all these are implyed by the Apostle Revel 20. ver 4 5. in which are two dead 1 Those that were beheaded aâ—luding to John the Baptist by which means their Ministry ceased who had not worshipped the Beast nor his Image nor had received his mark in their foreheads or hands they lived againe that is came againe to exercise their Ministry in the Church by their Successors 2 They had not worshipped the Beast but were before him and extinguished by him nor shall those that are to be be of him at all 3 It s preciously alluded to John the Baptist that Eliah which was said to come in Christ's time and now againe in some other to come as in Malachy the 3d. Turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and children to their fathers 4 There are others dead which received the Marks and they lived nor again untill the 1000 years were finished which are the other minâ—stry opposed to that lived are the foolish wise Virgins Ver. 8. The foolish said to the wise give us of your oyle for our Lamps go out Before this great time of Judgement or tryall of Ministry the Ministry of Bishops Arch-bishops and Presbyters may be said to be blown out that is by violence be made to cease they indeed being by no means at the time of putting out otherwise to be put out and shall we think Presbytery will not be put out as the rest and not go out untill the time the rest do go out with her 2 At this time of tryall they all will go out of their own accord so that there remains another way of causing the cessation of the past Ministry in the Church then any yet hath been seen which will be by the power of the Word proving the unsoundnesse of it and so kindly and quietly cause it to cease 3 The whole ministry goeth out in this grand commotion and none untill now now men will acknowledge that their standing by Bishops or by Presbyters is not Evangelical they go out There is much difference between blowing out a Lamp and the letting of it burn so long untill it can burn no longer for want of oyle when it goeth out of it selfe and there is no lighting of it again there being then left them no plea to minister by 4 They say to the wise signifying an acknowledgment or ingenious conviction of them of the unsoundnesse of their ministry even to the wise Virgins from their own mouthes 5 Give us of your oyle which implyeth a great desire in men to have renewed their Ministry and signifieth an honourable esteem the faithfull Ministry of the Gospell should have of others in that day 6 An acknowledgment of the lawfulnesse of the Gospell Ministers Ordination however it shall be restored which is to be thought to be as before by the Magistrates approbation and thence desires to be ordained by them 7 It may be by Give us your oyle may be meant a desire of the foolish that the wise would acknowledge them for true Ministers of the Gospell and give them the right hand of fellowship to minister in the Church with them And this seems fitly to suite with the words of the Text following Ver. 9. But the wise answered not so lest there be not enough for us and you 1 Signifying that whether it be Ordination or associtation or acknowledgment of their Ministry or what ever else they are denyed it of the Gospell ministry 2 The Reason is satisfactory viz. least there be not enough for us and you signifying this they could not acknowledg their Ministry to be true and their own not be false or if their own were true then were the others false Again the truth had acknowledged one true in calling them wise and the other false in calling them foolish 3 Hence it seems to me that presbytery that so highly declared against Episcopacy for Antichristian hath it's day now approching to be declared against in like manner and I hope no man will be so vainly minded as to say this Construction was taken of Master Lillies Astrology for the future as some maliciously have objected Object A man may see by the coarse of things 1 It is near two years since I first affirmed this since which there is more likelyhood then before but is there any likelyhood it falls in Scotland are not all for it there is not a Schismatick allowed it is long since I was perswaded of its fall there there are many in this Kingdom that have to shew it under my hand as those letters may shortly in part shew that I wrot to several of the presbytery who have spared no pains to plague me in name or goods for it as I intend to shew at large hereafter when I have done my intended Exposition on the Revelations if God permit they provoking Authority therunto like another whore riding the Beast The Lord knoweth I write not this to offend any man nor hath any man cause to be offended if it be truth as the Apostle Gal. 4. ver 16. Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you the truth Ver. 9. But go rather to them that sell and buy for your selves 1 If the words were spoken sarcastically then it is as if they should bid them go to the Pope who sold the ministeriall calling 2 Or rather they containe an advice to them to adjoyn themselves to a true Church rightly constituted and from them to take a call thereunto it being delegated of God to them to give 3 It is intimated that in these times there will be much care had of keeping the Gospel Government entire in the Church and that nothing in her Government shall be done irregularly as in the times past they have been Ver. 10. While they went to buy 1 They take the advice given so that it should seem it was not spoken sarcastically if it had they would have discerned it I think they would not have gon to Rome for it 2 Christ is sayd to come when there will again be a visible and sensible difference of Christs presence in the Ministry and means of what there was formerly he was then absent as if not at all in prayer preaching c. 3 This coming or manifestation of God in the means provokes the Ministry the more to desire to be admitted to the exercise thereof Ver. 11. Those that were ready entred with him to the Marriage 1 At the Coming of Christ it is implyed some shall be ready that is shall be indowed with gifts calling and ministry according to the Gospell who shall be made use of to celebrate the Nuptials of the Lambe 1 Before it is said while they went to buy the Bridegroome came 2 See what hinders the Lord wil not come until their lamps be cut and they gon to buy 3 This is the destroying Antichrist by the brightnes of his coming he consuming her by pieces and parts now a little and then a little The doore was
BABELS FALL In the Foolish Virgins Sleep Among which Presbytery lyeth with Predictions of the great disputes to be at the raising of the true Ministry Written by a Witnesse of the Truth John Brayne Ely to Samuel 1 Sam. 3.17 What is the thing the Lord hath said unto thee I pray thee hide it not from me God doe so and more alâ—o to thee if thou hide any thing from me of all the things God hath said unto thee Samuel to Ely 1 Sam. 3.18 14. Samuel told him the in quity of Elies house shall not be purged by Sacrifice nor offering for ever The man of God said to Eli 1 Sam. 2.35 God hath said I will raise me up a faithfull Priest which shall doe according to that which is in my heart and in my minde and I will build him a sure house and he shall walke before mine anointed c. Ely said to Samuel It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good LONDON Printed for T. B. in Kings-street at Westminster MDCXLIX To the Honourable John Lisle one of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal Honourable AS David and the Apostles before me said We believe and therefore speak so I believing the truth of the Scriptures did presume to write you of many things strange before but now evident since accomplished I am once more bold to write you from the Gospel of things shortly to be fulfilled which will seem strange but will prove most true in its time however mine enemies are stirred up to hate and oppresse me for it the day will come they will be ashamed at it Sir I hope I have deserved no other but your love wherewith you have loved me and the love of those love God in the Country and those hate me doe it without a cause even for my standing for and witnessing to the truth of the Gospel with which I am intrusted which should occasion their love were they of God and not hate to the defence whereof you are called and blessed shall you be if you contend for it and consent not to the detaining of the discovery thereof which the Lord preserve you from and keepe you to immortality and life and set you with Christ in his sight to the full enjoyment of himselfe for ever Is the hearty desire of your Servant in the Gospell John Brayne Aprill 1 1649. TO THE READER THe predictions following are drawn from Propheticall Scriptures and are no Inthusiasticall Dreams they seem strange indeed at first but strong is the Lord that doth them for hath he said and shall he not performe it God hath foretold us when hâ— shall build up Sion he will appear in his glory which sets us now upon the expectation of glorious things these are therefore written that God may be glorified Magistrates may be directed Ministers instructed and the Truth revealâ—d Concerning all which in much confidence I affirm if the Lord give me leave to live but a little while I shall not be ashamed of what is herein written Thus leaving thee and them to the Lord to declare himself herein as he please to the glorifying of himselfe for ever And this I dare affirm so far off as thou seest we are from seeing these things so far off are we from seeing peace and deliverance and as men act against this they act against their own deliverance from which the Lord prevent us graciously I rest thine in the Lord John Brayne BABELS FALL In the foolish VIRGINS Sleep The Kingdom of Heaven that is the state of the Church under the Gospel Administrations are