the Judgment hath been already Executed Object 1. As to the first I shall say these three Things Answ 1. That this Book hath such a Majesty of Truth in the most awfull Representations of the Divine Being of the Redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Beauty of Holiness and of the Abominableness and dreadful end of Sin That whoever hath any Fear of God arising from the light of Natural Conscience or any Gust of the Excellency of Sacred Writings cannot but acknowledge it from God Add hereunto those bright Rays that shining from it every where enlighten the Purity of Divine Worship in detestation of all Idolatry and Superstition and Illustrate the Glory of Martyrdom for keeping the Commandments of God and for holding the Testimony of Jesus In all The Glory of it is as of the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to him by God and who then will dare to set himself as a mark for that Commination If any Man take from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God will take away his Part from all the great Promises of it and will add to him the Plagues written in it which both are most dreadful C. 22. 18 19. Answ 2. Let any one consider the Curious and Admirable Iconisms Images and Figures found in this Book and if he haue a Mind that hath Vnderstanding to apply them to the Events foretold from their first beginning shortly that is to begin from the time of giving it immediately to come to pass and reaching down to this very time he will find them so exactly to answer the prophetical and predictory Types as to justifie this Book of the Revelation to be from God by that very demonstration of Divinity God appeals to Esay 41 23. Shew us things to come that we may know ye are Gods Hence therefore we may be assur'd of the Divinity of this Prophecy even from the prescience of God in it Answ 3. The Prophecies of the Old Testament in Isa C. 47. and Jerem. 51. and in Daniel throughout are such an Exemplar of Judgment on whatever shall come under the Name of Babylon the great as Nebuchadnezzar memorializ'd it for after Ages that if we are duly perswaded of the Divine Authority of the one we have all the just Inducements of the same perswasion of this Apochaliptic Prophecy and that the Spirit who breathed the one breathed the other also who foresaw Mystical Babylon in litteral and prepar'd the Shades of the Destruction of it the Latter in the Former which highly aggrandizes the Evidence of the Divine Authority of the Revelation For none but the Divine Understanding could ever have excogitated such an Admirable Agreement Object 2. As to the second Objection That the Judgment hath been already Executed and the Prophecy fulfilled it shall be answer'd under the second Position that the City which is here denounced upon is Papal Rome from whence it will necessarily follow It is not nor can can yet have been Executed because the City Rome is yet in Being and Greatness but by this Judgment is utterly to be destroyed But in the mean time it may be envinc'd from the glorious Consequences drawn out C. 19. C. 20. C. 21. C. 22. which are so close connexed with this Judgment which have not yet come into effect that therefore not the Judgment itself for who can apprehend such Glorious Appearances as the Heavens opening Christ's coming forth Attended with the Armies of Heaven such an Universal Conquest of Enemies and such a New Jerusalem and Illustrious state of it have ever enlightned a World continuing yet so dark He that can perswade himself to believe that may believe any thing most unreasonable I come therefore to the second Position Posit 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by this Prophecy by which we may be most assur'd It is the present Papal Rome to be Judg'd For the making out this Position Two things are to be prov'd 1. That Rome it self is the City intended 2. That though Rome Pagan be intended yet Rome Papal is the Babylon on which the Judgment is to be Executed so fully here describ'd That it is Rome There are two undeniable even Litteral Affirmations that even the Popish Expositors who have so great Reason to ward off the Blow from Rome yet they have not the face to deny the City must needs be Rome and therefore some of them fix on Pagan Rome But Rome take it Pagan take it Papal Rome it self is the City to be thus Judg'd as the Divine Spirit hath made known to us by saying the Seven Hâ—ads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth Now the Seven Headed City was as plain a Character of Rome when the Apocalyptick Apostle writ as if we described London by the City whose Shore the Thames washes or Constantinople by the Bosphorus coming up to it Again the same Divine Spirit hath told us the City is she that hath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingdom at this very present time over the Kings of the Earth which is as plain a Distinction of Rome as at the time of the Revelation given as if we describ'd London by the City where the Courts of the King of Judicature and the Councils of the Nation are and the chief Seat of Trade is or Constantinople by the Ottoman Port Who that knows the History of the World at that time knows not That Rome was the Seate of the Empire of the World at that very Time This being so plain