assign unto the first Dragon as peculiar to him eight Heads in all But their glosses plainly contradict those texts and allow him but six making his seventh Head to be the secular beast Papal They might be a man would think deter'd sufficiently from adding to or detracting from the words of the Book of this prophesie by the plagues therein threatned to all such But many of them do it no doubt not willingly but for want of due animadvertency Thirdly That seventh Head of the first Dragon which those Writers affirm to be the Sea-born beast should continue saith the text but a short space But that beast secular was to continue 1260 years chap. 13.5 which are 100 years longer than the durations of all Pagan Romes eight Heads ab Urbe conditâ Lastly The texts expresly distinguish that red Dragon and this beast by their disparities in their seven Heads in the one all Crowned in the other all uncrowned and by their ten horns in the one all crowned in the other all uncrowned and by their far different Epochaes But these Writers that notwithstanding confound all the texts and either make both those beasts to be one and the same or make the beast Papal to be the seventh Head of that Pagan Dragon who can imagine that men of any Reason or Learning could assert such matchless absurdities Their chief mistakes are these The Dragon saith the text gave power to the beast But they say contrary to the text that his sixth Head gave power to his seventh Secondly That seventh Head say they contrary to the Scriptures was the secular beast Papal Thirdly They mistake the first Dragon who gave none for the second who gave his power and Authority the Supremacy therein to that beast Fourthly They mistake that Scarlet-coloured beast or red Dragon in ch 12.3 ch 17.3 for the secular beast Papal chap. 13.1 And therefore Fifthly They mistake the literal City of Pagan and Imperial Rome that ruled over the Kings of the Earth and was called Babylon the Great in the 17th and 18th Chapters for the more spiritual City of Papal Rome called also Babylon the Great and over whom the second Dragon with the Sea-born beast and false Prophet Papal ruled or presided in the 11th and 16th Chapters For these two Cities are signally distinct by this apparent disparity The first Heathen and Imperial Rome ruled over the Kings of the Earth And the Kings of the Earth ruled in and over Rome Papal So that the System of the glosses of these Writers upon these and many other texts is like a large Vial filled with mistakes which they pour forth in their Teachings and Writing's upon many mindless Professors that care not how or what they hear or read Because of Oaths 't is said the Land mourns But the whole world may we even weeping say mourns through mistakes in Opinions and Manners Therefore her Inhabitants sit in the shadows of death surrounded with distresses But what dammage redounds by these and like mistakes The disadvantages and they great and many that thereby come upon the Christian world and upon all Church-Societies and Sects may appear as followeth If there was but one Dragon according to the general supposition then none gave power for the first gave none to the wounded beast Papal Then none raised Papal Rome nor her secular Head that beast according to the Scriptures Then the Opinions of the Learned Hammond and others must stand good against all the world To wit that there was no further compute of the Apocalyps after 410 except in the Mahumetans And then the Papists and other Sects and perhaps Mahumetans unless those Authors better prove the contrary have no part in the grand Apostacy predicted by Prophets For then as some in the Apostles times concerning the truth erred saying The Resurrection is past already so all men may much better say That both the rise and the fall of the Anti-christ never doubt it dispute not about it is past already long since even in four hundred and ten or twelve Then all discourses concerning any such subject whether in word or writing are meer stories or at best as they have been for the most part but fruitless controversal pickeerings and that perpetually to no purpose For no Reformist nor the best informed can make good any Charge or Argument against the Papists or any other Sects Mahumetans or others as confining upon the Apostacy of Anti-christ if that was past for ever in four hundred and ten or twelve Thus even Protestants by means of these mistakes give the staff in their hands against themselves into the hands of Papists strengthen Heresies and weaken the hands of the witnesses of the truth For if these errours in Opinions must stand for truths then must all Reformists give prime honour to the Papists as chief of Churches And as they of the Synagogue of Satan that said they were Jews and were not were made to come and worship at the feet of Philadelphia so If there was but one Dragron ending as aforesaid with all compute of Prophetick Scriptures about 410 then all Reformists and Sects pretending to be reformed must come and worship at the feet of the Papists as the only Mother Catholick and true