SECT. I.
Of the Vision of the Daily taken away, and therein of the 2300 Ev. Morn. or the Vision call'd the Vision of the Ev. Morn. in general. On Dan. chap. 8.

THE Vision of the 2300 Evenings and Mornings, dates most exactly, and precisely the Time from the very Beginning of the Persian Monarchy or the First of Cyrus to the cleansing of the Sanctuary, at the new Jerusalem, and the breaking of Antichrist without hand, or by the stone cut out of the Mountains without hand, at the Kingdom of Christ, Dan. 8. 14. 25.

The order of the former Visions, duely consider'd, gives great light to this.

For first, there is in the course of Ezekiels Visions a long allotment of Time, till the New Jerusalem, and a peculiar Sanction of the prophetical Cypher of Time, or of a Day for a Year, Ezek. 4. 6.

That gives full scope aed room to those Monarchies to run their Time, as in the Image, and the four Beasts in Daniel's two precedent Visions. [...]. 2. c. 7.

The former of those two, or the Vision of the Image, gives only a general Appearance of so many Monarchies or King­doms, or rather of a Monarchy universal, shifting from one People and their Kingdom to another, and all adverse to the Kingdom of Christ; for that could not appear while they were in Play.

From hence arises such a Line of Time; as necessarily is re­quir'd for four Monarchies to display themselves; but because they may be shorter or longer in their duration, they give no certain measures; only, as that there is no History of Action elder than Moses's of the Creation, appearing in the World; it is an Argument of weight against the World's Eternity: so on the other side, the daily matter of History arising from many other Kings and Kingdoms, and particu­larly of the Romans, assure us, the Kingdom of Christ is not yet come; because while that lasts, the grand foretold King­dom of Christ cannot come.

But now the next Vision of the Four Beasts, gives us in Prophetick Cypher the very measure of the Beast's Duration, as that Beast is symboll'd by the little Horn, viz. Time, Times, and half a Time.

But because this does not assure us when those Days be­gin, nor consequently, where they end, the Vision we are now entring upon will teach us that.

And it hath a threefold Aspect upon Time to this end.

1. It continues the principal Line of Time from Creation, which, because there will not be Scripture History to main­tain it, and also because, and especially because, the Times of the Gentiles, (in whose History Scripture little concerns it self,) are drawn by it without lesser Periods, but as the Ac­counts of the Churches Case in relation to them after requires it; they are given in one entire Line or Sum, 2300 Days, begin­ning contiguously from Ezekiel's 430 Days, and continuously [Page 3] also to so many Days for Years uniting with the former par­cel-lines, and with the 430, as the last given Line; and so one whole Line from the Creation is constituted by uniting these several Parcels, by a divine Certainty.

2. It determines the particular Time from the beginning of the Persian Monarchy, at literal Babylon fallen, to mystical Babylon falling, as also at literal Jerusalem restor'd, to new Jerusalem appearing; for Antichrist broken intends the for­mer, and the Sanctuary cleans'd the latter.

3. It is a measure of the length of particular Lines given after this from Time to Time, as they are given in Scripture, that, as it self is distinguish'd into several Periods by them, so it is a Boundary to them, when to begin and end; that to­gether they may be symmetral to this whole Line, neither longer, nor shorter, and therein be justly proportion'd to one another; even till this Line, call'd most emphatically by our Lord, the Times of the Gentiles, Luc. 21. 24. be fulfill'd.

That the Vision then, and the Line of Time it carries away, be rightly understood, these things are necessary to be pre­mised.

1. That the principal thing in these Visions of Daniel (ex­cept that single Vision next in order to that we are upon, that centers in Messiah's Coming and Death,) is the glorious King­dom of Christ, and of his Saints, having the Dominion throughout the Earth, and the Destruction of that peculiar Enemy of his Kingdom, who is justly call'd Antichrist, im­mediately preceeding his Kingdom, and before which it could not appear.

Upon the Account of this Kingdom of Christ, having its way made by the Destruction of Antichrist, there are so ma­ny Representations of the other Monarchies, of which else we may conceive, the Holy Spirit had no more touch'd their Prophecy, than it does their History, which it never does, but in relation to the Church, or to set out God's Government Universal over the World, and his Judgment on sinful Na­tions.

We find therefore in these Visions of the Monarchies, An­tichrist, next to the Kingdom of Christ, is the greatest Sub­ject; and more Words laid out upon him, than upon all the rest: so it is in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, The Feet and Toes Dan. 2. v. 34. 41. &c. take up a greater Proportion of the Dream and Exposition, than all the rest; and then the Kingdom of Christ flows out upon the Image broken in the Feet. So in the Vision of the four Beasts, the fourth Beast, and in that the little Horn im­ploys the greatest part of the whole Vision in its Description and Judgment: and the Kingdom of Christ then breaks out upon it; so proportionably in this Vision: He then that would understand it, must be arm'd with this Rule, as pre­paratory.

2. It must be worthy our Advertency, that the Antichri­stian State in these Prophecies, and in the Revelation, is rank'd with Heathenism and Gentilism, and treated with much less regard than even Idolatrous Israel, or Judah; God not ta­king any notice of them, as his People, but as mere Gentiles: so that I do not remember any Parallelism of them with the People of Israel, even in their Apostacy, but altogether with those that were Aliens, as Balaam, Jezebel, the Daughter of Elth Baal King of the Sydonians; with Sodom, Egypt, and most notoriously Babylon, and so is represented by the Gen­tiles treading the outward Court. And thus the Corruptions of Divine Worship among the Jews were express'd by enter­taining the manners of the Gentiles, defiling themselves with them, falling in love with them, bringing them into the San­ctuary. The Beast united with the heathen idolatrous Mo­narchy, coming into the Seat of the Dragon, is the grand Apocalyptick Figure for Antichrist, and nothing of Christ al­low'd him, except to the other Beast having borns, as a Lamb, while he spake as a Dragon, nor of the Jews to the Antichri­stian Rev. 13. 11. Gentiles, but that in the Beginning of the Apostacy with­in the prophetical Church of Smyrna, Rev. 2. 9. They said, They were Jews, but were not, but lyed, and were the Sy­nagogue of Sathan; nor any thing of Jerusalem to the Seat [Page 5] of Antichrist, except one only allusion to the City, where Our Lord was crucified (where a Heathen Power presided in Revel. 11. 8. his Condemnation, and that a Roman too) to signifie its ex­tream Hate to the True Christ. Its deep dye in Blood, and its irrecoverable Destruction, for which Jerusalem was so infa­mous, and for which the Roman Church like the Jewish Church, was broken off from the true Olive; and all consider'd as a Church in Conjunction with it, as the Apostle had fore­told. Rom. 11. 6. make the Allusion.

On the other side, The True Christianity and Worship of it are symboliz'd by the pure Jewish Worship; The Temple, its Measures, Ordinances, as they stood in Israels best Estate, are the Ichnography of the Perfect, Pure, Christian Church; But the drawing men from True Christianity, to Antichristi­anism; the Persecution of Men for it, the last Deliverance from Anti-Christianism, and its Persecutions are continually given out in Parallellismes, betwixt the same Things hereto­fore between the Jews, and the Gentiles, and unite with the Jews great Deliverance, and the New Jerusalem at last.

These two things are most necessary to be premonish'd, for the true Interpretation of this Vision, and other Visions also, as we shall see, as we pass along, to preserve all clear and free from Confusion.

And upon this Premonition, I say, this Vision beginning with the Persian Reign, goes on through the Grecian, and so passes through the whole Roman Monarchy, first and last, and de­scribes a Line running parallel with the whole Times of the Gentiles, after the Babylonish Empire, at the end of which, Ezekiels 430 Days ended, as hath been made to appear. And they being the last Joynt of the Line from Creation, this Line of 230 Days joyns with it, and continues the whole Acts. 3. 21. Line from Creation to the Restitution of all Things.

Upon this Premonition I say further, That Antiochus, as the most Infamous Heathen Prince for treading down the holy and pure Jewish Worship, from the Days of Cyrus, while that Worship remain'd to be Gods Worship; from which [Page 6] impure Pessundation, that Holy Worship was most wonder­fully vindicated; and the Time of his Tyranny being in the most intimate part of it in literal or natural Account, near the Time of Antichrists 1260. Days, at a day for a year, and near the whole 2300 in the whole of it, and being broken by an immediate Hand from Heaven, without an earthly Hand, as Antichrist shall be; He is made a most notable and emi­nent Type of Antichrist, and so with Relation to Him, and his Time, a Line is drawn from Cyrus to the cleansing of the Sanstuary, polluted by Antichristian Gentiles, and to the breaking of Antichrist without Hand; Antiochus standing all this while in open view, as a Type, and his Time, as a Ty­pical Line of Time.

And yet while his Time will serve a Typical End, It is not exact enough to either main Intention, to be the princi­pal Thing to be measured by that Line of Time.

And for the making good these Assertions, I shall now apply my self to the solemn Proof of these two Propositions.

1. That the 2300 Days are a definitive Line of Time, from the beginning of the Persian Monarchy, to the very End of the Monarchies, and till the Supream Monarchy of Christ; and so are to be joyn'd to the end of the last Line, and thereby to the several Lines from the Creation; that altogether may reach that End.

2. That the Vision principally intends Antichrist in every Part, wherein Antiochus stands, as a Type.

For the Proof of the first Assertion I use this first Ar­gument. Argu. 1

There is a plain Concatenation or Connexion of this Visi­on with the former, as following orderly upon or after it; For that purpose and to make it known it is so, Daniel tells us, This Vision appear'd unto him, after that, which appear'd c. 8. v. 1. unto him at the first; Now that this was not intended, as any Date of the Vision, is very plain, in that It is more parti­cularly dated by assigning it to the third Year of Belshazzar, whereas the first was assign'd to the first year of the same [Page 7] Belshazzar, and so must needs be after the first Vision, even as Belshazzars Third Year must be after his First.

These words therefore cannot, but be of further Impor­tance, and signifie to us; This Vision comes after the For­mer in a just Order, and promotes the scope of it, and adds further Light to it; Now it is most evident, the four Beasts intending four Kingdoms, and Antichrist, the little Horn with his Time, Times, and half a Time, and then his being de­stroy'd, and the Kingdom of Christ succeeding, are the Prin­cipal Objects of that Vision, and therefore they must be so of This. And in some notable Instance thereof, It must exceed the Notices of the former, and what can that be but in the Notices of Time? Wherein it is so particular as to 2300 Evenings, Mornings, for to shew it one Line of Time, It is in the Hebrew 2300 Evening Morning, not 2300 Evenings Mornings, although for Arguments sake with Ordinary Lan­guage, and in Agreement with the sence we may express them in the plural Number, and it is also call'd the Vision of the Evening Morning, as so many Evenings and Mornings combin'd into one, from the Monarchy of Cyrus, the Persian, to the Monarchy of Christs Ʋniversal Kingdom.

The Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy, goes on General Argu. 2. through the Grecian Monarchy, and so to the End; and the Line of Time runs parallel with the Vision, therefore the Line of 2300 Evenings Mornings must reach from the Beginning of the Persian Monarchy to the Monarchy of Christ, which is the known and most undoubted End of the Four Monarchies, and of all Monarchy, but under him.

This Argument consists of these three main Propositions.

• 1. That the Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy.
• 2. That it runs on through the Grecian Monarchy to the End.
• 3. That the Line of Time runs Parallel with the Vision.

SECT. II.
That this Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy, and the Proof of it.

THat the Vision begins at the Persian Monarchy, I give these undoubted Reasons:

It is most apparent in the very Portal of the Vision, it was Reason 1 given at Shushan the Pallace, by the River Ʋlai, a River of Persia, whither the Prophet was visionally convey'd out of Babylon, to shew the Translation of the Monarchy from the Babylonian to the Persian Prince.

The Babylonian Monarchy was yet standing, the Prophet a Subject of it in principal Place; for he continued in his Preferment in Babylon till Cyrus the Persian. He must there­fore Dan. 1. 21. be resident at the time of the Vision in Babylon, and not a Runnagate from it, and his Loyalty; but was prophetically and visionally set down at the Pallace of Persia, to shew where the Visions Date was to commence, viz. from the Per­sian Monarchy.

If this were not enough, the Exposition of the Vision be­gins Reason 2 with the King of Persia, and where the Exposition be­gins the Vision begins; neither of these can be contested.

The Vision crops off the Babylonian Monarchy; The Head Reason 3 of Gold; and the first Beast like a Lyon does not under any Symbol or Representation appear in it.

The Monarchy was now indeed just expiring in Belshaz­zar's Third, which Scripture counts upon as his last Year, and whereas the former Visions were deliver'd to us in the Language of that Empire; that thereby All People, Tongues, and Languages, which take care by one means or other to have knowledge of the Imperial Language, might have notice of them. The Holy Spirit returns in this Vision to the He­brew Tongue, peculiar to the Church of God in the Old Te­stament.

But the Monarchy was not yet fully expir'd, nor was the Image in all succeeding Ages to be bereft of its Head; while therefore the Image, and the Iconism of the four Beasts, com­pleating the Image stood in the Eye of Prophecy; Nebuchad­nezzer is the principal in the first Monarchy, with the Heart of a Man, after his Eagles Wings were pluck'd, importing his sober Acknowledgments of God, upon the Humiliation, in­to which his Frenzy dejected him, even into a state among the Beasts, but he seems to have risen out of Bestianism it self by abasing himself before God. Dan. 4. ult.

The Beast in the Revelation, To shew, the Monarchick Pow­er of the Image translated into that of the Beasts Kingdom survived whole and entire in him, is resembled with every one of the Beasts, himself being the fourth; and to assure us, he is the very fourth, he hath neither in Daniel, nor the Apocalips, any shape, peculiar to him, but what in the Apoca­lips is compounded of the Three, as it were to say, All the Three existed in him, as in one Image. Revel. 13. 2.

The principal Reason therefore of omitting the Babyloni­an Monarchy, is, because, The Prophetical Type of the four Monarchies, being fully satisfied, and replenished, The great attendance of the Divine Spirit is to the Line of Time, which it joyns to the Jewish Lines, that went before, and particu­larly to Ezekiels 430 Days, or Years, which just comprehend­ed, and ended with the Babylonish Monarchy, which Monar­chy in a real Calendar I have before, more than once said, began the Gentiles Times, during which Jerusalem lay, and was to lye under Foot; but just here the Babylonish Monar­chy is no farther given in Type, although it remains in the former Types, to the last; but the Future Line of Time is given in 2300 Evenings Mornings from the Persian Monarchy, beginning; And this latter could not have been given with Prophetick Secrecy, and yet also without Confusion, if the former had not been omitted, whose Time given before could not enter into this, but it must confound Time every way.

But thus this principal Line reaches from Literal Babylon fallen to mystical Babylon fallen, from Literal Jerusalem near to be rebuilt with its Temple, to the New Jerusalem, which much adorns this Line of Time, and sets these two just even from Point to Point.

It is true, The Four, as Ʋniversal Monarchies, are together the great Canale of Time, till the glorious Kingdom of Christ, whatever great States or Kingdoms were coexistent with them or any of them at any Time, or have arisen since, do not mingle with this Stream, which runs strait on to this end, nor are any of themselves adopted into it sooner than the just Time of their Succession into Ʋniversal Monarchy; nor do they abide any longer in it, as a Calendar of Time, after once they are fallen from that Ʋniversal Monarchy, each suc­cessive Monarchy subduing the precedent, takes it up; and in the Roman Monarchy the Dragon resigns his Seat and Pow­er to the Beast, the Imperial to the Antichristian, without any Conquest, to whom, as the seventh Roman Head and Ʋni­versal King, the ten Kings giving their Power, the fourth Beast still survives; differently from all the rest of the Suc­cessions; for each Succession was by Force besides this; so in This the whole Line is continued to the Kingdom of Christ: But if any of these Kingdoms falls in its order of Succession, and becomes great afterwards on another Bottom, as the Persian subdued by the Grecian, the Grecian by the Roman, the one afterwards rising in its own Name, the other in Ma­homet's, yet they disturb not this order, nor so much as en­ter a-new into this Calendar of Time.

And because of this real substantial Calendar of Time in these Monarchies, the first Act of Christ's Kingdom is record­ed by the Apostle Paul to be the putting down all Rule, Au­thority, 1 Cor. 15. [...]6. and Power, referring especially to these four Monar­chies, the great Emblem of such Rule and Power; viz. when the Kingdoms of this World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, Rev. 11. 15. Then all this Calendar of Rule and Power is at an end.

That therefore which is most considerable in the Expla­nation of this Course of Time farther to us, is, That where­as the Gentiles Times, viz. this substantial Calendar of the four Monarchies, began in the Babylonian, so long as that Calendar is in presenting, the Babylonian is never omitted, but is the Capital in it; but when it comes to this Numeral Line, or the 2300 Ev. Mor. it is then omitted, because the Numeral Line runs not upon any Revolutions of these Mo­narchies, but upon some eminent Providence of God towards his Church, either of Mercy towards it, or its suffering under the Tyranny of some of these Monarchies, especially the Be­stian; as will be seen all along; which is a very clear Rea­son why the Babylonian is first so chief in the Calendar of the Monarchies; for that being one, and the first, it must be so in the Real: But when it comes to the Numeral, it is of no use, because it had been given in the last numeral Line, as then existing; it is not given in the following Numeral, because it was then past, and would disorder the Account. The real Calendar is taken from each Ʋniversal Monarchy that had the Jews, particularly the Tribe of Judah, in Subjection, and so oppress'd Christ's Kingdom; here the Babylonian was the first, the Persian the second, the Grecian the third, the fourth the Roman: under which, as Imperial, first, the Jews were desolated; The manly Birth, or Christ, as King, was watch'd, as by a Dragon; Christians lay, as martyr'd under the Altar, and then under it, as Antichristian, lies subdued the spiritual Israel, till both That, and the Twelve Tribes, are restor'd by Christ's Kingdom. So these are the Times of the Gentiles, before which neither the twelve Tribes, nor the Apostolical Church are fully restor'd, or can be.

From all which, it is most evident, that though the Vision is not dated from the Persian Monarchy, as if it was given for the Persian Monarchy's sake; yet the 2300 Ev. Morn. begin just when that begins, and very fitly, because the Persian Cyrus found the Temple fallen, and the daily Service of the Jews taken away, and proclaims the Restoration, which makes [Page 12] the Date, as we shall see. And this is the first thing that was to be prov'd.

The second Proposition follows; viz. That the twenty Propos. 2. three hundred days of this Vision, as also the Things contain­ed in it, run down, and reach to the end of All, or to the Glorious Kingdom of Christ.

Of this we have many Arguments in the Vision it self, which having briefly directed first unto, I will endeavour by far­ther strong Proof from the whole course of Prophecy to esta­blish it.

Every Vision of Daniel's, except the following Vision of the Argu. 1 seventy Weeks, which hath the high and noble Subject of the Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, making an end of Sin, and bringing in everlasting Righteousness; but else every Vision runs expresly to the last End and Kingdom of Christ.

And whether even that does not after the Desolation of Judaism give a Prospect of their Restoration also, signified by [...], or until the Consummation, until which their De­solations are to last, and no longer, I leave to the Learned; however, It certainly bears its part in carrying on Time to that end.

But the very Shape and Design of all the other Visions is most apparently That End, and therefore I conclude, of This also.

The often mention of the End; Three Times the Vision, and Argu. 2 the End are conjoyn'd; At the time of the End, the Vision shall Dan. 8. be; and the Exposition of the Vision is to make Daniel know, what shall be in the last end of the Indignation, and at the Time appointed, the End shall be. Now what End can be so absolute, as to be understood by its naming only, except that End of Christ's Kingdom, so well known by the former Visi­ons, and by the following Vision, chap. 11. v. 27.? When be­cause of this End, to which every thing has led, and made no delay beyond its Time, therefore all Designs of the two Kings, designing a longer Monarchy, and to that end speak­ing [Page 13] Lyes at one Table, could not prosper; for the End ap­pointed did not allow it to either of them, the universal Em­pire of the Romans, spoken of in the Ships of Chittim, co­ming on.

And what last end of the Indignation can be meant, but that of the Desolation determin'd on the Jews in the very next Vision, that explains it together with Ezekiel's bearing their Iniquity, till the New Jerusalem?

So the Vision being for many days, its being commanded Dan. 8. v. 26 27. 28. to be shut up, the asserting it to be true, as John, Apoc. 21. 5. These Sayings are true, Daniel's deep Sleep, Sickness, Fainting, being astonish'd for days, answerable to the Visions being for Days, viz. many Days, argues to how great a Period the Vision tends, and what a fatal course of things it was to run.

And to conclude this Reason; That very Title of the Vision, of the Evening and Morning, or of 2300 Ev. Morn. collect­ed all into one, shew the long Night of three Idolatrous Mo­narchies, and longest in the Roman Antichristian, and the glorious Morning of Christ's Kingdom.

There cannot be two Expressions of the noted End of Argu. 3 Daniel's Visions, more full and adequate than those two, how­ever brief; The Sanctuary shall be cleans'd in correspondence with Ezekiel's Vision of the New Jerusalem, and its Sanctuary, and of the Saints taking the Kingdom. And the insolent King. shall be broken without hand, even the Prince of fierce Coun­tenance, Dan. 8. 23. compar'd with c. 7. v. 8. c. 2. 33, 34. whose Look was more stout than his Fellows, who had the Eyes of a man, to understand dark Sentences, grow­ing great, but not by his own power, but as the Toes of Clay, and Iron, broken without hand, or by the Stone cut out of the Mountain without hand.

Nor can any thing be more agreeable to the two Inscri­ptions on the End in the Apocalyptical Prophecy, It is done, Revel. c. 16, 17. c. 21. 6. It is done, one the End of the Beast's Kingdom, the other on the Kingdom of Christ, or the New Jerusalem?

Now from all this of the Vision beginning with its 2300 Propos. 3. Ev. Mor. at the first of the Persian Monarchy, and so running [Page 14] to the end, it plainly follows, Those 2300 are not the Gauge of the daily Sacrifice taken away, but of the whole Vi­sion, from the Persian through the Grecian, to the end of the Roman, Antichristian Monarchy, and the Kingdom of Christ; and so the Vision, and the 2300 Ev. Mor. are equal.

So that the most literal sense of those Words, (Ʋnto how long, or unto when, the Vision of the Daily, and of the Trans­gression of Desolation, to give both the Sanctuary, and the Host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, unto 2300 Ev. Morn. Then shall the Sanctuary be cleans'd.) The literal sense of the Question, I say, cannot be, Unto how long does the Taking away, &c. endure? For so are not the Words; But, Unto how long that whole Vision, whose principal Visum, or Thing seen, is the taking away, &c. amidst many other Visa in the whole Frame, as the Tares was of that ex­cellent Parable, Matt. 13. 36. that had several other Materi­als to compose it, and yet is call'd the Parable of the Tares, and is indeed of the very same Import with this Antichristia­nism, and Prophecy of it.

Now when such a Question is ask'd, and the Answer is given, to so long, the most natural sense is, When no Time is fix'd for the Beginning, that the present Time should be understood to be it; and when it is added, And then shall the Sanctuary be cleans'd, it is plain, a cleansing of the Sanctu­ary, proportionable to the treading it under foot, must be un­derstood to be the end of the Vision, and of its 2300 Days. From all which, it is evident, The 2300 begin and end with the Vision. And it will be farther evident upon these fol­lowing Reasons.

