from God chap. 21.2 and not to ascend up or be taken up unto God as the Church Tryumphant at the last day shall be 1 Thes 4.17 Christ will take the Church up to himself John 14.3 it shall not come down after the last Judgment to remain here 2. I conceive the New Jerusalem that comes down from God will he a kind of Tryumphant Church confisting of the raised Saints though in the thousand years it be not fully glorified yet perfectly sanctified and saved Rev. 20. knowing in due season they shall be so glorified as 1 John 3.2 3. But all others of the faithful in the natural life shall walk in the light of that Jerusalem the Mother of us all Gal. 4. Rev. 21.24 and accordingly the several Texts lelating to either are to be distinguished The Church is said to be prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband vers 2. Now the Church Tryumphant for all the Elect gathered together is not a Bride prepared but a wife in marriage fully accomplished 3. Because it is called a Tabernacle a removing state and God also said to be with men and to dwell as in a Tabernacle with them but concerning the Church Tryumphant in Heaven the manner of speaking is to say It is with God 4. Because the Holy Ghost so strongly confirms this renovation of all things avouching it again and again vers 1.5 commanding to write and affirming the words to be faithful and true which needed not in so generally approved believed truth touching the state of the Church Tryumphant 5. Because John is made to ascend on high to see this new City below him descending out of Heaven from God 6. Because it is said to be measured and that with the measure of a man v. 16 17. which sheweth it to be the Church on Earth which is only measurable and to be measured c. 11.1 Zach. 1.16 but not the Tryumphant in Heaven 7. Because here is said That Nations shall walk in the light of it and Kings of the Earth shall bring their glory and honour to it vers 23 24. yea the glory and honour of the Nations too v. 26. But none can bring earthly glory and honour for of such he speaketh in Heaven above to becautifie it withall 8. This seemeth not unreasonable though somthing in the Letter carry our thoughts to a state of full perfection chap. 21.4 22.3 4 5. because the like speeches have been used by the Holy Prophets aforetime to set out the graceful and peaceful state of the Church Isa 65.17 18 19 25. 60.18 20. 25.8 60.21 and yet farther observe after those high expressions it is said chap. 22.6 These sayings are faithful and true the Lord God of the Holy Prophets who had spoken of old time sent his Angel to shew unto his Servant John the things which must shortly be done which words shortly be done seem alwayes in this Book to note the state of the Church on earth Now for testimonies in the next place Some such thing is promised to the Jews in the Books of the Prophets which seem not yet to be fulfilled but deferred till the seventh Trumpet be blown when the Mystery of God shall ye finished as hath been declared to his Servants the Prophets by which words it is clear that all things in the Prophets are not accomplished till this Book of the Revelations be fulfilled for the Prophets have formerly spoken of this Mystery to be finished under the seventh Trumpet Now that we may not wonder at the New Jerusalem here set forth look unto the prophesies of old and mark what by them the Lord did promise unto the Jews after their captivity 1. He tells them They shall be brought back again to Jerusalem and to inhabet Judea Zach. 8.7 8. 10.8 9. Isa 60.10 15. 62.10 And all Nations Isa 61.11 2. He will pour upon them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him Zach. 12.10 14. 3. He will make them strong to overcome all their enemies and they shall inhabit Jerusalem again Zach. 12.6 and build the old wastes they shall raise up the former desolations and they shall repair the waste Cities and the desolations of many Generations Isa 61.4 58.12 and that by the help of strangers and their Kings Isa 62.10 4. Being so built where as it had been forsaken and hated so as no man went thorow it he will make it an eternal Excellency and a Joy of many Generations Isa 60.15 For 2. Violence shall no more be heard in the Land wasting nor destruction within the borders but her Walls shall be called Salvation and her Gates Praise Isa 60.18 The Sun shall be no more her light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto her Isa 60.19 20. 