usually set out by the Lord significantly in Parables some whereof have thâ—ir allusions drawn from Marriage and Marriage-Feasts corresponding with the predictions of the Prophets foregoing and in especiall that of MAT. 25. from Vers 1. to Vers 11. IN which ye have the estate of the Church Ministry and Government thereof unto the end of the world according to the wisdom of the infinitely wise God held out and commended unto us under the notion of a Marriage in which Christ is the Bridegroom the Church is the Bride and the Ministery the Virgins I know the Expositions extant of these are quite contraryâ— Aug. lib. 83. Q. 59. Inter parabolos à Domino dictus solet quarentes multum exercere ista quae de decem virginibus posita est 〈◊〉 quidem hinc multa senserunt quae non sunt praeter fidem sed quoâ—â—dò partibus omnibus ejus conveniat expositio id elaborandum est He that hath a minde to see the diversity of constructions given by the Ancients of this parable let him read Salmeron in parabolas who hath taken the paines to collect them together Those that have written lately understand by the wise and foolish Virgins the severall Members of the Church In which are wise and foolish from whence some would confirme mixt societies But that this cannot be meant is plainly evinced in this that the Church-Members are to be understood in the Bride which is the Church that is the Lambes wife and therefore the Virgines are such who are ministerially imployed about the Marriage of the Church to Christ 1 And that which helps most clearely to open the Parable is this That the Lord mainly aimeth at the discovery of the state of the Church under Antichrist in taking the parable from a Night-Marriage 2 And the restoring of the Church to its quendam primitive estate after his tyranny 3 And briefly sheweth what things were to happen concerning the Ministery both true and false as the one related to Christ and the other to Antichrist untill the second taking of the Gentiles to himself againe Object Parables serve onely to illustrate and prove nothing Reply I know it is so generally conceived but let me tell you that the Church practise and many precious prophesies of the Church are so laid up in them and to be proved from them and so from them as from no Scripture like them the Lord sets not out the state of the Kingdome but by parables 2 The Kingdomes Government is never to be clearly knowne but by them and to be proved thence 3 The Lord declared the Government in parables as being most fit to conduce to the maine end of Gods hiding the Church from the world And this is plainly seen in the answer of Christ to his Disciples Mat. 13.10 to the end of ver 15. who demand of Christ why he taught in parables who answers To you it is given to them it is not given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome but to the parables it selfe 1 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is a note of time and relates to the predictions of the former Chapter ver 15. the abomination of desolation or time of the tyranny of Antichrist ver 29. the darkning of the Sunne of earthly glory the Moone shall not give her light the sad estate of the Common-people and the Starres shall fall from Heaven the fall
falne estate But for the slumber of the false Church which is of later times there is no such obscurity in that 1 The slumber of Cardinals was when they came from 12 abâ—ut 423. in Coelestines time to be after 25 as Potter Numb of the Beast cap 19. where he sheweth that Cardinals Bishops and Deacons were not originally in the Colledge of Cardinals when their first number were decreed but are rather redundant extuberances of the Papacy built upon and dangerously over-hanging that ancient foundation of the Presbyter Cardinals this slumber hee makes to begin to be the Number 25 but I rather conceive at the Number 12 when Alexander the third in the yeer 1163 made Conradus Suenus Archbishop of Mentz one of the Colledge of the Cardinals 2 The sleep of the Cardinals in this Kingdom was in the death of Cardinall Poole who died the next day after Queen Mary of some Italian physick as some suspect being the 18th of November 1558. The slumber of the false prophet and Anti-Evangelist was in the time of Henry the Eighth when they were made to acknowledge the Kings Supremacy and not the Popes in the yeer 1531. whose sleep was brought on the false prophet and Anti-Evangelist in the yeer 1644 in the making of that Ordinance appointed the taking the Covenant the second branch wherof was that without respect of persons we should endevour the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops c. which ended in William Laud Jan 10. 