the Opened-book-prophecy of any Vision that sets out the persecutions of the primitive Church which is as notable and considerable as any thing that is prefigured in the whole Apocalypse and so makes the Opened-book-prophecy defectuous 2. It supposes which is false that Heaven in this Vision signifies Symbolically when it signifies onely Topically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had signified Symbolically it would have run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And there appeared a great wonder a Woman in Heaven cloathed with the Sun c. if being seen in Heaven had signified her Political state or condition Which it does no more than it does concerning the red Dragon v. 3. who is not said to be seen in Heaven to set out his Political condition for that his seven Crowns sufficiently shew namely that he was in the highest Political state but onely signifies Topically and declares in what place Iohn saw this wonderfull sight and so it is of the Woman being seen there 3. The Remarker's interpretation here and his exposition of the Temple appearing in Heaven contradicts the Text. For he supposes in both the Christian Religion to have become the Religion of the Emperours and the Christian Laws the Laws of the Empire Whence it is plain that the Woman cloathed with the Sun in his sense is past her Throes This is point-blank against what is declared in the Vision that the Woman cloathed with the Sun being with child cried travelling in birth and pained to be delivered whenas the being in Heaven in the Remarker's sense implies she was delivered already Wherefore it being so plain from hence that the 19th Verse of the precedent Chapter is not the beginning of this Vision it is manifest that it ends the former and that the Earthquake and great hail is the same with that of the seventh Vial And consequently from what has been already noted here on this Chapter and what deliver'd in my answers to the Remarks on the former that the Vision comprised in that Chapter commenceth with the beginning of the Church and ends with the seventh Vial. It is also plain already that the Vision begun in this 12th Ch. commenceth from the beginning of the Church and endeth not till the Vision of the Wine-press which closeth the 14. Chapter and which the Remarker himself cannot deny but synchronizes with the seventh Vial. So that the 12.13 and 14. Chapters contain one entire Vision consisting of several parts synchronal to the Vision contained in the 11. Ch. And the affairs represented in this 12. Ch. reach unto the Woman's flight into the Wilderness where she is to be for a time and times and half a time and to the emerging of the healed Beast out of the Sea who makes war against her seed for 42 months the same with a Time and Times and half a Time and with the 1260 days of the mournfull Prophesying of the Witnesses Which time and things answer to one another those of the 13. Chapter to those of the 11. as the time of the affairs of this 12. Chapter to the measured Inner Court there in Chap. 11. And now forasmuch as there is a War betwixt the Beast and the Soldiers of the Lamb in the 13. Chapter the mustering of these Soldiers takes up part of the 14. Chapter and the description of their condition which Soldiers therefore synchronize with the War mentioned in the 13. Chapter And the voice of the first Angel is a menacing admonition to the Bestians for their Idolatry threatning to them the ill success of their War against the Saints at last Which comminatory voice of this first Angel commenceth for ought I can see with the fifth Trumpet and extends it self to the Western as well as Eastern Empire but is restrained to the time of the 42 months war But the second Angel tells the actual success thereof Babylon is fallen is fallen Which answers to the fall of the City in the 11. Chapter which is the success of the War there betwixt the Beast and the Witnesses But what follows the Fall of the City in the 11. Chapter and the fall of Babylon in the 14. reacheth into the times which commence with the seventh Trumper and end with the seventh Vial. So that there being such a perpetual correspondence of Time and Things betwixt the Vision comprised in the 11. Chapter and this integral Vision contained in these three next it is manifest they are two Synchronal Visions And this I thought was a seasonable place to represent them to be such Vers. 2. This travailing in pain is not the suffering of the Primitive Persecutions but her labouring to bring forth the Man-child that was to rule all Nations that as she was exalted to that Heavenly station by the Emperours receiving the Faith so the Devil might be cast down from the same and so outed of his Dominion which he held thereby whereby the autority of Christ might be established in Heaven as Prince of the World Ans. This travailing in pain must be understood of the Primitive Persecutions For after the Christian Religion had become the Religion of the Empire which was upon the victories of Constantine in whom the Man-child which the Woman brought forth who was to rule all Nations viz. those numerous Nations contained in the Roman Empire was caught up unto God and his Throne that is was invested in the imperial Throne the Woman that is the Apostolick Church was freed from her Throes The Remarker seems to interpret without any regard to History And here he harps again upon the same mistaken string making Heaven signifie Symbolically when it here onely signifies Topically Vers. 7. The War here does not signifie the conflict between the primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the Christians were not then in such a station as to war in Heaven but the War here on their side bears the same sense with the War of their Adversaries viz. the Devil being sentenced to be cast out on the Man-child's being caught up unto God and his Throne the War here was to put that sentence in execution and it was betwixt the Christian Emperours and the Heathen Emperours and also the Tyrants who in favour of Paganism rose up against the Christian Emperours by which War at length the power of the Devil or Pagan Empire was wholly abolished Ans. The War does signifie the conflict betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors And the reason alledged against it is very vain as if Heaven signified Symbolically and not Topically which most certainly it does as Grotius has also noted and renders in coelo in aere And when the Man-child was caught up unto God and his Throne the Devil was not onely sentenced to be cast out but was actually cast out Nor was the Man-child taken unto the Throne of God till the Christian Emperour had overcome the Pagan Vers. 11. Though the Primitive Christians did overcome their Accuser by the
diversification that they are spoke touching distinct nay opposite parties the one his Church the other their adversaries whence he says he will fight against them To all which you may add That this is the Political Prediction preceding the Epiphenema Vers. 18. Thyatira does as in all other Epistles signifie the state of the true Church that 's written to and not of the Antichristian Church at that time and therefore it cannot refer to the making the Virgin Mary the daughter of God but alluding to that signification of the word may signifie that state of the Church wherein the autority of Christ began to gain the ascendent of worldly powers and which therefore may be reckoned the infancy of his Kingdom and in that respect the Church as to that time may be called a daughter though otherwise styled a woman Which time we suppose to commence from the expulsion of the Goths out of Italy whose Reign there was the seventh Head that was to continue but a little time immediately after which the Popes grew so great as to cause the Exarches first to remove to Ravenna and after to be expell'd Italy and so prospered with their usurped autority as by degrees to make all the foreign Nations that had overrun the Empire and setled in it to be subject to them He therefore gaining such rule by his false pretensions to be Christ's Vicar does evidence the reality of that autority by usurpation whereof he grew so potent as also did the Roman Hierarchy who oft proved able to sway the States of Kingdoms to depose their Kings c. Since therefore the usurpers of Christ's autority grew so potent and prevalent thereby such as were redeemed from the world to become members of his Kingdom and so were really accompanied with the power of his spirit proportionably to the state they had attained to must surely be likewise of great prevalency in their several stations though but of private condition Hence so great power is ascribed to the two Witnesses ch 11. And hence the great persecution and war at length was raised against the Saints by the Antichristian powers to suppress the emerging power of Christ's Kingdom in them which fulfilled the other sense of Thyatira by the multitude of Martyrs sacrificed c. Ans. In the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus Christ says