2dly All the people shall be righteous Isa 60.21 and no cananite there Zech. 14.21 3dly Her Officers shall be Officers of Peace and her Actors Righteousness Isa 60.17 4thly Her Watchmen shall never be silent Isa 62.6 neither shall her Vision ever be wanting Isa 59.21 But the false Prophet and the unclean spirit shall be cut off Zech. 13.2 So as by this glorious and graceful state she shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name Isa 62.2 that is Hephziba and the Land Beulah for the Lord would delight in her and marry her or Jehovah there shall be the name of the City Ezek 48.35 5thly Hereupon they shall be known among the Gentiles and People and all that see their Seed and Off-spring shall acknowledge them the Seed which the Lord hath blessed Isa 61.9 An holy People Redeemed of the Lord sought out and not forsaken Isa 62.12 6thly The Gentiles and their Kings shall see her Righteousness and Glory Isa 62.12 whereupon they shall come to her Isa 60.3 and that with earnest desire and high estimation of her Zech. 8.22 23. and be joyned to the Lord and become his People also with her Zech. 2.11 These Nations and Kings shall bring to her Sons and Daughters Isa 60.4 and 49.22 Enrich her mightily with abundance and precious things Isa 60.6 17. She shall eat the Riches of the Gentiles Isa 61.6 and suck the Milk of the Gentiles and the breasts of Kings Isa 60.16 who shall be her Nursing Fathers and Queens her nursing Mothers 〈◊〉 â—9 23 bringing her Presents and Gifts Isa 60.6 and 45.14 they shall fall down and make supplication Isa 45.14 they shall worship with their Faces to the Earth and lick the dust of her Feet Isa 49.23 Zech. 14.16 Strangers shall be her Servants Isa 61.5 Yea such as will not serve her shall be destroyed Isa 60.12 Zech. 14 17. She shall be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord and a Royal Diadem in the hand of her God Isa 62.3 And this her excellency shall never be changed her days of mourning shall be
and repeats it again the more strongly to assertain it ver 52. latter part of the verse for the Trumpet saith he shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed See this explained in the Treatise on Rev. 20.5 p 56 57 c. It seems also necessary that there be a distinct consideration of the state of such as are of the New Jerusalem come down from Heaven which seems to be the City whose Maker and Builder is God as it is said Heb. 11.10 which is again said v. 16. to be prepared by him for the faithful Fore-fathers that died not having received the Promises v. 39 who without us will not be made perfect ver last having all died in Faith which is probable to to be meant by our Saviour when he calls it the City of the great King Mat. 5.35 where his Deputies the twelve Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Luke 22.30 on whose twelve foundations of the Wall thereof shall be written the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb Rev. 21.14 and seems to be the chief mansion-place of the blessed holy then raised Saints having part in that first Resurrection wholly then freed from the second death Rev. 20.6 upon which the Glory of the LORD will then eminently shine continually to the eclipsing of the glory of the Sun and Moon Isa 60.19 Rev. 21.23 22.5 Very glorious things saith the Psalmist in a Prophetical Rapture are spoken of thee O City of God Psal 87.3 as is observable in that whole Psalm Again the then happy estate of the converted and reduced twelve Tribes of Israel and Juduh those two sticks united into one Ezek. 37. together with the converted Gentiles in their fulness then come in Rom. 11. who together with very large endowments of inward spiritual Grace and therewith abundance of temporal prosperity which the Prophets largely spake of with very much exemption from the evil of sin and suffering when Satan is bound the Churches enemies destroyed or subdued and brought under which happy estate they and their posterity will successively enjoy through all the Generations of the said thousand years according to the Prophecies or Promises Deut. 30. ver 1. to 11. Isa 61.1 The Seed which the Lord hath blessed Ezek. 37.25 They and their Childrens Children for ever and my Servant David that is Christ the Messiah shall be their Prince for ever Isa 59. last Deut. 4.30 31. with many texts more and which were theirs not in a mortal that is a changeable condition from a natural life by some removal or Translation as otherwise they should have no Seed or Posterity to enjoy those many Promises all the thousand years so neither should they at last be lyable to any evil attempt of Satan and wicked men called Gog and Magog though by gracious Promise such as live at that last Period of time are secured from the evil even of the attempt likewise many other things the holy Scripture seems to hold forth in reference to the differing state of the naturally living and the Saints raised at the beginning of the thousand years and as for the restitution of all things in respect thereof without Scripture-warrant why look we for any more than Gods removing the Curse as the inflicting that from the Fall hath been the efficient Cause of all that bondage that hath been ever since upon the Creatures held on by the means of Saran till then when he shall likewise be bound Thus in such a way if the distinction between the last mystical Trumpet and the last said sounding Trumpet and the state of the raised Saints and such as then will remain in their natural Life be well observed it may greatly make way for the clearing by degrees by the help of Gods Word and Spirit many excellent Truths respecting these things wherein much caution and moderation will still be very useful and necessary in what things are not clear and evident c. The third Paper of December 7. 