The Vision is one entire Vision, though it consists of seve­ral Reason 1 Members; and however, They may be distinguish'd in the Vision, and be divided in the Events, what Date of Time is given with the Vision, as this one Vision, agrees to the whole Vision and not to any single part, but as so united with the whole; however therefore the Vision may be denominated from any single part, as principally to be remark'd, as the [Page 15] Vision of the Daily, &c. The Vision of the Ev. Mor. yet in any thing relating to the Vision, as the Vision it self, the whole must be intended, and not that part. The several parts of the Vision have indeed several spaces of Time cut out of the whole space, proper to themselves.

But as the Vision is one entire Vision, so the Date is one entire Date, and can be no other to agree with the whole Vision.

The Vision is call'd ten times, The Vision, to shew it is all one and the same Vision, and the several parts of it are but as the parts of one and the same Body, Lines of the same Image.

The Exposition of the Vision answers part for part to the Vision it self, first given; saving, that in the Vision Antiochus the Type appears uppermost, but in the Exposition the Anti-type appears uppermost, and, as in Reason it should be, is most apparent: and the whole Vision being expounded, is call'd, The Vision of the Even. and Morn. all the 2300 being united into one, as it were to unite the whole Vision, and the whole Line of Time, as close and entire as possibly may be.

And which is most remarkable, Before the Exposition of the Vision, the space of Time allowed to the whole Vision, of which the Taking away, &c. was the chief (as in the Anti-type however couched under the Type) is given before the Exposition, or just between the Vision and the Exposition, that it might di­stribute it self to the whole of both; and in the Exposition, it is therefore so summ'd up, that it cannot be divided, but must remain entire to the whole; for it is, as was said, but one Ev. and one Mor. applied to all the Vision; and after­ward, we shall find the Dividend, or Allotment to each part, and most particularly to the Daily taken away; to each, I say, their part, of the 2300 Ev. Mor.

And lest any one should insist too hard on the Daily, un­derstanding it of the Jewish daily Sacrifice; besides, that any Word importing Sacrifice is prescinded, and only Tammith, [Page 16] or the Continual, applicable either to Sacrifice, or Service and Worship in general, used; it is also to be observ'd in the Exposition, in the place of many Words concerning the daily taken away, we have the whole Action in Expressions most proper to the Bestian Prince, according to all Prophecy of the Old and New Testament, and not at all proper to Antio­chus, and nothing said of the daily at all; but the entire Vi­sion is summ'd up in Ev. and Mor. And all this we may con­ceive, least the 2300 Ev. Mor. should be misapplied to that part, viz. of the Daily; which is proper only to the whole.

So then if the Line be commensurate with the Vision, it must begin with the Persian Monarchy, and not with the daily taken away, for That, in whatever sense expounded, was not till long after: in the same manner, If the Vision goes on to the great visional End in Daniel, viz. the breaking of all the Monarchies in Antichrist, and the Kingdom of Christ appear­ing in the Sanctuary cleans'd, it cannot be applied to any ta­king that was begun, and ended long before that End, as all takings away, of what kind soever, that have been thought of, did, (and most particularly that of Antiochus) except that taking away by Antichrist; which therefore is the only taking away here to be understood.

And from every Particular of this Discourse it undeniably appears, These Ev. and Mor. are not mere Natural Nycthemers, but 2300 Ev. and Mor. importing so many Years; for a less space of Time could not contain so great a Vision and its Charge.

If a Line of Time were given applicable only to the Time Argu. 3 of the daily Sacrifice taken away, there would be some cer­tain Time fix'd when that taking away was to begin, according to all Usage in this Prophecy. The 70 Weeks are dated from the going forth of the Word; the 1335, from the taking away of the daily: And in the Apocalyptick Prophecy we shall find some certain Epoch of each numeral Line: but there being no Epoch to these 2300 Ev. Mor. but the general Epoch of the Vision one and the same, as we shall find, with the seventy Weeks, That must be the Epoch.

Seeing the Answer (And the Sanctuary shall ba cleans'd) Argu. 4 and the Exposition of the Vision, touching the King exercising the Tyranny, Broken without hand, gives the full End of all Tyranny on the Saints, and of all taking away their daily Worship, as it was under Babylon continued to be taken away at that Time, and after by Antiochus, last of all by An­tichrist; it is plain, according to Scripture-Usage, The End is principally intended, which such a course of Time is to at­tain; As the complemental End of the 70 Weeks making an end of Sin, &c. is chiefly pursued in the next Vision, The end of Wonders, and the State of Blessedness in the 1335 Days of the last Vision: and here the Sanctuary cleans'd and Antichrist broken, is the main Intention; and from the present Vision, at that NOW given, to those Ends, there would be 2300 Ev. and Mor.

So that the taking away the daily does not spread it self upon the whole 2300 Ev. Mor. and so end with them, but e're all such Things as a tyrannous taking away the daily Wor­ship of the Saints would be at an end, it would be so many: for the Vision indeed spreads it self upon all the 2300, being for those many days; but the taking away begun but at its own Time, as we shall see, and ended at the 2300 ending; so many from the Time of the Vision, and so was unto them; that is, whenever it began it reached to the end of the 2300 of the whole Vision, e're the Sanctuary was cleans'd.

That these 2300 Ev. Mor. are a Line of Time of so great Argu. 5 comprehension, as from Literal to Mystical Babylon's Fall, from the Restoration of Literal Jerusalem to the New Jerusa­lem, may be argued from several extraordinary Notes of Ho­nour upon this Line, and the Vision of it.

1. The very drawing it out to so great and unusual a length, is unparallel'd in all the Scripture; so that if it were not great in its Beginning, as that State of Things would ad­mit, great in the End, as that State of Things imports, and great in its subordinate Lines, it could no ways answer the Magnificence of so great a Number, especially when the pro­phetical [Page 18] Abbreviation of Time was come into use by so pecu­liar an Ordination of God in Ezekiel.

Even this does sufficiently argue, where it begins, whi­ther it tends, what space of Time it spans: Cypher or short­hand was of Old in prophetick use; a Week for seven Years, Gen. 29. 27. c. 41. v. 26. Numb. 14. 34. fourty Days for forty Years in the Wilderness, seven Ears of Corn for seven Years, seven Times for seven Years, Dan. 4. 22. But God declar'd, and promulg'd it as the Law of Interpre­tation of prophetick Time, Ezek. 4. So we understand seventy Weeks, Weeks of Years without controul, or 490 Years, Dan. 9. 24. Now if contrary to so many Instances of the propheti­cal Usage of such Abbreviatures, it should draw out Years into their full Length, or Number of Days, How could we understand the Divine Mind in it, especially on no greater occasion than Antiochus's Tyranny, as shall be after argued? Prophecy, that amasses Time by giving Years in Days, cannot rationally be suppos'd to wiredraw Years into Days.

But this is not All: There are fourty Days for fourty Years, 390 and 40 Days for so many Years; seventy Weeks for 490 Years; 1260 Days for so many Years, and Months propor­tionable: But 2300 Ev. Mor. taken for so many Years, is ve­ry august, and speaks a divine Zeal to grasp that great End of putting down all Rule, and Authority, and Power, and Christ taking his Power to himself, and Reigning, yet not so as to diminish from Government, but to perfect it to its highest Ends, under himself, and his Supreme, and Universal Mo­narchy. To grasp this, I say, within so great a Line given, from the very Time in which it was given: This great Num­ber is given by the divine Numberer.

2. For Jesus Christ the Lord of this Prophecy hath the pecu­liar Title of Palmoni, to which whatever sense we give, it Dan. 8. 13. admonishes us to enquire for something extraordinary; and if we rest in what is every way nearest, The wonderful Num­berer, it comes exactly to the wonderful Line, and the great Secrets to be found in it.

[Page 19] 3. Gabriel, the heavenly Envoy upon all Declarations of the Kingdom of Christ, as Dan. 9. Luc. 1. is employ'd in its Exposition.

4. Daniel's extraordinary Title (Son of Man) allowed him only in this Vision, as bringing to him the glorious Appearance of Christ; of which Glory, Ezekiel, being more often an Eye­witness, Cap. 1. Cap. 10. Cap. 43. 2, 3. is more often call'd Son of Man. For if the Learned Dr. Lightfoot's Account of this Title, as a Chaldaism, were good, Daniel, who was the more eminent Chaldean, should be oftnest invested with it. On the contrary, He only in this Vision is so stiled, but Ezekiel often: and they alone en­joy it under the supreme Son of Man of all the Prophets; and Daniel never, but here, shewing the high pitch this Vision makes, and its close approach to Christ's Kingdom: from which his other Visions do but derive, or are but preparato­ry to it.

Nor is Daniel's Attention, and signalizing himself unwor­thy Cap. 8. v. 1, 2, 3. v. 15. Notice, I looked and saw, I Daniel, and to me Daniel, very agreeable to parallel Expressions of the Apocalyptick Prophet, I John.

But in short, I conclude from the whole, The prophetical Contexture hath given all possible Advantage to the Great­ness of this Vision, and its Line: I will now briefly add the Arguments from the whole Course of prophetical Scripture, which will much fortifie these Textual Arguments, even as they receive Strength from them.

Every Scripture Line of Time argues this so great a Line Argu. 1 from Adam to the Flood, from the Flood to Abraham, from Abraham to the Redemption out of Egypt, from thence to So­lomon, and so to his Death, are indisputable; and general Sense of Interpreters carries the 390 Days or Years as far as the Temple burnt. After the Captivity, few, if any, Christian Interpreters, doubt of the seventy Weeks, as 490 Years, reach­ing to Messiah. Now if these Lines are not continued, fill'd up throughout the whole space of Time, even as a Vacuum is in Nature, so would such an empty space be in Time; it [Page 20] turns all to Confusion, we see how hard it is to fix the be­ginning or end of any Line, for want of acknowledged con­tinued Lines; as we find by Experience, how few agree in either the Beginning or Period of the Weeks while they uni­versally agree in the definiteness of the Line. Let then Eze­kiels 430 days reach to Cyrus, as I have endeavoured to prove, and how justly will these 2300 days joyn them which were prepar'd as a medium betwixt Historical and Prophetical Time.

And why should we think, God, who hath taken Care for some parts of Time, hath not taken Care of all? Seeing the Provision else is maim'd, and unequal; or why for Historical Time, and not for Prophetick? Seeing Prophecy and History are alike present to him; and to us Prophecy is the more no­ble, and requires that assurance most: Why for the Church of the Old Testament, and not for that under the Gospel, when Revelational is higher, and more perfect.

It is a vain subterfuge, That, when the Times of these Gen­tile Monarchies came in, God trusted the Records of Time with them, which he did not trust with his own People, without a supream Hand of Revelation, fixing such Lines of Time, as were most exact, either before by Prophecy, or after by History, as we see.

Now if this Argument have strength in it, where can we find such a Line, as this, so aggrandiz'd, so extended from its Epoch to the last end of all?

We shall find this long Line of Time, distributed into its Argu. 2 parcel, and collateral Lines, and supported by them.

Daniel in the very next Vision gives us the first, in the Time, or space of the words going forth, and from thence seventy weeks. Then follows the sealed Time, which by the revela­tional Prophecy, we knew certainly laying it to History, to be 400 years. Then follow immediately the thirteen hundred thirty five; twelve hundred sixty of which are given, as we shall see in a ninefold variety, and yet consent.

Now those two, four hundred Ninety of the 70 Weeks, and thirteen hundred thirty five, can allow space but for 475 more. Having then so good ground to fix four hundred between the Weeks, and the 1335, we may find in the Time of the Words going forth space for the seventy five, but for no more. All which I propose rationally to make out.

So then we have this great Proof of the 2300 Evenings Mornings, as 2300 years, That we find them in the direct stream of Scripture Prophecy, and the Conspiration of History hitherto, which is more satisfactory then History giving us a course of Time, and its Events, one answering the other, for here History and Prophecy meet, as we shall see.

After so solemniz'd a Prophecy, or Vision of the daily, or 3 Tammith taken away, we find the last seventy five in the thirteen hundred thirty five, so remarkably epoch'd with the Tammith, daily, or continual taken away; and Daniel assured his Lot at the end of them, as it were in the New Jerusalem, or the Sanctuary cleans'd, to either of which, as the Inheritance of the sealed Tribes, or the courses of the truly holy Priesthood, the word, Lot, invites very lively our Thoughts; so that from hence we know in this after Vision, what might else puzzle our Thoughts; viz. How many of 2300 days are to be as­sign'd to the daily taken away, seeing the whole Number ap­pertains not to the taking away, but to the whole Vision. We know, I say, the Daily taken away, begins at the first of those 1335, and ends in the last of them, viz. in the Sanctuary cleans'd perfectly, and not in the preparation only, at the 1335, ended.

And so having finished the first Position, concerning the Posi. 2. just measure of this Line, I come to the second, viz. That the Vision intends Antichrist in every Part, wherein Antiochus stands as a Type; And these two last Positions confirm, and strengthen one another; For if the Vision and its 2300 days run to the end, they must run to Antichrist, seeing Anti­christ is at the End of all Things. And if Antichrist be at the end of the Vision, Antiochus can stand in the Vision, but as a Type to Antichrist, who is at the End.

Further, if the Roman Antichristian Power be not the An­ti-Type to Antiochus, The Head of the Image is not only lopp'd off in this Vision, but the Roman Entayl, which appears the principal, and at the End, in the former Vision, is dock'd in this, even where the End is so often memoir'd, whereas in­deed the Imperial, Roman Power, given in the former Visions Revel. 13. 4. as preceeding the Antichristian, is in this Vision set in the Antichristian Power, as the Dragon in the Beast, and so in the last Vision, c. 11. that we may know, He is the principal in it, and so may understand him in the Apocalyps accordingly.

Further yet, Antiochus is every way too small to be any more, than the Type in so great a Vision; What remarkable End did Antiochus give, that-the End is so often recorded in his Vision, he gave none to the Monarchies of the former Visions, or to the Indignation against the Jews, nor to the delay of Christs Kingdom, there is no Monumental End, but of himself, and that not deserving this Prophecy. His Days were not many, why then should the Prophecy be shut up? Nor were they so far off, as the Things seen in the following Vi­sion, c. 9. nor till we encounter the same again, c. 11. c. 12. as running to the same End, do we meet with any such men­tions of the End.

Why was Daniel so faint, sick, astonish'd, in a dead sleep at Antiochus's Tyranny? Who had known the daily so long ta­ken away in the Captivity, who foresaw the Romans desola­ting Wing of Abomination, and the Jews after Troubles, re­counted Dan. 9. after Antiochus Epiphanes, in the Maccabean Story, betwixt these Visions and the Messiah. But the so strange, the so unaccountable, foul, longsome, Apostacy of Antichrist, lying so long, on the so excellent Religion of the Gospel, ecclip­sing the Kingdom of Christ, Full of all the most pernicious Effects is deservedly Astonishing to Angels and Men, and captivating the Many, the Wise and the Great against all Scrip­ture, Reason, and even common Sense, and were it not for that Captivation, as unworthy Confutation, as the Alchoran.

The very History of Antiochus, as it were proper to Anti­christ, is only to be found in the Antichristian Canon of Scri­pture, [Page 23] and only Typically given in Daniels Prophecy, shew­ing it of no great Account with God.

The Time, The understanding dark Sentences, the growing great not by his own Power, are no way applicable to any hi­storical Memoirs of Antiochus. A Prince furious, active, en­terprising, at the Head of his warlike Affairs.

Lastly, the very Ev. Mor. of this Line, a manner of Speech not used in Scripture from the very first of Genesis, till now, lead us to the new Creation, to the Restitution of all things, to the bright Mornings Stars display of his Beams, and in the mean time, even as Days compounded of Ev. and Mor. so these Ev. Mor. with equal Fitness and Naturalness, sustain the prophetical Type of Time, Days for Years.

Of all which, let this be the applicatory Remark, to lead Remark. us with Confidence, Assurance, due Preparation, Faith, Prayer, and earnest Desire, to him who saith, Behold, I make all things new, and immediately after, as it were in re­membrance Dan. 8. 26. compar'd with Rev. 21. 5. of his Declarative Amen, upon the Vision of the Ev. and Mor. It is true; imposes his perfectory Finitive Amen. When he says no longer, Seal, but write in Capital Letters, These Sayings are faithful and true.

Whoso then by following the Lamb whithersoever he goes, overcomes, shall inherit all Things. Christ will be his Father; He shall be the Son of God and of Christ. But the Fearful, who are frighted into Antichristian Cympliances; the Abo­minable, &c. sunk down into the Defilements of all sorts proper to the foul State, Falshood, and the great Lye of the Apostacy, shall have their part in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are.

Let us then live by Faith, and not draw back; for He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Even so, Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly. Amen.

SECT. III.
In which a Line of Seventy Five Years, precedent to the seventy Weeks, is asserted, and endeavour'd to be prov'd. Dan. 9.

HAving in the precedent Sections establish'd the Grand Line of 2300 Ev. Mor. and their Determination to the Kingdom of Christ; I now proceed to the Distribution of this Line, and first to the Line that must, however subordi­nate and collateral, yet set out at the very same instant with the 2300 Ev. Mor. and that is, of the Word going forth.

Now of this, It is most evident by Scripture, that it must begin at the Persian Monarchy, or the Monarchy of Cyrus; for at Darius, the Mede, to whom Scripture allows only one Dan. 9. Year, it did not begin; for in that Year Daniel prayed, and had this Vision in Return of Prayer, as appears enough throughout this Chap. At Cyrus's first year it did begin; for so Ezra assures us, chap. 1. For must not that most necessa­rily be the going forth of the Word, when Cyrus sent forth his Proclamation, and put it in Writing, v. 1, 2. &c?

But although the Word began here to go forth, yet it is most manifest, It did not here attain its effect; for then would it not have rested, and ceased to go forth any farther? But we find it stop'd after the Altar set up, and the Foundations laid all the Reign of Ahasuerus, and in the Days of Artaxer­xes; which two, as we shall after reason, must be Cambyses Ezra c. 4. 24. the Son of Cyrus, and the Counterfeit Smerdis: so that it as plainly went forth again in the Reign of Darius, known in common History by the Name of Darius Hystaspis. After that, although it came much nearer its Perfection, yet it was contradicted in the Days of Xerxes Ahasuerus, by so severe a Decree for the Destruction of the Jews, throughout all the Provinces; so that Artaxerxes, call'd by Historians Longima­nus, Esth. 3. 8. illustrated his seventh Year with the Word compleatly going forth; The Eccho of which for the building of the Wall, [Page 25] was in his twentieth, and in his thirty second the Quavers of that same Word, in leave to Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem in­to its perfect Order and Polity: which plainly argue the Word gone forth in his seventh Year.

Now although the great Perplexities of the Persian Chro­nology are no way to my main Intention to be concern'd in, yet the making it Evident, that the Going forth of the Word must take up such a Time, as 75 Years, is of very deep be­hoof in that Intention, both as it gives great Assurance to the former principal Line of 2300 Years; shewing how se­venty five of them were spent, and also as it will inlighten some Concernments of the Kingdom of Christ, to which all Accounts of Time tend. Upon this whole Consideration I shall endeavour the proof of such a space implied in the word going forth.

And first I shall observe that which I do not look upon so considerable as to call it an Argument. The very Phrase of going forth implies some protracted and prolonged going Mich. 5 2. forth by the Word. The same Word is us'd of him, whose goings forth are from everlasting. But more enforcingly to press this, I thus argue.

It is impossible to spare any of those great Decrees we have Argu. 1 so specially recorded, Ezra 1. c. 1. c. 6. c. 7. from the words going forth.

Not the first, because it was the first, so much foretold of formerly by the Prophet Esay, of so famous Memory, and that first broke the Bonds of the Jewish Captivity. Who can with possible Reason suppose, That had no Interest in the words going forth, in which Prophecy gloried so long before­hand, that was even pointed upon by Gabriel, and from which the other Decrees were deriv'd, as is expresly menti­on'd in Darius's Decree, Ezra c. 6. compar'd with Dan. 9. 21?

Nor can the second Decree of Darius be denied a place in it, which so united it self with Cyrus's Decree, that if either was the word going forth, both must be so; for tho they were distant in Time, they were one in Substance, and by it the Tem­ple was built.

And least of all can the Decree of Artaxerxes in his seventh Ezra 7. year, be impeached as to this Right; for it was the perfe­ctive Decree, so liberal and ample, with such Peculiarities in it all along, that there is not a word in the whole but yields an Argument: It excells all that went before, and leaves no Room for any to come after; It carries a great Sense of God, revives all his Statutes and Judgments; It gives the last Hand of Beauty, as Ezra expresses it, to beautifie the House of Jeho­vah; Ezr. 7. 25. and all this by the Decree of the King, his seven Coun­sellors, and Great Princes. Such a Decree, as there was none like it before it; nor after it any such. The King only writ Letters after it, to the Keepers of the Forest, and after that Neh. 2. 8. gave only a Paroll Leave to Nehemiah, without writing any thing: so that this must be the Conclusive, Terminative De­cree, after which the seventy Weeks proceeded immediately.

By the building and restoring Jerusalem, we are to under­stand the Temple in the first and most eminent sense; so the Argu. 2 Enemies of the Jews remonstrated to the Princes of Persia, because the Temple was the Glory of the City, and carried the Building of that with it: this therefore they accus'd, but the Ezra 4. Building of their own Houses was quickly permitted. God upbraids the People therefore by Haggai, Is it Time for you, Hag. 1. 4. Oh ye, to build your own Houses, and to let this House lye waste?

Now the Temple was said to be finish'd by the Command of the God of Israel, of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, King Ez. 6. 14. of Persia, and does as it were point to the Angels Embassy to Daniel upon his Prayer, that the Commandment was come Dan. 9. 23. forth, that is, from God, and was to run, as a Line of Time, through these three Kings, who are every one nam'd, and the Kings between them comprehended in Time, but left out as to the Building of the Temple. The Decrees of these three Kings are most distinctly, and by this peculiar History of Ezra, given, as an Explication of Daniel's Prophecy, and God's peculiar Care over it; the want of which Care over Antiochus's History, argues him only a Type of Antichrist, to whose Bible his Story is rejected.

This then is the natural Order of the words going forth, by which the Temple was built. The original, and supreme Commandment was God's: The subordinate, and ministerial Commandment was of Cyrus, Darius, and after them of Ar­taxerxes, King of Persia, Ezr. 6. 14. Which last is indeed proleptically nam'd, or before hand, but is so remark'd, The King of Persia, that he could be no other than that Artaxer­xes, whose Decree immediately follows, chap. 7. the History of whose long Reign, and as long-liv'd Friendship to the People of God, makes so great a Figure in the sacred Persian Story. And although it must be acknowledg'd we have no Evidence from those sacred Records, that this Artaxerxes was the Son of Esther by the Great Xerxes, yet his long con­tinuance to restore Jerusalem by his Decree, his Letter, his Leave to Nehemiah, first restoring it fully in its Temple, then Neh. 2. 8. c. 13. 6. in its Wall, lastly in its Order, and all with such a strain of Piety, Love to God and his Church, savours of such a De­scent, and that God honour'd his Servant Esther with such a princely Son: however, his Education in a Pagan Court, the Interests of Government, the Permission of Providence to Things to go on in their own Course, the very Current of Prophecy in this second, Persian Monarchy, might surprise his Proselitism to the Religion of the true God, and so he is no farther honoured in Sacred Story, than with that general notice he took of the Laws of God, and his fear of his dis­pleasure: for why, saith he, should there be Wrath against the Realm of the King, and his Son; viz. from that God whom he solemnly styles The God of Heaven?

SECT. IV.
Gives the proof, That the Time of the Words going forth was the first Seventy Five Years of the 2300 Evenings and Mornings.