I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is Which undoubtedly is the See of Rome and therefore the Church in Pergamus is the Apostolick Church within the jurisdiction of the Roman there termed in the Prophetick style Pergamenian and so undoubtedly Thyatirian in this Interval And therefore barely to contradict this without any reason added is mere wantonness and humour But now the Pergamenian Interval ending in the year 1242 when the Pope's Legate Amelin made an end of the Albigensian war with Trancavel Bastard-son of the Earl of Beziers what an extravagance is it to say that the Thyatirian Interval began near seven hundred years before the Pergamenian ended The faithfull Martyr Antipas by his account should be slain in the Thyatirian Interval whenas the Prophecy places him in the Pergamenian And that the slaying of Antipas respects and typifies those vast slaughters of the Waldenses and Albigenses with me there is not nor can there be with any one else that well considers it the least doubt imaginable and therefore I make no question but the Pergamenian Interval reaches so far as to include them whence the Thyatirian denomination must of necessity begin after their time nor can the distinct denominations which constitute the Intervals interfere one with another Again a Daughter in the Prophetick style is a delicate Damosel in her flourishing age not an Infant and Christ's true Church upon the expulsion of the Goths was so far from getting the ascendent over the worldly powers that she grew more and more enslaved under the power of Antichrist under the bondage of that Roman Pharaoh than which there is not a more worldly power under the Sun and was held under this power till the Sardian Interval viz. till the rising of the Witnesses that is to say till the late happy reformation begun by Luther c. This therefore is a very rude rush against manifest truth as if the Remarker did not mark what he did or said Else he would not say that the Popes caused the Exarches to remove their seat to Ravenna whenas no History that I meet with makes any mention of any other seat of them but that But such slips as these I could willingly wink at if the main of the remark had any solidity in it But how lax and lank it all is the intelligent will easily discern by these few hints I have given Vers. 23. I will kill her children with death seems here to signifie a spiritual death and curse ensuing the same and so will better cohere with the following words All the Churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and heart c. and is of the like signification with what is threatned Zach. 14. against such as fought against Ierusalem and would not keep the feast of Tabernacles Ans. Those two Expositions given by the Expositor are plain and events answerable But no events have answered or are likely to answer to the other as to the strange miraculous diseases And for her children to be killed by a spiritual death it would be no loss to her they would be the more alive to her and snug in her bosome and be the closer Thyatirians And for the coherence of what follows it is sufficiently perspicuous in the other plain and unstrained way Vers. 26. Giving power over the Nations respects not the Governours and people that were reformed For they gained no power thereby but freedom onely from the thraldom they were formerly under But if this respects any thing of the Reformation which I conceive it does not and that the Thyatirian Interval reaches not so far it must signifie the chief leaders in the Reformation who through the cause of God they were engaged in attained to bear so great sway and make so great changes c. Ans. Those that were under the rule and power of the Nations even whole Provinces and Kingdoms of them that is to say under the power of the Paganochristians shall vanquish and overcome the Paganochristians so as to turn them to their own Religion or those that remain of them unconverted to have them under their girdle c. This therefore is a mere cavil The easie sense is whereas suppose the Antichristian powers bore sway over the Kingdoms or Nations of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Swedeland c. under the Thyatirian Interval in the Sardian Interval the Apostolick Christians such as Christ speaks to in the Church of Thyatira shall bear the rule over these Nations And the ruling them with a rod of iron and breaking them a-pieces like a Potter's Vessel is shattering a-pieces the Antichristian Compages they
of affairs on this Earth whence I inferred that the Sealed-book-prophecy did so Which is an Article so contrary to the belief of Atheistical and sensual men that it is no wonder that so strong an Asseveration is used to impress it on them But this answers to his calling himself the Amen c. in his Epistle to the Laodicean Church where the same Article is asserted See the Exposition it self on this present Chapter This Angel therefore swearing at the Expiration of the sixth Trumpet that there shall be no more time saving in the days of the sound of the seventh Trumpet and this before there is any entrance into the Prophecy of the opened Book plainly joins the seventh Trumpet to the sixth and so makes a decursion from the beginning of the Sealed-book-prophecy to the very end of it conterminating to the end of the world and by mentioning the seven Thunders also before the said Sealed-book-prophecy is finished points us plainly to a division of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet into seven such Intervals as the seventh Seal was divided into viz. seven Trumpets as we noted above And thus by the Oath of the Angel as I observed before by the bye it is assuredly true that the Prophecy of the sealed Book reacheth to the end of the World Chap. 11. Vers. 1. IT 's very incongruous that the Temple or Thysiasterion and the Outward Court being one Entire Fabrick should signifie prophetically things succeeding one another But they here signifie indeed things that synchronize For the Worshippers in the Temple and at the Altar are measured to be preserved from those evils which they in the outward Court do suffer by its being trodden down and are the same with the two Witnesses in the next verse the Moses and Aaron or those that officiate in the ruling or judicial and in the Priestly offices The Worshippers in the Temple signifie the first because there was the Law in the Ark on which the Divine Presence was seated in the Mercy-seat as on a Throne of Judgment to be consulted with and the Worshippers at the Altar do plainly enough signifie the latter Ans. That things coexistent together may signifie things succeeding in time one after another may appear from that Analogy Space has to Time and they partake so much in the common similitude of one nature that Spatium signifies as well Spatium Temporis as Spatium Loci as is abundantly manifest in reading Latin Authours And as in the Extension of Space or Place one part is out of another not confounded one with another and upon some respect one part counted in site before another another after So it is also in the succeeding parts of Time And as the parts of Space are measurable or numerable so are the parts of Time And there may be the same proportion betwixt a part of Space to a part of Space that there is betwixt a part of Time to a part of Time and alternatim So that even from hence we may be satisfied that the Area of the Inner and the Outer Court without any Incongruity may be made prophetically to signifie things succeeding one another If the Inner Court have an aptitude to denote the Church in her purer condition and the Outer in her less pure as questionless they have and she be first in that first condition and after in the second it 's plain that the Inner and Outer Court though they be coexistent yet have an aptness to signifie things succeeding one another And if the Area of the Inner Court bear the same proportion to the Area of the Outer that the Time of the Purity of the Church to the Time of her lesser Purity by easie Analogy the Proportion of the Outer Area to the Inner will give us the proportion of the time of the less Purity of the Church to the time of her Purity These things will be whether we will or no. And these significancies are so congruous and natural that they are ordinarily hit upon Thus Cornelius à lapide on Ezekiel says Atrium gentium non mensuratum significat innumerabilem gentium multitudinem Ecclesiae adjungendam And H. N. makes the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum two Dispensations the one following the other and favourably interprets the latter of the Dispensation of his own Followers Also the three immured Intervals of Space in Cebes his Table signifie three States or Moral conditions of men succeeding one another in time And the seven Churches in the Apocalypse though coexistent together yet the spirit of Prophecy makes use of them to signifie seven succeeding States of the Church Catholick and Apostolick And the parts of Nebuchadnezzar's Image he saw in his dream though view'd altogether represented