1664. of Mr. Durhams Book of Scotland occsionally sent to be perused c. and is added here as a Supplement to the two former Papers AS for the perused Author he was manifestly a man of great Abilities Worth and Piety as is evident from his grave judicious and truly pious Determinations Discourses Cases and Treatises of several Subjects and many Expositions along that large Book of his upon the Revelations and first more purticularly in the most things handled by him on the three first Chapters of the seven Churches of Asia and on the fourth and fifth Chapters setting forth the glory of God the Creator and Christ the Redeemer But as for the right series of things following in that Divine Book he appears not to have attained the right Key so far as I can by the guidance of God's Word and Spirit as I believe with such other helps which in special mercy have hitherto been afforded me discern and to this purpose I shall endeavour by his Grace to set down some brief hints of Differences between him and others which upon the former accounts I much rather approve of as namely of judicious Mede and some others since him yet living though haply in some things I may differ from all yet I conceive Light and Darkness may so thereby the better discover themselves and illustrate each other that whoso like the noble Bereans shall search the Scriptures answerably concerning what shall be set down may probably find whether all these things be so for as no mans eminency should lead us into error so no mans meanness should make us neglect or despsie the Truth he tenders especially the Divine and Heavenly Truths which God hath set forth in his Word for the true comfort and Edification of his Church I shall briefly for what is past give only some hints of both for the most part referring to a former Letter to such purposes dated May 20. 1664. with the foregoing Key to both which this Paper may be a supplement but haply somewhat more largly of what is to come as God shall direct and enable me whose assistance I must confess to his glory I have formerly experimentally found First then What this Author understandeth in the Seals That the Horses signifie the Church and the Persecutions thereof along the Primitive Times seem to me more aptly otherwise to denote with Mr. Mede and others the dispensations of God in the world as in Zach. 1.10 both towards the Church and others with whom they had to do namely the Roman Empire called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament and though both the Books in the Seal-prophesie and the little Book chap. 10. speak much in some sort of both yet each chiefly relates to one as namely the Seal-prophecy for the most part to the Empire and the Book-prophecy for the most part to the Church as after may more by Gods assistance appear which is to be
observed until the Empire and Church become one under Christ's Kingdome in the time or haply after the time of the seventh Trumpet Therefore after the Lamb Christ Jesus had received the Book at the Hand of him that sat upon the Throne chap. 5. in the Chapter following John heard the thundring Voice of one of the Beasts saying Come and see when the Lamb opened the first Seal where he beheld a white Horse and he that sat on him had a Bow and a Crown was given to him and he went conquering and to conquer denoting the dispensations of God's Grace in the world through Jesus Christ who received of the Father this Book of Revelation of the things concerning the Church and her Enemies and hath all power to fulfil and execute them accordingly here first set forth by the white-horse so tendering Peace by the Preaching of the Gospel which like a Bow shoots out Arrows as Psal 45. piercing the hearts of all sorts it is sent unto and by which Christ will be Victorious and Glorious c. and therefore in the sending abroad of his Gospel he goes conquering of all sorts thereby and to conquer and subdue all such as shall oppose and persecute it This hath been his design ever since this white horse was sent abroad guided by that Rider and this is and will be pursued till he fully have the Crown of Victory when his Enemies shall become his Foot-stool Psalm 110. at the day of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Titus 2.13 to begin at or about the destruction of Antichrist 2 Thess 2.8 when he will come with Clouds Rev. 1.7 and when all Families of the Earth shall mourn seeing the Son of man coming in the Clouds with Power and great Glory Mat. 24.30 and 26.64 of which design the Spirit of God by the holy Prophet speaketh eminently Psal 45.4 saying Ride on in thy Majesty because of the Word of Truth of Meekness