HAving now settled the natural Order of the Words go­ing forth, and finding that it must needs possess such a distance of Time, as from the first of Cyrus to the seventh of that Artaxerxes, who succeeded a Darius, in his Decree for the Building of the Temple after the Estoppage of the Building Ezr. 4. 5, 6, 7. in the Reign of Ahasuerus, and in the days of a former Arta­xerxes, and, as we shall see, of another Ahasuerus, Esth. 1. I come now to offer proof, This Space was a Space of seven­ty five Years.

The first Proof I derive from the chief Scope of the Vision Argu. 1 of the seventy weeks, which was the Allowance of such a space of Time for Daniel's People, and Holy City, to continue such a People of God, and such a Holy City, until Messiah came, and fulfill'd all the Types of the Law and Prophecies concern­ing Himself; which could only be fulfilled during the State especially of the Tribe of Judah, till Shiloh came, and of the Temple of Jerusalem, and the Worship of it in its ancient State and before the rejection of it: So that, whereas often in Eze­kiel and the other Prophets, the Babylonish Captivity and the Ezek. 16. 53. Desolation by the Romans, are tack'd one to another; The Waters or Ocean is divided for these 70 Weeks, and then They return and close again till the End of the Indignation, when these Weeks expire, ebbing back till the Flood by Titus Vespasian desolated All.

Before therefore these seventy Weeks could begin, Jerusa­lem must be restor'd, so far, as in its Temple; Its Wall, and its whole Order and State, must be returning within the seven first Weeks of the 70, according to the Prophecy: Now what more probable Proportion, than just so many Years, as Pro­phecy [Page 29] hath so evidently destin'd for the Space between the Fall of the Great City, Mystical Babylon, and the Restoration of all Things in the New Jerusalem, which by the general view we may see, and shall farther see, is a Space of 75 Years added to 1260, and making 1335. This may be there­fore an introductive Argument.

We see most demonstratively, The Time must be so long Argu. 2 as from Cyrus's first Year, to Artaxerxes's seventh: now se­venty five Years, according to the best Chronologers, is about such a space. That Grave and most Learned Emendator of Time, Tho. Lydiatt, who was very industrious in this very Joynt of Time, allows seventy Years, and others come near­er. If then in that great Maze of Chronology at this very Period, Scripture umpires so with the best Timists for Se­venty five, we have reason to accept it; and that it does so, under the next and last of Daniel's Visions, we shall have far­ther Advantage to prove; in the mean time, It is no inso­lent Presumption.

That great Line of 2300 Ev. Mor. as we have found it, Argu. 3 distributed so necessarily by Prophecy and History, giving space for seventy five, and no more, may stand as a strong Argument, That this was a space of so many, and no more: For when we find every way, this bids fairest to be the Number, and that for the ascertaining the Beginning of the seventy weeks, which can never else be determin'd, it is ne­cessary some space must be determin'd, and no Number so fit 2 Pet. 1. 19. as this Number, to make that Word of Prophecy so sure as to be more sure than Eye-witness it self. This principal Line so satisfied, compleats all proof.

It is not unworthy Observation, That when the whole Argu. 4 space of the Words going forth, before the seventy weeks, for the restoring of that eminent State of Jerusalem, its Temple and VVorship, and the first seven of the seventy for building the VVall, full of Clefts and Breaches, justly to be accounted restoring Jerusalem, the first by solemn Decrees, the second by some last sounds of those words of Decree; The Years of the [Page 30] Persian Monarchy for the Transaction of this whole Matter are just seventy five, as may be accounted.

When therefore, They have done the symbolical Service of accounting the seventy five years, not otherwise accounted; The Time from the Weeks Beginning pointed out to seven Weeks, or 49 Years in the Vision, hath a Room allowed for it in the Story, viz. 25 years from the Decree in Artaxerxes his seventh throughout his Reign, which by all Historians, is agreed to be near forty six; and from thence Lett into the Reign of Darius Nothus, which seems on purpose nam'd to continue the 49 years current, for which there had been space, more than enough, if the Weeks had begun sooner, then Ar­taxerxes his seventh, and not enough, if they then begun without being Lett into the Reign of Darius Nothus, nor Nehem. 12. 22. enough if they did not then begin, but at his 20th only.

Now it is enough known, Scripture thus improves its mention, or not mention of Things, its so much mention and no more, into symbolismes, and so may very well be suppos'd to do on these Persian years. For it minds not Heathen Chro­nology, but to some great purposes; I shall give one Instance among others, and it is that most visible one of Melchisedec, who in Shem standing at the Head of the second Roll of Patriarks, without Father, Mother, Beginning of Days, or End of Life, is so represented, by vertue of this Symbolism. Hebr. 7. 3. Compare with Gen. 11. 10.

Arg. 4. There is nothing more evident, then that the Re­storing Jerusalem in its Temple, and the BƲILDING of the Wall are two most distinct Things, both in Daniels Prophe­cy, and in the History of Ezra and Nehemiah; so that they cannot be confounded either in the valuableness of their Cha­racter, or in their Time.

One, viz. of the Temple is most distinctly recorded by Ez­ra, Ez. 1. &c. Neham. 2. &c. Ezr. 9. 9. the other by Nehemiah, The one is call'd a Reviving to lift up the House of our Lord, and to repair the Desolations thereof, and this he calls giving a Wall in Judah and Jerusa­lem; The other is call'd by Nehemiah repairing the City of his Fathers Sepultures, which was no Dissimulation of the In­tention in more acceptable Words as some have thought; for no such needed to him, who had given so munificent a Decree for the Temple of the God of Heaven at Jerusalem. That of the Word going forth for the Temple is before the Weeks. That of the Wall is within the Weeks, and so of Nehemiahs leave to settle the Order.

And yet all these are so united in the common Interests of Jerusalem, and in some Air of the Word going forth for them, so that there may be most fitly from the real Line of the forty nine years for building the Wall, so far as it is given in Number, a Communication of a symbolical Line, according to the Years of the Persian Monarchy, so as that 75 may be collected from the whole Number, even as the word going forth, that is proper especially to the Restoring the Temple is communicated also to the Royal Letter, for Timber to build the Wall, and the word of Princely leave for Nehemiahs going up to settle the Order; so that from the words first going forth to the Time within the Reign of Darius Nothus may be con­ceived a Line of the whole word going forth before the Weeks, and to the end of the seven weeks, viz. of 75 and 49 years which is the Point to be made good.

SECT. V.
Of the Seventy Weeks themselves in brief. On Dan. 9. 20.

THis Line of the seventy Weeks is not only so generally allowed and agreed by all Christian Interpreters, but also insisted upon, as a most fundamental, demonstrative, and undeniable Proof of Jesus Christ the true Messiah, come in the Flesh, against the perverse Obstinacy of the Jews, that I shall not levy any Argument for the proof of it; nor say more for the Definitiveness of it to 490 Years, than that the distribution of it into seven weeks, sixty two weeks, one week, and that one week into a half week, and a half week cannot possibly stand, but in a most certain Determination of Time to greatest exactness.

Nor is it possible to be disputed, when those Years end, or what Situation they have in Time, since they run so un­doubtedly in the first half of the last Week to Messiah being cut off, and to the causing Sacrifice to cease by the Sacrifice of himself, and in the last half Week to the confirming the Gospel Covenant with many; at the end of which, the Jewish Na­tion was rejected, and their former Desolations in Babylon reflow upon them, and cover them with the Ten Tribes in a ge­neral Cessation of being God's People or a Holy City any longer.

The seventy Weeks then are divided into the seven Weeks of building the Wall after the Temple restor'd; And viz. from Build­ing the Wall Times with Straight­ness or in Trouble. v. 25. sixty two Weeks of Troubles allowing fome lucid Intervals; of which Antio­chus's Tyranny must be allowed a principal Instance: on which, as a Type, is founded the prophetical Symbol of Anti­christianism. Then comes the half week of Messiah, of finish­ing Transgression, making an end of Sin, making Reconcilia­tion for Iniquity, bringing in everlasting Righteousness: All which Expressions, I look upon as an exuberant setting forth the Absoluteness, Perfection, and highest Effect of that one [Page 33] Sacrifice which Christ offer'd once for All, by which he hath for ever perfected them who are sanctified; by which, Jewish Sacrifice and Oblation was made to cease, even by the offering of himself by the Eternal Spirit, as a Lamb without spot, effe­ctively purging the Conscience from Guilt of dead Works, to serve the Living God; which Sacrifice, in the Revelation is translated into that Propriety and Peculiarity of Expression, The Lamb, slain from the Foundation of the World, Rev. 13. 8. and the corrupting and annulling that Supreme Point of Christian Religion, and the Service founded on it, and regu­lated by it, according to its own Purity, Simplicity, and Transcendency, free from idolatrous Defilements, is a Car­dinal Point of Antichristianism, and a most proper Sense of taking away the daily Sacrifice; of which I am often to make mention, and desire that from hence it may be carried all along with the Notion of the daily Sacrifice, (though menti­oned but this once.) even this Sacrifice of Daily or Eternal Vertue.

The sealing Prophecy, and Vision, is not only the Ratifica­tion and confirming all Prophecy by finishing of it, as Christ Joh. 19. 30. declar'd, It is finish'd, so far as was requisite to that coming of Christ into his Mediatory and Redemptory Kingdom; but signifies also the sealing of Prophecy at that present Time, so, as thta the second Coming of Christ into his glorious Kingdom Rev. 6. 1. & c. Rev. 7. 1. &c. Rev. 10. 4. &c. should not at that Time be, but run through that course of sealing first, during the Time of the seven Seals, then during the Time of 144000 sealed, then during the seven Thunders sealed, under which Sealing we yet must remain these next following Ten Years: Then all Things shall be finish'd spoken of in that yet sealed Prophecy for the Glorious Kingdom of Rev. 16. 17. ch. 21. 6. Christ, till those two words of Finiture are pronounced, It is done, It is done.

Yet notwithstanding This, The most Holy is Anointed in his Resurrection, made Lord and Christ, the true Messiah, Acts 2. 36. Act. 13. 3 [...]. even by Him who said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

The Covenant of Grace in his Blood, and the Sacrifice of himself, He Confirms for one Week. viz. the First half week by himself, For so it begun to be spoken by the Lord, and then it was confirmed by them that heard him. Heb. 2. 1. &c.

To which the Body of the Jewish Nation, being so heinously Enemies, first in cutting off Messiah, then in resisting all the Ministry of his Apostles, and persecuting them to the Death. The Flood of Desolations returned upon them, by that very Roman, Power, People, and Wing of Idolatrous Abomination, and Desolation, that they invocated for the Death of Messiah, and so they remain, and shall remain desolated till the End of that Indignation, during the Times of the Gentiles, till that City, spiritual Sodom and Egypt, in which our Lord was Crucified, shall be burnt with Everlasting Burnings, and the Captivity never be returned, till the Captivity of the Old Jeru­salem, the bloody, and filthy City be returned, which shall ne­ver be; for the New Jerusalem shall come down from Heaven, and constitute a Holy City below. Ezek. 16. 54.

This Richest Line of Time, laden with the Redemption of Remark. our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, invites us to it self, with admiring, and adoring Thoughts, and commands the World to Kiss the Son with a Kiss of Homage and Obedience: Great Occasions derive agreeable Names, Daniel is therefore suit­able to the Vision call'd a Man of desires, or belov'd, expres­sing the infinite Love, from which Redemption, flows, and which it begets in us back to God and Christ with vehement Passions of Desire. And he is not only call'd so in this Vision, but ever after it, to shew the Honour put upon him by it. Dan. 10. 11. 19. And as this Vision stands in this Prophetick Line of Time, it ensures it to us; For as at the fulness of Time, treasur'd up in it, Christ came against all contrary Ap­pearances, against all the Indisposition of the World to re­ceive him, and the Indesert of so Divine a Condescention; He came according to the sure word of this Prophecy, Deter­mining him as to the very self same day, in comparison of which the Transfiguration before the Apostles, as Eye-witnesses [Page 35] was less sure, according to this he came, and did not tarry; and though his Transfiguration remonstrated his Right, yet it was in private; His Decease as a Cloud receiv'd it, and though vindicated by his Resurrection, yet the sitting down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High was on the Throne of his Father, He shall sit on his own Throne, The Father will shew him whom the Heavens yet contain and Hide, the Transfiguration was an earnest of it, and does assure it; yet we have a more sure Word of Prophecy, unto which if we take heed and pursue its Conduct, as a Light in the dark, and ob­scure, the fuliginous and dusky State of the Apostacy, it will bring us to that bright Morning Star, as the Wise Men were by a lesser Star led to this Morning Star, even to him, who Matt. 2. as the King of his whole Church is to be acknowledged with those Presents of Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense. Whatever most speaks Royalty, Dignity on his part, Love, and Obedi­ence on ours; and he will return it a Thousand Fold by shewing himself, and exalting us to the Mountain of Spices. Cantic. 8. ult.

SECT. VI.
Brief Remarques on Daniels last and largest Vision are made, from part to part. c. 10. c. 11. c. 12.

THis last, and longest of Daniels Visions, I shall most briefly pass over, Because the chief Things in it, that concern the Kingdom of Christ, have either been already gi­ven, and are here recollected with some Explanations, or the Line of Time to Christ is just Travers'd, especially to intro­duce the End; or else when it comes beyond the Weeks, the Death, and Resurrection of Christ; Things are gone over again in the Evidence, and clearness of a New Testament Prophecy; yet sundry things of greatest Use, and Remarque, to the ful­ler understanding of what went before, and is to follow, will arise to us.

This last and longest Vision measures more particularly and distinctly the whole space of the 2300 days, abating the two or three first years of Cyrus, and so brings down Time to the End, so as that from the sealing of Prophecy, at the End of the first half and the last of the seventy Weeks, Lines of Time are given, the First implicitely along the Time of the sealed Book to be open'd in its seven Seals in the Apocalyps; Or in express Numbers. viz. the 1335, which just at the end of the seventh Seal, begin in the Trumpets, and continue until all Finished, or, IT IS DONE, IT IS DONE, and so arise to One thousand three hundred thirty five years.

This Vision, according to the Pleasure of the infinitely wise Spirit of Prophecy, varies from the precedent in this, That it is rather Enigmatical in vail'd and covert Expressions, then Iconical, or by way of Imagery; The first Vision was perfect­ly Dan. 2. an Image, whose Anatomical Distributions by the Head, the Arms and Breast; the Belly and Thighs, the Legs, Feet and Toes, distributed Time: The second Iconiz'd by four Beasts, had a Line of Time, in the Cypher of Time, Times, half a c. 7. Time, applyed to a little Horn of the fourth Beast: The third pourtrays Three Beasts, and makes a little Horn of the Third of them, a Type to the little Horn of the fourth Beast of the c. 8. former Vision, and the Veil of a Type being thrown over, There is a Line of 2302 Days drawn out by the Action of the Type Antio­chus Epi­phanes. bearing some Resemblance, both in Action and Du­ration (of Time naturally and not prophetically understood) to that Anti▪typical little Horn; It is drawn, I say, to the Kingdom of Christ, rising on that little Horns Ruine at the End of the 2300 Ev. Mor.

The State of the four Monarchies, in the fourth of which the Kingdom of Christ breaks the whole Image, is much the same in the main, in this Vision, as in the former, The Anti­christian King is guilty of the same Blasphemy against the God of Gods, or the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, as in the former Visions against the Prince of Princes, and the most high, and lastly the same Date of Time, Times, half a Time is ap­plied [Page 37] to him: yet notwithstanding there are some peculiar Things which this Vision carries all along upon the whole Line of the 2300 Ev. Morn. by way of farther Explication, as also of the excellent Vision of the seventy weeks, and of the Word going forth before it: which Vision of the seventy weeks most resembles this Vision in this, that it is rather a prophetical History, than Imagery.

The prefatory Description of Christ hath several Magnifi­cencies of Presence, like those Revel. 1. and also Dan. 7. wherein the Divine Nature of Christ appears in his Mediator­ship. But in this they differ from the Majesty of Christ, as on his Throne, wherein Ezekiel's Visions exceed, and for the sake of which He is so often honour'd with the Title, Son of Man, so peculiar to Christ's Kingdom, and wherein Da­niel came nearest in the Vision of the Sanctuary cleans'd, and the Corrival to Christ's Princedome broken without hand, at the end of the 2300 Ev Morn. All which shall be then ful­fill'd in the State of the Jews restor'd, of the New Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Christ, Rev. 20. 4. and therefore there he is peculiarly call'd Son of Man, as before noted.

To shew it measures the same Time, as that of the Ev. Mor. Daniel, is much in the same manner affected: It begins in its very Date, near the Beginning of the Persian Monar­chy; it runs most evidently to the same End. And having now made these general Remarks upon it, I come to observe what is most particular in it, in the way of a short Elenchus, or Table of it.

1. It is peculiar to this Vision, that tho Christ calls to mind in it His supreme Assistance to His, at the first Year of Dari­us, who to distinguish him, is call'd Darius the Mede, and of the Seed of the Medes, at the very Entrance of Cyrus's Persian Monarchy; yet his third Year is the critical and pre­cise Date of it; for then that wonderful and unexpected stop upon so Royal a Decree by the divine Permission was made, Ezr. c. 3. compar'd with c. 4. shewing the leisurely Progresses of the divine Kingdom, and, as is most probably conceiv'd, Cyrus in his third Year making [Page 38] foreign Expeditions, Cambyses or Artaxerxes his Son, was left Viceroy; upon whom the Enemies of the Jews gain'd so far, that though they could not plainly command a Cessati­on, yet by Sleights and Artifices, They eluded the Decree, and frustrated the Work all the days of Cyrus.

But Cyrus being dead in the days of the proper Reign of Ar­taxerxes, or Cambyses the Son of Cyrus, the Adversaries of the Jews writ to him, and obtain'd his Edict against the Pro­gress of the Building. And in the Reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his Reign, wrote they also an Accusation, and still prevail'd.

Now by Ahasuerus, I understand the Counterfeit Smerdis, Ezr. 4. v. 5, 6, 7. whose Reign being very short, it is said, In the beginning of his Reign: And by Artaxerxes I understand Cambyses, who reign'd indeed before Ahasuerus: yet the Sacred History in­tending a fuller Account of the whole matter, gives first the general Account, that all the days of Cyrus the Work was fru­strated; then takes in Ahasuerus first, because his Reign was short, and then gives the true Series of Things in Artaxerxes, who was first in the days of Cyrus, possess'd against the Jews, and suffer'd an artificial Impedition of them. When he came to Reign, he laid a Prohibition on their Building. When Ahasuerus began to Reign, after the Death of Artaxerxes, the Jews, upon that change, attempted to revive their Work, but on Letters to Ahasuerus, by their Enemies, were still pro­hibited. At the Reign of Darius being twice discouraged, they lay still, till arous'd by Haggai and Zechariah the Pro­phets, and confirm'd by Darius in a new Enterprise, they begin the Work again.

That which justifies this, as the True Order, is, That the History expresly tells us, upon the Letter to Artaxerxes, The work ceas'd, and that it ceas'd till the second Year of Darius the Persian, all the Days of Artaxerxes Cambyses, all the short Reign of Ahasuerus, or the Counterfeit Smerdis; Under Artaxerxes then, it began to cease; and till then the Cessation continued. And thus often, Sacred Story postpones that, on [Page 39] which it intends to place the full and largest Accounts, and therein directs the true Order yet; As here, Artaxerxes is postpond to Ahasuerus, although before him.

And of this Delay of the Building, the Space otherwise unknown, is made known in this Vision by the one and twen­ty days Resistance Christ found from the Angel-Prince of Per­sia, against whom Michael the Angel-Prince of the Jews stood with Christ.

Now these twenty one days, viz. days for years; for what could twenty one days Resistance signifie to such a stop of the Building, if naturally taken? Daniel observ'd a symbolical Fast; three weeks of days, a day for a year, as Ezekiel ob­serv'd on each side; so that it is true, The weeks of days do distinguish those weeks of days from the seventy weeks of years, and yet they are a Type of twenty one days for years also: so that here we have an Explanation of so much Time as the stop of the Building amounted to, as so many years of the Persian Time, as was before explain'd of the Word going forth, and it justifies that Account so far towards 75, where it is possibly most needed.

2. Here we have also the Intimation of the whole History of Esther, as pertaining to the Decree of the Jews Destruction and Deliverance, compris'd in the short Note of Christ's speedy dispatch of this Vision to Daniel, and returning to sight for the Jews with the same Angel prince of Persia, who, Zec. 3. 1. as Sathan, stood at their right-hand to resist them, and this Reason to believe, That Ahasuerus was Xerxes, who was the fourth King, richer than all the former; viz. In compliance with that Character, The History of Esther thus describes him, This is that Ahasuerus that Reigned from India to Ethiopia: Esth. 1. 1. and according to best History, He was the fourth to the three from Cyrus; for Darius being of the Seed of the Medes, and the Mede is not accounted among the Persian Kings, the Three after Cyrus then regnant, are Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius Hystaspis, and Xerxes the fourth; who as stirring up all against the Realm of Grecia, near the very Time of the Jews [Page 40] Danger, (as Christ signifies by the King of Grecia coming when he return'd to fight with the Prince of Persia concern­ing Haman's Decree,) laid the Foundation of that War, Ale­xander the Great, a Prince doing after his own Will, pursued so as to put an end to the Persian Monarchy, and the Grecian succeeded.

And this I have treated the more largely, because it con­firms and farther clears what hath been said of the Words go­ing forth.

3. This Vision being drawn out of the Scripture of Truth, that is, out of the former Visions of Daniel, which can be only Cap. 10. 21. suppos'd Scripture of Truth in relation to these things. The Vision, I say, passes on to the Successors of Alexander, and especially stays in the King of the South, and the North, the Egyptian, and Graeco-Syrian Kingdoms, the DHIL-KARNAIN Cap. 11. 5. &c. or two Horns, as the Mahometans call it, or as this Prophecy also, the two Thighs of the Grecian Empire, in whose Moti­ons the 62 weeks ran, and the Troubles of the Jews were, as Historians observe, most concern'd; but especially as Types of those after-Kings of the South and North, to which the Prophecy tends.

For in that Acarith of the Grecian Monarchy, as the for­mer Vision ch. 8. v. 23. expresses it, that long after part, the King of fierce Countenance, and understanding dark Sentences, arose, viz. in the Time of the Southern Saracens, Heirs of the Egyptian Potentacy, and the Northern Turks, Inheritors after, of the Grecian Empire, to which the Prophecy especially directs it self; so leading on also the space of the Weeks to the Ro­man Empire, till all things went forward to the Antichristian State; wherein these three principal Things are especially in our Eye, that are prepar'd to clear to us the Apocalyptical Prophecy, into which this of Daniel Disembogues it self.

1. The Confederacies betwixt Antiochus, and the Aposta­tizing Jews are lively set out, as very prophetically descriptive of the Gentiles, and the other Beast, first preparing for and after conspiring with the Grand Beast of the Revelation, and so [Page 41] by all manner of Arts corrupting the Minds of Men into the Apostacy, that the daily Service of God may be taken away, and the Abomination, that maketh desolate, establish'd in its place: and as They, who in the Days of Antiochus fell un­der that Tyranny by Sufferings, and would not accept Deli­verance that they might obtain a better Resurrection; (for even Heb. 11. 35 then the End was known, and was for an appointed Time:) even so the Witnesses and sealed Servants of God were in the same manner resolv'd not to defile themselves, but were puri­fied, and made white by Sufferings, for the Glory of that End. And thus in this Vision, these shaded Lines of the Gentiles and the other Beast, not given in the former Visions, are now given, and the End vigorously represented, as encouraging the Saints of God in their Opposition to those Corruptions.