notwithstanding four successive Kingdoms according to the number of the Metals it consisted of And lastly Aretas even upon this place by the Inner Court understands the Iudaical Church by the Outer the Christian Wherefore it is very congruous to understand though they be States in succession the Inner Court of the pure State of the Christian Church and the Outer of her State Apostatical But to make the Inner and Outer Court to signifie things that do synchronize spoils those elegant Analogies of Time and Place which I noted above For as the Outer Court's dimensions lye out from the Inner so the Time that is signified by the one should be distant from the Time that is signified by the other and should by no means synchronize which is as gross and harsh as to fansie the stones that paved the Inner and Outer Court laid confusedly and intermixtly one by another Besides making the things signified here by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize makes the Prophecy of the opened Book to commence no higher than the beginning of the seventh or last Seal Which is a strange mutilation or if you will decollation of the Prophecy of the opened Book whenas the Prophecy of the seven Churches and of the sealed Book and it was a point of their perfection to doe so commenced from the beginning of the Church Wherefore this is a surmise very absurd And the Absurdity still appears greater in that the proper undertaking of the Opened-book-prophecy is to set out the affairs of the Church as the other of the sealed Book the affairs of the Empire And yet thus it would omit the chiefest and most notable times thereof viz. the Primitive Times and the Victory of Christianity over Paganism For if this present Vision begin so low as the seventh Seal the next of the Woman cloathed with the Sun must do so too or else it would be a gross neglect of order and method not to begin the Prophecy of the opened Book with a Vision that had as high an Epocha of time as any Which considerations may assure any intelligent Reader that the Remarker is enormously out in making the things signified by the Inner and Outer Court to synchronize Such a monstrous mistake as
of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses for all the Vials are after their Rising it necessarily follows that the aforesaid Reformation is the partial fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses which was the thing to be demonstrated And this succinct Master-Reason of the Expositor as I may so call it may go for a more general Confirmation of all his particular Reasonings on this subject though they are sufficiently firm also of themselves and shews how skilfully he has allotted the several passages of the two Visions that follow the fall of Babylon and Rising of the Witnesses to several of the Vials which are certainly in that time after the said Fall and Rising It shews also the assuredness of his judgment in making the three days and an half that the Witnesses lye slain to be the same with the three times and an half or 1260 days and that the Expositor's six arguments for it as they are rational in themselves so they conclude a certain Truth and that the Remarker's Answers to them are mere Whifling For the late Reformation being demonstrated to be the Rising of the Witnesses all the Remarker's conceits about this matter are quite out of doors These are the genuine Corollaries of this solid Demonstration as to speculation but as to use this one is inestimable That it naturally gives a stop with all that are not out of their wits to their conceiving any hopes of Innovations in State or Church from the near approach of the Rising of the Witnesses the completion of that Prophecy being so plainly past And farthermore for the quieting of their Spirits does plainly inform them of the Excellency of the Reformation made by our Reverend and Royal Reformers here in England and that therefore to separate from such a constitution so well approved of by Divine Testimony is a piece of gross disobedience to the Magistrate and hatefull Ingratitude to the goodness of God and his benign Providence over his Church ARITHMETICA APOCALYPTICA OR A RESOLUTION TO Three main QUERIES Touching the NUMBERS OF THE Medial-Visions OF THE APOCALYPSE Added by way of APPENDAGE to the Answer to the foregoing REMARKS UPON Dr. HENRY MORE HIS APOLOGY LONDON Printed by M. F. for Walter Kettilby 1684. ARITHMETICA APOCALYPTICA OR A RESOLUTION to Three main QUERIES c. WHile my Answers to the foregoing Remarks were in the Press by a lucky Providence there came into my hands certain Apocalyptick Papers sent me in a Letter from a friend who desired my judgment touching them The Papers were the more welcome because the Authour of them seemed to be convinced of that grand truth contended for by Dr. H. M. in his Apology viz. That the Protestant Reformation was the Rising of the Witnesses To which that Authour addeth also that they rose in the year of our Lord 1559 but that their mournfull Prophesying did not conterminate as naturally it doth with their Resurrection and Ascension but was to continue 127 years longer and to expire in the year 1686. In which year he declares with a strange scheme of Enthusiastick confidence that Babylon will be utterly ruined and all Antichristianity quite rooted out of the Church Which look't so like an intended defeat to the important usefulness of the assurance of the Doctrine That the Witnesses are risen already which is the quieting mens minds and preventing stirs and commotions and the conciliating a good opinion of the present constitution of things in matters of Government and Religion here in England that I thought I was obliged the more narrowly to consider the grounds of so Triumphant a conclusion And especially my friend in his Letter pressing me the most earnestly thereto to settle according to my best judgment the Epocha of the Medial Visions which the Authour of those Papers makes to be the year of our Lord 426. Which depends upon his making the Epocha of the Sealed-book-prophecy and the Opened-book-prophecy to be the year 66 in which he supposes that S. Iohn received those Prophecies in the reign of Nero. Wherefore to demonstrate the folly of that Enthusiastick confidence in the Authour of those Papers according to my friend's desire I have here settled the true Epocha of the Medial Visions or of the Apostasie or Reign of Antichrist the usefulness of which we shall consider in its due place Nor content with this I have prefixed two other Queries that tend to the satisfaction of them that urge against the truth of the doctrine That the Witnesses are risen that they are made to rise while the last semitime is but current and not expired as if this destroy'd the usefulness of the Prophecy by giving so large a latitude of time as the space of 180 years for the fulfilling its prediction and were also inconsistent with its synchronizing with the 42 months and 1260 days those days not admitting of any latitude but necessarily signifying strictly so many years The use therefore of these two first Queries for the solving this difficulty I shall also take notice of in its due place In the mean time we shall produce into view the Queries themselves of which this is The first Whether Daniel's Three times and an Half however disguized or varied into 42 months and 1260 days be not the standing Authentick measure of the Medial-Visions of the Apocalypse The second It being granted that Daniel's Three times and an Half is the standing Authentick measure of the Medial-Visions what may be the genuine use and purpose of varying them into 42 months and 1260 days The third What is the precise Epocha of the Medial-Visions or of the Apostasie or Kingdom of Antichrist These be the three Queries And as to the first I say That Daniel's Three times and an Half or seven Semitimes is the standing Authentick measure of the Medial-Visions of the Apocalypse Of which that of the woman in the Wilderness is one of whom it is said Apoc. 12.14 That she was there to be nourished for a Time and Times and half a Time with which abiding of the woman in the Wilderness The Entireness of the Rule of the seven-headed Beast restored The Outer Court troden under foot by the Gentiles The two Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth The entire Dominion of the two-horned Beast or false Prophet or of the great Whore or Mystical Babylon according to Mr. Mede and according to the truth do synchronize Of all these Visions therefore are Daniel's seven Semitimes the standing Authentick measure for the computing the event of any Medial-Vision however varied into 1260 days and 42 months nor is there any more precise restriction as to eventual prediction than there would have been though the expression of Three times and an Half or seven Semitimes had never been varied into 42 months and 1260 days And my Reasons for this my Assertion are these First It looks something absurdly and derogatorily to the Omniscience of the Spirit of Prophecy as if he were farther advanced in Knowledge in St.