Church and only assume Schism Apostacy and shame to themselves No weapon of war formed by the best Reformist's can prosper in their hands against her she 's Civit as circummurata a City walled round her walls are Brass which times cannot break nor force scale Thus we see the sacred Scriptures by means of these mistakes until they be removed are both by strict and loose Professors prostituted to the vilest disuse are made Muri abaenei walls of Brass by Protestants against themselves for the defence of Papists Heathens and Hereticks to fortifie and confirm their blind and wicked confidence in all ignorance and evil Manners For If there was but one Dragon ending with the whole computation of the Apocalyps the Mahumetans excepted in four hundred and ten as Dr. Hammond and others Learnedly labour but in vain to end it nor do the Mahumetans as they except them signifie any thing to this purpose Then the Church of Rome may say she sits as Queen Rules alone nor was she raised by power of any first or second Dragon For as nothing can exist without some cause of its being So it was impossible for Papal Rome faln in her Infancy to be raised to power if there was none to raise her up But God by his providence did ordain or permit this second Dragon for the first fell before for ever to raise up Papal Rome the place prepared of God to preserve his Church for a space by giving his power the Supremacy therein to her secular Head which the Scripture expresly asserts where it saith And the Dragon gave c. They therefore that take in hand to explain these Scriptures or to prove Rome Papal complex of many Sects and Nations to be the
six Angels should sound their Trumpets that is the Gospel-witnesses should prophesie six times seven moneths of days annual which make 1260 years So long they should prophesie in sackcloth That is they should lift up their voices like trumpets as the Priests of the Lord did at the siege of Jericho six times but with somewhat feeble blasts and in much frailty and without any great visible effect or event of their sounding to convince Sects or convert Hereticks But they should sound their six Trumpets prophesie in sackcloth no longer For there should be no longer time saith the text No longer time of the six trumpets sounding of the Witnesses sackcloth prophesie nor any longer time of the transactions and durations of all these twelve Epochaes But then or very soon after when the 7th Angel should begin to sound when the witnesses shall begin to prophesse with more power in practice then the Mystery of God should be finished as he hath declared c. that is His Church should then begin to be adorned as a Bride and the Mystery of Iniquity in all Sects Papal Mahumetan and modern to be made manifest They shall proceed no further saith the text for their folly shall be made manifest to all men This Epoche of the six trumpets though sufficiently clear at present is fully proved in the precedent Epochaes and ensuing parts of this Treatise The Eleventh Epoche THe Eleventh Epoche the same time and thing with the former for the most part is of the pouring out of the six Vials They were Golden vials but full of the Plagues and wrath of God therefore they synchronize with the six trumpets sounding and with the witnesses sackcloth-prophesie For the witnesses were to smite the Earth with all Plagues as often as they would in the days of their prophesie which we find were 1260 days and prophetically import as is or rather will be made apparent so many years It s apparent therefore that the witnesses prophecying for six times seven moneths of days annual or 1260 years in sackloth were the six Angles that sounded their six trumpets and the six Angles that poured forth their golden vials And that their successive prophesies in sackcloth for six time seven moneths of days annual were those six golden vials For God gave them power to prophesie so long in sackcloth And their prophesie by the power of God is no doubt a golden vial and six golden vials in that sixfold space of time But six golden vials full of the Plagues and wrath of God contingently or occasionally upon the impenitent Anti-chrictian world because of their profane contempt of their reproofs For Corruptis optimi pessima The best things by abuse bring the worst effects So the Gospel-witnesses prophesies and reproofs by the power of God are that 's undeniable golden vials full of the greatest mercies to men by them admonished but by abuse they are though golden vials filled with all the Plagues of the wrath of God And how do the Gospel-witnesses and the Anti-christian world fill those golden vials of the witnesses reproofs with the wrath of God either against themselves or oothers I answer the Gospel-witnesses fill which falls out too oft their own vials with temporal Plagues against themselves So the Prophet sent to Bethel was some what remiss but in some circumstance only a man would think in this duty of prophesie Therefore he filled that golden vial the word of the Lord in his own mouth with a self-destroying Plague temporal For a