though other Proofs may be given I pass off from it and come to the second part of the Position That though Pagan Rome is to be taken in yet Papal Rome is the City to be Judg'd especially Ultimately Finally That this may be made out I must lay in the Foundation That as the City Rome is Evidently shewn to be the Babylon to be Judg'd So the Supremacy meant here by the Beast must be a Supremacy closely Related to the City Rome and Bearing up that City in Glory and Grandeur as Pope of Rome in the place of Emperor of Rome or any other of the Supreme Magistracys of it For the City and the Beast that Carryes it are Inseparable If it be therefore made out that the Supremacy is Papal on which the City is Born up when it is Judged It will most certainly follow that the City to be Judg'd is Rome Papal Even as if it be prov'd that the Rome to be Judg'd is Rome Papal It is therein prov'd that the Supremacy Judg'd is Papal Supremacy For as is said They are Inseparable and Proportion'd one to another I will therefore draw out several Characters of Papal Supremacy and of Papal Rome that are most Plain Matters of Fact upon both in Relation to and Compare one with another and that are given in Prophecy upon each as the most plain and easy to be understood waving what is more Critical and Curious and yet most Argumentative and most Conclusive as laid one to
of thy Enchantments But then it is destroyed for ever sunk as a Milstone This speaks the Perpetuity of the Judgment All this is most Prophetically Typical of the Judgment on Mystic Babylon We have found it was literally fulfilled as indeed in one Day and one Night on old Babylon and so it shall in the first Onset on the Mystical But the Judgments of it are so much of another Nature they shall continue much longer in the Execution like the second Death it suddenly surprizes but it continues for ever so is the Judgment of Babylon her Smoke rises up for ever and ever And If any man worship Chap. 14. 9 c. the Beast or his Image c. the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God without mixture and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the Presence of God and of the Lamb and of the Holy Angels and the Smoke of their Torments riseth for ever and ever Thus though the Beginning of the Judgment be sudden the Continuation of it is by certain Distributions of its self till it become an everlasting Lake of Wrath and Torment Posit 4. The Princes that long bare up the Grandeur and Haughtiness of Papal Rome by giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast called therefore his Horns shall be so overcome by the Lamb as to be made Instruments in the Execution of the Judgment in such Parts and Degrees as the strong Lord shall when he becomes Vniversal Monarch King of King and Lord of Lords commission them unto This shall highly exalt and make Illustrious the Judgment It is therefore much to be considered and is a great Confirmation that Babylon means Papal Rome as hath been already at large set forth that the so strange and unaccountable Subjection of so many Kings to the Papacy a feeble Power if we consider its Force of Arms which Statists and Men of Politicks have so wondered at is here accounted for It is indeed call'd Sorcery and Intoxication being made Drunk with the Wine of her Fornication the most Lively Description of False Religion But all is under the Divine Supreme Ordination For God put it into their Hearts to Fulfil his will and to agree together and to give their Kingdom to the Beast until the words of God should be Fulfill'd And they have one mind to give their Power and Strength unto the Beast and hereupon they make War with the Lamb and so Persecute his Truth and Servants And C. 17. 2 13 15 16. the People of these Kingdoms Nations Multitudes Tongues the Inhabitants of the Roman Babilonian Earth falling under the same Enchantment of a False Religion made Drunk and Commiting Fornication with her are as a Confluence of Waters to her on which she sitteth Was there ever or could there be a plainer Description in Prophesy of what is so plain matter of Fact which hath rais'd the Admiration and Wonder of all Observers But when the words of God shall be Fulfilled and the Time Allotted expired Then these Kings shall so far as God pleases be the Executioners of the Judgment For as the Plagues in the Text are Death Mourning Famine Burning with Fire so the Kings shall hate the whore make her desolate Eat her Flesh Burn her with Fire It 's True there are Kings that Bewail her v. 13. 18. But that pertains to another part of the Judgment when it is Advanced to the Eternal Judgment with the Explication of which I have not at the present to do But how wonderfull and Illustrious will the First Execution be when these Kings shall First Appear in it Sure It will be very Great and Glorious Propos. 