Iohn's Time than in Daniel's and as if about 600 years nearer approach to the event predicted enabled him to count the duration of the little Horn with eyes in St. Iohn's time to the punctuality of a year whenas in Daniel's time he could count it onely according to those large measures of Semitimes each of which contains 180 years This methinks looks very uncouthly and absurdly Indeed if he had not counted the reign of the little ruffling Horn with eyes by any parts of time but onely predicted that such a Polity would appear during the fourth Kingdom and then after in the Apocalypse told accurately the time of its duration whether 42 months or 1260 days prophetical it would look unsuspectedly but things being as they are they plainly look derogatorily to that perfection of Prescience in the Spirit of Prophecy to fansie he foretold the time of the Event an hundred and eighty times more punctually at 600 years nearer approach thereto viz. in St. Iohn's time than he did at that distance in Daniel's time as if he wanted that advantage then which he had afterwards Secondly It is plainly suggested by the Spirit of Prophecy chap. 12. from those two places compared together vers 6. And the woman fled into the Wilderness that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days and vers 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the Wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time It is plainly I say hence suggested That the expressing of the duration of the Medial-Visions by 1260 days is not for any more accurate account from some known Epocha of the time of the predicted Event For then the time of the woman's abode in the Wilderness should have been expressed in the first place by those more general and lax measures of a Time and Times and half a Time or seven Semitimes but then afterwards by that more strickt and minute measure of a Day as intimating the event to be predicted even to a set Prophetical Day But it being quite contrary it is a plain insinuation that Daniel's seven Semitimes is the Prophetical measure to estimate the true time of the events by and not those lesser parts of time a Prophetical Day or Month this measure of Daniel being placed not onely after the 1260 days in this and the foregoing Chapter but also after the 42 months there mentioned to be a key to the right understanding of these Variations Thirdly It is apparent that the variation of the seven Semitimes is not intended for any more punctually and restrictively predicting the event for that the variation would then have been onely into 1260 days Prophetical But it being also into 42 months it will entangle the account and make the Prophecy seem to contradict it self and imply things impossible to be possible that is that the Prophecy shall predict true as to time and not true at once For if the Event predicted fall within the last part of time suppose the last Prophetick Month though but a little after the beginning thereof the Prophecy is true but the same or what is necessarily and intimately Synchronal to it not falling out in the last of the 1260 days according to which expression it should do it makes the prediction false And indeed there is the same reason of the last Semitime In the fifth month whereof if the woman go out of the Wilderness the prediction is true but sith it is not in the last month nor in the last day it is doubly false Whence it is manifest that those variations of the seven Semitimes into 42 months and 1260 days are onely Cortical in the external Celature of the Vision are mere Numeral Diorisms not Prophetical Numbers restraining the event to any closer pinch of time than if the duration of the Medial-Visions had been in every place expressed by seven Semitimes Fourthly In the Vision of the two Witnesses who while the Outer Court is troden down by the Gentiles for 42 months do mournfully prophesie 1260 days which is the same time in other Terms the Spirit of Prophecy reducing all at last in this Vision Apoc. 11. vers 8.11 to three days and an half does himself set his Seal to this truth That as to the restrictive prediction of the event there was never greater preciseness intended than what that latitude of numbering by Semitimes did require which is very lax And that by three days and an half three times and an half or Daniel's seven Semitimes are signified that Assertion by invincible demonstration in the Apology I mean by those six solid arguments which the Remarker as eager and keen as he is upon the business to invalidate them has but shewn his own weakness in attempting it is made good to any intelligent and unprejudiced Reader Wherefore by the Reduction in the close of the Vision of the 42 months and 1260 days to Daniel's three times and an half expounding Day by Time first as it does most certainly sometimes so signifie and therefore from the abovesaid arguments as certainly so signifies here we may be assured from the Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy himself that the onely standing Authentick measure of the duration of the Medial-Visions is Daniel's seven Semitimes But there is a necessity of reducing the signification of Day to that of Time first because a Prophetick day signifies but one natural year but a Time a Prophetick year which is 360 natural years Fifthly The nature of the things predicted to come to pass at the expiration of the Time of the Medial-Visions is such that their accomplishment cannot be effected in the space of a single Prophetical day Such is a considerable breaking the entireness of the Dominion of the little Horn with eyes or of the two-horned Beast the false Prophet or Whore of Babylon the fall of the tenth part of the City and Rising of the Witnesses at which such Acclamations as these are heard in Heaven The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ chap. 11. vers 15. And chap. 15. that Song of Moses and the Lamb is sung by the triumphant Harpers on the Sea of glass Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways O 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 judgments are manifest Surely all this must not signifie such small Atchievements as can be brought about in one single year And as Rome was not built in one natural day no more could so great a ruine of the Roman Polity or Hierarchy though but partial be effected in one Prophetical day Which unless we reckon by Semitimes must of necessity be the measure we reckon by Wherefore it is plain from the nature of the things
predicted though they were not come to pass that they are not to be atchieved in one single year or prophetick day and that therefore the variation of the seven Semitimes into 1260 days was never intended for so precise an indication of the predicted event as to limit it to a single year And the 1260 days and 42 months being but the variations of the same seven Semitimes of Daniel there is the same reason of the months also that neither of them imply a greater strictness than that ancient Authentick standing measure in Daniel A time and times and half a time But as I said if we stick not to this the onely measure is by Prophetical Days Sixthly and lastly To all this for our farther assurance that Daniel's measure is the onely measure to measure the true time of the Events of the Medial-Visions by we may add that one real Specimen which indeed involves in it all the middle Synchronals namely The Rising of the Witnesses Which forasmuch as I have so firmly demonstrated the effusion of all the Vials to follow it is as firmly from thence sure and manifest that the Reformation begun by Luther and spreading and propagating it self thorough so many Countries Principalities and Kingdoms is the completion of that Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses Which noble Event predicted in this Vision it is manifest according to History was not restrained to a Prophetick day nor month neither but fell out simply as was predicted in the last Half day or last Semitime of the seven But that the Vials follow the sixth Trumpet or Rising of the Witnesses and that consequently the abovesaid Reformation is the completion of that Vision of the Witnesses Rising I thought it was even with Mathematical evidence made good in the Apology but I hope now whoever carefully peruses the foregoing Answer to the Remarks made by so keen a Remarker will find that the Answerer has had occasion given