it is the loosing of Sathan which is to be but for a short time as it is said Rev. 20.3 it is so noted in this Chap. 12.12 upon the devils coming down failing of his enterprise by the beast his Angels and jugling tricks to recover heaven that he had great wrath because he knew that he had but a short time and then 2ly in the last scene of this last warr for there are several scenes in it as we shall shew the battel of the white horse being the former part of this war he is said only to go forth to make warr with the remnant of the womans seed which shews this action to be removed far in time from the primitive ages and the persecution thereof for the Church then was the woman but these are the progeny the offspring the successors of the Church many ages afier not the woman clothed with the sun not in the glory of the primitive purity and perfection but a poor weather-beaten remnant that had rid out the storm and kept the word of Christs patience and have the testimony of Iesus but little applause in the world There lyes one objection against this in the 12th chap. and that is v. 14. where the 2 wings of a great Eagle that were given the woman are interpreted of the Roman Empire into East and West which challengeth this flight to those earlier times even the first rising of the beast To which I answer that it is but a presumption so to interpret the wings of the Eagle from the congruity of the allusion to the Roman Ensignes but we may as well and I think more groundedly derive this metaphor and allusion from Moses song when the Roman Eagle was not in being Deut. 32.12 As an Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings so the Lord alone did lead him so also Exod. 19.4 ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on Eagles wings and brought you to my self Lo here the Lord is the Eagle his mercy and truth his high and eminent ways of salvation are the 2 wings of the great Eagle displayed for his people and it is more probable and congruous to understand the Lords speaking according to his ancient types in Scripture then according to modern conjectures of men while I am pondering There is another objection to be removed and that is that that which I call the first warr or the wart in heaven cannot be that which the Dragon managed by the beast for that the beast is said in his war with the saints to over come them Rev 13.7 But in this warr in heaven Rev. 12. The Dragon prevailed not neither was his place found any more in heaven I answer both these may stand the beast did overcome i. e. he maintain'd his beast-like rule and kingdom in the subjects that were given him to rule over which were the dwellers on earth whose names were not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world but the Dragon who managed this warr by the beast with a desire and designe to hinder Christianity from taking root and to relieve the lost heaven to his own party he prevailed not in his design for the woman in the wildernesse carryed heaven in her banners and Antichrist and all his party were manifested to be but an earthly finagoge and especially as the Reformation grew on which occasion'd the 2d warr Thus we see the first warr was waged in heaven a spiritual orbe and sphear and managed by the dragon and his Angels the Pope and his Cardinals and Angelical Doctors and this by the space of a 1000 years from the downfall of heathenism and if it be said the Pope usurped also a secular power and used the material sword deposing kings and Emperors I answer it was chiefly for setling his own usurpation and to fasten his horns on his own head where in also he prevailed more by his impostnres then by his armes warring not as the Dragon but as the beast and now having made this way let us take a view of the Dragon and his army Gog and Magog and their action and the time of it and the designe and counsel of God in it and the issue he will make and that use he would have us to make of it in the interim The time we have already hinted to be from the 5th trumpet with some reasons for it which I shall now draw forth in order particularly as First the 3 woes that are denounced to usher in the three last trumpets Rov 8.13 answerably whereunto upon the commencement of the 2d war Rev. 12.12 it is said wo to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea for the Devil is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth he hath but ashort time this is the first Paralel and character of the time 2. The Dragon or Devil to this last enterprise of his is said to be loosed out of his prison Rev. 20. which prison is exprest above to be the bottomlesse pit accordingly at the 5th trumpet a star fell from heaven and to him was given-the key of the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit c. and out of the smoke came Locusts Rev. 9.1.4 again chap. 11. the beast that makes warr upon the witnesses which is this time of Satan loosed ascends out of the bottomless pit this is that little horn in Daniel that rose after the ten and was divers from the rest and therefore Rev. 17. he is call'd the beast that was and is not and yet is for he shall ascend saith the holy Ghost v. 8. out of the bottomless pit therefore because of the different state of this warr from the former he is said to be the eighth head though he be of the 7 v. 11. what further evidence I have for taking the 5th trumpet within this time I shall offer in the end of this Discourse by it self before I leave this circumstance of the time of this enemies coming forth I shall make this observatian that as the 4. first seals were different from the three last for under the 4. first seals which were more moderate the living wights cry come and see but at the 5th seal there is another cry of the souls under the Altar for as the full of the heathen-state drew near the persecution was more fierce and general so likewise the 4. first trumpets were a calm time wherein the Saints had their 1000 years mistical and spiritual reign with Christ comparatively to the 3 last trumpets when the fall of Babilon drew near then the beast bestirs himself and seeing his juglings and impostures would not suffice to keep off the blow Satan is let loose to help him by his Dragon-like-rage and venom But it will be said the 5th trumpet sounded many ages ago this