1644. The slumber of the Anti-teacher was in that slumber â—â—il on the reâ—t 1531 and is falne asleep and no man knoweth how it being now apparent to all that Deacons were not teachers in the Church as Deacons but ministred almes to the poore only so that now there is none acknowledged and so none awake but the Presbyter that is the Antipastor Let me ask the Question are they awake or do they slumber sure heavens thunder cannot keepe them long from sleeping me thinks the Questioning ministers calling the not suffering the Presbyterian Government to be Jure divino and the daily shaking of her foundations are very dangerous signes she is in a deadly slumber she would else awake and speak for her self Object Here it is questionlesse ô but in Scotland it is awake Here friends I speak not of envy to any but to glorify God in speaking the truth Presbytery must sleep in Scotland as well as Episcopacy in England Episcopacy had as great friends and command here in England as presbytery ever had in Scotland or can have and had it's glory of longer continuance and it is no lesse ordained 〈◊〉 God that presbytery shall sleep then Episcopacy Friends do you not consider you that made that clause in the 2d. branch of the Covenant where we are to endeavour the extirpation not only of Arch-bishops Chancellors Commissaries c. but all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy do not presbyters depend on that Hierarchy I do beleeve in time this will be made use of against presbytery if not on what Hierarchy doth it depend Note it all ye to whom this Writing shall come that as certainly as ye have seen the sleep of Cardinals Arch-bi hops Bishops and Deacons which are four of the foolish Virgins so certainly shall ye see the sleep of presbyters in this Land the whole Earth shall not hinder it she being the fift 2 The time cannot belong it precedes the marriage of the Lamb as near as it is this is the last ô expect thy sleep Object Why if this should be what shall we do for Ministers Reply God will furnish the Land with Teachers for if he give the Word great will be the company of Preachers and truly friend I cannot write this nor think of it but with admiration of that work most certainly God will do in this Kingdome when the scoffers of the times will be ashamed Vers 6. At midnight a cry was made behold the Bridegroome cometh go ye out to meet him What the severall Expositions here are of the day of Judgment and the like I shall passe by as impertinent and shew you 1 That marriages in those parts were oft times celebrated in the night when the younger sort of people attending with the Bride went to meet the Bridegroom and accompany him into the Brides chaÌ„ber but in that it is said to be at midnight it may be imputed to the word delay before v. 5. which time of delay was the time of Antichrist untill his time of tyranny and his Government were ended as expressed of the ill servant in the time of his Lords delay beating his fellow-servants and eating and drinking with the drunken Cap. 24. ver 48 49. When the Lord came he cut him in two c. and the word delay shews marriages were not usually made so late at night 2 It may be he alludes to the first publick notice of Christs coming to his Church in Jerom of Prage or Luthers time which was but a little better then the darkest time of Popery 3 A cry in the teaching of the Gospell now is made of Christ's coming he being other ways held out in the doctrine taught now then in that before Luther 4 They are called on to go out to meet the Lord that is to performe their ministeriall duty in bringing Christ to the Church and in presenting the Church to Christ this begins I suppose with Luther in some kind because Cardinals were sleeping and Arch-bishops and Bishops slumbring but indeed the true time or full time of the cry will be when all are asleep and it may well be called midnight when the ministry is all as it were true and false abolished the true by Antichrist and Christ by his coming abolisheth Antichrists ministry again When God shall do this what rayling will there be against Authority as if they overthrew it Ver. 7. Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps 1 At this time when the foolish Virgins and the Presbyter the last of them slumbers God brings again and awakens the five wise Virgins the true Gospel ministry 2 Then there is much trimming of Lamps that is proving of calling ministry and Government by Archbishops and Bishops as Doctor Field by presbytery Calvin Rutherford by the Gospell ministry by him whose name is not meet to be mentioned in the day Christ's ministry shall be spoken for 3 Indeed I suppose there may be yet a time after the presbyters sleep in which liberty will be granted to men for Episcopacy and Presbytery to plead their call freely and publickly it may be before the supream Magistrate sitting in judgment as it were to determine that the controversie intâ—nated in Daniel 7. ver 13 14. 4 In that it is said they arose it sheweth as men awâ—kâ—d out of sleep they will come to this debate of all sides rowsed up from the losse they before had or are like after to sustaine Now the raising of