2. The Agency of the Antichristian King is more fully set out in some Particulars, that had been given some not at all, some not so clear as before, as in these three things.

1. We have the Exaltation of himself above all Magistrates or deputed Gods, every [...] or August Name, that calls Properly the Name of August Majesty, as Acts 27. 1. for civil Worship and Reverence, according to God's Ordi­nation: so the Apostle out of this very Prophecy describes him. 2 Thess. 2. 4.

2. His marvellous Pretension to be the Vicar and Vice-Gerent of Christ on Earth, in so absolute and immediate a manner, as to swallow up Christ's own true Power. This is a speaking marvellous Things against Christ, the God of Gods, or supreme Prince; an opening his Mouth in Blasphemy against the most High, because such a Power is a Blasphemy against Christ's Divine Power: for it is to sit in the Temple of God, as God, shewing himself that he is God,

3. His Prohibition of Marriage is shaded under the Not regarding the Desire of Women, taking it either as what Wo­men of Vertue and Honour desire, Marriage honourable in all, or Mens lawful Desire of Women in that Estate of Honour and the Bed undefiled, in Detestation of Concubinacies and Stews: and this Prohibition yet is on the pretended Accounts [Page 42] of Virginity, and immoderately honour'd single Life; but in­deed for base Advantages of Riches and Power; to which those Pretences are made serviceable, while in the mean time all Impurities, even the Deeds of the Nicolaitans, are so al­lowed, as to be made a Doctrine. Thus the Apostle also brands the Apostasie as forbidding to marry; 1 Tim. 4. 3. com­par'd with Rev. 2. 14.

4. The Idolatry introduc'd by him, formerly unheard of and unknown in the World: an Idolatry committed under the Pretence of honouring Saints and Holy Angels, the Mo­ther of Christ, and even Christ, the Spirit, God, the Trinity; Names, the lowest of which are indeed of true and real Ho­nour and Excellency, according to the Scriptures; but as thus manag'd, A Blaspeming God, his Tabernacle, viz. The whole Worship of the Gospel, call'd after the Language of pure Israelitism, His Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Hea­ven, Saints and Angels, who are especially thus blasphem'd under the Name of Worship, by putting upon them the No­tion of Patrons, Patronesses, Defenders, Tutelary Powers, Pre­sidiary, Munitional, or Municipal Saints; which is such a new Host of Heaven, such a new way of Idolatry, so proper to this State of Antichrist, as in just Propriety to be said, A God, that his Fathers, not only of the Roman Ancestors of the Beast, but even his first Father of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had not known, a God strange to the whole Auncestry of Idolaters, that it is most fitly and livelily express'd by the Prophecy: The Silver, Gold, precious Things, with which their Shrines are honour'd, Their Presidency over such Countries, the Land or whole Territory of the Beast being divided to them for gain, each Saint in his proper District or Divisi­on, and so as to bring in Gain most advantageously. And all these are thus honour'd upon the Account of a Supreme over them in Name and Title, however often not only equal'd, but even submitted under them in Veneration and Resort, as we know the Name of CHRIST bears up the whole weight, and yet is not only competitor'd by such or such a [Page 43] Saint, in such a place, or as they speak by our Lady, but even by that very sort of Idolatrous Worship of Christ ec­clips'd and drowned. And all this was fulfill'd, especially from that War concerning the Worship of Saints and Images, 725 or 26, at the famous 666, as is after to be shewn.

Now the Pourtray of these Things is admirable in this prophetical Table, and the Travers from the God, who is su­periour, that is, Christ, to the whole Gentry of Saints, in such a confused manner, as the Text gives it, The Maozzim, and the strange God whom he shall acknowledge, and encrease with Glory, and shall cause them to rule over many, so pas­sing out of one into another, that the very Frame of the Context does above all Expression, by the Elegancy of the Scheme, exquisitely present it, and it hath been with wonder­ful Fidelity expounded by that ever to be acknowledg'd Duumvirate of Prophetical Interpreters, Dr. More and Mr. Mede.

5. It is very extraordinary in this Prophecy, that upon this very Idolatry, and at the very Time when it was contest­ed by the Iconoclastick Emperours, so profess'd Enemies to Images, and Worship of Saints, and yet sanction'd by the se­cond Council of Nice, however palliated by that of Frankford, Cabbasut. Notitia Eccles. p. 314. which Palliation is yet abhorr'd, and the Truth of the Hi­story of that Council decried at this Day; At that very Time the Mahometan King of the South, by the Saracens or Lo­custs, and after the King of the North, the Turkish Horsemen according to the Military Language of Daniel's Time, with his Chariots and Horsemen, like a Whirlwind, and with his Gallies or Ships pass'd and overflow'd. And this, in the same order, the Apocalyps after describes; and at the same Degrees of Elevation: The King of the South first does but push; he torments and hurts, but does not kill or swallow up in Con­quest: The King of the North comes after, and does overflow and pass over, and inherit a great part of the Antichristian Ter­ritory, as the Beast would have it; that is the Grecian Empire, and yet leaves to the Beast his proper Bestian Demesne still: [Page 44] for the sake of which Mahometan Kings of the South and the North, as well as to draw a Line of prophetick History upon the sixty two Weeks, from the Wall built to Messiah, There is so much said of the King of the North and the South, the Seleu­cidean and Lagidean Potentacies in the Prophecy.

6. It is very observable, after a Description of the very great Conquests and vast Tracts of the Turkish Empire, v. 42. &c. given, His End is foretold upon the Mountains of Tzebi, or the pleasant Holy Land; and from thence the last end of Things, and the glorious state of the Kingdom of Christ, in the Lustre of his Saints, and the Shame and Contempt of his Ene­mies, seems to be given; and not from the breaking the Image in the Bestian State of it; which both here and in the Revelation is the most definite Thing that can be, that the End should be so plac'd on the Beast. These two Conside­rations yet will make a perfect Reconciliation of that Ob­jection.

1. That indeed, The End of Things is not given from the Turkish End, but from the Day of great Trouble, such as ne­ver Dan. 12. 1. was since there was a Nation. Now that Day of Trouble is the same with the Battel of Armageddon under the seventh Rev. 16. 16. &c. v. 12. Vial. The Turkish Power therefore coming to its End, and none helping it, is under the sixth Vial, poured out upon the River Euphrates, that the way of the Kings of the East, the Jews upon the Mountains of Tzebi, might be prepar'd, where the Turk receives his final Overthrow, except the last Re­mainders of him rallied from this Fatal Blow, on the Moun­tains of Tzebi may be congregated by the Spirit, like a Frog, (that shall immediately after it go out of the mouth of the Dragon) to the Battel of Armageddon, upon which immedi­ately follows that Resurrection describ'd in the Glory of the Saints, the Ministers of Divine Truth, who have turn'd ma­ny to Righteousness, in an Excellency, and the Enemies of Christ rising to everlasting Shame and Contempt, according to Dan. 12. 1, 2. &c. and Revel. 20. 4. &c. to v. 7. Where we may observe the use of the Word Many, to shew, there [Page 45] is another Determination of the Future State of Mankind at the end of the 1000 Years; both of them written in the Book, and whose Names are not found in the Book of Life: compare this with Apoc. 20. 15.

From hence therefore, compar'd with the Turkish Woe going off at the end of the sixth Trumpet, Rev. 11. 14. It seems most probable, but I dare not in Particulars be too de­finitive; There is a reducing of the Turkish Power at that Trumpets end sending it to Euphrates from whence it came at the Beginning of it; and a DE-PORTING it from Constanti­nople. At the sixth Vial there is a drying it up in his proper Eu­phrates, in some Encounter on the Mountains of Tzebi or Ju­dea; and what Mahometan Tail may remain, shall be wholly cut off at Armageddon, when neither Head, nor Tail, Ty­ranny, nor False Prophetism, to hurt with, shall be left in the World.

2. After the End had been thus given leading from the sixth Vial to the seventh, Then the true orderly native course of that End is drawn within its proper Channels and Suc­cessions of Prophetick Time; as is now in the next place to be demonstrated upon this Danielian Prophecy.

SECT. VII.
Of the whole Line of Time from the Resurrection of Messiah, unto the Time of Blessedness in the Lotts of the New Jeru­salem, and its Royal Priesthood: On Dan. 12. v. 4. &c. to the End.

AFter the full and ample Discovery, according to the Allowance of Prophecy, of the State of the Honourable Resurrection of the Servants of Christ, and the despicable Re­suscitation of the Wicked, inclusive of all Misery, follows the Delineation of Time.

Immediately upon this Declaration of this Resurrection, Christ commands Daniel to shut the Book, and seal it to the time of the End; which End must be that End, When many of them that sleep shall so awake. But in regard of the Laxi­tude of the Expression, [The Time of the End] we must un­derstand, The whole Time from Christ's Resurrection to this Resurrection, is call'd The last Time, The End, The End of the World, The last Days, frequently in Scripture; All Pro­gresses in which Time are still yet nearer the End, and so more the Time of the End, and the last Days, than the for­mer Parts are. This then being first conceiv'd; Under some sealing, more or less, The Book must continue till Christ says, Seal not the Sayings of this Book, for the Time is at hand; relating just to the Time of the Vials, when the Kingdom of Christ was not only entred, and proclaim'd, and all Things were in finishing in the seventh Trumpet; but the Time of the Dead, that they should be judged, was nigh: when the Voices had now prepar'd for the Vials, and the Thunders then were unseal'd for the Vials pouring out, Rev. 22. 10.

And this agrees with the sealing Vision and Prophecy at the very cutting off of Messiah, altho there was a Time of farther Tryal of the Jews, the last Half-week, yet it was then indeed seal'd, the Jews having rejected and crucified their King, who yet even by Pilate's Inscription, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, [This is the King of the Jews,] by his Resurrection, Ascension, and sending down the Spirit, was Anointed. But till the End of the Indignation, The Prophecy of his Kingdom was seal'd from its Glorious Appearance, altho this Sealing had several new Sealings, after some partial and momentary Discoveries of the Kingdom; which are most necessary to be here understood, and carried all along.

It is most evident, It was here seal'd, and answerably in the Revelation, c. 5. It was a Book seal'd with seven Seals when Christ took it, at his very Resurrection: and though the opening the first Seal was a Publication of his Kingdom to the Jews and Gentiles, and he went out conquering and to conquer, c 6. 1, 2. [Page 47] after the opening the first Seal; yet it could not then appear, for there were six Seals still upon it; Now these Seals carry most evidently, as we shall see, a Course of 400 years from the last half week, when the sealing was complete in the final rejection of the Jews; For the first Seal opened, and the Gos­pel not received by the Jews, the rest had greater Force of Sealing, which Sealing yet was determinately made at the very Death of Christ, and the Indignation upon that Parricide; And though these Seals carry a Course of Time, yet condecent to the Type of the great secrecy of the seven Seals, There is no express Line of Time drawn till the Kingdom of Our God is celebrated as come after the sixth of the Seals opened, and the Rev. 12. 10. compar'd with c. 6. 12. c. 8. 3. 4. seventh also opened as compleating that whole Vision of the manly Birth, Caught up to the Throne, and the Dragon cast down, Revel. 12. in Theodosius the Great's last Victory over Heathenism, as we shall see in those Visions.

But then immediately at the sixth Seal, as it were by way of prevention of the Kingdom of Christ, breaking out at the seventh; The 144000 were first sealed, and this was such an c. 7. obscuring Christs Kingdom, under the Apostasie, That the Lines of Time were according to the Decency of the Type con­cealed till the Thunders uttering their Voices, and the Book opened. Apoc. c. 10. c. 11. without which Apocalyptick Lines, these Numbers of Daniel could not be understood.

So till the End, viz. the seventh Trumpet, finishing all, and the Kingdom of Christ proclaim'd, there is a continuance of this sealing, in some Degrees, even till the Thunders unseal'd. Chap. 14.

But yet there are convenient Notations of Time along the Seals, For every Event upon their opening leads us demon­stratively enough from Time to Time, and that general Cha­racter of this First space of Time of the Seals, after Christs Resurrection, is most significantly imprinted by that Motto, Many shall run to and fro, and Knowledge shall be increased, Dan. 12. 4. which was so notably fulfill'd in the Apocalyptical Ministry it self, and after that, especially during the Three following [Page 48] Seals in those Gospel Voices, of a yet continuing Apostolical Ministry, though inferior to the Apostles, and daily growing flatter, but still saying Come and see, All labouring to have then proclaim'd Christs Kingdom. For so Come and see im­ports all along c. 6. till the Fifth Seal.

Christ having now commanded the sealing of the Book, with that Latitude, not, to the End, but to the Time or whole Current of Time to the End, The Two Angels on either Bank attending Christ, the Man in Linnen upon the Waters of the great River Hiddekel, as in the Preface. c. 10. v. 4. These two by divine Ordination from that very word [The End] start this Question, Ʋnto how long the End of these Wonders? viz. That End, until, the Time of which Christ had just now signifyed The Book was seal'd; To this Christ is pleas'd, intending to reveal this Course of Time to his Church by Daniel, to return an answer in the very sight of Daniel by lifting up both his Hands to Heaven, and swearing by the Eternal Being, living for ever, to whom all Time is but as the Drop of the Bucket. That there should be Time, Times, half a Time, for the scattering of the holy People, or the Revel. 12. Womans being in the Wilderness, which is the Apocalyptick Comment on it, and when that was accomplished, According to the Correspondent Oath in the Revel. c. 10. All these things should be finished in the Days of the seventh Trumpet. Now it is most observable Christ gives an answer by this Oath, not of the Time from the End of the Weeks, or at his Resurrecti­on, but from the Time of the Seals opened, confirming that sealing the Book to make a Line of Time in its unsealing; For who can think Time, Times, &c. were together with the Seals, seeing those three Times and Half are so plainly given after the Seals.

But because the Divine Spirit knew, that neither could the Cypher of Time, Times, half a Time, be truly discypher'd but by it self, and that the Half Time would open in some appearance of the Kingdom, and that this very Oath, that now Lett out this Time, would be revers'd upon it, at that very prophetical Juncture, Daniel is mov'd by the same Spi­rit, [Page 49] as not enough intelligenc'd by this Oracle to desire a further Divine Responsal. I heard, saith he, but I understood not; and therefore I said, Lord, what the End of these things? Upon which, Christ declares first a second sealing, and dis­charges Daniel from farther Attendance in this matter after this last Oracle given him; v. 9. which is again repeated v. 13. Go thy way Daniel, saith Christ; [that is, the way of all Flesh, or Dye at thy Time,] till Thou stand in thy Lot at the end of the Days. Not the Book now, but the Words referring to the Thunders Ʋtterances, and the Words within the open Book, are seal'd, or stay'd from an immediate coming to pass till the very Time of the End, much farther promoted; viz. to the Vials.

And then Christ is pleas'd to give first this Emblem of the Time of the Ʋnsealing, in these Words, Many shall be purified, and made white, and tryed, or refin'd, viz. by the Voices, and by the Efficacy of Divine Truth then breaking out; but, as is discover'd in the Vials, The wicked will do wickedly, and will not understand by so great a Thunder of Truth; and therefore it is so eminently noted of them in the Vials, They Repented not, but blasphem'd: and in proper Application to the same Time, it is said, He that is Ʋnrighteous, and Ʋnjust, let him be so still, and He that is Righteous let him be farther justified, that is, clear'd from the Imputations laid upon him by the Apostacy, and let him farther also vindicate and justifie him­self from it by a Ministration of the Vials on the Beast, and doubling to the infamous Woman the Cup she had given and thereby making Preparation to the Kingdom of Christ. Thus is that great Time in its curious Emblematism in Pro­phecy. c. 22. 11. compar'd with Rev. c. 15. c. 18. v. 6.

And because all this should by the Will of Christ be yet drawn out more definitively, He is pleas'd to add, From the Time of the Daily, or Continual, in the very same only word Tammith, (no where applied alone to Sacrifice;) from that taken away by the Apostacy, I say are given exactly till the se­ven Thunders unseal'd thirty additional Days to the 1260 [Page 50] Days, viz. 1290 Days; and to that very End so often men­tion'd of the Lots of Blessedness, by the Addition of 45 more are given 1335; and all cast into Indictions; or eighty nine Fifteens; a way of accounting Time so notoriously known to have come into use after Constantine, as elsewhere shall be farther urg'd, and most evidently characterizing this Time.

And it is much to be observ'd, This so clear Line is gi­ven here, as in the Revelat. after a Supposition of the Book open'd at the Half-time, and not before, except in this Cypher of Daniel's Time, Times, Half-Time, not to be understood but by the 1260 Days, and other Apocalyptical Lines.

Now from all this may be collected, by compare with the Apocalyptick Prophecy, a Line of Time, as exact as from the very Ages of the Patriarks, allowing the Hebrew Copies there, and the prophetical Days for Years here.

For first, the 2300 Ev. Mor. are so exact undoubted an entire Number, as to leave no Dispute, if granted to be a Line of Time: The Weeks ending at the Resurrection is so ve­ry full and compleat a Vision, before this Vision not only in the Order of Prophecy, but of the express Dates of Darius's First, and Cyrus's Third. The sealing of Prophecy in that Vi­sion just at the End of that Vision of the Weeks, and the Book shut and seal'd in this Vision, joyn those two Visions close to­gether.

The sealed Time and of the Book shut, by the Apocalyptick Prophecy, in so orderly a Progress as by compare with Hi­story it is found, cannot but be acknowledg'd to be 400 Years from the last half-week ending. Then the 1335 are so close joyn'd, that they cannot be forc'd asunder, and so ri­veted into the End, both by being a farther Resolution to Daniel (in his Complaint of not understanding) for his Know­ledge of the End of Wonders, as also by the Blessedness, and Daniel's standing in his Lot.

Besides, the Evidence from the Indictions so open and in­dustrious, is not small: But what could Daniel's Lot in the [Page 51] End of the Days be of or in, but of and in the New Jerusa­lem, and its holy Priesthood? It is impossible then the days should fly back from the End: these therefore being the whole of the 2300, except 75, the 75 must be plac'd in the Forefront of all the Number, as we have seen, what Rea­son from the Vision of the Words going forth hath been found so to place just so many: And if we allow that Number to be 75, there is as great a certainty the sealed Time must be just four hundred; for one adjusts the other necessarily; if 75 before the Weeks, there must be 400 between the Weeks or 490 Years, and the 1335; if 400 there, then 75 here; for so the 2300 require. Now how each of these Spaces of Time, the 400 of the Seals, the Time, Times, Half-time, or twelve hundred sixty days of the Trumpets, the Thirty of the Voices, the forty five of the Vials; how these, I say, are all re­plenish'd with their proper Furniture, we must be instructed by the Prophecy of the Revelation.

What great Reason have we now to adore the Spirit of Remark. Jesus Christ in this Prophecy of Daniel, and to search what or what manner of Time it signifies in this sure Word of Prophecy, giving in prophetick Schemes the very same Thing that the Transfiguration in so glorious a majestick Appearance represent­ed; viz. Christ the Sun of Righteousness with his Stars of the first Magnitude, Prophets and Apostles, those wise turning ma­ny to Righteousness, and then the lesser ministerial Stars, and the sporadick Fellowship of Saints included, appear therein, as those who are so turn'd to Righteousness. And this Pro­phecy having been so long in the World, and traversing such spaces of Time, like a vast Tract of Earth, with Charts, Maps, and Sculptures fitted to them, and that came with such Cer­tainty and Assurance into every hand, is inlighten'd and enli­vened with new and fresh Delineatories of the New Testa­ment Prophecy, or the Revelation: Certainly, had not God in Justice upon the Apostacy diverted the Thoughts and La­bours of his Servants from the Illustration and Demonstration of them, so that they have not travell'd herein, as in other [Page 52] parts of Christian Verity, nor by such a Concert of Minds and Judgments herein; the Evidences both against Atheism, and the Apostacy had much exceeded, what they arise to now; No Miracles except in constant and present Motion before our Eyes, nor hardly then, being so intellectually sensible Arguments of the Divine Being, of Christianity, and against Antichristianism, as these Prophecies from Time to Time fulfill'd. And this very Prophecy of Daniel is a most certain Ground to expect such a Prophecy as that of the Reve­lation; for one cannot be understood without the other: and how admirably do they conspire? For just at that sealing at the end of the last half Week, begins the unsealing also, or the Events coming to pass in their just order, and the Apostolical Ministry, running to and fro to increase Knowledge; and just Scals 400. Rev. c. 6. then 1260 in the six first Trum­pets c. 8. c. 9 Then 30 & 45 in the Voices c. 14. and Vi­als of the 7th Trum­pet. c. 15. c. 16. as they have hitherto proceeded exactly according to their Time and Place, so far as within ten years end of the sixth Trumpet, so shall they proceed in the seventh Trumpet in the Voices, and the Vials, till the last end of Wonders be produ­ced and perfected. Blessed, therefore, is He that waiteth, and cometh thereunto; he shall, tho out of this Body, certainly then stand in his Lot of that New Jerusalem State and Priest­hood, in a Body of the First Resurrection.

SECT. VIII.
Wherein is given a Prefatory Survey of the whole Apocalyp­tical Prophecy.

I Am now brought down, by the course of prophetick Time, to that very Point of Time where the Series of Apocalyp­tical Visions begins; so that although the Line of Time was by Daniel stretch'd over whole Apocalyptick Time, in the Number given to him, and in a general way, some Umbra­ges of those Visions had been presented by Ezekiel, and even by all the Prophets since the World began, that so in the [Page 53] Mouth of not only two or three but many Witnesses, every word might be establish'd; yet it appertains to the Glory of the New Testament, the Gospel, and Kingdom of the Mediator, there should be so great and stupendious a Prophecy peculiar to it, as that of the Revelation, wherein God and Jesus Christ are for ever to be ador'd, and had in reverence of all that ap­proach the Profession of Christianity.

I say, It must be of necessity agreeable to the Excellency of the New Testament, there should be, besides many Inciden­tal Prophecies, so divinely majestick a Prophecy, as this of the Apocalyps, such a Temple of Prophecies, whose Symbols should be so high and lofty, its Light more clear and full, its Lines of Time, in what it pleas'd to give, more evident and cer­tain; the Doctrines intermingled more spiritual, the Promi­ses more heavenly, and explain'd; the Threats more dread­ful and more open; that in every thing there may be a Be­comingness of All to the Old Testament, unveil'd, fulfill'd, and excell'd in the New.

And accordingly, we shall find all these, to the very height, taken care of and adjusted; we shall see this all along the Iconisms and Figures of Things in the Churches, in the seve­ral Visions, in the Doctrines, in the solemn mentions of the Lamb, of his Blood so often memorializ'd, as an Antidote against the Poison of Antichrist, as also the Ministeries of An­gels and their most peremptory Abhorrence of all Worship of­fer'd to them; Its only numbred Line of Time, till the 1000 Years, is so often repeated and ascertain'd; that it does in all things illustriously shew it self to be that grand Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to shew to his Servants to the transcendent Honour of the Son, by whom he thus spake last of all; Who is the Heir of all things, especially of the World to Heb. 1. 1. come, of which this Prophecy speaks.