and Righteousness viz. to subdue unto his Obedience by conquering and his right Hand will teach him terrible things by conquering and subduing his Enemies and such as withstand him And this in all parts of the Revelation will be evident for persecution will follow the Gospel as the Shadow the Substance so long as the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman have their aboad together in the world and therefore in this Book in the following Seals God seems thereby to manifest what dispensations he would shew towards such persecuting Enemies in all the following Seals and Trumpets till that time of eminent victory and conquest begin to be manifest unto men in the World at the foresaid Period for the great comfort of his Church to be believed from his Word and which should be applyed daily for the warning of wicked men if they will be admonished Mr. Mede doth very appositely apply the Red Black and Pale Horses to such purposes in the three following Seals observing from the Histories of the Primitive times how they were accomplished as likewise Mr. Fox observes remarkably that after the Roman Governors had rejected the offer of receiving Christ and that Satan had engaged them in Persecutions above thirty of their Emperors successively came to untimely deaths but how such Judgments of Sword Famine Pestilence followed one another upon the Empire and sometimes altogether besides as may be observed from the first second and third Seals but especially from the fourth as more particularly is set down by the aforesaid Mr. Mede I would therefore have observed in the fifth Seal the remarkable different dispensation of God when most of the ten Persecutions had reged and sent home such multitudes of believing Christians to blessedness by their sufferings that by the opening of the fifth Seal is signified to the Church how God was mindful of the Blood of the Martyrs by the crying of the Souls under the Altar for revenge not that they in Happiness then did complain or so did really cry for Vengeance but that God looked upon what had been done to them as an occasion whereupon he would revenge them but yet not presently but after their Brethren which should soon after suffer as they had done had been likewise killed which seemed to have been fulfilled in the Tenth Persecution under Dioclesian and others which continued ten years to gether which probably was the ten days Tryal and Tribulation formerly spoken of Rev. 2.10 but the sufferers under the Beast are included also And accordingly in the sixth Seal came the great Earthquake when the Sun became like Sackloth of Hair and the Moon like Blood and the Stars fell and the mighty men hid themselves in the Caves of the Earth when the wrath of the Lamb was two ways manifest first In dethroneing the Dragon and casting him down to the Earth in abandoning the Heathenish Idolatry and secondly By curting off his Instruments the then wicked Rulers of the World by the means of that Reforming Victorious Conqueror the Emperour Constantine the Great when God's hand was so heavy upon Dioclesian Maximinianus Galerius Maximinus Maxentius Licinius and many Governours under their Command with their Armies and particularly on Pontitius Culianus Theotimus with many others as Stories testifie And afterward by taking away by degrees the Seat and Throne of the former Beast who received afterward the deadly wound upon which the Dragon had so prevailed before to persecute the Saints as appears in the Trumpets following which proceeded out of that seventh Seal all of which sounded their several Wrath and Judgments against it till it went into utter perdition under every form both East and West But before the execution of that Wrath God would Chap. 7. and 14. have both his 144000's of the Faithful sealed where those Trumpets Blasts should come who should be saved from the spiritual mischief of them and after the sealing of those 144000 Cap. 7. are an innumerable company of Palm-bearers of all Nations and Tongues which the said Author rightly conceives to be the great confluence of Christians when the Jews with the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in which will I doubt not be in the time of Christs powerful Reign for this is the course observable in this Book as may hereafter be more manifest that the spirit of God first setteth down what blessedness shall ensue the sufferings of his People before those sufferings come Now I conceive with a Learned Author that these 144000. sealed Ones Cap. 7. are another from those 144000 Cap. 14. for which he gives divers Reasons shewing those in Cap. 7. were to be preserved in the Greek Church in the Eastern Empire and that from the fifth and sixth and the part of the seventh Wo. Trumpet that might fall there as towhat evil might there fall at the begining of the sounding thereof which said sealed Ones are specially to be preserved and secured at the entrance of the fifth or first Woe-Trumpet by the