Lion forthwith met him and slew him So the Gospel-witnesses oft fill their golden vials their gifts of prophesie with self-destroying Plagues when they do that duty with a cold careless remisness when they prophesie in words and not in works or practice themselves what they reprove in others when they oppose the truth they should promote whiles they labour not that their lips may preserve knowledge and they prophesie by power from God whiles they do not that duty or do it without sedulity Thus the Gospel-witnesses fill their golden vials the word of prophesie in their own mouths with self destroying Plagues of the wrath of God Lastly I will givepower to my two witnesses Religious Ministers and Magistrates and they shall prophesie And what is prophesie The Spirit or gift of prophesie is saith the text the testimony of Jesus or a faithful witness of sincere truth both in words and works without delayes diminishing or defalking so much as in circumstance any part of it which this Prophet sent to Bethel found by sad experience This appertains as their duty to Ministers to do it in words and in works also And to Magistrates to do it in works or practise and in words also though not in words altogether in such manner as it belongs to Ministers Prophesia est testimonium tum verbis tum fact is verum afferre non impugnationem convitlum vel cavillationem inferre For they that prefer truth-opposing-contradiction or prefer not the truth conform to Gods command prophesie not or at least fill that golden Vial their power and gifts to prophesie with the Plagues and wrath of God against themselves Secondly others also perhaps true Saints fill the golden Vials of the Gospel-witnesses with self-destroying temporal Plagues So a certain Prophet said to a man in the name of the Lord Smite me I pray thee The man perhaps in favour to him as a Prophet refused to smite him and so filled that golden Vial the word of the Lord in the mouth of that Prophet with a self-destroying Plague For a Lion also forthwith met him and slew him 1 Kings 20.35 36. Saints sometimes too oft fill the golden Vials of the witnesses with the sharpest temporal Plagues against themselves Oft with grievous spiritual plagues and desertions which themselves sustain Oft with most deadly plagues upon all men Babylon the great Rome-Pagan or rather Rome Christian and Papal newly apostate in manners fell That is the Saints that stood in her and that only could fall indeed fell from their first love and works and some fled out of her therefore Her plagues her Witnesses having finish'd their Primitive testimony against her defections came in one day Death Mourning Famine Fire chap. 18.2 8. A few sincere Saints in that City stood and that City supported by their standing stood firm A few sincere Saints fell and Babylon the great fell by their fall Fell temporally by their Spiritual fall in part their fall though but in part filled the Vials of her faithful Witnesses their reproofes and Prophesies with the Plagues and wrath of God which they poured forth upon that falling City True Saints thus fill the Golden Vials of the Witnesses with Plagues against themselves against the Church of God against all men If whiles they sound their trumpets they shut their ears or are hearers of the word only not doers of it or do it carelesly or inconform to Gods command If they forget judgment mercy faith
and mind more the tything of mint and cummin If they deny the witnesses their due honor or due maintenance or tread them or their testimony under their feet by a careless dis-regard or dilatory neglect of it or them Thirdly the Anti-christian world fills the golden Vials of the Witnesses with Plagues and wrath against themselves when they design or seek to attempt any thing against them Eliah prophesied the death of Ahaziah Then the Captains of fifties filled that Vial by attempting against him full of Gods wrath against themselves For fire came down from Heaven and devoured them and their fifties 2 Kings 1. So if any man will hurt his Antitype the Gospel witnesses fire proceedeth out of their mouths and devoureth their enemies That is they fill their golden Vials the word of prophesie in their mouths with devouring fire from Heaven to destroy themselves Rev. 11.5 Pharaoh and his servants filled the golden Vials the word of the Lord in the mouth of Moses with many self-destroying Plagues And the very same also doe's the Anti-christian world with the Vials of the Witnesses And first Moses turn'd waters into bloud The Egyptians by their disobedience made them so Exod. 7.19 20. So the Gospel-witnesses Moses and Aaron's Antitypes turned waters into bloud The bloud-thirsty brought this Plague upon themselves Rev. 11.6 ch 16.3 5 6. Secondly Egypt was Plagued with Frogs and her Antitype with Frogs also Exod. 8.2 Rev. 16.13 Thirdly both were Plagued with Boyles and Sores Exod. 9.10 Rev. 16.7 Fourthly Egypt was Plagued with the Plague of Hail So was her Anti-type Exod. 9.23 4. Rev. 8.7 Fifthly Egypt was Plagued with Locusts So was her Anti-type Exod. 10.1415 Rev. 9.3 