5. The Greatness and Sudden Invasion of this Judgment as Denounced by God and by such Instruments as the Ten Kings are uncontrolably to be Demonstrated not only as to the Possibility but the certainty of both as from the Truth of the Lord who hath so long ago Denounced it So from the Wisdom and Omnipotency of the strong Lord who is the Judger This is not therefore in the least unreasonable but the Highest Justification from the Truest Principles of Reason is to be found in the Expectation of the Judgment upon the Beast and the City Let it be never so sudden For the Lord is every way Infinitely Shrong who Judgeth God therefore in such his great works of what kind soever appeals to the Consideration of himself as the God that stretcheth out the Earth and that which cometh out of it that giveth Breath unto the People upon it Es 42. So in the Judgment on Old Babylon He that made the Earth by his Power he hath Established the World by his Wisdom and he hath stretched out the Heaven by his understanding when he uttereth his Voice there is a Multitude of Waters in the Heavens and he Causeth the Waters to Ascend from the Ends of the Earth He maketh the Lightning with Rain and bringeth the Wind out of his Treasures Jeremiah 51. 16. 17. It 's therefore a very great Misprision of Infinite Wisdom and Power when we make that an Argument against the most Extraordinary and most Miraculous Works of God which he makes an Argument for Faith and Expectation of them as if he were Tyed by what he had done to do no more or had done all he could do and nothing to be Expected but according to the Laws of Creation and dayly providence and Leisurely Progresses and not in those Immediate Effects of Sudden Power The great God argues differently because those Works of his are so great and so high That therefore still so great and so high are to be Expected and that they should stand up so together when he pleases And so we unwisely think we very well argue he that so Wonderfully and Miraculously appear'd in the First Times of the Gospel hath done all that he will do or thinks fit to be done till the day of Judgment But undoubtedly we may better argue he hath much greater things to do to make the very latter times of the Gospel-Glory as Illustrious as their very beginning and entrance was Before his Kingdom the Man of sin and Son of Perdition shall be Consum'd and utterly defaced his Spirit shall be poured out The Everlasting Gospel shall be Preach'd The Heathen shall come to the Lord from the Ends of the Earth and shall know his hand and his might and that his Name is Jehovah And all Israel shall Turn to the Lord and be saved For Strong is the Lord who shall do all these things Posit 6. The Divine Prescience and Wisdom hath chosen and singled out a Time and decreed it for the Execucion of this Judgment when Babylon shall shew it felf in it's Pride in it's Pomp it 's Presumptive Security For as hath been said it is when she shall say I sit a Queen and shall see no sorrow as Babylon of Old said I shall be a Lady for ever and shall know no
beginning as may be Computed from Nebuchadnezzars 23 d Year Jerem. 50. 30. At the last Captivation And here the Provocation was as may be Collected from the Holy Writers at that Time the unwillingness of the Jews to Leave their Babylonish Plantations And those who did go up to Judah neglected the House of God to Hag. 1. 4. Zech. 2. 6. Build their own Ceiled Houses The Great Delay of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ due to him at his Resurrection is so Transcendental to all other Cases and for which delay Vision and Prophecy was sealed at his Death until the very Time we are now waiting for I do not undertake to Insist upon at this Time being so ordain'd by the Father and by the Mediator for Holy and Wisest Reasons too large for the present Now in these Reserved Times they are so given in Prophecy That they might wholly have United with the Principal Times beginning and ending together but when they by the Event Run out beyond such Principal Times It then appears they were so Design'd by Prophecy to do And when they are in Judgment They seem as it were to Usurp upon the Time immediately following Those Principal Times As the Forty Years in the Wilderness Invaded so much Time of enjoying Canaan before the Reigns of David and Solomon Abridging and cutting it 40 Years shorter In The stay of the Building and Restoring the House of God from Cyrus to Darius and the full Restoration not made till Artaxerxes's Seventh Year The following Time of enjoying that Restored State was so much Decurtated Abbreviated and Retrench'd When such a Delay is in Mercy as in our Lords stay upon the Earth beyond his Resurrection The Time following the Principal Time as the Fourty Days of Christ with His is Enrich'd with Great Appearances of the Bridegroom not taken from the Children of the Bride Chamber And yet it was a Delay of Christs Appearance in Heaven and of the Spirit poured out I look upon these Instances as full Proof That there are such Mantissa's or Surplusages such Recollections or Epitomes of Reserved Time beyond the most Noted and Principal Times before which the high Events may not be Compleated but then most certainly shall I shall now in the following Heads apply my self to Ninety Seven whose Great Events have not yet been fill'd up Head 3 d. I come therefore to the Third Head And most particularly to shew the Curious Artifice and Contrivance of the Divine Spirit in the so giving the Times and Half in the 1260 Days That there may be a Reserved Time and under such an Equipoize of Interpretation that the Reserved Time may be drawn up into and within the Principal Time Or may be extended beyond it