. But the condition of the Church at this time is wonderously joyful they play with their Harps Sing a new Song vers 2 3. 4 Because all the time of the 42 months Christ hath no Throne visible in the world but the Beast hath the Throne But at this day Christ hath a Throne vers 3. They sung as it were a new Song before the Throne vers 5. They are