Sixthly Both type Egypt and her Anti type were Plagued with darkness Exod. 10.21 Rev. 9.2 These and sundry others were those Plagues of the six golden Vials the word of the Lord in the mouths of his Witnesses rebelled against Golden Vials Such the Propesies and reproofs of the witnesses are filled with Plagues Such impenitent men make them to be And how do men the Member of Anti-christ fill those golden Vials with Plagues against themselves I answer they despise reproof persecute their reprovers they value not the words of the witnesses read not regard not their Writings But being reproved their business is to study Cavils and contradictions or find both without study or care to understand what they cavil ar or whom or for what they contradict Thus spiritual Egypt resolving like Pharaoh and his servants to work wisely do very soolishly in filling the golden Vials of the witnesses with the Plagues and wrath of God against themselves by persevering in sordid avarice and truth-opposing Saint-persecuting cruelties Secondly Filthy Sodomites the froth of fluid wit and folly fill those Vials of the witnesses with the Plagues and wrath of God as their type did against themselves by persisting sensual against admonitions to sobriety slothful against their exhortations to sedulity by entertaining their rebukes with loose laughter and making a mock of their reproofs Solutes hi captant hominum risus Lavish laughter of folly and ignorance is their food whereby they fill their minds with windy levity their lives with evil manners those golden Vials with the wrath of God and so bring down fire from Heaven upon their own heads So type Sodim mocking her reprovers perished So perished her Princes and Rulers for not reproving of her Thirdly Anti-type apostate Jerusalem Professors of blind zealous devout ignorance in all Sects fill the golden Vials of the VVitnesses with most deadly Plagues by resisting them and by bringing evil reports upon their just reproofs So Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses They hardened the hearts of Pharaoh's servants by exalting themselves the basest men above Moses and by preferring their own illusions above his real worth works So their Anti-types prefer their own formalities before the real works of the true Witnesses Hic apprimè hoc optimè This mans work these mens Writings are like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver But the witnesses golden Vials are Brass Their words false their works Counterfeits Thus they fill by odious comparisons and preferring their own deceits those Vials of real Gold with the greatest and most deadly Plagues against themselves So the ten Spies filled the golden Vials of the Promises of God with fierce Plagues against themselves and the people by bringing evil reports upon the Land of Promise and worse upon the word of God that promis'd that Land to the people of Israel therefore they all perished instantly by the Plague and all Israel from twenty years old upward about four excepted perished in the Wilderness So the Antichristian world and chiefly Pharisaical hypocrites fill the Vials of the witnesses with the fierce wrath of God against themselves by bringing evil reports upon the Prophetick Promises and word of Prophesie in sacred Scriptures through a profane careless ignorance of them And Ignorance is the Mother of evil reports and fills not only their hearts with malice but their mouths with blind misconstructions blasphemies and at best with wicked excuses cavils slanders against the Gospel-witnesses and their record Thus they fill their golden Vials with the most deadly plagues against themselves For they affect a fruitless delibation of divine truth without depth in Doctrine or due obedience which though a small measure of Knowledge is sufficient to save the humble serves but to harden their hearts to seek or find cavils against solid truth sincere obedience For the three evil grounds had not or afforded not a fruitful depth to growing seeds But the good ground only both had and afforded depth of Earth to the feed of Grace And this depth of Earth in mens judgments and obedience at least in their desires and affections makes those golden vials of the witnesses the more the vessels of honour and fills them with all mercies But that threefold want of fruitful depth in Anti-christ sensual secular and spiritual at least in their affections fills those Vials with all Plagues of the wrath of God These have power to smite the Earth with all Plagues as oft as they will That is to pour forth the six Vials filled therewith to wit For 1260 years in the dayes of their Prophesie Rev. 11.6 That 's the Epoche of these six Vials of the witnesses Sackcloth Prophesie of the six trumpets sounding and of all these twelve Epochaes For There shall be time no longer But in the dayes of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the Mystery of God shall be finished chap. 10.6 7. And when the seventh Angel shall pour out his Vial it shall be done ch 16.17 The Mystery of God shall be finished or done that is the true Church as a City set upon an hill shall begin to be seen and embraced by all Sects and Nations And the Mystery of Iniquity in all Sects Papal Mahumetan and modern shall begin effectually to be made