So that to ravish this from the Search and Enquiry of his Church, or by Imputations of immodest Presumption to bar from it the utmost Endeavours of his Servants, to compare so great a Prophecy, and its Events, is to take from them one of [Page 54] the principal Props of Christian Faith and Obedience, and to devest the New Testament of so high a Glory as this sure Word of Prophecy, to which we ought to take heed, as to a Light that shineth in the obscure and even squalid Ayr of the Apostasie, till the Bright Morning-Star appear; and therefore notwithstanding all Prejudices the Apostacy hath rais'd against Researches into it, Blessed is he that Readeth, and they who hear the Words of this Prophecy.

That which this Prophecy reveals, is the glorious Restitution of all things in the Kingdom of Christ, and his Reign with his Saints, the Destruction and Consumption of all the wicked, so as to be no more as they have been in God's Creation and Earth, Psal. 104. 35.

The Sense, in which it reveals, is not only Prophetical, Doctrinal, and Verbal, but Real and Eventual; and that immediately from the very Beginning of it. All the Visions in their own Order, each in their Season, come quickly or shortly to pass; that is, begin to come to pass, and so go on to their End, according to the Types wherein they are im­printed.

This Revelation begins justly at the Resurrection of Christ, conjoyn'd as in one entire Act and Time with his Ascension, when all power in Heaven and Earth was given to him, at the Lord's Day, dedicated by himself to the Glory of his Rising, and the Publication of his Anointing, by the coming down of Act. 1. c. 2. the Holy Spirit. Then could he say, Behold I was dead, am alive, and live for evermore: Then he was brought near to the Ancient of Days, and receiv'd the Assurance of his Kingdom; Then had he Right to be the Prince of the Kings of the Earth, though he was pleas'd to stay, and to joyn Patience to and with his Kingdom. And this was as in the middle Rev. 1. 9. of the Five hundred sixty second Ev. Mor. from Cyrus, and in the middle of the last of the seventieth of the seventy Weeks, and at the Time the Roman Empire was come to Maturity in the AUTONOMY of Augustus and Tiberius, in the Time of which the first Right of his Kingdom began: and e're that [Page 55] Empire in its last State ends, it shall be set up in Glory.

For though the Apocalytical Prophecy was not actually gi­ven to the Apostle John till some years after; yet, as Pro­phecy calls the future, so that which is past, to the present Time; and represents in an entire Frame both together, a Priviledge, as to that which is past, necessarily allowed to History and to a prophetick Frame much more, when it hath occasion for it.

The Period of the Revelation (till the thousand years) is most evidently those two Apocalyptical Pillars, bearing the two answering Inscriptions, IT IS DONE, IT IS DONE, Apoc. 16. 17. c. 22. 6. from whence the Kingdom begins.

So that this Book of the Revelation is justly to be styl'd the Book of the Kingdom of Christ in its several Offers of Ap­pearance, and rending the very Clouds to shew it self, in the Acts 1. 7. Dan. 12. 7. Justice of its Claim; and yet retiring it self till the very mo­ments appointed by the Father, and sworn by himself. In which Regards, this Prophecy is call'd (A Book) both in Daniel and here in the Apocalyps, on all occasions.

So that the thousand Years are properly within this Book, as the Book of the Kingdom. There is also beyond the thou­sand Years a [...], a little Space, as it were the Revel. 20. Hour of the thousand-years-day of the Lord, or of the Son of Man, in which the natural Apostacy of Humane Nature shews it self in the lukewarm Laodicean Church, and in Gog and Magog, as at a blush; but the whole of any State, ei­ther 1 Cor. 15. of Church, or Nation below, immediately is swallow'd up in Flames, and Death and Hell, with their whole Pro­priety, shut up within themselves, and the Kingdom resign'd to God ALL in ALL.

The Passage or Conveyance of this Apocalyptical Time, is through the seven Churches, comprehending the whole Time within themselves, as also Symbols proper to the Prophecy, as peculiar to the Christian Church; and then the whole Time begins again, and runs in seven Seals, seven Trumpets, seven Voices, as unseal'd Thunders, seven Vials, as so many Conduits, [Page 56] Tubes, or Pipes of the whole Prophecy, under the Conduct and Government of the Lamb with seven eyes, and the gui­ding Operations of the seven Lamps, the seven Spirits of God, that is, of the Divine Spirit in its sevenfold Operations. And in all I understand the sabbatical Number deriv'd from the first Sabbath, and terminating in the last great Sabbatism of Christ's Kingdom, continued with the Sabbatism of Eter­nity.

Thus the Prophecy is divided into two Systemes, or Com­plexes of Visions; The Systeme of the seven Churches, that is proper and particular to the Church, wherein the Churches, as Symbols sustain the whole Prophecy, which is worthy the Spirituality and Clearness of a New Testament Prophecy, so to Order, and of great Grace, Elegancy, and Condecency to God's great Regard to his Church: The Second is that which embraces the whole State of the Church, but propp'd and sup­ported with such Imperial Events, as most nearly related to the Church, adorn'd with such Symbols, such Notes of Time, such Events, as agree to those Times, whereby History, both Common and Ecclesiastick, may be adjusted to, and concerted with both, and the Truth of the Prophecy, and its true Inter­pretation justisted before, and by all the World. And this is that Systeme, or Complex of Prophecies, that first by the Seals runs through the Roman Empire; till the sixth Seal, Pagan; and Christian in the sixth and seventh Seals; in those things wherein the Kingdom and Church of Christ are most in­teressed, until the Empire was blasted in the first Trumpet, and true publick Worship also, by the 1260 Days of the Daily taken away entring; The Imperial City was thrown like a Mountain into the Sea in the second and in the third Trumpet, when the Roman Empire expiring in the West was surrogated, or new founded in the Beast succeeding in his forty two Months: and so the Prophecy goes on in the other Trumpets, till it comes to the Kingdom of Christ in the seventh Trumpet, in its just Successi­on, to the last State of the Roman fourth Monarchy, accor­ding to all Prophecy. And this till the thousand Years runs [Page 57] through the Voices of Preparation into the Vials, and the Vials prepare to the thousand Years glorious Reign of our Lord Je­sus Christ.

So then this is the only true proper Division of this Pro­phecy into its two Systemes of the Churches, and then rise the Seals, Trumpets, Voices, Vials, in another Systeme, support­ing all things relating to the Church by Imperial Motions, Mutations, and Times. And in the latter Systeme, all these Tubes of Time are each Sett of them, and each of each Sett so united one to another, that they can neither be disjoyn'd from their immediate sequence one upon another, nor mov'd out of their order; so that the Trumpets follow the Seals; the Voices the Trumpets; the Vials the Voices; and each Seal, Trumpet, Voice, and Vial, follows immediately upon its fore­going Seal, Trumpet, Voice, and Vial; and every seventh com­prehends the following Sevens, the seventh Seal, the seven Trumpets, the seventh Trumpet, the seven Voices, the seventh Voice, the seven Vials; and each precedent Seventh hath some grasp on all the following Sevens. So the seventh Seal com­prehends the Trumpets, the Voices, the Vials; the seventh Trumpet the Voices and Vials; the seventh Voice the seven Vials; so admirably is this Prophecy united and interwoven.

And to other Division than this of the second Systeme of Prophecies, I can by no means subscribe; as of the Prophecy divided into the sealed and open Book-prophecy; or the Pro­phecy of the Empire first, and then of the Church. For that re­markable part of the sealed Book-prophecy, viz. the palm­bearing Company, by peculiar Right pertains to the open Book, or that must be so, if there were such an open Book-prophecy; and much of the open Book-prophecy, allowing such a one, must needs pertain to the sealed: but indeed there is no such Thing as an open Book-prophecy in that place, where it is said to be open'd; for the Book was no sooner open'd but it was eaten, and so absconded assoon as open'd, till open'd by the Voices, c. 14. as shall be farther clear'd: nor is there any Prophecy of the second Systeme, but pertains properly to [Page 58] the Church, as within first the Pagan, then the Christian, then the Bestian State of the one Roman Empire, and lastly of the Ʋniversal Empire and Kingdom of Christ.

Now in this Order apocalyptical, Both Visions and Times in the first Systeme, run through the six Churches, In the second through those four Sets of prophetical Tubes, Seals c. 6. c. 7. c. 8. to v. of Trumpets, c. 8. v. 8. to the end of c. 11. of Voices, c. 14. of the Vials, c. 15. c. 16. and so laying these Chapters together, the order is most exact, except that in c. 7. There is an Anticipation of the Triumph of the New Jerusalem from v. 9. to the end. In c. 11. there is a Collection of the whole State of the Apostasie, during the six Trumpets, into one Body together, as it consists of the Sufferings of the Witnesses, and the Tyranny of the Bestian Apostasie, excepting some close In­timations in the very Composure of the Symbolisms of those Trumpets [for the great Reasons hereafter to be given,] that refer to the same Apostacy, and begin at the first Trumpet.

And then in the twelfth and thirteenth Chapters the ex­travasated Account of the Dragon, watching the Woman, and her manly Birth, the Dragon cast down, and the manly Birth caught up, is to be reduc'd within its most proper Channel; viz. the fifth and sixth Seals. And this prepares for the right understanding of the Beast mention'd ch. 11. as deriv'd from the Dragon, c. 13. arriving his Number 666, which belongs to the six first Trumpets; and it is there fitly set to prepare for the Vision of the Lambs Number. c. 14.

And as to the Chapters 17. 18. and 19. they are most evi­dently the Progress of the History of the seventh Vial, and the full Relation of its Effects. To prepare for which, an extraordinary Description of the Woman, or Great City reigning over the Kings of the Earth, opposite to the Woman in the Wilderness, is prefix'd; and on her occasion a more perfect Portraicture of the Beast, and of his ten Horns or Kings is given, in preparation to the Judgment executed on all, c. 19. And then the Milennial State being drawn up, c. 20. it is car­ried on to the end of Apocalyptical Time, as it reaches into [Page 59] the complemental State of Eternity, which the Prophecy briefly absolves, and then returns upon its more proper Subject, or the 1000 Years of the New Jerusalem. c. 21. c. 22.

Now this Order began with the Preface to the Churches Vision of the first Systeme, c. 1. and then the Preface of the second Systeme, and lastly a Postscript, returning especially c. 4. c. 5. c. 22. 16. to the Vials as given by the first Angel of the Vials. This Or­der is, I say, the whole entire natural Order of this Apoca­lyptical Prophecy; which is contriv'd indeed suitable to the Secrecy and Mysticness of the Prophecy, so as often symboli­cally to declare, when these Prophecies would have the clear­est and most efficacious Discoveries in the Church, viz. after the Half Time, when the Thunders had utter'd their Voices, and the Book open, was shewn in the hand of Christ. That was the just Season for the Discovery of the Apostacy in the suffer­ing of the Witnesses, and the Tenthly Fall of the City; and then after the seventh Trumpet the whole Series of Visions concern­ing the Beast, deriv'd from the Dragon, will be best under­stood, and most fully believ'd; even as at the Reformation there was most necessarily an Acknowledgment of a long Apostacy, of the cruel Tyranny of the Beast over true Christi­ans, and a visible Pledge; The Ten Kings on the Head of the Beast, that carries the Woman, would at length fall from it: but the End of that Half-Time will make a farther, both No­toriety and Assurance of these things.

This allowed, the Prophecy takes no Freedome, but what is due to the gravest History, to place, by way sometimes of Anticipation, sometimes of Recollection, the Parts of the History so, as may best serve the Purposes of the History: And yet we cannot deferr so little to the Majesty of Divine Prophecy, as is even challengeable by Humane History; For that is justly entitled to a Right of secret and insensible Transitions, Connexions, Transpositions from one part to another, which require leisurely Meditation and thoughtful Pauses, to find them; and yet are so plac'd, as when found they give Light one to another with Ʋsury.

Altho therefore I rise up with greatest Reverence and Honour to those great Names, who have thought otherwise, I can allow no Beginning of Apocalyptical Time anew, either at the open Book ch. 11. or at ch. 12. but only a Recollection of those things after their redundant Swellings out of their Channels, one to the first Trumpet, the latter to the fifth Seal; Only The two Systemes have each one and the same Epoch, given particularly to each: The Churches are close and evenly cemented, and souldered one to another, and so the Seals, Trumpets, &c. and their Connexion even herme­tically seal'd; And Both from the same Epoch, the Resurrection of Christ, derive themselves.

And as to the Interpretation of the whole, even as it is a Rule of great use in the Interpreting General Scripture, that the literal Sense is to be preferr'd where no Analogy of Faith or Scripture-Reason is destroy'd by it; so here the mystical sense is rather to be chosen, where no such Injury is commit­ted upon the Analogy of Scripture Truth: and yet as in the one case a subordinate mystical sense may be allowed; so in this, a subordinate literal sense may be allowed.

To give only two or three Instances. Hearing and Read­ing this Prophecy hath first the mystical sense of a close Con­formity to the Rules of Faith, Worship, and Practice, ac­cording to it; which makes All Blessed who so read and so hear, tho' they do not interpret, nor concern themselves in the Interpretation of this Prophecy; and yet there is in the literal sense an Accumulative Honour and Happiness on those who joyn both these Senses in themselves together. As on the other side, They who add and take away by Antichristi­anism from the Words of it, by breaking its Holy Measures in Faith, Worship, and Practice, shall lose their part in its Pro­mises, and have their part in its Plagues; altho they neither added nor took away in the litteral sense, and yet They shall receive accumulative Plagues who have done the first, and then by false and distorted Interpretations added the latter also.

Thus Opening the Book of this Prophecy and its Seals, are principally the several Effects of the Kingdom of Christ, and that principal one at the Reformation, and not the Exposi­tion of the Book, or a new course of Prophecy: and yet it is subordinately true, There was then a greater Clearness and Illu­stration of the whole Doctrine of the Christian Religion, and a new order, as it were, of Holy Prophecy and Instruction; And this Prophecy did then Recall its own Discovery of Things at that Time, after the Apostacy so long darkning it and the Gospel, and enlarge its former brief Notes.

And so Coming quickly to pass hath the literal sense, That then immediately began Apocalyptical Events each in their own order, to come speedily and immediately to pass, altho' so many hundred years run out 'ere all come to pass; As an Army may be said to come presently when the Avaunt Cor­riers first appear, altho' the Rere may be long in coming, be­cause of the numerous Body coming on orderly and in just Files. Thus every Apocalyptical Event was on the Wing, and darted it self into Existence, without the least of slumbring or lingring, when its Time was, to come.

But the mystical sense is, that whereas that sublime Event of the Death and Resurrection of Christ rose up, as a Moun­tain dividing and parting the former World and Time, from the latter Time, or the last Days, and All beyond the Resurre­ction was as a Book clos'd and seal'd up, so as that it could not, till the Resurrection, make an offer of Appearance; Then it did, and therefore then properly seal'd down with seven Seals: and yet by their opening it was in a daily motion to its Appearance. But those two Worlds were of such diffe­rent Lines of Communications, that nothing pass'd in prophe­tical Account into Existence or Being, out of one into the other; even as the World, on the one and the other side of the Equinoctial Line, are remarkably taken notice of, as two distinct Parts of the World, how near soever they joyn who are on each side next to it. Thus nothing on the other side the Line before the Resurrection was so much as coming to pass [Page 62] that was to be after the Resurrection, or to have any motion accounted to it. But after that Resurrection every thing per­taining to the latter days is describ'd as coming quickly to pass, each in its own Order, and Time, and knowing its Place, and marching in its own Distances; none as that Army, Joel 2. 7, 8. thrusting another, or breaking rank; but all duely plac'd in their Climes, as on this side the Line.

And now having given this general view of the Apocalyp­tical Prophecy, and its Order of Times, I will discourse briefly first on the Systeme of the Church-Prophecy, or of the seven Churches, and observe their Concert with those Lines of Time, that rule the Evenings and Mornings, or Nights and Days of Apocalyptical Time.

SECT. IX.
Wherein a Proof is given, The seven Churches carry with them a Line of Time contemporizing with whole Apocalyptick Time. Apoc. c. 2. c. 3.

THat these seven Churches are intended to bear by their Symbolismes a Line of Time, equal to the whole Apoca­lyptick Time, I shall at present use no other Argument, but these general ones, reserving the more particular Treaty up­on these Churches, to another part of this Discourse.

These Churches are, as the whole Prophecy, of a Mystical Argu. 1 Sense, and Importance; Christ therefore prefixes, I will shew you the Mystery of the seven Candlesticks, the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches; where the meaning is not, that the expounding the Stars into Angels of the Churches, and the Candlesticks into Churches, is all the Mystery opened; For even Angels of the Churches must be acknowledged to be still Mystery, or a mystical Expression; except we would un­derstand them of natural Angels, as few or none do: But the meaning is, The seven Churches contain a very great Mystery [Page 63] throughout the Vision of the Churches; Even as upon the fore­head of the Woman. Rev. 17. 5. was a Title written, Mystery, Ba­bylon the Great, &c. that is, Understand that whole Inscription in a mystical Sense, or to carry the Mystery of the Apostate Church in all Successions; so Understand the seven Churches, carrying the Mystery of the Christian Church throughout. And it is observable, the word Mystery is expresly applyed to the True and False Church, As it is said here; The Mystery of the seven Churches and their Stars or Angels; So there, I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman, and of the Beast, the Fallen Star, with the Key of the bottomless Pit, that carries her, And proportionably this whole Prophecy of the Kingdom draws down into it self the Great Mystery of that Kingdom spoken of by all the Prophets since the World began, viz. THE TRUE CHURCH IN GLORY.

The particularizing upon the Churches, the so Apocalyptick Argu. 2 number, Seven, assures us, It will bear its proportion to all the other Sevens. And seeing, there are no sevens to intro­duce them, nor to receive them, and carry them on; They must themselves by their own Time, Sevens and Symbols em­brace the whole Apocalyptical Time, and its Sevens.

For the Book of it is the Book of the Kingdom, the King­dom is the Mystery of God, The Churches are the true King­doms, when they come to their Glory; and so a Mystery. The Apostate Church is a Mock Kingdom, the Kingdom of Antichrist foisted into the place of Christs Kingdom, and so a Mystery, but a Mystery of Iniquity. The Kingdom of Christ and his universal Monarchy is an Empire in a Church, of which He is the Head; The last State of the Roman Monarchy is an Im­perialism by vertue of an Ecclesiastical Image made to it, which is a false Christship that is an Empire in an Apostate Church, of which Antichrist is the Head. How fitly therefore are these Things displayed in the Symbolisms of Churches?

It is certain, There hath been a Christian Church in all Argu. 3 Ages from the Resurrection of Christ, to this Day, and shall be to the New Jerusalem, and to the End of the World. This is grounded upon those two Places, Matt. 16. 18. Ʋpon this [Page 64] Rock will I build my Church, and the Gates of Hell, either of Hell, as it signifies the Grave, Mortality, and Death, or the Powers of Darkness shall not prevail against it: and Matt. 28. ult. Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World. Nor is this controverted among any Christians. From hence it follows, we cannot be Time-bound, or straitned in space of Time, to place these Successions in, For there must necessari­ly be a Succession of this Christian Church in several Ages, and States, and so must continue till the End, which must as necessarily run a long Apocalyptical Time, and so give a bot­tom to found such Symbols upon, if it pleas'd, (as we suppose it did) the Prophetick Spirit to give them.

As there must necessarily have been a Variety of States of Arg. 4 this one Church, so the first of them must needs have been settled and founded in Doctrine, Worship, Rules of Life, Or­der, and Discipline, by immediate Inspiration, divine Au­thority, and Institution through the Ministry of the Apostles. This is most evident from that Book of Scripture, written to that purpose, The Acts of the Apostles; as also from all the Apostolical Epistles. From hence it follows, the Apostolical Church, in its Apostolical State, was first in order: whether therefore we will allow it to be symbollically represented or not in that first Church of Ephesus, it is certain, that Labour and Patience twice repeated, that trying them, which said, they were Apostles, and were not, and finding them Lyars, im­porting the exact consigning all Apostolical Truths and Rules into an authentick Canon of Scripture, does most admirably re­present that truly Primitive, Apostolical State.

Besides the daily or every days Miscarriages from this ex­cellent Arg. 5 State, by Heresies, Errors, and bad Practises, to which degenerate and deeply corrupted Humane Nature is so sub­ject, and of which Apostolical Writings take so continual no­tice; there was foretold an eminent visible, and notorious Apostacy, fix'd, and settled upon its own Base, out of which Antichrist was to come, and so very fit to be taken notice of in this Book of the Kingdom.

Now this Apostacy was declar'd expresly by the Apostle Paul to be at work in a mystery of Iniquity; and the Spirit saith expresly, that in the latter Times, which latter Times, as we have before affirm'd, were then begun, though every day more, and more, latter; Some, that is, not a few, but a certain sort of men, that should make a Body or Species of Men, should depart from the Faith. If then it had begun so 1 Tim. 4. 1. Written to Timothy, as then at Ephesus. early, in some Lineaments of it, although not in that of Ni­colaitanism, and that it daily proceeded, and grew much higher after the Apostles Departure or Death, ravening Wolves and Men teaching perverse things arising from Christians them­selves, Act. 20. 28. &c. remonstrated also to this very Church of Ephesus; Their leaving their first Love, the removing this Candlestick out of the Superiority and Excellency of Primo-geniture, and con­ferring it on Smyrna, in the Crown of Life, and Philadelphia in the Scepter of the New Jerusalem, are most lively Symbols to such a purpose, though yet the Overcomers of this protoplast Church are assur'd to eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God.

This Apostacy being to become so grand an Apostacy, it Arg. 6 must needs proceed and work on by degrees, so as that some Church and its Bishop deriving it self from the Apostles, should very elderly vere towards a Synagogue of Satan, and there should be such an Assumption by it, and Deference of Ad­vantages to it, by many in the whole Christian Church, tend­ing towards and preparing for such an Apostacy, that it gain'd Pretensions (undesign'd yet to it particularly) to intitle it self to such a blooming Antichristian Power as was foretold to come out of the Apostacy; for if it could not derive high from Antiquity, it could not rise to that Grandeur of Apo­stacy under the Profession of Christianity: And yet in the mean time the Ʋniversal publick Christian Church may not on­ly remain pure, but be first in deep Sufferings for Christ, and so fill up the Number of Martyrs dying under the Pagan Draconick Empire, but also receive the Crown of Life, and of the Glory of the New Jerusalem in a Figure, by the Empire be­coming Christian, as it did in Constantine.

Now what Type of such a State of the Church could be more express in all this, than the Church of Smyrna? For whether it was so design'd by the Spirit, or not, it is certain, in Reason, such an Apostasie, Apostate Church, and falling Star must have a Foundation in Antiquity, even while the Church was pure, and in Sufferings; and that very Church and its Bishop bore a part in it, and yet was every day more and more under the Aspect of that Caution given to it Rom. 11. 17, 18, &c. and cspecially when it was crown'd in Constantine.

The Apostasie must come to be such a high, enthron'd Apo­stacy, Arg. 7 and so obscuring, over-shadowing, covering the true Church under its self, that the very Apostatiz'd Synagogue usurp'd the Title of the true Church; and yet because God owns the true Church only, he speaks only to that, as having under it, in his Account, the false Church, and as bearing in the Type of the false Church, polluted with Idolatry, spiri­tual Fornication, horrible Corruption of Manners, while indeed the true Church is oppress'd, and its Members martyred and slain as Antipapal Witnesses, by the false Church; and the Antipas. true Church carries the Name of the enthron'd false Church, the high and lofty Pergamus; and therefore the Things that would be great if the Church were directly guilty of them, are call'd small things, and the threatning diverts from that true Church, and falls on the false Church only, I will come to thee and slay THEM with the Sword of my Mouth, and as a Church partly abhorring the Pollutions of the false Church, partly excommunicated, and anathematiz'd, hath the Promise of hidden Manna, in the former case, and of the white Stone of Absolution, as to the latter.