into some further Time and no Determination but by the Providential Event The Time that may be Reserv'd and Extended beyond the 1260 Days I have already assign'd to be the Three Days of Years and a Half The end of which shall have the whole Constellation of Events Transferr'd from the End or Period of the 1260 Days upon it self viz. from 1697 to 1700 As on purpose to Fulfil I trust the word of the Lord That what Time Babylon saith I sit a Queen her Plagues should begin to come in one Day And herein I cannot but hope The Beauty and Symmetry of Prophecy shall be seen between 97 as the Principal Time and the Three Years and a Half as the Recollectionary Time ending with the Jubilee 1700 To this very great purpose I lay down the following Scheme of Prophecy concerning this Point as in its Equipoize between 97 and 1700. 1. The first thing I observe herein is That after the Great High Preist and Apostle of our Profession The Man Cloathed in Linnen had given in Answer to the Angels who asked How Long to the End of these Wonders Dan. 12. 5. c. That there should be a Delay of Finishing for Time and Times and a Half He also added when He i. e. the Scatterer shall have accomplished to scatter the Power of the Holy People All These viz. Wonders shall be Finish'd Daniel complains He heard but he understood not Now it is true the Prophets did not understand the Particularities of All that was Reveal'd to them concerning Time but were left to search what or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ which was 1 Pet. 1. in them did signifie Yet even their Doubts Recorded in Scripture were under Divine Inspiration and are so order'd as to give Occasion to Further Revelation But Time Times and Half were Reveal'd to Daniel before to be given to the Little Horn to wear out the C. 7. Saints of the Most High which was the same thing with scattering the Hand of the Holy People That then needed not a New Repetition The Thing therefore he understood not was What Time the Accomplishing to scatter might take up He Appeals therefore to his Lord and our Lord My Lord saith he what shall the End of These i. e. Wonders be His Question is directed upon the very Point he understood not and Receives Answer in Three Particulars 1. That there will be a Closedness and a Seal of Secrecy set upon the Determinate Time of Wonders Finishing viz. till the Event determines it The Seal on the Foreheads of the Servants of God Remains till the End and till the End or very Accomplishing to scatter They cannot be distinctly known For till then the Witnesses appear not Vnseal'd or with the Father's Name writ on their Foreheads in a Risen State on Mount Zion 2. It is Given as a Diagnostic or distinct Note of the Time between the End of the Times and Half or the 1260 Days and the Time of Accomplishing to scatter Many shall be Purified and made White and Tryed which we may very well understand of those they call The New Converts or the Re-united who have since been made White by Repentance and Purifying Grace who have been made Wise by Remembring what they had Receiv'd and Heard of the Gospel-Purity and Return'd to it coming a new out of Babylon while Persecutors will not understand but do more and more wickedly Persecuting and Scattering till the Vtmost End and Accomplishment of Scattering 3. The Great Palmoni or Wonderful Numberer of Time insensibly and yet as in Answer to Daniel's Question gives a further Delineation of Time in Thirty Days added to the 1260 making them 1290 under an Epoch or Beginning Characteriz'd with the Taking away the Daily viz. Sacrifice and the Abomination that maketh Desolate set up which I look upon most Undoubtedly to be argued to be the Antichristian Apostacy by the Papal Gentiles Entring into the Outer Court and so Taking away the Truly Christian Worship And to these Thirty of the 1260 are added Forty Five making the 1290 1335. Reaching to the very Blessed State of the New Jerusalem in which Daniel is assured a Lot and in the mean time to rest his Further Enquiries
and Himself to Rest in Spirit with Christ and his Body in the Grave Now then seeing these Thirty are added to the Times and Half which the Spirit of Prophecy hath Expounded into 1260 Days of Years And that there can be no Time between the Times and Half and Finishing by the Express Word except the space of Accomplishing to Scatter and that the same Spirit of Prophecy hath given no other so much as supposeable space but the Three Days of Years and a Half Either those Three Days and a Half must be supposed to Unite with the Three Times and Half and to be One with them or they must Extend themselves upon the Thirty and be the First Three Days of Years and a Half of them For they cannot lye between them as a part of Neither If so either the 1260 must be 1263 and a Half or the 1290 must be 1293 and a Half Either of which is very contrary to Prophecy which is most express in each viz. Times and Half or 1260 Days and 1260 with Thirty added 1290 Days and no more of Either Now here is the Equipoize of Prophecy It could not be Determined before the Event whether the Accomplishing to Scatter might Unite with Time Times Half Time as the last scattering Or go further within the 30. But the Event hath Determined The Three Years and Half