proud Pharisees a Synagogue of Censorious Hypocrites seat of the Mystery of iniquity Mother of the Son of perdition and the Spiritual Metropolis of the body of Antichrist But here we might enquire who possibly this Angel might be that cryed thus mightily with a strong voyce I answer The seven Stars were seven Angels or overseers of the seven Churches of Asia Ch. 1.20 Therefore This Angel might be for he could be no imaginary or Chimaera-Angel that cryed mightily and was never heard and filled the Earth with his Glory and yet was never seen some overseer of at least some part of the Gospel Church And if so why not Saint Jerom For never any Angel or Overseer of the Primitive Church after the Apostles times cryed so mightily with a strong voice saying Babylon the great is fallen c. But both Papists and Protestants and both unawares plainly import in the delineation of his person that Saint Jerome was indeed this Angel For as both draw Gregories Picture with a Dove at his Ear both make Jeronies Effigies with a Lion at his Foot which is a plain-speaking Hieroglyphick that truly expounds the Text For it evidently imports That as the Lion is King of the beasts so Jerom was the Prince or chief of all the Primitive Fathers For. Secondly The Text saith An Angel having great power cryed mightily with a strong voyce Ch. 18 1 2. And this device Saint Jeroms Picture or Emblem thus drawn as aforesaid by Papists and Protestants imports That the voyce of Saint Jeroms Pen was a strong voyce like the roaring of a Lion Thirdly That which that mighty Angel cryed with a strong voyce was this Babylon the great is fallen c. And that which Saint Jerom cryed with a strong voyce which denotes him undeniably to be the same Angel was the very same thing in the same words To wit Babylon the great is fallen c. No man ever cryed so mightily with a strong voyce as Jerom did against the grand Apostacy at the very beginning of it Therefore Saint Jerom is most likely to be this Angel that cryed thus mightily with a strong voyce Babylon to wit Rome Imperial Babylons penultimate Antitype is fallen c. And therefore the Authority of Jerom alone much more joyned with the witness of sacred Writt and of many Writers is more then sufficient to confirm the Truth of the time when Primitive Apostate Rome fell and when the Papal Apostacy commenced The same is also superabundant to prove that the City called Babylon in the seventeenth and eighteenth Chapters was Rome Imperial Apostate in manners And thereby to refell their opinions that seeming to make it their study how to adde to or diminish from the words of the book of sacred vision assert the contrary It may serve also to undeceive many sober Writers that hold the same errors and so to be a Key to open those Arcana Theologiae mysterious sacred Truths that contain the richest treasures of the greatest mercies to present and after ages For as one Ring wanting or misplaced in a Watch makes the whole Watch be of no use so one much more many Texts misunderstood may make the whole Prophetick Scripture or at least part of it to be of disuse as a book fast sealed and must needs confound the true meaning of many Texts But If Saint Jerom was as both Papists and Protestants though implicit to them thus import that Angel of great power Then that Angel or however Saint Jerom cryed mightily with a strong voyce saying not only that Babylon the great was fallen but that Rome Primitive then commencing Papal and Apostate was that falling City that then fell from faith and manners He had the Record of the fittest Primitive Fathers as well as reason and sacred Scriptures co-asserting what he so cryed with a strong voyce And this irrefellibly refells those confident Opinions of very many fond Opinionists and of some sober Professors who affirm that the great City called Babylon and said to fall in the 17 and 18 Chapters was at her final dissolution Papal Rome only whose five first heads the Scripture sayes it fell before John wrote above four hundred years before Papal Rome was in being but I leave such shameful inconsequences to the sober Reader But that falling City in the 17. and 18. Chapters which those Opinionists imagine to be Papal Rome was the literal City of Rome of Imperial Pagan egressive Papal ingressive She as egressive was Pagan and Imperial from which she then fell for ever She as ingressive was but the Spiritual Metropolis of Papal and Apostate Rome to which she then fell For Papal Rome only went on though at first with more mildness and less violence in the same Apostacy for which Primitive Rome fell Pagan and Imperial Rome that Apostacy of the more Orthodox was the cause of it then fell for ever And Papal Decapolite Rome then rose up by that sall of her said forerunner in that Apostacy Seventhly I would have written saith Jerom something of the Holy Ghost and have dedicated the Treatise