him of so fully and clearly confirming and invincibly evidencing the forementioned Assertion that it will not be in the power of any one that closely attends to what is written any longer to hesitate about the truth thereof nor consequently to doubt of this present Truth That Daniel's seven Semitimes is the onely real and Authentick standing measure according to which the Events of the Medial-Visions are to be computed and their truth examined from a certain Epocha Which first point being cleared we are in the next place to enquire what may be the genuine use and purpose of varying Daniel 's seven Semitimes into 42 months and 1260 days in these Visions of the Apocalypse For certainly there is no trifling in so sacred a Writing For to begin with what may seem slightest first Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time being so often to recur in the Medial-Visions if there had been no varying of them into the 42 months and 1260 days I may add also into the three days and an half the outside of the Visions would have looked more homely and bald whenas this variety gives grace and ornament unto them Nor can this Reason seem trisling if we consider that God and Nature in Plants and Animals does not affect onely what is wholsome and usefull but adds also thereunto what is handsome and beautifull But secondly It seems very requisite yea even necessary for the Apocalyptick styles which describes bodies Politick which are to continue for many Ages together by the Symbol of some particular Beast or single humane Person man or woman which it would be indecorous to declare they were to continue a Time and Times and half a Time which either conveys nothing to the mind of the Reader or else if plainly expressed the space of twelve or thirteen hundred years when no particular Beast nor any single man or woman can be conceived to live so long It was I say necessary for the Apocalyptick style to turn Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 1260 days or 42 months that the Cortex of the Visions might keep decorum in those Symbols of living Creatures and they not be said to continue so extremely much longer than is agreeable to the Laws of Nature Upon which account of Decorum or adorning the Cortex with the smooth shew of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the karcases of the slain Witnesses are said to lye but three days and an half unburied though those three days and an half are the same with Daniel's three times and an half But to have said either here or elsewhere for A Time and Times and half a Time Three years and an half had been quite out of the road of the Prophetick style which never names a year for a year of years though a Time signifies such a Prophetical year as I may so call it but it is no where in use and it would imply that no less than 360000 years were the space of the Millennium or Ligation of Satan Thirdly The denoting Daniel's seven Semitimes one while by Days and another while by Months and the applying the numbering by days of which the Sun is governour to the children of the Day the truly Evangelical Church and the numbering by Months which respects the Moon who is the Governess of the Night to the Apostatized persecutive Church is a farther piece of instructive Elegancy even in the exteriour Cortex of the Medial-Visions characterizing thereby the Gentiles that tread under foot the Holy City for forty two months and the healed Beast with seven blasphemous Heads to whom it was given to make War with the Saints also 42 Months by the infamous Note of the children of darkness but characterizing the true Church and unapostatized Evangelical Christians who were to be nourished in the Wilderness chap. 12.6 1260 days and the mournfull Witnesses chap. 11. that were to prophesie in sackcloth 1260 days and to be raised from the dead after three days and an half by the glorious Title of the children of light Fourthly This variation of Daniel's Semitimes into 42 Months and 1260 Days has not this office onely of duly characterizing the two Parties the Apostolical and Evangelical Church in commendation of the one and detestation of the other but is farther serviceable to us for the more distinct knowledge of the Visions that we do not confound into one such parties as are two and notified to be so by this character And hence it is that Mr. Mede is sound solidly and judiciously to have distinguished betwixt that woman Iohn saw in the Wilderness upon a scarlet-coloured Beast chap. 17. and that mentioned chap. 12. vers 6. who is said to be fed in the Wilderness 1260 days where the numbering by Days does plainly indicate that woman in the Wilderness to be the pure Evangelical Church the mournfull Witnesses c. Whenas the other woman in the Wilderness chap. 17. is the apostatized Church even the Whore of Babylon as she is there called Wherefore this distinguishing the Mulier Eremicola
There is a very gross and false Principle laid down in this Remark if I mistake not the Remarker's meaning Which is this That Christ's Kingdom cannot be there where things are ordered by any external or Political Rules or Laws in either Church or State but merely by the immediate guidance and motion of God's Spirit That the Spirit of God will assist in making these Laws and will actuate and invigorate both Rulers and People with a sensible and living relish of them to observe them and see them observed in those excellent times that are to come I willingly grant But that other Principle I look upon as proceeding either from a deep or high melancholly I know not which to call it or if the Remarker can bear it a Religious delirancy And it is a most enormous piece of Ingratitude against the Holy and Benign Providence of God to speak so vilifying of the Reformation as he does If the Reformed people as they are called had taken half the pains to spy out every one his own faults and sincerely with imploring the Divine assistence had endeavoured to mend them that they have taken to spy faults in Governours and Governments we should have had a glorious Church of it by this time But spiritual Pride has laid waste their Understandings The Kingdom of Christ can very well subsist without such Enthusiastick whimsies Consider Apoc. 12. v. 10. Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ. Which is the Triumph of Christianity over Paganism And yet the Primitive Christians lived under external Laws and Rules both Spiritual and Civil Vers. 19. This Verse ought to begin the next Chapter it being the beginning of the Prophecy of the opened Book The Temple of God was opened in Heaven when Christian Worship was received and autorized by the Emperours and the Ark of the Testament was seen in the Temple when Christian Laws became received by autority to become the Laws of the Empire and the lightnings and thunderings and voices signifie the great changes in the world by shaking the powers thereof that should be made thereby Ans. What a marvellous Remark is this that this verse is the beginning of the Prophecy of the opened Book Whenas it is said ch 10 11. upon Iohn's eating the opened Book Thou must prophesie again before many Peoples and Nations and Tongues and Kings The Vision of the Inner and the Outer Court the two Witnesses their slaughter and resurrection is it no Prophecy What an affected blindness is this not to see so plain a Truth Wherefore that Vision most certainly begins the Prophecy of the opened Book which Iohn is said to swallow and thereupon that he was to prophesie before many peoples c. Which words this Vision immediately follows And again what a violence is this to make the opening of the Temple of God in Heaven no part of this first Vision but to tear it off from the rest of the Vision and make it part of the following contrary to the autority of the best Copies and most approved Expositors of the Apocalypse There must be a strange prejudice that should hurry any one upon such an outrage it being also repugnant to what is said in the same verse which he thus unnaturally breaks off And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an Earthquake and great Hail which is plainly a description of matters concerning the seventh Vial where ch 16. it is said upon the seventh Vial being poured out into the Air That there were voices and thunders and lightnings and an Earth-quake and a great Hail indeed the Hailstones being of a talent weight