Extend upon the First Three Years and a Half of the Thirty making 1260 1290. And the Curious Artifice of Prophecy is herein seen For thus the 1260 and 1290 are joyn'd in the Taking away the Dayly by those Three Years and Half being the Accomplishing to Scatter and so carrying the wearing out of the Saints so much further then the Times and Half or 1260 Years even unto the 3 Years and Half First of the 30 and then their Remainder Unites with the last 45 in Finishing For as I have shewn there can be no Distance between in the 1335 of Scattering and Finishing And the whole 1335 are Joyn'd as leading by various Delays and Appearances since especially the last Half Time of the Reformation to the Kingdom of Christ And this is an Artifice of the Divine Hand of Scripture most Curious and Admirable And the same both Equipoize and Artifice are also most Conspicuous in the 1260 Days of Years and the Three Days and Half of Tears Rev. 11. These 3 Days and Half Hold the only Possible Addition of Time beyond the 1260 Days or Three Times and a Half for Accomplishing to Scatter For we find no other Measured space of Time Mentioned either in Daniel or the Revelation that can be so much as supposed to lie at the End of the 1260 Days and before the Seventh Trumpet Except these Days and Half alone But these with all Harmony and Symmetry of Prophecy are Placed there For they are Scituated near to the 1260 Days to give a Mantissa or Surplusage of Time to them for the Accomplishing the Scattering and wearing out the Holy People that had been During their whole Space And they must be as near the Seventh Trumpet because the Holy Spirit is Express Immediately upon the Accomplishing to Scatter The Wonders shall be Finished And he is as Express The Seventh Trumpet is the Trumpet of Finishing For when the Seventh Angel begins to sound The Mystery of God shall be Finished as he hath Evangeliz'd by all his Servants the Prophets Thus as in Daniel The Accomplishing Revel 10. to Scatter lies between the Times and Half of Weaing out the Saints and the Finishing Wonders So in the Revelation the Three Days and Half lie between the 1260 Days of the Sackcloth Prophecy which are also Three Times and a Half and thâ—â—e Seventh Trumpet of Finishing And they must be One either with the 1260 or with the First of those Thirty making 1260 1290 Or else they could have no Room For the Divine Spirit Clasping 1260 so close as to make it immediately 1290 There can come in no Three Years and a Half possibly between that is not United with one of the Numbers Which is even Arithmetic Demonstration But now as to the Equipoize of Prophecy It must be Acknowledg'd that before the Event Determin'd the contrary the Three Days and Half might have been Intended to be Incorporated with the 1260 Days of the Sackcloth Prophecy and the Beasts Victory over the Witnesses answering to the Three Times and a Half of the 1260 Days of the Church in the Wilderness The Witnesses and the Woman being one and the Sackcloth Being Overcome Kill'd worn out Scattered the Wilderness State being one as to the main Intention also Only the Deepest Time of Sufferings express'd by one more then the other and so the Three Days and Half the Three Times and Half the two 1260 Days had been all one Time and had begun and ended together And I must Ereely and Humbly Confess This was my Apprehension and my hope it would be so although I had always a Jealous Eye upon these three Days and Half But nothing but Event could Determine to the other side The Ballance of Prophecy stands so even concerning the Case And indeed if Ninety Seven as I affirm and see no Reason to Retract be the end of the 1260 Days It must needs be that when the Three Days and Half have done the Service of Three Times and a Half Coequal with the whole 1260 Days and pointing to a deepest Time of Suffering and so Pararelling one another The latter then do the Service of an Epitome a Mantissa a Recollection of the whole and Run so far as upon the Three First Years and Half of the Thirty which Thirty are Principally for Finishing And though they suffer the Cloud of the Witnesses Summ'd up Scattering Yet they are Recompens'd with the Glory of the Constellation of Great and Illustrious Events at their Rising Now the Three Days and Half doing this Manifold Service and bearing this variety of Aspects is most usual in Scriptures Improvement of its Types so that I need not Insist further on it I will give only one Instance in a Case of near Affinity with this The Three Hundred Ninety Years C. 4. of Ezekiels Bearing the Iniquity of the House of Israel gave the very Chronological space from the Death of Solomon to Ezekiels Temple It first set out the Sin of the House of Israel in the Ten Tribes making Defection from the House of David and then turns as it were back and settles the standard of Prophetic Time a Day for a Year as an Epitomizing of Prophetic Time to the very End To Summ up this Point of Discourse then I look upon the End of the Times and Half or 1260 Days of Years as the most Unmoveable Rest of the Three Years and Half And that They are but as a Summary and Recollection of them or a little Surplusage added to them And that the 1260 Ended at 97. And That Ninety Seven began in the Autumnal Equinox of what we