to the Bishop of that City Jerom it seems did not disdain either the Title or Office of a Bishop but the abuse of that Office in any person He would have dedicated his Book to the Bishop of that City but found no acceptance from him or his associates For Eighthly And the Senate of Pharisees saith he cryed out at me all at once c. This shews the excessive insolence in the very ingress of it of the grand Apostacy who most pretending to advance Learning and Religion were so far from both that Saint Jeroms book found no acceptance from any of them what book could be better pen'd by man at that time then Saint Jeroms was or be more necessary then that of his upon the Holy Ghost against Arrianisme that then threatened to swallow up the Church of Christ the Christian Empire and indeed all true Learning and Religion But so far was he or it from finding due acceptance that he found perhaps not one man amongst them that would take the pains to read it or that through cursory reading of it could understand it Such might answer him in scorn That his book was too high for their low capacitys to comprehend They were no doubt too wise to read it too learned to understand it Such Learned Non-intelligists now are many Or they had they might imagine better books of their own making or made by orhers to better uses besides much business of highest concernment wherein they busied themselves no doubt to as good purposes as they that take in hand to tresure up thewind Suppose a man I but suppose it in these last times of that Apostacy should write a Treatise effectual to refell errors to reform manners to compose those divisions in and against the Church that threaten like leakes in a weather beaten ship to sink her and to take peace from the Earth I doubt not but the
dammage therefore and causeless wrong from those that raise this injurious imputation and their busie ingratitude is very great I am damnified also much and the Truth much more by many that falsly charge me with false dealing with the Protestant party in asserting that sundry Texts in the seventeenth and eighteenth Chapters of the Apocalyps hold forth properly as the Primitive Fathers and sundry Modern Protestant Writers affirm Imperial Pagan and also Christian Rome Primitive but Apostate in Manners which that they do I suppose is fully proved in sundry precedent places of this Treatise and not Papal Rome otherwise than by a Prophetick Adumbration But they careless to read it or not careful to understand what they read impute to me this perhaps irrefellible Truth as a most dangerous Tenent tending to strengthen the Papists whereas the contrary Opinion so blind are Nonadvertists does rather really confirm them in all their Errours I suppose some of those that thus far perhaps oppose the Truth are persons of great worth and piety and my friends I have therefore oft desired sundry of them to lay down briefly their further Grounds of their contrary Opinions and I shall give by Gods assistance full satisfaction to them and others But they pursuing notwithstanding their false charge against me to my causeless ruine decline to do it Concerning all such as dare to be too bold to tast the forbidden fruits of the Father of Lyes I briefly conclude If any man so far own the Leaven of commixt falshood as to do good in part to any like that Prophet of Bethel and destroy him by a Lye Or like the Pharisees to rob and ruine any by Lyes of base ingratitude I say to such only as Michael did The Lord rebuke thee For such Instruments of wickedness and weapons of cruelty are far from being any part of the true Christian 's Quomodo Nor is Lastly Negligence Busie neglect leaves all good works either not begun or done but by halves Thy servant said Ahab a Figure of Antichrist was busie c. And the man to me committed to keep is gone God never committed formal Smoake nor Locusts Crowns to the keeping of Saints But Obedience or true Christian practice in a Quadruplex conformity is res commissa that thing which God commits to the care of all Saints and sincere Professors But Formal Professors and I am ashamed to say it Saints also are very busie about Smoake and Gold-like Works of Straw-like Levity or at best about good Works half perhaps performed never perfected but mind not tread underfoot so general is the Grand Apostacy the thing which God commits to their charge This busie neglect or half-performed practice was the loss of Ahab's life and of his family and people Saul Pilate Judas were guilty of the same half practice which very many almost all men miserably mistake for true Righteousness But it s most abominable in Gods sight and by him compared to Witchcraft and Rebellion 1 Sam. 15.23 The reason I conceive why Men Saints and Sects so much mistake Semipersormance for true practice is their common false Opinion that a Form of godliness a Fomal Smoaky Profession is the power of godliness and the duties contained in the first Table But the power of godliness Truth in practice or the fruit of Faith Hope and Charity conform to Gospel-Rule they reckon to be but Moral