The concurrence of these five Phenomena voices thunderings lightnings Earthquake and a great Hail being found here and no where else in all the Apocalypse saving under the seventh Vial what can it be but an Indication of their synchronizing or signifying the same things So that this cannot be the beginning of the ensuing Vision or Prophecy but the conclusion of this comprized in this eleventh Chapter And still it is more impossible for as much as it is certain that the Vision beginning in the next Chapter containeth the Persecutions of the Primitive Church as we shall see anon whence all in the foregoing Chapter must necessarily belong to that first Vision And therefore this Interpretation of the Temple of God being opened in Heaven is exceeding extravagant For this comes to pass after the seventh Angel begins to sound which is a thousand and odd hundred years after the Christian Worship was received by the Emperours We may note also that the pretty Interpretation he makes of this passage depends upon a Political sense of Heaven which he rejected before and may better doe it now it being not likely to signifie any thing more than merely the place where the Temple was seen as Heaven is taken in the following Vision Where certainly it signifies not Symbolically but Topically or Locally viz. the Air from which Region the Thunders and Lightenings were seen as well as the Temple of God appeared there As it is also said chap. 16. that upon the Angels pouring his Vial into the Air there were thunderings and lightenings which confirms to us that Heaven here which the Remarker would interpret Symbolically signifies onely Topically and denotes the Air. Chap. 12. Vers. 1. THe Woman cloathed with the Sun signifies the Church her being established in a Heavenly station by the Emperours receiving the Faith the supreme power being signified by the Sun and so autorizing and defending the same by their autority and is not applicable to the Sun of Righteousness farther than he is owned by the Emperours or worldly Powers to be Prince of the World for she is beautified with this cloathing by her being in Heaven But she was before her exaltation to that station as much cloathed with the light of the Gospel or the Sun of righteousness and her Crown of twelve Stars does signifie as much as her being cloathed with the Sun in that sense Ans. That the Expositor's interpretation of the Woman travailing in Birth and pained to be delivered is true this alone may assure us viz. because it is very natural and such as is hit upon by all Interpreters in a manner I may add also necessary it being incredible that the Opened-book-prophecy prefiguring the fate of the Church should omit the state of Persecution the Primitive Christians were under Which if not here is no where figured out in the Opened-book-prophecy Whence it is plain that as the Vision of the measured Inner Court prefigures the purity and unapostatized state of the primitive Church so this of the Woman in the throes of Childbirth her sharp persecutions under the Pagan Emperours But now for the Remarker's exposition besides that it is tautological it presently repeating what was understood according to him by the Temple opened in Heaven that it is false appears 1. Because it deprives
Bloud of the Lamb so as to be exalted to the Heavenly station of ruling by the Man-child being caught up unto God and his Throne c. and obtained sentence against their Adversary to be cast out c. yet was that sentence executed as before by the War v. 7. Ans. See what head-strong prejudice will doe As if the Remarker shou'd say though this eleventh verse does imply that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors yet it was not But it does most certainly demonstrate that the War was betwixt the Primitive Christians and their Persecutors For the words are these For they overcame viz. the red Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death What can be a more express description of Martyrdom than this This is not a description of a War of Emperours against Emperours with their armies in the field where they fight upon equal terms but of Martyrs with the word of their testimony passively undergoing for their witnessing to the truth what their cruel Persecutors would inflict upon them Vers. 12. The Dwellers in Heaven are bid to rejoice by reason of the salvation and strength and Kingdom of God and power of his Christ which was to come and therefore surely must signifie them to whom the same came whose particular concern this matter of joy was whereas Angels and Martyrs are no farther concerned in it than in general as they are concerned for the welfare of the Church Nor can those that were exalted by preferments to the Political Heaven of the Empire be concerned in it farther than they were in such a state as to have the coming of salvation and strength and the Kingdom of God fulfilled in them For it onely respects those that are in such a state who are called dwellers in Heaven in respect of the Heavenly station that they were exalted to thereby after the Devil and his Angels were cast out and the autority of Christ established as Prince of the World For then they became the joyfull company with the Lamb on Mount Sion singing the Song of the victory c. who as they are there markt on their foreheads for preservation so they are the worshippers in the Temple and Altar or the two Witnesses meted for the same purpose and are the same that are called dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13.6 and are thus distinguished from those dwellers on Earth against whom the woe is pronounced by reason of the power the Devil will have over them still after he is cast out Ans. The Expositor has taken in both senses of Heaven political and natural they being both sure and consistent one with another and the joy of Angels and Martyrs at the welfare of the Church is too great to be slighted or omitted But to ramble into mystical senses and reach out to the company of the Lamb on Mount Sion is not to interpret by rule but to trifle All Apostolick Christians were concerned in this victory of the Church and most of those in high place in the Empire turned Christian. But the foregoing verse so plainly determining this joy to the victory of the Church in the times of Constantine which shews that the Kingdom of God and power of his Christ was come already and is said to be so v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not yet to come it is a strange vagary to ramble from the Antemedial synchronals to the middle synchronals which undoubtedly the company on Mount Sion belong to And for the Remarker's groundless conceit touching the worshippers in the Temple and Thysiasterion the vanity thereof has been above sufficiently shewn And for the dwellers in Heaven Ch. 13. v. 6. we shall consider it when we come at it But for this present place if the Dwellers in Heaven be those in high degree the Dwellers on Earth must naturally signifie those in low degree or common people as the Expositor has interpreted it Vers. 15. Arianism cannot be here intended more than the Catholick doctrine they both running into extremes and each maintaining their cause with like fumous Animosity But by the Serpent's casting out water like a floud seems to be signified the frequent tumultuating of the common people and Magistrates that continued Pagans against the Christians whereby great outrages were oft committed But such Arians and Catholicks may be also included who under a cloak of Religion did violently prosecute each other out of enmity or self-interest to the great reproach and ruine of Religion Ans. The contention betwixt the Arians and Catholicks is most certainly included and is that which History most of all rings of and most highly concerned the Church and therefore could not be omitted in this Opened-book-prophecy which concerns the state of the Church As for any other contests less notable betwixt Christians and Pagans they were such as could not hazard the Woman's being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her being carried away with the sloud None but a contention betwixt the Christians themselves and such as shaked the very foundation of their Religion could put her in that hazard So that this is a very lank sense which the Remarker gives of this passage Vers. 16. The Earth that helped the woman by swallowing the sloud may