Now I appeal to all Protestants, Whether this was not tru­ly the State of Things in the depth of the Apostasie? And I appeal to all judicious Considerers of the Epistle to the Church of Pergamus, Whether such a State could be given in more expressive and significant Shades.

It is then most evident, There must be a Time wherein the Mystery of Iniquity began to work, seeing it did begin [Page 67] gradually; and that Beginning must be within the Apostolical Times, for the Apostle declares it so to begin: besides, from this Neighbourhood it derives a Pretence of Authority, tho' indeed there can be from thence no Authority gain'd to An­tichristianism, seeing the Scripture, and not Neighbourhood to the Apostles Time, is our Rule, and seeing any Authority no higher deriv'd, is stain'd and blemish'd by that Apostolical Declaration, yet a Face, a Countenance of Authority, will be thence deriv'd, to deceive and delude with.

It is also most evident, The Progress of it must afterwards grow so high to be a Synagogue of Sathan, and after to be a Throne of Sathan; so that from hence may arise the Symbols of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus.

After the Time that Antichristianism did thus prevail, see­ing Argu. 8 it was not to be perpetual, and everlasting, however long; and that the Ruine of it is first to be gradual, and then at last sudden; there must be some preparatory Wrestles and Struggles for the Eluctation and Recovery of the true Church after this Oppression, and being muffled up under the Name of a false Church, call'd Catholick and Ʋniversal, and HOLY MOTHER CHURCH, at the same Time; yet in regard of the remaining Power of Antichristianism united with the Powers of the Kings of the Earth, the state of the true Church must needs be still cover'd, under the Appearance of such a false Ʋniversal Church, over and above it, and so must in that regard bear in Type the Name of that apostate Daughter, Thyatyra, while in the mean time, its Charity, Jezebel Daughter of Ethbaal. &c. Faith, Patience, Service, Works, against that false Church, grow continually greater and greater to the very last: and its disownings of the Depths of Sathan, and not accepting them for Deeps of Religion, are very evident and eminent to its Praise: The suffering Jezebel therefore, or the false Church regnant over it because it cannot help it, are small things against it, because but Types; for yet it is accounted so per­fect, as to be commanded only to hold its own, and no other Burden of Command impos'd on it, but to hold fast what it [Page 68] had already; whereas to suffer Jezebel, had it not been over­power'd, had been a very heinous thing.

Now so much therefore of this True Church as did so elu­ctate and force its way out of the False, was, while it was forcing its way under one Notion, or Denomination, and when it had forc'd its way under another, and while it in any parts and portions of it continues in the midst, and within the Bowels of Kingdoms and States still keeping up, and sub­mitting themselves to the Power of Antichrist. It may still retain its name Thyatyra, and although the Time, or inter­val, it properly measures, when the whole True Church was compris'd in it, may be past, yet it may continue in Being, in no higher State, then of Thyatyra, till the appearance of the Morning Star, and the fall of the Tenth of the Great City.

Now it is most evident, there have been such earnest Moti­ons of the True Church from under the Tyranny of Anti­christianism, There still continue such in Antichristian States and Kingdoms, according to their Power, I demand there­fore, what more agreeable and expressive Lineaments hereof could be given, then in the Church of Thyatyra first espying, and as under Affliction, looking for the first dawns of Light, and after advanc'd to Rule the Nations, &c. in the New Jeru­salem.

After the Emersion, and actual manumission of several parts of the True Church from Antichristianism, and a settle­ment Argu. 9 in Recess, and Separation from it, some Churches through the Favour of Princes, States, and their Laws entred into a Condition of outward Splendor and Glory, Riches, Power, and Authority, of which the Sardius Stone may be a fit em­blem; But this outward Elevation not so becoming, nor agreeable to the Patience of Christs Kingdom, such a Church may be too much taken up about Rites and Jurisdictions, and such extern Decencies, and not press forward upon Things, that remain in an order, and sequence to the Kingdom of Christ, and so fall under severe Censures.

This Church represents Churches which are yet accepted by Christ, as True Churches, they have on their own proper Ti­tle, Names, though but few, that have not defiled their Gar­ments. And these few, though best, are not yet made the Church, but the whole though in a sleepy and defiled State are the Church, that has the few Names, that had not defiled their Garments; contrariwise in Pergamus and Thyatyra, the false Church, that calls it self the universal, is not the Church, but the Few, suppress'd, overcome Witnesses are yet the two Can­dlesticks standing before the God of the whole Earth, which is a most remarkable Difference, shewing Sardis a True Church.

Now since the Reformation, it is known by general Ob­servation, There are such Churches, that are in a State and Splendor Sardian, but let the Application of the Characters remain, till he comes, that says, He will Come at an Hour, this Splendid, secure, Symbolical Church thinks not of, except the few undefiled Names, and they of it that overcome, who have Promises of greater Glory with Christ, then this outward; but this Church in its own Name hath the Honour to make a Line of Time from the Reformation to this Day, and shall till that sudden coming of Christ upon it, when such a State will be at an End.

There have been Societies of Christians, that since the Re­formation Arg. 10 have subsisted only upon the Principles of brotherly Love, whose Door hath been attempted to be shut upon them, as not allowed Churches of Christ, or not in such a way of Worship, who have had little outward strength, who have yet kept the word of Christ, and not denyed his Name, in a strict adherence to his word only, who have Enemies even of the Reformed, who are relaps'd down to the same Pitch the Apo­stacy was at, when styl'd the Synagogue of Sathan, in the Church of Smyrna, not receiving indeed the Beasts Number of 666. but too far link'd with the Corruptions of Antiquity, after the Empire becoming Christian soon Antichristianis'd; who though for the present at least seem irreconcileable with the Apostacy advanc'd to its Number; yet have great Indignation [Page 70] against Philadelphia and its Members: These shall at the Kingdom of Christ appearing, come and worship at this Churches Feet, and be forc'd to acknowledge, Christ lov'd it, whose Crown of Honour it is, that it hath kept the Word of Christ's patience, embrac'd the Purity of Christianity in a low and mean State; and therefore the Glory, the Kingdom the New Jerusalem shall crown it, when the Hour of Temptation comes upon all the rest of the Earth, and detects the Vanity of their Religion, even of their false or defiled Christianity, and the Church-state of those who have not overcome the Impuri­ties of them who call'd themselves Churches, Christians, Re­form'd, and were not so, but did lye.

This Church is not yet come to its proper space upon the Line of Time, nor can do, till the Witnesses rise out of their Sackcloth, and the Kingdom of Christ be proclaim'd at the seventh Trumpet: And how excellent a Type of all this, is the Church Philadelphia?

There shall be a most perfect, happy, and glorious State Arg. 11 of the Church before the Resignation of the Kingdom to God and the Father, during the thousand years; the very first Re­cidivations from which, shall be spew'd out of Christ's Mouth, and the whole of Church-States drawn up into Eternity: of which Loadicea is a clear Emblem, viz. of the Recidivation and spewing out in that last State.

Now from All this, it is most evident, The Church of Ephesus may have place from the first preaching the Gospel till the cruel Persecution of Dioclesian; into which last and most cruel One, All the Christian Blood shed from the Resurrection sunk down, as the Blood from Abel to Zacharias upon the Ge­neration of the Jews in the Time of our Saviour, and was re­quir'd of it: therefore, here Smyrna began to compleat the Churches Sufferings in being faithful unto Death, and receiv'd the Crown of Life, in the Symbol of Constantine's Christian Empire, and so down to Theodosius the Great; all which Time the Church continued pure, although it began to be check'd by a Synagogue of Sathan. Thus these two Churches con­temporiz'd [Page 71] with the Seals: Pergamus and Thyatyra ran along with the six first Trumpets under the Apostasie and Bestian Tyranny, till in the latter part of the sixth Trumpet, Thyatyra eluctated into the Reformation; then several of the reform'd Churches settled into the Sardian state, and draw the Line of Time, with the last 180 of the 1260 Years, in Conjunction with Thyatyra, still existent, tho' not intitled any longer to bear this Line, and with Philadelphia not yet come to bear the Line of Time, which last shall bear the last 75 Years from the Witnesses Rising, and the Kingdom of Christ proclaim'd, till the New Jerusalem and its thousand Years settle upon it, and that new Cube of Time begin: at the End of which, the Laodicean Church no sooner begins, but ends, and an Amen is set to all Time by Eternity receiving it. All which makes apparent, There is no Inconsistency, but a high Condecency in these seven representative Churches, bearing a Line of Time contemporary with all Apocalyptical Time; which ought to be shewn.

Hereby we see, The Excellency of the Christian Church, Remark. and of our Union with it, and Freedom from Schism, de­pends not upon the Greatness, the Antiquity, the Primitive­ness of Churches, but upon the Divine Apostolickness of the Doctrine, Worship, Rules of Holy Life, truly Christian Disci­pline, wherein we unite with them: The overcoming that evil of leaving the first Love, that Christ had against the very first Church of Ephesus, not made diminutive, as in Pergamus and [...], small or few things. Thyatyra, was more as to the Excellency of true Christianity, than being of that Church: The not mingling with the Syna­gogue of Sathan, in the Church of Smyrna, gave the Inculpa­bleness and Honour to it and its Members: The not being of the Apostate Church, when it call'd its self Catholick in Perga­mus and Thyatyra, but keeping to the Truth of the Gospel, constituted the true Church; when the Proselites and Disciples of that Apostacy were the Proselites and Disciples of Balaam, and the Children of Jezebel. The few undefiled Names and Overcomers in Sardis, tho' a Reform'd Church, were of greater [Page 72] Estimation with Christ than the whole Church besides; some of whose rigid Zealots of its Splendour and Power, Unifor­mity of Rites, it is to be fear'd, made the Synagogue of Sa­than; and Philadelphia, tho' of little outward Power or Splen­dour, yet holding fast the Word of Christ, and not denying his Name, and keeping the Word of Christ's Patience, is pre­ferr'd much before it, and honour'd with the New Jerusalem: from which Blessed State Laodicea abating, and growing cool, All Church-states in this World are so distasted by Christ, that He spews them out of his Mouth, and receives on­ly the Overcomers to his Throne, and his whole Church into Eternity.

SECT. X.
Of the Third Line of Time in the Grand Line of 2300 Even. Morn. or of the Seven Seals from the Resurrection: shewing it extends to a space of 400 Years. Apoc. Cap. 4. cap. 5. cap. 6. cap. 7. cap. 8.

I Have now finish'd the first Real and General Line of Time that runs from Stem to Stern, from the Beginning to the End of Apocalyptical Time. I come now to the second giving of the same Lines, which is not uniform and entire, as the former of the Churches; but made up, not only of various Parts as that was of seven Churches, but of various Repre­sentations of each part, as Seals, Trumpets, Voices, and Vials, and each of these comprehends its following Order, viz. the Seals, the Trumpets, the Voices, the Vials, under the Seventh of each former, as hath been already clear'd, by which they are all kept in a close successional Connexion one with ano­ther, and the seventh Seal hath its Hold upon the whole, even to the last Day of Judgment, when the whole Book of the Kingdom is resign'd back into the Hand of God, out of whose Hand it was received by Christ, seal'd. 1 Cor. 15. 24. &c.

I am therefore now, and in the first place, to speak of the first part of this second giving of the Line of Time, and that as in the Seals, before it came to the Trumpets.

1. And because there is one general Preface to this whole Repetition of the Line of Time, I shall first consider, how adequate it is to the whole Line, and to the great Admini­strations of it, in a brief or summary Survey of it; For to as­sure us, The Preface was to the whole Apocalyptical Book or Time, adorn'd with new Figures and Sculptures; John heard the first Voice that spake to him, and it was as it were of a Trumpet, saying to him, I will shew thee Things that must be hereafter, Rev. 4. v. 1, 2. and immediately he was the second time in the Spirit, where the Distinction of things hereafter from the things that are, as Rev. 1. 19. was made only, as the Types of the Churches had a real Existence at that Time, as Types in the then begun Christian Church; but the following were deriv'd from things to come. And after this there was no more any such Voice of a Trumpet speaking to John: no more being in the Spirit, except a being carried in the Spirit into the Wilderness, to see the Apostate Church, and then to a Mountain to behold the Holy City. The Voice speaking again, c. 10. v. 8. evidently relates to the first Voice in that chap. saying, seal and write not, v. 4. and then take the Book and eat, &c. and c. 1. 10. c. 4. 1, 2. not to these Trumpet-Voices.

2. At this second Apocalyptical Volume, we have the great Theatre of the Throne, and the whole Grandeur of it, and adorn'd every way suitable to the Doctrine of the Gospel, and as it were in the first Apostolical Church settled first in God; as the Doctrine of the One God, made known in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, is the Foundation of Christi­anity. For the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, bear Record of it in Heaven; and these three are one in that Record, as they are in themselves ONE.

3. About this Throne, at each Angle, or at each of the four Points of it, are four Living Creatures, so I choose to translate [...]; not Beasts properly and distinguishingly in this Pro­phecy [Page 74] call'd [...]; and these four Living Creatures represent the Apostolical Church of the New Testament, as in four Ter­naries, or Threes of the twelve Apostles, in perpetual Action, and therein as it were encircling the twenty four Elders of the pure Israelitish Church. The Elders are upon Seats round about the Throne, and with Crowns on their Heads, as being of old a Kingdom of Priests, and they are in this Prophecy intro­duc'd in Service to the Kingdom of Christ, that shall be at the New Jerusalem together with, and as by the Apostolick Church, who shall be Kings and Priests together with them represented by these four and twenty Elders, Heads of the priestly Courses, who are first plac'd, as leading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his Kingdom by Prophecy, but yet in the very first Action the Order is revers'd, and the living Crea­tures are first in giving Glory. First, there is the particular Song to the Divine Nature on the Throne, as the absolute Creator and Lord of all; ending in this, For thy Pleasure all things are and were created, and so are absolutely under his Dominion and Dispose, before whom they cast their Crowns.

4. The grand Symbol of the whole Apocalyptical Time, and its Events, and of the supreme Conduct and Government, till they issue into the Kingdom of Christ, is the seal'd Book in the Hand of Him that sat on the Throne, seal▪d with the seven Seals, which Seals have under them the whole Course of preparatory Events to this Kingdom, and the Kingdom it self, till it be resign'd back to God. Thus Daniel saw Pro­phecy and Vision seal'd up, Dan. 9. and the Book seal'd, Chap. 12.

5. There is Proclamation made by the loud Voice of a strong Angel, for the finding out a worthy Person to open the Book, and loose its Seals: And none in Heaven or Earth was found worthy to open the Seals, or so much as look thereon.

All which, is certainly as Divine a Symbol to set out the supream and sole Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ, as far above all Principalities and Powers, and every Name in Hea­ven or Earth, as could be found out, and surpassing all Un­derstanding or Invention finite, and is in surprize of any Ad­missions [Page 75] of Angels or Saints into any parts of his Mediatory Office, the very least, so much as an Ability to look thereon; as also to foreclose that grand Antichristian Assumption of the man of Sin, for his very Supremacy is hereby plainly declar'd to be Antichristianism, who undertakes not only to look upon this Book, but to open the Seals; and herein he shews himself in the Temple of God, as God.

6. The much weeping of John, that none was found worthy to open the Book, does most exactly and critically point to the time of the Death of Christ, or his lying in the Grave, when there seem'd a Despair upon all the Creation in that dark Interval, and a suspension of the Consolation of Israel, and when all the Apostles had given up, as it were, the hopes of it, of which the Apostle John was here a Symbol, and re­presented all the Apostles.

7. The same Article of Time is farther assur'd and con­firm'd by the one of the Elders, as a Representative of the whole Israelitish Church, who lead to Christ. Thus Christ open'd the Scriptures of the Old Testament, especially of Da­niel, That Christ was thus to suffer, and to enter into his Glo­ry, viz. of sitting first at the Right-hand of God, till his Foes should be made his Footstool. He sate down on his Fathers Throne, in his Father's Kingdom: He shall have a Throne and Kingdom properly his own.

8. Christ hereupon exactly as in the Time, according to the History of the Gospel, appears as on the sudden, and un­expectedly in the midst of the Throne of the Elders, and the living Creatures, a Lamb, as it had been newly slain, and now risen and ascended; and so the Epoch of the Apocalyptical Time is most strictly defin'd and fully assur'd. And at this Point of Time he receives the Book; which is the very same with sit­ting on God's Right-hand, till his Foes shall be made his Foot­stool: for when the Book is unseal'd, and the thousand Years begin, Then there is a putting down all Rule and Authority. At the End of the thousand Year, and the Day of final Judgment over, the Book is quite unseal'd in Death, the last Enemy over­come; [Page 76] and then the Book, the Symbol of the Kingdom, is resign'd with the Kingdom it self, into the Hand of the Father.

9. Hereupon the State of the Christian Church in its Apo­stolical Purity, with the Order of the Living Creatures first, and then drawing that of the Elders along with it, in a Song of Redemption, in Praise of the Lamb, with a Prophecy of his Kingdom, in which his Servants and Saints shall reign above the Earth, or over it, as [...] signifies in several Places of the New Testament, joyn'd with a Genitive Case, particularly Matt. 25. 21. 23. I will make thee Ruler over many things, [...].

10. To sum up all; The State of the Church in the thou­sand Years Kingdom of Christ is given in a second Song of Praise, wherein all things bow in the Name of Christ, as Lord, and that not ceremonially, but in real Subjection, Phil. 2. 10. Things in Heaven and in Earth, and under the Earth, and that to the Glory of the Father, For the four Living Creatures having said Amen to this high Celebration of Christ, the four and twenty Elders, as having by the Apostolical Church re­ceiv'd an explicate Knowledge of Christ; to shew, The New Testament did not at all derogate from the Old; The four and twenty Elders, after they had fallen down with the four Living Creatures, and joyn'd in a Song of Praise to the Lamb, now as making up the Concent, worship him that liveth for ever and ever; and conclude that which the four Living Creatures, or the Apostolical Ministry began, and herein shew the Resignation of the Kingdom of God at last, that he may be All in All, Rev. 4. 10. compar'd with Rev. 5. 8. 14. For as all began in God that made all things, so here it ends in him.

The sealed Book being now in the Hands of Christ, and all due Acknowledgments made to him that sits on the Throne, and to the Lamb, immediately follows the opening of the Seals, and therein the Course of Time flows out, and so flows on; of which we are now to take a particular and strict Account: only I would desire every Person that sets his [Page 77] Mind and Thoughts to view this so august Inthronization of God and of the Lamb, That he would ponder within him­self, Whether the desolating either the Jews or the Heathen Empire, can be Events great enough for so stupendious a Pre-Representation; or any thing less than the Glorious Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ could answer to it.

And now, that we may establish the Line of Time accor­ding to these Seals, and the Time of their opening, there are three Things to be consider'd;

1. What it is that is the principal Jewel and Treasure that lies under these Seals; and so to be set free by the unloosing them.

2. What is the principal and supream Visum or Thing to be seen in every Seal, and the opening of it, and how it serves the disclosing that Jewel.

3. What is the true method of fixing the certain Time that the whole Course of the Seals took up, and how it is to be measur'd and fix'd.

If we can now determine and settle aright upon the Reso­lution of each of these Particulars, we shall be able to under­stand this first Sett of Apocalyptical Visions, and to have ample satisfaction concerning them, and have great Light into the following Visions also.

1. As to the First then, That great Treasure and Jewel of Truth that is inclos'd within these Seals, and so also, as we shall see, that the Trumpets ultimately sounded unto, is the Glorious Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Every Event, and the Stage of Time it was to pass over, is as a Seal or Stop upon this Kingdom, till it opens into Glory; and the opening of every Seal was an Advance to­wards it: and although when the seven Seals were open'd, there appeared a greater and more prodigious Cause of Delay, viz. the Antichristian Kingdom; yet every Trumpet was as an Alarm of War to the subduing that Mock-Kingdom that rose in Despight and Opposition to the Kingdom of Christ. And because all things were so set, and placed in their Season and [Page 78] Order, that no one thing could come to pass before that which was set before it had had its free Egress and Event, therefore every of these Events, and the opening of the Seals to let them out, though they did not in the Issue open to the true Appearance of that Kingdom, yet because they did as it were, what they could, and there was a Remove of so many Prohibents, or Obstacles to that Kingdom; and Time so ad­vanc'd from Point to Point, that by the opening every Seal the Kingdom of Christ might be nearer to its Appearance; there­fore they are justly understood, and expounded to be Seals, unloos'd, and opening to the Kingdom of Christ.

Now besides those [...], or IT IS DONE, IT IS DONE, at the End of the Apocalyptical Time and all its Events, whi­ther they one and all run together; besides this, there is this absolute Assurance, That the Kingdom of Christ was under the Seals; The Kingdom made so magnificent a show of it self at the sixth Seal, that had not the Servants of God been seal'd in their Fore-heads, that they should not then appear with him in Glory, the Kingdom had even then appear'd; for in Constantine's Christian Empire, to the End of the Reign, or at the Victory of Theodosius the Great over Heathenism, of which he endeavour'd the utter Extirpation, that Kingdom so far came out of its Retirement, that there was a solemn and loud Doxology in Heaven, that the Kingdom of God, and the Power of Christ were come; and yet at the very same time, the Woman, is recorded as fled into the Wilderness, Rev. 12. 10.

2. The first Particular then being resolved with so much Evidence and Assurance, we may with the greatest Clearness resolve concerning the second or the principal Visum of every Seal open'd: for it must be some State of the Kingdom of Christ defin'd by the joyning together the Voices that sum­moned to the Sight and Observation so far, as these Voices continued; and then, when they ceased, the State of the Kingdom of Christ must be considered by the Visa themselves, as under the Cessation of those Voices, and by any sort of [Page 79] Voices we can find equivalent to them. And in this Method, and no other, that I can understand, we may justly and tru­ly comprehend the Intention and Signification of the Seals.

For if all the Seals carry on the Kingdom of Christ by so many Degrees and Steps of Advance, as I have in some mea­sure, I hope, made evident they do; By undeniable Proof then it must needs be, That every Seal hath some State of that Kingdom protuberant or swelling out in its Appearance upon that opening, and that the Voice that says, Come and see, calls to observe it, and the silence of any such Voice moves En­quiry, Why there is no such Voice? and every Visum, or Thing to be seen in both sorts of Seals, the Voic'd, or the seemingly silent Seals, are to be judg'd of, as they have Re­lation to the Kingdom of Christ, especially because we shall find the three last Seals without Voices, have something to supply the want of the Voices of those four Living Creatures.

3. As to the Time, and its Space, that is measur'd out by these Seals; seeing no Line of Time is expresly given with them, it is impossible to be found out, but either, first, by some of the Visa, or things seen at the opening of these Seals, that are so certain, as to be necessarily agreed in, and there­by measuring from them, on each side of them, to take the whole Course; or secondly, by the having good Assurance, what are the Visa of the first, and last of these Seals, that thereby we may know, when they begin, and when they end, by the most undoubted Accounts of History; or thirdly, by observing if there be any Light concerning the just middle Point of their Time; or lastly, by some other Line of Time, that may (how much larger soever so as to comprehend it, yet) set Limits to it in its Beginning, Middle, and End, by some certain Line of Time that must end just before it, and some other Line of Time that must follow it; and that all ta­ken together can answer that whole Line: And all these ways I shall use, to come to the exact Measure of the Space of the seven Seals, and what Measures of Time are and ought to be allow'd to them.