beginning at 390. both the computations will come up together both Daniel and John and so they did come up together I am very well satisfied in it I speak it as to my self but I impose it upon no other I say they did I humbly conceive come up in the year 1650. then was Daniels 1290. dayes expired and then was the 42 months ended Now for the 45. dayes that are afterwards they are I believe the time that Daniel speaks of here in the beginning of this chapter At that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people This may seem strange that after Antichrist his 42. months are expired we should have such a time of trouble as never was but pray mark I believe there is a great mistake in this in the objecting of this trouble or in the applying of it As if it were the time properly of the Churches trouble I grant that the Church shall have a great sence of the trouble in common among others nay I grant that the enemies of Christ and of his kingdom shall chiefly direct their aim in all the time of that trouble against the Church even if it were possible to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven But the holy Ghost doth not object this trouble directly upon the Church nor properly for this being that time when Michael stands up the trouble is only accidental to the Church for it is the time that the Lord will deliver his people the trouble is but the charges of the suit would you be delivered without suit It is as if a woman should expect to be delivered without travel you should look upon the issue of the trouble observe how it is spirited how it is intended what is the designe of the trouble the Lord is coming to judge he is coming to take down this old state of things that he may bring in a new this is the trouble of these times It is not a trouble that is under the management of the enemy as if they did what they would no they are passive they are driven by the judicial hand of God they are bringing down their own house with their own hands as Solomon says it is that trouble under which the saints are called to lift up their heads because their redemption draweth nigh A little to gird this closer to us of the times being fulfilled wherein I do expose my self and my judgment Let others think of it and me as they shall see cause but I say I do verily apprehend it so I would not come to you with vain visions were it not sealed up to me to my heart and soul and it is not a new thing but I have been a long time leading into it and am more and more confirmed in it that the time is fulfilled and that this work that is now in hand it is Christs work it is he that gathers the nations but I say to gird this unto us consider this one thing That Antichrist is the last enemy that is to infect or annoy the Church and the only enemy that doth let or hinder the revelation of the son of God or rather the son of man from heaven and therefore if we can shew as I think we have shewed that his time is out then the time of Christ is come which I shall desire no other evidence for then what you finde in the 2 Thes 2. Where the Apostle is setling the minds of believers in those days touching the times of the man of sin and of the day of Christ when it should be and he issues his discourse into this as you may see in that chapter that there was nothing that hindred but the man of sin who was not yet revealed but this mystery must have it's time it must have its course he must be revealed and then when that man of sin is revealed then shall he be consumed by the spirit of Christs mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his coming and then comes the day of Christ for so you see in the text let no man deceive you for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first Now when that falling away hath had it's course and that the man of sin hath been revealed then there is nothing to let but Christ will come I could please my self with this subject In the next place I come to the signes which may be more suitable to you then these calculations are For these signes are those that our Saviour accomodates to all capacities he delivers them to his poor disciples who were at that time men of no extraordinary reach though when the spirit came upon them they were wonderful men otherwise they were no extraordinary men and our Saviour gave them these signes of his coming And I tell you now before I point you to these signes I shall not point you to such as it may be you might think but the signes that shall come upon you you shall finde in Mat. 24.29 The sun shall be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the starrs shall fall from heaven c. And then shall appear the signe of the son of man in heaven I confess I have read these Scriptures many and many a time and have perused them over with the sence of an allegory in them a general notion of the darkness of the times and the like And some look upon them it may be according to the letter as if there should be a wonderful consternation upon these heavenly bodies that should make them to withhold their light But I shall acquaint you with what hath been presented to me and let them that are spiritual judge of it First where shall we begin these signes for here our Saviour doth give them a beginning immediately after the tribulation of those dayes now the question is what those dayes are that our Saviour speaks of before what the tribulation was as the end of which those signes do commence I know that you can hardly avoid fixing that tribulation upon the destruction of litteral Jerusalem I confess I would not undertake the task to carry the discourse that doth antecede this 29. v. out to any other subject then the destruction of Jerusalem but yet let me tell you by comparing this with another Scripture you shall finde a great help to discern what that tribulation was viz. Luk. 21.34 Jerusalem shall be troden down c. untill the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled Our Saviour speaks here and Luke doth record the very same discourse of our Saviour as Mathew doth and it doth appear by comparing these that our Saviour intended that description of those calamitous times that was to come upon Jerusalem to be a type and a figure of that passing away of carthly Jerusalem among the Gentiles The one was a glass as I may say and a mirror in which you might see the other it was a type and a