duties of the second Table not or not much worth their minding Therefore They tread under foot and no marvel all true Obedience to God and good Manners towards Men or perform such duties negligently or but by halves And for that very cause they themselves were given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot for 1260. years Chap. 11.1 2. To be short It was Johns Doctrine to the Pharisees That they should bring forth fruits meet for repentance or answerable to amendment of life Math. 3.8 But good Works done negligently or by halves are in no wise answerable to amendment of life But such works as are worthy of Repentance pleasing to God and profitable to men must be wrought in a Quadruplex conformity without any Quomodo of Pride Avarice Lyes or negligence Here I may add a word of the Excellency and necessity of this Quadruplex-right and of the real want of it Should I said the Vine forsake my Wine which cheareth God and man That is men of high and low degree But this Righteousness is both Bread to strengthen and Wine to chear the hearts of such Gods and Men And it only is well-pleasing to the living God For This Righteousness is the fruit of the true Vine and effect of Justification by Faith It 's panis vitoe sub Christo vita universis vel Agni convivium that promised-refection of the Lambs Supper or Antitypefeast wherein men and Saints shall by sincere and genuine obedience to God begin to be free'd from Schism and Divisions and servile Bondage to the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life Rev. 14.1 Secondly Nor shall it chear such Gods and Men as Bread Wine or as a Feast but as Musick from Heaven raise their Hearts to Heaven by its Harmony And I heard the voice of Harpers harping Apoc. 14.2 Their Harps are called the Harps of God Chap. 15.2 What these Harps of God are is well worth our enquiry and perhaps not hard to find We shall shew negatively what they are not and positively what they are And both are briefly held forth in this halfverse Non musica Chordula sed Cor The Harps of Men are no Harps of God but the heart of man framed by the hand of God in this Quadruplex-Righteousness is the Harp of God These Harpers appear in both Texts to be those first-fruits redeemed from the Earth and from among men Chap. 14.3 4. That is The first-fruits after the Grand Apostacy visibly redeemed from Antichristian blindness and Barbarities Modo tollite mores Barbarorum This work seems to be The work because these manners are the Colocynthes or Death in all men and in Saints chiefly from which their Redemption or deliverance is a Resurrection from Death to Life These are the first Fruits saith the Text redeemed visibly and vigorously redeemed after the grand Apostacy from the earth Ver. 3.4 For we find others in Scripture before the Apostacy and in the Primitive times called The first fruits clearly distinct as is evident from these who were to be the first-fruits as they were before it after that grand Apostacy Therefore The great utility of these Harps This Righteousness though sleighted by Heathens and Hypocrites Chap. 11 2. fully appears from these Texts For They expresly shew it to be a Redemption a visible Redemption from death And reason it self shews the same utility and necessity of it to destroy dead works to convince and unite dissenting Brethren to refel errours and to make Men Saints States and Churches flourish in Temporal and Spiritual felicity Which Mercies of the
the Antitype must be more Spiritual because the City of the Antitype-apostasie is said to be a Spiritual City Rev. 11.8 Literal Idols are more congruous to sensual Antichrist whose sins are more sensual and literal But the Idols of Secular and Spiritual Antichrist that denominate that City Spiritual must be more Spiritual Idols Some Sects have in them true Witnesses prophesying in Sackcloth and some nor do I exclude the Roman nor Greek Churches from being Sects have instead of such witnesses their Idols of gold or of silver or of stone or of wood that is Men of greater or meaner capacities and parts to be their blind Seers The man Micab took a stragling young Levite to be to him a Father and a Priest in a way of Idol-worship So any man more stupid than Wood or Stone will serve some Sects well enough to be to them a Father and a Priest or indeed the very Idol of their ignorant admiration That stragling Levite was no Ordinance of God in Micab's house But the man Mitah made him an Idol of Wood with his own hands vers 12. The words run thus And the rest of the men which were not killed by these Plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols c. That they should not worship Devils This further shews what the works of their own hands and what those Idols are To wit deceits The Serpent said Eve beguiled me The Devil was a lyar and a deceiver from the beginning And Men and Professors of these times are greatly pleased in deceiving and being deceived with the works of their own hands Their works of Mercy and Justice to omit their mistakes in Opinions are inconform or but half performances and