Let us then examine the Importance of every Seal, first by what it discovers of the Kingdom of Christ, upon the joyn­ing of the Visum or thing to be seen, and the Voice together, or remarking upon the No Voice, and the equivalent Sup­ply with the Visum or thing to be seen, and then collect the Time of these seven Seals.

The Visum, or thing to be seen of the first Seal, is, as is Seal 1 hardly controverted by any, The riding out of Christ on his white Horse, with his Bow, and the Right of a Crown, con­quering and to conquer. This then was the Aim of Christ to obtain his Crown, in the first place by the pure and holy Arms, and Power of his Gospel, in the Ʋniversal, Perfect Ministry of the Apostles; and till the Effect of that was tryed, he makes shew of no other, whatever farther Aim Christ might have, if his Gospel was not submitted to.

Thus is Christ riding out prophesied of, of Old; Ride pro­sperously because of Truth, Meekness, and Righteousness, Ps. 45. 3. And upon this Horse he rides out with final Victory, Rev. 19. whose Name is the Word of God. This then, was then the State of Christ's Kingdom, the making an Universal Offer of it self to Jews and Gentiles, by that high Ministry of Persons immediately guided and infallibly inspir'd, and accomplish'd with the Gift of Tongues, and Power of Miracles, to make the Publication of that Decree, Thou art my Son; This Day have I begotten thee: Ask of me, and as I have set Thee upon my Holy Hill of Zion by thy Resurrection, so I will give Thee the Heathen for thy Inheritance, and the uttermost Ends of the Earth for thy Possession: And if they will not submit, Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron, and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel, Psal. 2. 6.

The Apostolical Voice, deep and loud as Thunder, royal as of a Lyon, the first Living Creature, Come and see, is a farther Assurance, That this was then the State of Christ's Kingdom in this free and universal Offer of it self: It bespoke the World therefore in the Language of the rest of that Psalm, Be Wise now, O ye Kings; Be Instructed, ye Judges of the [Page 81] Earth, Serve the Lord with Fear, Rejoyce with Trembling; Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and for breaking his Bands, and casting his Cords from you, He break you at last as a Potters Vessel, with a Rod of Iron, or as the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shivers the Image, of which the next Seal gives a Type.

Now this Appearance of Christs Kingdom, and the most Ho­ly declar'd Annointed in it, was absolutely necessary to make known the thing seal'd, and to be unseal'd; and that the End might be known by the Beginning, and the whole Compass of the Time of the Seals by Both. For nothing could make all these more known, nor the stay, the sealing had on this Kingdom from appearing more manifest, than this its offer to appear at the end of the last half week in the Apostolical Preach­ing, and yet Prophecy and Vision concerning it seal'd up so, that it could not bring forth this Kingdom, till its just Time constituted by the Father, and the Oath of Christ himself; and that in regard of the Obstinacy of the Body of the Jewish Na­tion, and of the World of the Gentiles.

Immediately upon the refusal of this King upon the Holy Seal 2 Hill of Zion, He began to use his Rod of Iron, and sent out the Red Horse of War, the Visum or Thing to be seen under the second Seal, joyned with the Voice of the Gospel, Come and See; but abated and weakened, not a Voice of Thunder; Whereas had the Kingdom been accepted, the Thunder should not only have continued, but multiplyed into Thunders and Voices, and grown lowder and lowder to introduce the King­dom; But the Antichristian Kingdom, upon the True King­dom, rejected, work'd on, and enervated the Voice though it was still Apostolical, Come, and See; As the Voice of an Ox, as if it self were Falling a Sacrifice at the Altar, deploring the slaughter then coming upon the World; So this second living Creature.

The State of the Kingdom therefore was as retreated in the Gracious and Merciful Offer; The Voice was not so Grand, and Sounding, but instead of it, He that sat on the Red Horse of War, had a Great Sword given him, and It was Given to [Page 82] Him, that He should take Peace from the Earth, and that Men should kill one another: This certainly was especially verified in those Desolations of the Jews under Vespasian, and Titus, and those succeeding War-like Emperours, Trajan, and Ha­drian; under the first of which the Destruction of Jerusalem was so dreadful and bloody, till the last ruines by Hadrian; That no Time, nor History was ever deeper dyed in Blood, nor could this be without dismal Recoyls of the Great Sword upon the Empire it self, within the Bowels of which it was continually sheath'd; insomuch, that Hadrian in his account of the final Wars with the Jews, omitted the usual Preface in his Letters to the Senate, Ego quidem, & exercitus valemus, We and our Army are well. This he suppressed, as not agree­ing to that Season of so great loss of Blood to the Romans.

This was a very affrightful appearance of this Kingdom, and of great Evidence of its Greatness and Power of Reven­ges, especially upon the Jews, those Murtherers and Enemies that would not have Christ reign over them, and it returned back upon the Gentiles also, and the Roman Empire, guilty of the same Opposition to the Kingdom of Christ, though not against the same Light, nor with the same unnaturalness; for as to them, He came more particularly to his own, and his own receiv'd him not, and therefore having after the crucifying of him, rejected his Dominion, the People of that Prince Ves­pasian Came and destroyed the City, and the Sanctuary as with a Flood, and Torrent of Vengeance, and now unto the End of the War, Desolations upon the Jews were determin'd, and by the overspread of the abominable Armies was pour'd upon the Desolate by Hadrian after the Desolation of Titus, Da­niel. 9. ult.

Now this great Judgment and Desolation, as a grand Argument of the Truth of Christianity, in Revenge of which this Desolation came upon the Jews, and the Reverberations or Repercussions, and Returnings of it upon the Heathen Empire, and their Persecutions of Christians, was a great Sub­ject for the Apostolical Voice to enlarge it self upon, and to [Page 83] perswade Men to pay Homage to the King of Kings, who could thus avenge himself; and so of great Use was that Sound of the Voice, Come and See, that beholding the Desola­tions that were made by Christ in the Earth, they might be still, and know, that He was God, and exalt him in the very Heathen Earth.

After this severe Vengeance of Christ by the Rider of the Seal 3 Red Horse, there ensues the opening of the third Seal, and the Thing to be seen under it was a Black Horse, and He that sat upon it had a pair of Ballances in his Hand, and the Apostoli­cal Voice continuing as under the last former Seals, Come and See, and it was the Voice of the third living Creature, the Voice, as of a Man.

Now that we may judge of the State of the Kingdom, un­der this Seal, it is to be closely examined, what this Visum, or Thing to be seen imports, even the Black Horse, and the Rider with a Pair of Ballances in his Hand; and then the distinct Voice in the midst of the Living Creatures.

It hath been generally interpreted, all to Famine, as if the Seals were a Course of Judgments, but besides that, neither the First, nor the Fifth Seals carry any Signification of Judg­ment, by a more sagacious Inspection into the spectacle of this Seal, after that forenam'd excellent Duumvirate of Apocalypti­cal Interpreters, Mr. Mede, and Dr. More, and compare of it with the Voice of the third living Creature, as of a Man; I am abundantly satisfied, the Black Horse, and the Ballances in the Hand of the Rider, are an Emblem of that solemn Impe­ratorial Justice of the Emperours of this Third Seal, the Anto­nines, especially that great Mirror of Justice to Magistrates, Alexander Severus, in whom I account the interval of this Seal to End, who bore in his Hand continually in all Admi­nistrations, that great Ballance of the World, that Ballance of commutative Justice, given by our Saviour; Do as you would have done to you, and no otherwise; and this, as so remark­able in it self, and of a higher Prophetical Ʋse, as we shall Discourse, when we come to the Time affix'd to these Seals, [Page 84] and particularly to this; A Voice in the midst of the living Creatures calls to the more solemn Observation of a Measure of Wheat for a Penny, Three Measures of Barley for a Penny, and see that thou hurt not the Oyl, and the Wine.

And now the State of the Kingdom, in Relation to this Vi­sum, I estimate by those highly Rational, and Apocalyptick Discourses for Christianity, by Justin, Martyr, Athenagoras, Apollonius, in his publick Account of Christianity to the Ro­man Senate, Clemens Alexandrius, Tertullian, Origen, Minuti­us Felix, who all appeal'd to these Just and Manly Emperors, and offer'd to lay Christianity before them, as Equal Judges, and that would but shew themselves Men. And Alexander Son of Mammaea, a Christian Lady. Severus was so far prevail'd upon by those weighty Reasons, that History hath reported him to have decided for Christi­anity; and as he shewed a constant Reverence to that great Apothegme, of the Saviour of the World, so to have built a Temple in Honour to him, upon which very last particular yet, I lay no weight, as being too doubtful.

But the other Parts of the State of this Kingdom of Christ, born up by the manliest Efforts of Reason, manag'd by those Apostolick Persons before nam'd, before those forenam'd Em­perours, and Alexander particularly, are so beyond all Histo­rical Dispute, as to sway me much more, than those inquisi­tive searches for some Dearth or Famine, that might be ad­justed to the Time of this Seal; For I account it a Rule in this, and all other parts of this Prophecy, That the Interpre­tation depend, not upon dark and obscure Parts of History, but upon the most Conspicuous, Open, and Clear, and that are most known, and notorious in it; And it is to me a just Sus­pition upon any Interpretation, that is otherwise grounded.

After this gracious Tryal and Essay upon the Heathen Em­pire, Seal. 4 to draw it by the Cords of a Man, and by the Bands of Reason, immediately follows the Fourth Seal, In which open'd, the Visum, or Thing to be seen is the Pale Horse, and in the Place of any Imperial Rider sits Death, and Hades the Grave, or Hell followes it as its attendant Emblem, and the Voice of [Page 85] the Fourth living Creature, as an Eagle drawn by the Carcase, says, Come and see, This imports that Complication of Evils and Judgments; The Sword, the Famine, the Pestilence, and the Beasts of the Earth, and Power was given to Death over a fourth part of the Earth, or every fourth of it, that is upon all Quarters of it.

Under this Seal then, in the Time of those many, cruel, and short liv'd Emperours, between Alexander Severus, and Dioclesian, which were as Beasts of the Earth, for savageness, and so are a most famous Historical Commentary upon this Seal, is shewen the mighty Vengeance and Wrath of God, upon an impenitent and imperswasible Empire, and this by that Apostolical Voice, to Come and See, or to consider it, the State of the Kingdom vindicating it self is so far declar'd, that it was even ready to break in with Fury upon the Heathen World, and that Patience so much injur'd and abus'd was now about to flame out in utmost Wrath; so far therefore the Kingdom of Christ was advanc'd, as to have made its last Try­al of Grace upon Pagan Rome; and upon this undoubtedly, the Apostolical Ministry insisted, in its, Come and See, as Eze­kiel Ezek. 14. from 12 to 22. of old; as God saith there, When I bring my four great Judgments, The Sword, Pestilence, Famine, and the Beasts of the Earth, though Noah, Job, and Daniel stood before me, to turn away my Wrath, They should deliver only their own Souls.

And now as to the State of the Church, all along these Seals past, There was a plain Appearance of it in the Apo­stolick Voices, till just the Entrance of the fourth Seal; From that Time these Voices ceas'd, which had so far, as support­ed by the Characters of Imperial History, declar'd to us the Times and States of the Church, as before drawn out in the Labour, and Patience, and Sufferings of the Ephesine Church, while those Apostolical Voices lasted, although there was such a Leaven of the Apostacy hid in it, that it was charg'd to have left its first Love; one great Instance of which, was in Victor's Excommunication of the Asian Churches upon the score of the unwritten Ceremony of keeping Easter at all, much more un­written [Page 86] as to Criticism of Time, which made that so great Fewd.

The Fifth Seal so plainly opens in the Sufferings of the Seal 5 Christian Martyrs, as to assure us, This Prophecy, as also other Scripture-prophecies, and Notes of Time, are for the sake of the Church, and not of Heathen Empires and States: yet by the Course of the Seals, we may easily know at what hour of the Empire it was, as by referring to the peculiar fore­going Church-prophecy, we know under what Symbol of the Church it lies; and from both, That it was the last and cruel ten Years Persecution, or ten Days Tribulation, begun by Dioclesian, while the Christian Church was under that pecu­liar Symbol of the Church of Smyrna.

That it was about the Time of Dioclesian, the Current of the former Seals, and the immediately following Desolation of Heathenism under Constantine assure us.

That it was under the Symbol of the Church of Smyrna, its peculiar Character of Sufferings, and ten Days Tribulation, make out; as also, in that there was no longer any Apostoli­cal Voice, but the Voice of Souls, that were gone out of mar­tyr'd Bodies, it signifies the Synagogue of Sathan near an height; and from that very occasion of the Tombs, Relicks, Memories, and Veneration of Martyrs, and Trust in their Negotiation out of the Body for those they left behind in it, growing much higher. However, God graciously accepts this Suffering Church, and lays no Imputation upon it, but only on the Sa­thanick Synagogue. He seems to have more respect to the Souls Complaint than to the Survivers of that Church; He appoints them white Robes, but as unconcern'd in Mediations for any in this World, they are commanded to rest; and there is on their Instance a Signification of a new Roll of Martyrs under Antichrist, when the whole Number of those of the first Re­surrection should be compleat, over whom the second Death should have no Power.

This Seal then is the very Joynt betwixt the Kingdom of Paganism falling, but not yet fallen; and that short Appear­ance [Page 87] of Christ's Kingdom in the Christian Empire till Theodo­sius the Great. The Army of Martyrs had not yet overcome by the Word of the Testimony, which they held; The Kingdom of Christ was not yet celebrated with that Doxology, chap. 12. But there was nothing came between this Cry of the Souls and that Kingdom, although speedily surpris'd by Antichristianism, into which Pagan Demonolatry was first transplanted on this very occasion of Martyrs Sufferings, compleated within this Seal especially.

And thus we have the State of the Kingdom of Christ in the Church within this Seal assur'd by one of the most famous Monuments of Ecclesiastick History.

The sixth Seal is that great Seal opened, by which the Hea­then Seal. 6 State of the Roman Empire was demolish'd; and which carries most abundant Instruction of this whole Time of the Seals, and also of the Kingdom of Christ in his Church during that Time.

1. That Heathen Idolatry that had seated it self, as in the Heavens, and from thence reach'd down it self into the Earth, and in the Deep, is as by an Earthquake remov'd from below, and as by a Tempest above is dismounted and deposed from thence: so that here Sathan, as the Dragon, was cast down from Heaven, as by Lightning, according to the Vision, chap. 12.

2. The Emperours, or Kings of the Earth, and all its great Men, lay'd aside their Greatness, even to their Imperial Pur­ple and Diadems, as particularly Dioclesian the Arch-Persecu­tor, and Maximian with him; mov'd not so much by any thing as by a divine Terror, by the Fear of him that sate on the Throne, and of the Lamb. And this is given as a lively Type of Christ's glorious Appearance in the Destruction of his Enemies; Who will be able to stand in that Day of his Wrath? What Mountains, Dens, or Caves, will then open to receive affrighted men?

3. From hence it plainly appears, What was to be open'd by Christ's opening of these Seals, even no other, than the [Page 88] glorious visible Kingdom of Christ, and not his spiritual King­dom only; As an eminent Assurance of which, He declar'd himself in the preaching of the Gospel, and a Crown was given to him, as an Acknowledgment of his Right, though to ob­tain it, he was to go out conquering and to conquer. Here then in this Christian Empire, beginning at the sixth Seal, and so going on in the seventh Seal to Theodostus's Victory over all the Remains of Heathenism (after Julian) in the Senate, Ma­gistracy, and People of Rome gather'd to a Head in Eugenius and Argobastes, This Kingdom appear'd as in an Emblem, and earnest of it self; and so it is celebrated chap. 12. with Praise and Triumph as in Heaven, though even there sur­pris'd.

4. Here the State of Christ's Kingdom in the Church is so­lemnly declar'd, and also as in the Christian Empire. In the Church, to shew the high towring Synagogue of Sathan, There is no Voice of the Church, but of an Angel, crying to the four Angels not to hurt, &c. a certain Indication of bad Symptoms appearing at this, in it self, happy Change. 2. There was a pure Church and Kingdom of Christ yet publick and visible, but upon the Retreat; for it was just now retiring, and about to be seal'd, that is, under that over-growing Synagogue. 3. This Kingdom of Christ in his Church was to have (abating the general Unhappiness of fallen sinful Man) a more quiet and illustrious State than heretofore, viz. in a Christian Empire; for till the whole Time of sealing the Servants of God was past, the four Angels, that had the four first Trumpets, were com­manded to hold the Wind, that no such Hurt could be done upon the Empire, as was after to be done when they sounded. This was Smyrna's Crown. So that tho' God had determin'd the Period of the Blood-guilty Roman Western Empire, as Imperial, yet it was kept off, till it became Pagan-Antichri­stian (a new Paganism;) Then God gave it in Wrath, after a Time, an Antichristian King, its former Imperial King be­ing taken away in Wrath first.

[Page 89] 5. The precise Time of Sealing, that is of covering all the True, visible Glory of Christianity in the Christian Empire is hereby set, viz. until the First Trumpet; For till all was seal­ed, no Wind could stir; when therefore the first blasting Trum­pet sounded, all true Christian Glory was cover'd, shut, and seal'd; and Apostate Christianity alone in any splendid pub­lick Appearance could be hurt.

6. At this very joynt of Time, upon the Christian Empire is grafted a Pre-Appearance of the Glory of the New Jerusalem in the innumerable Palm-bearing Company.

7. That Glorious Kingdom is notwithstanding the sixth Seal open'd, apparently stay'd, and estopped in sealing the 144000 of Gods Servants, that the Glory of Christ in them could not appear. For the Glory of a King is in the Multi­tude of his People, the sealing therefore this square Israelitish Apostolical Number is the sealing, and estoppage of the King­dom it self.

The seventh Seal is the last Portion of this sealed Time, and it keeps its hold on all future Time, till the Book and King­dom are resign'd. In which the Visum or Thing seen was the seven Angels, that stood before God, to whom were given seven Trumpets, and these Angels preparing themselves to sound, till they just began to sound make up the Representation of this Seal.

The State of Christs Kingdom is to be understood, 1. By the Silence, as Characteristick a Note, as any of the former Voices; For in the structure of this Divine Prophecy, the sym­bols are not only drawn and taken from the Events; but He that both manages the Events by his supream Power, and erects the Schemes upon them, hath design'd, provided, and contriv'd so much of Event, and Symbol, one for another, that it is a great Symbol, that there is no more of such, or such Event, That, while it looks, as if it were a Reason, why the Symbol goes no further, because the Event goes no further, It is even yet a Symbol through the admirableness of this Mystick Prophecy, that just then, and there, where the [Page 90] Event ceases, the Cessation of the Event comes in the place, where that Cessation may create a Symbol; And this could be no way thus modelled, but by so supream an Authour, who is not only the Artificer of the Symbols, but the Opifex the absolute Operator of the Events themselves, The Reason, why the living Creatures spoke no more after the Fourth Seal, was, not only because there were but Four living Crea­tures, but also because the Pure Apostolical Ministry there ceas'd; The Reason, why the Souls cryed under the Altar, was not only because the Martyrdomes under the Pagan Empire were then compleated, That all of that Roll might joyn in that appeal to God, but because that was the most Pure and Excellent Voice the Church had then left to speak to God in, the Voice of Martyrs Blood, that when they were dead, yet spoke, for after this the Church spoke no more, so as to be heard till after the Apostacy; nor did the four living Creatures or twenty four Elders appear any more after this Seal till then; c. 11. 20. And this Cry was tim'd just before that amazing change in the World, that Constantines Conversion produc'd. The Reason why an Angels Voice remarqu'd the sixth Seal, except only as that so wonderful Event of the Desolation of Heathenism spoke it self, was because the Kingdom of Christ was greater in the sealing of so many of his Servants to be hidden under the Antichristian Kingdom, then, that very Con­version of Constantine, which as it let out the Kingdom of Christ, so far as in an Emblem, let out the Apostacy and Anti­christian Kingdom also by accident, that just then the 144000 were seal'd, and the Woman took her Flight into the Wilder­ness. Lastly, the Reason why Silence and Prayers without any audible Voice solemnize this Seal, is, because the pure Service was reducing to the silent, private Prayers of the measured Temple, Altar, and its Worshipers, and the publick Tammith Daily, or continual Pure Worship was about to be taken away by the Gentiles Intrusion into the outward Court. Chap. 11. 1. Compar'd with Chap. 8. 1.

Yet at this Time the Worship was both publick and pure in Gods Account, and the Prayers of all Saints came up as In­cense before him, and the Prosecution, the Kingdom opened in all the Seals, had made against Heathenism, was completed in Theodosius's Famous Victory against it, imported in the scat­ter'd Altar-Incens'd Fire of his and all Christians memorializ'd Prayer, in the midst of the Battel with Eugenius; upon which followed Voices, Thunderings, Lightnings, and an Earthquake, the usual Symbols in this Prophecy of all the Acquists and Pre­valencies of Christs Kingdom.

So the State of the Empire was during this Time a State of Respite, Quiet, Peace, or Victoriousness, and Greatness un­der the Favour of the Precept given to the four Angels, that held the four Winds, which Precept was yet in full Force and Vertue.

But all this was but for an Half-hour, an imperfect, decur­tated Time, seiz'd and surpriz'd from its Perfection, [as the Beast's Times have been, and much more shall be yet within the Half▪time:] The Purity of Worship was surpris'd by the Apostacy, the Kingdom of Christ by the Antichristian King­dom, being immediately in Preparation; The Glory and Peace of the Empire no sooner vindicated from Paganism, but merg'd in Antichristianism, and so pursued by Vengeance that punish'd the former in the latter; and so also made way by a high mysterious Counsel of Justice, for the Antichristian King, while it destroy'd the Antichristianiz'd Empire.

Now the just Time of the whole Course of the Seals open­ed, from the last half Week, I estimate at 400 Years; For the Decency of the Type of sealed Time, it is indeed given in no numeral Account: Even as the seven Thunders seal'd are ever after conceal'd, and under the Name and explicite Series of seven Thunders never open'd, and yet, as we shall see, pro­duc'd in the seven Voices; So this sealed Time, and of this se­venth Seal ending, may be understood;

1. By comparing that great opening of the Kingdom of Christ at the first Seal in the Apostolical Preaching, and the magnifi­cent [Page 92] Appearance of it in the sixth Seal in Constantine's Con­version, [and except that short Nubecle,] that little Cloud of Ju­lian's Apostasie, all along the Christian Empire to Theodosius's Death. Parallels to each of which, nothing appears through­out the Time, either in Common or Ecclesiastick History, wherein the Christian Church is concerned, as shewing Christ's Kingdom.

2. By comparing all along the 2300 Ev. and Mor. the 75 of the Word going forth, the 490 of the Weeks, the 1260 of the Witnesses, and its concurrent Numbers, and the 75 of the Voices and Vials we have, and shall farther find the sealed Time determin'd to 400 Years, and ending at 437, when the Trum­pets began to sound; which ought to be shewn.

3. By the Signature of the half Time of the Churches Pu­rity, and of the Western Roman Empires Duration before the Vacancy; at which Vacancy it enter'd in the New and last In Augu­stulus. form, viz. the Bestian, we may compute the Sealed Time.

This I account given by the Voice in the midst of the four Beasts in the third Seal, in the very Reign of that Mirror of Magistratical Justice, Alexander Severus, presented with the Ballances in his Hand weighing out this Time just at the half Time, or 202 years from the Resurrection, or 237 of Vulgar Account from the Incarnation: to which 202 Years added, as the other half Time, the Apostacy enter'd at 437, and then the Trumpets sounded to the Empires Ruine.