signifie the sober stayd sort of people who being either seasoned with principles of Religion or being of peaceable spirits and obedient to authority did endeavour to asswage all such tumults and discountenance and oppose all such furious Animosities and were for composing all differences in a legal orderly and peaceable manner Ans. Undoubtedly that sloud of contention was the hot Contest betwixt the Arians and Catholicks Could therefore the soberer sort of common people Christians or Pagans compose this difference What an absurd conceit is this The Earth that swallows up this sloud does not signifie the common people here though sometimes it is a Symbol of them But the sense is onely this That this floud of contention was swallowed down and dried up by the help of Oecumenical Councils as some rapid Torrent is suck't down by the gaping of the Earth This is enough But farther curiosity might invite a man to fanfie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence Oecumenical comes is alluded to or Earth in general put for clayish Earth which in Daniel is a symbol of the Ecclesiastical Power of which Councils did consist And then it fits obviously and exquisitely Chap. 13. Vers. 1. THE name of Blasphemy if it does intend Idolatry yet it hath a farther signification as All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost c. Where the malignant reproach of God's Spirit evidencing it self in the works of our Saviour is said to be unpardonable blasphemy And the like reproaching of the holy Spirit manifesting it self in the Saints is likewise blasphemy though not of so heinous a
More 's arguments Synops. Proph. lib. 2. cap. 6. sect 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. and then freely judge It is not a probable business but to the intelligent and unprejudiced plain demonstration The Annotatour's last attack is upon Mr. Mede's Notion of a twofold Series or Systeme of Prophecies which he says is his chief argument whence he would infer that the time of the Inner Court precedes that of the Outer viz. the Systeme of the Sealed book and that other of the Opened book which latter says he he fansies must needs begin ab ovo again and commence from the Epocha of the Seals c. To which the Annotatour answers 1 That there is no necessity of such a division of the Prophecies into those of the Sealed book and those of the Opened book as he could shew by several arguments Or 2 If there were yet what necessity is there that this latter must needs commence from the same starting place with the former Or yet 3 if there be then I say this is done chap. 12. where the woman cloathed with the Sun is the Primitive Apostolical Church But to the first I reply That there was indeed no necessity at first that constrained the Divine Wisedom to frame the Apocalypse thus as it is this part I mean we speak of into this twofold Series of Prophecies is true But now it is thus framed as it is it is surely want of Wisedom in us not to discern it to be so That it is so I need produce no new arguments here but refer you to Dr. More 's Synopsis Prophetica lib. 2. cap. 6. in the above named Sections 10 11 c. To which you may add what I have answered to the Remarker on the 10 th and 11 th Chapters But for the several arguments the Annotatour could produce to shew that there is no necessity of conceiving those two Series of Prophecies if they be no better than the six arguments in the other cause he does well to conceal them but if they be better why did he not produce them I am sure Mr. Durham's arguments are very weak and sophistical p. 465. and built all upon that passage chap. 11. vers 14 15. The second Wo is past and behold the third Wo cometh quickly And the seventh Angel sounded The former part of which does not continue the Vision hitherto in this 11 th Chapter to the sixth Trumpet So that all that is hitherto herein said must belong to the Sealed-book-prophecy because the exitus of the second Wo-Trumpet or sixth Trumpet is here mentioned no more than all that follows the sounding of the seventh Trumpet to the end of the Apocalypse belongs to the seventh Trumpet and so is to appertain to the Sealed-book-prophecy But in these two verses there is a marvellous artfull Intimation of the Coincidence of Time viz. That this Vision chap. 11. of the Rising of the Witnesses and falling of the great City ends as to time with the second Wo-Trumpet In virtue of which Intimation the Visions of the Opened book and Sealed book are reduced into clear and usefull Synchronisms and we are assured that what follows in chap. 11. after the seven Trumpets beginning to sound follows the sixth Trumpet and belongs to the time of the seventh c. But to infer from the Time of the Exitus of the sixth Trumpet falling in with the Time of the Rising of the Witnesses that this Vision must belong to the sixth Trumpet which appertains to the Sealed-book-prophecy when it is so plainly and expresly from the Text a Prophecy of the Opened book is so weak a reasoning and so absonous as nothing can be more And this weakness and mistake makes both Mr. Durham and the Annotatour give such an odd and incongruous sense of that passage chap. 11.11 Thou must prophesie again as if it concerned the preaching of the Gospel taking prophesying in so large a sense that it may signifie preaching whenas the word again plainly intimates that the prophesying must be of the same kind as before that is Predicting of things to come But how strangely does prejudice blind the understandings of men To the second I answer That there being two Series of Prophecies acknowledged the one chiefly respecting the affairs of the Empire the other of the Church there is a necessity unless we will be very absurd and conceive that the Spirit of Prophecy will not be as punctual at least in prefiguring from the beginning the affairs of the Church as those of the Empire as if he were more curious in things extraneous than in things more nearly concerning himself and as it were domestick to acknowledge that some Visions commence as high as the Vision of the Seals Which is a plain demonstration that the woman in the Throes of child-birth and the fight of Michael with the Dragon begins as high as the first Epocha of the Church See what we have answered the Remarker upon chap. 12. And to the third and last I answer If this be true that the second Vision of the Opened-book-prophecy viz. the woman in the Pangs of childbed began so high as the Epocha of the Seals or commencement of the Church any one whose perceptive faculty is not grown insensible by callosity or gross Prejudice must needs feel perceive and abhor such an ugly and harsh piece of preposterousness in placing thus this headless Vision first that falls short of the Epocha of the Church by the space of the first six Seals or of betwixt three and four hundred years Whenas it is so fitly placed to shew in Mr. Mede's way the Purity and Unapostatizedness of the Primitive Church and the continuance of that State as the woman in the pangs of childbearing and the fight of Michael with the Dragon to set out the Churches sharp sufferings and conflicts in endeavouring to propagate the Gospel and subdue the Roman Empire to the Sceptre of Christ. Wherefore all things being so easie natural smooth and coherent in Mr. Mede's way as to these things we here speak of it would amaze a man that after things are made so plain and convictive that either Mr. Durham the Guide or Mr. Clark his Follower should have their eyes so held that they should not see so clear and manifest a truth I must confess I was very much astonished at it till I considered the power of Prejudice from education or faction and espousing the cause of a Party And the Annotatour does here in the conclusion ingenuously confess the Malady he labours under His dear regard to Presbytery and disgust against Episcopacy this has made him not content with the faithfull conduct of Mr. Mede and Dr. More but he must have another light to guide him out of the paths and tracts of solid ground in which they would have safely led him to be carried into Fenny and Marish places And prejudice has so hoodwinked his judgment that notwithstanding all his arguments against Mr. Mede's way in these points are thus unconclusive as I have demonstrated yet he most triumphantly concludes This then being evinced That the Temple and Altar measured and the Court