those usually so long delay'd that they damnifie or undo by fruitless attendences the receivers of them That is Men in these times are marvelously delighted in deceiving themselves whiles they imagine themselves like Laodicea to be rich in good works and do none but beguile and deceive themselves with works inconform or long delay'd half-performances like Saul's half-service They that so worship God worship in deed devils The following sins of the impenitent Apostasie and perhaps of Saints are these Neither repented they of their Murders nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornications nor of their Thefts vers 21. Neither repented they of their Murders Murders literal were sins of the Type-Apostasie and are the sins of Antichrist sensual But they are more Spiritual in the Antitype-Mystery of iniquity Thou hast slain said Nathan to David Uriah the Hittite with the Sword of the children of Ammon 2 Sam. 12.9 David did not slay Uriah nor did Joab flay him the children of Ammon slew Uriah But it was done by Davids order and direction to Joab This was Spiritual or Mystical Murder more wicked and deceitful than literal Murder can be Were Nathan now living he might say to many if not almost to every man something that is like to what he said to David To some he might say Thou hast slain as Cain did thy brother and thy self by the sword of careless disregard of his and thy sasety To another he might say Thou hast slain as David did thy fast friend by the sword of deceitful dealing He might say to very many Ye have slain the poor with the sword of sordid tenacity And not to a few Ye have slain the well-deserving with the sword of inconform rewards To some he might say Ye have slain the injured and oppressed by the sword of long delayes letting them perish or be undone before you went about to right or relieve them He might say to very many Ye have slain the Witnesses of the Truth by the sword of slanderous Tongues in the mouthes of men of Beliel their false accusers Thus was Christ that Faithful and True Witness slain And by this means are the Gospel-Witnesses and the most injured innocent killed Pilate found no fault in Christ and the Pharisees found no fault in his false accusers Very many and they seeming Religious resolve with Pilate to right the injured to relieve the oppressed But then run to their adversaires and false accusers and like the Pharisees find no fault in them for want of due examination according to Scripture-Rule Deut. 19.18 Therefore they justifie their adversaries and false accusers and through their forgeries delay or condemn and ruinate those that are wronged and the most faithful Witnesses of the Truth Thus are Waters turned into Wormwood Judgment into Gall Revel 8.11 This common practice the practice too oft of Saints plainly discovers a pusilanimous and feeble levity of mind or want of judgment in them that follow it They pretend and perhaps suppose those depravers are Consciencious and Religious So the Pharisees thought of themselves whereas there was but one or two Wise and Religious men in deed in all that Council by whom our Lord was crucified though it might consist of hundreds all famous for the repute of Wisdom and strict Religion For the generality of seeming strict and zealous Professors if Types must co-indent with their Antitypes are like their Types the Pharisees neither Wise nor Religious Few there are like Pilate that will not co-incide and capitulate with false accusers Scarce any like Nicodemus that would not consent to the foolish and wicked determinations of that hypocritical and blind Councel For As many are called and few chosen and as many shall strive and few enter in at the strait Gate So the seeming religious and blindly devout are many But they that are Religious indeed are few and least appear to be what they are Lastly Nathan might now say to several Thou hast slain thy self and thine with the sword of secular business Thy servant said Ahab as the Prophet imply'd was busie here and there that he let the man go committed to him to keep Therefore said the Lord shall thy life go for his life and thy people for his people Ahab lost his own life the life of all his Family and Posterity and lost all the people of Israel by a busie catching at some secular shadow of his own covetous conceit So many Professors and too many Saints are so busie about Secular Affairs that they let go obedience So busie for self-ends that they let go Right and Mercy to men forget both So busie about outward Forms that they let go the Life and Power of Religion and thus miserably slay themselves and others by the sword of Secular and Spiritual business This is Spiritual murder from which the hearts of Men and Saints are not but must be turned back Thirdly Nor of their Sorseries And to omit the literal which are many what are Spiritual Sorceries Balaam was partly careful to make the living God the Oracle of his Counsels and director of his Actions was or seemed to be very strict to speak and do only what God commanded Numb 22 38. Ch. 23.12 26. But he was