for this cause because it is the time not of giving forth new prophecies but of fulfilling the old And therefore the book of Revelations is but a collection of the old prophecies as to the subject matter thereof but which was that which none of the prophets could do there is made an orderly digestion distribution and applycation of them in the order of times to be fulfilled and all the scenes that concern us Gentiles are with allusion to the like that have been or are to be fulfilled among the Jews and are delivered to us in the language of those types as might be instanced throughout the whole book of the Revela from one to the other now we finde in the prophets no Gog and Magog prophecyed of to infest the new Jerusalem but before it commences we have a prophecy thereof at large by Ezekiel which is an argument I know not how any can get over therefore either the new Jerusalem is not the same state which the 1000 years or Gog and Magog must precede the 1000. years raign which is contrary to the text or else the Gentiles new Jerusalem state must be cast in another mould quite then the Jews is I say one of these 3 must follow if we have a Gog and Magog to disturb us after it when the Jews shall have none but only before theirs and so God must vary his rule and way and his oeconomy and dispensation to one part of his own family must be on this wise and to another on that wise in this particular which is alike in all others which without better grounds to suppose it I cannot admit My 4th ground is that by this Hypothesis there is a fairer account given of the 2 beasts Rev. 13. and of their distinction then the ordinary exposition doth afford if we take the time of the 2d beast for the times of Satan loosed when the beast that was so plausible and taking before changes his shape form and puts on a dragon-like rage and cruelty I know this will seem very absurd to suggest because of the hornes of the lamb that are seen on this 2d beast what more unlike a dragon then a lamb but let it be considered withall that this 2d beast spake like a Dragon so that there is something of a Dragon and a great matter too the mouth of the Dragon is as bad a part as any for with that he sâ—…s fire as we commonly say and poisons with his breath But 2ly Let us consider this 2d beast is not only 2d in way of numeration but in the order of his rising springing up after the other which though not so plainly exprest by John in the Revel but only couch't in those general intimations of the other beast and the first beast before him yet is expresly noted by Daniel Dan. 7.24 Another shall rise after them i.e. after the 10. horns and he shall be divers from the first and he shall subdue 3 kings and into the hands of this horn it is that times and laws shall be given untill a time and times and the dividing of time which time times and dividing of time cannot be the whole 42 months of the beast or the 1260. days of the witnesses fackcloth-prophecy as they are commonly expounded for that this beast rises after the 10 horns not with them nor presently after them it is to be supposed for that would be as good as with them but many hundreds of years after them and let it be observed that this phrase and reckoning is but once mentioned in the Revelation and that is chap. 12. and then 't is applyed not to the beast but to the serpent or dragon which is all one and that not to his times before his casting down out of heaven nor to his times while he was shut up in the pit but as I suppose to his last times of loosing again Rev. 12.14 for I take this 12th chap. for a compendium or abstract of the Dragons story from his dethroning by Constantine to his last treading of Gog and Magog where we finde a 2 fold fight of the woman The first v. 6. making an opportunity for Antichrists rasing or rather giving way to him at his coming forth The second v. 14. Upon the devils loosing for this double slight is paralel'd and answer'd with a double scene of trouble from the Dragon the one presently upon the birth of the manchild who had got into the throne in heaven being caught up thither the Dragon and his Angels sought to have destroyed this interest but prevailed not The 2d is after a 1000 years when this manchild had so long carried heaven away from the Dragon and that the beast and his followers to whom the Dragon resigned were discovered now by the dawning of reformation which then began about the year 1300 to be but an earthly crew the Dragon bethinks himself what use to employ them to and finds they were apt and sit to make instruments of outward trouble and persecution against the heavenly ones and so he employs them that way for the first warr was in heaven but this latter on the earth the first warr was managed by the Dragon and his Angels learned men and religious men for it is said that the Dragons tail drew the 3d part of the starts from heaven and did cast them to the earth i.e. he made them of his party for an earthly interest which yet they coloured with the name of heaven and with pretended miracles and jugling tricks sought to cozen the world and to put the cheat of a false and adulterated Christianity upon them wherein he prevailed upon the inhabitants of the earth all whose names were not written in the lambs book of life but the woman and her heavenly off-spring hold out against the Dragon Michael and his Angels got the day and the Dragons place was fonud no more in heaven then comes on the 2d war after the 1000 years wherein the dragon betakes himself to outward force then the woman flees the 2d time into the wilderness from this 2d state of the beast and his warr and under this assault she is helped by the earth which availed nothing to her help in the former warr but here the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood as we shall shew hereafter how kingdoms engaged and stood up for the witnesses bearing off much of the shock of warr and persecution from them untill at last the Dragon siugles out the remnant of the womans seed and goes forth with great rage to make warr with them and to swallow them up v. last of the 12th which I take to be his last attempt and properly to referr to Gog and Magog wherein as in all his former he shall fail and shall make least of all of it as shall be shewed in it's place This is my Scheme of this chapter and to confirm this observe that in this last warr to give light to us that