unmeasured do synchronize all those Inferences which Dr. More so frequently deduces from his opinion will of themselves fall to the ground As Episcopacy simply in it self is not Antichristian Presbytery is not jure divino Pref. to Myst. of Godl p. 19. And elsewhere concerning the Office and Dignity it self of a Bishop It cannot sink into my mind That that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian Myst. of Iniquity p. 472. But why has the Annotatour noted that Inference of the Doctour also that the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ and Triunity of the Godhead is in this way confirmed by Divine Autority against the Socinians who admit of no other autority but such and by tricks and quillets think they can shuffle off other places of Scripture that are produced for those Doctrines Had he rather that this Inference also should fall to the ground than that Presbytery should not perk up and prevail in the world against Episcopacy But I will rather charitably surmise he did not think of that And declare that it is great pity but that a person so active and industrious to communicate truth to the World as the Annotatour is should light upon any other Guides but such as are both skilfull and faithfull And lastly I will not despair but that he seeing so plainly all his Pretences of evincing That the Temple and Altar measured and the Court unmeasured do synchronize to be utterly routed and vanish and the Doctour's Notion of the Symmetral Times of the Church antecedent to the Asymmetral to stand firm and unshaken that he will admit or rather embrace the Inferences the Doctour deduces therefrom That neither Episcopacy is Antichristian nor Presbytery jure divino FINIS
from the Whore of Babylon by Mr. Mede is a thing not to be overlookt or slighted nor this use of numbering the same time one while by days another while by months to be contemned it stearing us off from such mistakes Fifthly It is well known to them that concern themselves in these Speculations that the artifice of concealment is a thing driven at in the frame and contrivance of the Apocalyptick Visions as well as certainty of Revealment as is noted in Book 1. Chap. 2. Synopsis Prophetica and the usefulness thereof there intimated And it is obvious to conceive that disguising of the duration of the Medial-Visions under so many variations of a Time and Times and half a Time of 42 months of 1260 days of three days and an half must needs contribute something to the obscuring of the Visions and make them not lye so open and obvious to every eye but gives a pleasant exercise to the sagacious and intelligent to find cut the mystery and to reduce all to the ancient Authentick measure Sixthly But there is yet a farther usefulness of the varying of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months or 1260 days and that a notable one For forasmuch as neither the Greek nor Hebrew though they have the dual number expresses the word Times by it what assurance have we but that Times in A Time and Times and half a Time may signifie more Times than two and so it will not be seven Semitimes but nine whenas seven is the sacred Number the Apocalypse seems to affect But that they are seven and not nine or more the varying of them into 1260 days or 42 months does fully assure us and that by A Time and Times and half a Time is understood Three prophetical years and an half or seven half years Of which Seventhly There is this farther notable use For though I have made it plain in my satisfying the former Query That these variations of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days was never intended for a more accurate computation of the predicted Event from some certain Epocha to a month much less to a day yet it being known by those variations that Daniel's Number is seven Semitimes and that those seven Semitimes are seven Prophetical half years or seven Spatia semestria by virtue of these Notices and by Iohn's measuring the Temple of God c. chap. 11. that is the Inner Court and leaving the Outer Court to be trod under foot by the Gentiles for 42 months from these Indications of St. Iohn and from the proportion the Outer Court bears to the Inner the precise Epocha of the Duration of the Medial-Visions is certainly to be collected For as the Outer and Inner Courts are two steady and unalterable proportional Terms understood in their full settled extent or magnitude so there can be no scruple but that the third proportional Term viz. 42 months offered by the Spirit of Prophecy is to be understood as to this use in its full apparent extent for a steady and determinate Inference of the fourth proportional Term for a timely discovery of the enterance of the Apostasie For no number given for such or such an use if that use do not require it nor there be any thing intimated that way For the three days and an half respect the Vision of the Witnesses not the measuring of the Temple and 42 months Conculcation can abate of its full significancy by any prophetick Synecdoche or Numeral Diorism much less can it doe so when the use it serves to requires the contrary as here it does or else the measuring the Inner Court and the offering this third proportional Term to infer a fourth is to little purpose But taking this third proportional 42 months in its proper full extent as the Outer and Inner Court is taken in theirs which are as 7 to 2 it will necessarily infer 12 months in the full extent which therefore is precisely 360 prophetick days that is 360 years for the commensurate Time of the Church before the Apostasie came in And this I think is no contemptible use of the variation of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months or 1260 days And Eighthly and lastly Though the variation of Daniel's ancient and Authentick measure into 42 months and 1260 days be not to predict the entire Event of the Medial-Visions to a precise Prophetick month much less to a Prophetick day yet these variations of Daniel's seven Semitimes into Months and Days have no contemptible use in that they are fitted for the punctual setting down the particular progresses and spreadings of the predicted Event which one Day nor one single Prophetick Month could contain We need instance but in that one example the Vision of the Rising of the Witnesses which began with Luther The right Epocha of the Medial-Visions being found from whence the seven Semitimes are to commence the Event is not to be expected till the seventh Semitime be entered into But then if we would count in a natural and accurate order we might say for example That Luther appeared first upon the Stage the fourteenth day of the second month of the seventh or last Semitime That Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown on the twenty sixth day of the third month of the last Semitime and so of the rest as we find in History For still as any fresh Provinces States Principalities or Kingdoms or any Rulers and Grandees in them which were Pontifician before received the Gospel or any Evangelici before oppressed were advanced into Autority the Witnesses slain before do in these revive and ascend into Heaven and obtain rule and government For the suffering Evangelici and the reigning Evangelici are conceived but as one body though the succession be for many Ages And this I think is one considerable use of varying the phrase of a Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days and takes them in both together But now which I also noted in my Letter to a friend In whatever Month or Day there is an example of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses there their mournfull Prophesying ceaseth from that Time in that place As for example here in England A. D. 1559 which is the 26 th day of the third month of the last Semitime the time when Queen Elizabeth was advanced to the Crown and several Evangelical Grandees in Church and State to high Dignities and Employments Upon this Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses their mournfull Prophesying ceased here and so it was at other times and in other places The close Affinity and Connaturality of the things predicted do plainly evidence this to any one that does not wilfully wink against the Truth In the mean time I think I have made it abundantly plain that though the varying of Daniel's Time and Times and half a Time into 42 months and 1260 days was not to