And how fitly is the daily Service, at its just and even Ballance, symbol'd by the exact care of just Weight and Mea­sure, (according to the Charge on the Prince in the Prophet Ezek.) without any Injury to the Wheat, Barley, Oyl, and (by Concomitancy no daily Oblation being without it) Wine, and as it were on purpose to shew us it was not the Levitical but according to the Unceremonial Simplicity of Gospel Wor­ship, the spiritual Sacrifice that is intended, Barley is added, which had no Place in the daily Levitical Oblation. Now to explain this Symbol, I desire a diligent Compare of Rev. 6. 6. Exod. 29. 40. Numb. 28. 7. Ezek. 45. 9, 10. &c.

Oh infinite and supream Dispose, that changes Times and Remark. Seasons as it pleases, having first drawn them in an entire Ta­ble, lying always before it; where every Thing is beautiful in its own season, and so every thing shall at last appear be­fore Holy Angels and Saints; and even extort the Confessions of Angry and Male-content Spirits. How admirably hath it seal'd and open'd in this course of Seals, and for his own Glory suffer'd a new sealing, by surprise, upon his Kingdom when that first sealing was taken off, that he might bring Good out of Evil, Light out of so long obscurity of the Apo­stacy, that even then when the Empire or Ʋniversal Monar­chy of the World was risen out of Heathenism into the Ac­knowledgment of the only true God, and the one Mediator Jesus Christ, suffered it to relapse into the new Heathenism of Antichristianism: Even so Father, who hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to Babes, it seem­ed good in thy sight. For thou hast what Time thou pleasest, [to whom a Day and a thousand Years are equal] to display thy Kingdom in, within the most perfect Measure of Time, viz. a cubical thousand Years, and then in a boundless Eternity.

Amen.

SECT. I.
Of the Ninefold Repetition of this Line, and its several Cha­racters; shewing, 1. That Time, Times, Half a Time, must each signifie, first Years, then Years of Years. 2. That Days must signifie, either first, Days of Years, in the 1260 Days, and then each of the three Days, a Year of Years, and pro­portionably in the Half Time, and Half Day. 3. The Months can be no other than Lunar Months, and so must signifie such Months of Lunar Years, as are proportion'd to the 1260 Days, as Lunar Time is to Solar.

THE Great Line of Time, in the Eye of Prophecy, Position. and upon which it is most intent, as drawn for the latter Times, and approaching so near the final Ac­complishment of all Prophecy at this very Time, is the Time, Times, and Half Time, call'd also, Three Days and a half, Twelve hundred Sixty Days, and Forty two Months; All of which, even as each of them concurr, though in diffe­rent manner, as shall be seen, into One Line of Twelve Hun­dred [Page 2] and sixty Years, and are coeval to the space of the six first Apocalyptical Trumpets.

That this Line may be better understood, and Apprehen­ded, It is first to be well observ'd: in these following Grand Heads, or Generals of Discourse.

This Line of Time is nine times to be found in Sacred First Ge­neral. Prophecy; Twice in Daniel it is called Time, Times, Half a Time; once 1260 Days, though concealed somewhat by Dan. 7. 25. and Dan. 12. 7. Dan. 12. 11. joyning it with Thirty more; for twelve hundred and sixty are made to lye in the complex of Twelve hundred ninety Dayes, In the Apocalyptick Prophecy, it is first made known by Forty two Months*, then by Twelve hundred sixty Days*, Apoc. 11. 2. Apoc. 11. 3. Apoc. 11. 9. Apoc. 12. 6. Apo. 12. 14. Apoc. 13. 5. then by Three dayes and a half*, then again by Twelve hun­dred sixty Dayes*; then is again reassum'd, the Time, Times, Half a Time*; and lastly, the Forty two Months are the se­cond time assign'd; the observation of which Repetition, and Variation, and Order of both; in giving this space of Time, is of great Instruction (as we shall see in its proper place) for the understanding Prophecy.

That then, which I shall first address our Thoughts unto, shall be to consider every Character of Time, given us in Pro­phecy, by its self, with its Signification and Extent, and the Assurances it is of such signification and Extent; then the Balances of the Characters one with another; and lastly, their several Epochs and Periods.

The first Character of Prophetick Time, is Time, Times, Half a Time, or if translated exactly, either according to the Chara­cter first. Originals of the Old or New Testament, and according to the very Design of Prophecy, it is Appointed Time, Appointed Times, Appointed Half Time, or, Season, Seasons, half a Season; and so in that first Distribution of Time according to the Motion of the Sun, and the Moon, the great Luminaries of Heaven, it is used Genes. 1. 14. for Design'd and Appointed Times; and this is very necessary to be layd in the Founda­tion; For accordingly it will follow, The measures of this Season, Seasons, half a Season, must be found out by obser­ving [Page 3] the measures of the other Notes of Time wherewith they are joyned; for that Character of Season it self speaks high, and notorious Designation of this Time, Times, Half a Time; and that most remarkable Season (of which after-use is to be made) arises from such a Designation, and not an immediate Definition of the Space.

But then secondarily, Because a Year, and a Day, are the most natural and ready Measures of designed Time, and so may in that forenam'd Scripture be the Explanation of Sea­sons, Gen. 1. 14. or remarkable and signaliz'd Times, as they are imme­diately added to Seasons: and because in all probability, se­ven Times passing over Nebuchadnezzar under his Delirium, Dan, 4. 23. mean seven Years, since they cannot mean Days or Months, or less than Years, nor more, we may first consider Time, Times, Half a Time, as three Years and a half, and that with Authority, because they are diversifyed into other such Ex­tents of Time or Spaces, as we shall see, that point to so much.

So then the signification of Time, Times, Half a Time, is taken from that first most known and honourable Account of Time, the Suns Motion from Point to Point in its annual Circle: This is a more honourable Circulation than that of a Day, because the Sun more knownly varies every day from the Point from which, and the Point to which it daily moves, which makes the change of the Year to those several Seasons; so that although, as Solomon tells us, The Sun riseth and go­eth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose, distributing Day and Night to the World; yet he neither sets nor rises two Days together at the same exact Point, but veres to­wards one of the Tropicks; although therefore a Day of the Suns being with us is the most noble measure of Time next to the Year, yet it cannot deserve the Name of a Time, of a signaliz'd Time, as a Year doth; both because it is not so exact to a Point of Revolution, and because it is not so full; a Year excelling a Day in being the greater and ampler, and so the most perfect, known, and generally observ'd Circle for [Page 4] a Season, comprehending that of a Day above three hundred sixty five times within it self; and is the Suns perfect Emen­suration of its way from one end to the other end of the Heavens, and of its Visitation of the whole Earth with its Beams.

A Year must yet more excel a Month than it does a Day, because the Sun hath the Government of the Day, and of the Year; but the Moon, the much more ignoble Planet, and Governess only of the Night, gives to the Months their Cha­racter and Measure; and tho there are twelve Points of the Space the Sun emensurates in a Year, viz. the twelve Signs in the Zodiack, and the Suns first Touch upon Aries, to its gliding off from it to the next Sign, may be call'd a Solar Month; yet neither is it the proper Month, which is defin'd by Lunations, nor is it any Circulation of the Sun with it self, or with its own Motion, or with its great end of en­compassing the World with its enlivening Beams: there is no space therefore that can properly merit the Name of a Time or Season in the first place, but a Year first, and then a Day.

Times, absolutely so call'd, must needs also be most pro­perly two Times, for the first Plurality, or more than one is two; and the more so, because it is set betwixt one Time, and half a time; for that Number, which exceeds, and re­moves from Unity first, is two; and that which is bounded by half a Time in its remove from one Time, can be no more than two; for if it had proceeded to more than two, and had not been stop'd or cut off, as the Hebrew significantly, It had been three Times.

Half a Time therefore, as it refers to the Beasts Time, must be Time decurtated, or cut off at the middle, (as the Gar­ments and Beards of David's Servants, half'd by Hanun in Disgrace and Dishonour) to the Beasts eternal Infamy, and in recompence to his surprise of the Churches Peace, and Purity, at its half Hour, as shall be noted. Apoc. 8. 1.

Time then, as One, denotes Beginning, as One is the be­ginning of Number; Times, as Two, denotes Increase and [Page 5] Consistency, as it is a progress of Time from One, and settles in the first even Number; Half speaks an endeavour of Mo­tion to be continued, but surpris'd, and cut off at its middle.

Now these Time, Times, Half a Time, might signifie only the three Years and a half they first import; but that they must signifie more, we shall find very full assurance: when therefore we shall have reason'd that it must be more than three Years and a half, it will then appear most reasonable, that each Time should have its most perfect Circle: And if a Year be the perfectest Circle of Time, then a Year of Years must be the most perfect and full Circle, beyond which there can be nothing, but a Repetition, or Multiplication of the same again and again: so then the Time must be a Year of Years, the two Times must be the same Circle twice told, and the Half Time the same Circle attempted the third Time, and clip'd off at the Semicircle; which is the Account of this Character of Time, Times, Half a Time, and which is the first, and, as will appear, the most comprehensive of the Cha­racters of this Line: and tho there may be other Revolutions of the Heavens, and of the Sun, particularly known to learn­ed Astronomers, containing greater numbers of Years, and there is a more perfect Number also of Years, viz. the thou­sand Years given us in this Prophecy, as we shall see after­wards; yet there is none so fit to the present Purpose as Days and Years, nor so full as a Year of Days, and then a Year of Years, or of prophetical Days, most agreeable to Prophecy every way.

I come now to the second Character of Days: A Day then Chara­cter the Second. is the first most known and observable date of Time, as it was first in use to measure Time by; The Evening and the Morning were the first Day, assoon as Time began: A Day Gen. 1. 5. &c. then is the Time in which the Sun performs his Motion (speaking as the Scripture does to general Apprehension, without regard to strictnesses of Philosophy, whether the Motion be of the Sun or of the Earth) from East to West, and gives Light to one of the Hemispheres, and then from [Page 6] West to East, and so hastens to the Place where he arose as near as the aforesaid Variation will allow, and gives Light to the other Hemisphere, as Lord of the Day to the World of both Hemispheres.

As then on this Account Days are in all Languages expres­sive of length of Time, so one Day was by God made choice of to signifie a Year, and one Day by Moses, Psal. 90. and by the Apostle Peter is singled out to parallel with a thou­sand Years; and Man's Day, by the Apostle Paul, is us'd to express the whole course of Man's time of judging, in oppo­sition 2 Pet. 2. 8. to the Day of Judgment: and the whole course of 1 Cor. 4. 3. Judgment is call'd frequently the Day of Judgment, as one Day; and as it is taken a Day for a Year in this Line of Time, so we shall find in the three Days and a half it is ta­ken for a Day of Years, equal to a Year of Years.

Day threfore is a Standard of Time fairly to be accommo­dated to any Measure of Time, the Conjunction it hath with such Measure otherwise given requires: when therefore three Days and a half are joyn'd with twelve hundred sixty Days, with twice forty two Months, and all these within Time, Times, Half a time, there is a fair Reason to understand them of the very same Tenor of Time with what they are so con­joyn'd.

But as for the accounting a Day for a Year, that rests up­on that Divine Institution of a Day for a Year, first in a Case near and parallel; of the Forty Years Commoration of the Church of Israel, Numb. 14. v. 34. (to omit Jacob's old Stile of Time, a Week of Years) in the Wilderness, and after that by the solemn Institution, as of a prophetical Key, Ezek. 4. I have appointed a Day for a Year; so that when there is a concurrence of Prophecy, and Things to be transacted, that cannot be transacted in so short a space as of Days litterally and naturally understood; they must be so understood, as we are directed by Prophecy to understand them; viz. a Day for a Year, even as without Hesitation we compute into Weeks of Years Daniel's seventy Weeks, and so into 490 Years.

Now we shall find such Transactions, fitted to the twelve hundred and sixty days, that cannot possibly be suppos'd to have their Motion in three years and a half, so that they must be Prophetical days, or days for years.

And thus we have settled the two first, and most noble Characters of Time; A year signified by a time, and a day, as it is used in the three dayes and a half, and in the twelve hun­dred and sixty days, with their most truly Prophetical Indi­cations, viz. three years and a half of years, in the three times, and three days and a half, and twelve hundred and sixty years in the 1260 days.

Let us then proceed to the third Character of Months, or the forty two Months.

A Month then, we know, is that Space of Time the Moon describes by Night, in its progress through the Zodiack; Third Chara­cter. For whatever Hemisphere it moves in, it is still Night it rules in, which Motion is indeed so full of Variation and Incer­tainty in its Remove from the Ecliptick Line, the Sun's cer­tain Path, that it is said, The Sun knows its way, but the Moon does not; even as the Phasis, or figure of the Moon is upon perpetual change, even to a Proverb, upon the un­adjustableness of any ones Humour or Manners; Who can (saith the Proverb) fit a Coat to the Moon? and so is excel­lently adapted to describe the Antichristian Tyranny that changes Times and Laws. Not onely by rescinding the truly Christian Laws, by mens own Additions, contrary to those Laws themselves; but also making perpetually changeable, even the Counterfeits of them, by innumerable new Tradi­tions; whereas the Religion of Jesus Christ is yesterday, and to day, the same for ever. Besides that Judaisme and Heathen­isme, that had so many dependencies on the Moon, is the Constitution of Antichristianism, and therefore the true Church, so distant from it, is cloathed with the Sun, and hath the Moon under its feet, and therein abdicates Judaism, Hea­thenism, and Mahometanism, (that also claims a Kindred with the Moon) as the Votaries of the Moon.

Now this Moon, as Governess of the Night, as so variable in its Motions and Measures, gives no Rule of Time by Mo­tion from East to West, but only from one Lunation to ano­ther, it denominates Months or Moons, being certain onely in this, to return from one Conjunction of the Sun to ano­ther; which, because it gives a new Phase to the Moon, is therefore called in the Hebrew Novitas, and the Lunations Novitates, or New Moons.

But I understand No Way that it can describe the Circle of a Year, but by its Attendance on the Sun in its Motion, by so many new Conjunctions as will most agree with the Annual Motion of the Sun; and the nearest This can be brought to by the Natural Motions of the Moon, there will be between Ten and Eleven Days betwixt the Motion of the Sun and the motion of the Moon upon twelve Conjunctions (call'd therefore Synodical Months) of the Moon with the Sun; For so many the Sun requires more to the finishing its Annual Course, than the Moon needs to its twelve Conjun­ctions with the Sun. And this be spoken of Months, as they are most properly to be understood of Lunations. For if we would interpret them of Solar Months, besides another grea­ter Obstruction, or Caution to be entred against that Inter­pretation hereafter, they could be only progressive, not Cir­cular, and so not agreeable with a day or a year, there being more of a Circulation of motion by that most Illustrious Prince of Time in a day than in a Month. And therefore we account a Day the first Circle of the Sun's motion, with Light from East to West, and so to East again; and a Year the most perfect Circle of his motion, in going forth from one end of Heaven, and in Circuit to the other end thereof, with Heat and Influential Vertue; in neither of which Solar Months correspond, as to any Complement, and therefore not so fit Symbols of Time as the Lunar Months, which have a circle from one Conjunction to the Sun with another.

Now these Lunar Months are in conjunction with Time, Times, Half a Time, or three years and a half of Years; and [Page 9] with Twelve hundred sixty Days or Years; Twice Forty two Months of Years also, but the former coalescing, or fal­ling into One within the latter, as a River that had been a River before may be suppos'd to do into a new Cut, or Channel, prepar'd to receive the confluence of neighbouring Waters, lying in the way of that former River, so near, that by the great confluence of Waters, and the more ample Chan­nel of the new River, the old may be deriv'd into it, and so make the much greater River, and having made their way, as so united, some Leagues, the Old River, its Name, and Memory, are swallow'd up in the New: so are the Gentiles forty two months merg'd in the Forty two months of the Beast, and both coextend the Twelve hundred sixty days, and no more.

SECT. II.
Of the two Communities, and their two-fold state described, within this Line of Time, viz. The Church of Christ and its Sufferings, the Kingdom of the Beast, and its Tyranny: shewing also, there must be Season, or intimate Time within Time, at large.

I Have thus far settled the General Sciagraphy, or Land-Scaph of this Prophetical Line of Time, and shall now en­deavour to make a farther penetration into the understand­ing of it, and its several Characters, by enquiry into its sig­nification, its extent in every one of these Characters, and the Balance of every one of them, each with the other, and that not by an over-critical restraint of the following Dis­scourse to every Head, but in such a communication of the Extent, the balance of the Characters one with another, that the most perfect knowledge of the whole may arise from them together, as they most naturally fall one into the o­ther.

It is then to be known in the Second General;

There are two states of Things, and two kinds of Perso­nages; Second General. and in successive Communities, and Incorporations, each of them are to be found; both which appertain to this Line of Time, and the Characters of Time are distinctly suit­ed to each, viz. to the tyranny of that King, the Scripture-Prophecy calls the Beast, and his Gentiles, and to the Suffer­ings of the true Church and Servants of God, under that Ty­ranny.

The whole mass of Time is therefore divided into the Time of the Night, under the Conduct of the Moon, the Gover­ness, as hath been said, of the Night, and into the Time of the Day, and the Light under the Government of the Sun, the Prince of the Day. And this is agreeable to that long Line of Time, Dan. 8. 14. viz. The twenty three hundred E­vening-Morning; for so they are expressed in the Hebrew, that while the twenty three hundred notes by such a number, the length of the space, the Evening-Morning is all but one Evening, and one Morning; and so it is call'd, The Vision of the Evening. and of the Morning, verse 26.

As then it is called the Vision of the Evening and the Mor­ning, so the Evening is but One, and the Morning but One. As they are 2300 Evening-Morning, ver. 14. it is signified, the lesser portions of Time are taken out of that great Num­ber; Again, As they are One Evening and One Morning, it speaks the Time, One continued Evening, with a bright Mor­ning at the end of it; As they are twenty three hundred E­vening-Morning, it signifies so many Nights and Days, or natural Nycthemers, or prophetical Years, in which the Chil­dren of darkness take the Evenings, or Night, under the Moon, and the Children of Light have the Mornings, or Dayes, for their portion, under the Sun of Righteousness, with which the Church is cloath'd, and hath the Moon, even when it seems most to have the Ascendent, under its Feet; but their Mor­ning or Day does not appear in its Brightness, till All night's past, and the bright Morning-Star shall appear.

The whole Mass of Time, I say then, or the Time, Times, Half Time, is distributed into twelve hundred sixty dayes, twice nam'd, but can be but one and the same Twelve hun­dred and sixty; and twice forty two months, which, taken as Lunar Time, and single, cannot be equal to Twelve hundred sixty dayes, or so much Solar Time, and taken double, ex­ceeds it, and therefore must, as hath been said, and shall be prov'd, coalesce, and knit one into another, as a due Point, and so may be Two forty two Months, and this, as proper to the Children of the Night, must be peculiar to the Beasts Tyranny; and the Days distinct to the Children of Light, and their Holy Martyry, or Testimony, though under Suffer­ings, and Death it self.

The first of these, or the Tyranny of the Beast, is expressed by changing Laws and Times, and wearing out the Saints of the most High, by accomplishing to scatter the power of the Holy People, by the Gentiles treading the Court, and the Holy City under foot, whereby the Tammith, viz. the daily, or continual Publick Service of God is taken away, by making War with the Witnesses and Saints, the Womans Seed, and overcoming, and killing them, as may be seen by a compare of Dan. c. 7. c. 8. c. 11. c. 12. and Apocal. c. 11. c. 12. c. 13.

The second State of Things, or the Sufferings of the Church and Servants of God, is expressed by the Witnesses, and Ser­vants of God worn out, given into the Hand of the little Horn, or Beast, (for he is call'd both, Dan. 7. v. 8. 12. 25. com­par'd) lying dead, cast down, stamped upon, scattered, the Witnesses in Sackcloth, and the Woman in the Wilderness, so as to be hid from the Face of the Serpent. All which appears in the places fore-cited.

Now that we may see, how these States, and so the Chara­cters of Time are Implex'd, and Enfolded one within the other;

First, the Time, Times, Half Time, are the common Womb and Continent of the whole Time; And this Character is therefore given first, Dan. 7. 25. And that it might be the [Page 12] more observable, it is given again the second time, Dan. 12. 7. And then to give a farther notice to it, it is given a third time in the Revelation, Apoc. 12. 14.

But because the just space and duration of time, times, se­mi time, cannot be concluded certainly by themselves, they are slid into twelve hundred sixty dayes, lying, as I have said, in the Bosome of twelve hundred ninety dayes, as the just size, and exact standard of the whole Time, so that in its utmost Extent, It, and all its Characters must be equal; and they can neither exceed, nor fall short of Twelve hundred sixty Prophetical Days, or Years, that is, neither the Time, Times, Semi, or Half Time, nor the three Dayes and a half, which are but other words, as we shall see, for the Three Times and a Half; Nor the twice Forty two Months can be either longer or shorter than the Twelve hundred sixty Years; be­cause therefore Fourty two Months of Lunar Time (as they ought to be interpreted, as hath been shewn) are not equal to twelve hundred sixty Days, or Years; and that twice For­ty two Months will much more exceed, therefore the Forty two Months, twice given, must be two Forty two Months, which, by the Characters we shall be guided to, we shall find at an exact Point, coalescing, or uniting into One, as hath been already said.

And because Time, Times, Semi Time, are both as long, and as broad as the twelve hundred and sixty dayes, and yet have a more pregnant Intimate part, viz. the Season within the Time, in regard of which, or as referring to that Season, they are call'd [...], or Seasons, We shall find the States sui­ted to that Character, viz. Time within Time, or to Season, which is a more pregnant intimate Time within a larger Time; so that they may both fill the Character at its utmost breadth and length, of Twelve hundred sixty Years, and twice Forty two Months, and yet more fruitfully Impreg­nate it with Season, within its more intimate space; Every part therefore of this Character, time, times, semi-time, hath the full extent of Twelve hundred and sixty dayes, and yet [Page 13] a [...], or an intimate Kernel of Time within it. And that we may be led to this Observation, not only the words, Sea­son, Seasons, half a Season, but those other words in place of them, viz. three dayes and a half, are on purpose chosen, as we shall see, when we compare the States, viz. of the Beasts Tyranny, and the Churches Sufferings, with each Cha­racter of Time, which I come next to do in the Third Ge­neral.

SECT. III.
Of the matching each Character of Time with each of those States, as in a General View.

THat the States of the Beasts Tyranny, and the Church­es Third General. Sufferings, may then be beheld at nearer Lights, in their Implication with the Characters of Time, Let us in the next place Remark each Character of Time, match'd with its State, and the Order wherein the Characters are given, and then collect their certain Enfoldedness within one another, and how justly inferrible the Sameness and Oneness of the whole space is, although given under so many various Cha­racters, in the Union of the States; Each of which hath yet its singular Use: For they are not vain Repetitions, or mere Flourishes of Symbolical Prophecy, but each Character, and each Repetition of each Character, hath its great particular Service.

First then, after the Real Line of Time given, as it were in Substance, in four Successive Monarchies, and those repre­sented in an Image, or Immense Statue, Dan. 2. and then un­der the Iconisme of four Beasts, Dan. 7. The Regnancy of a Prince under the Type of a Little Horn, is made the princi­pal Aim of Prophecy, and hath the first Character of Time set upon his duration, viz. time, times, half a time; and these are made so proper to him, that whenever these are nam'd, [Page 14] He, as the Proprietor, or Lessee of them from God, is to be understood: For changing Laws and Times, and wea­ring out the Saints of the most High, are so long given into his Hand.

Furthermore, because any fixed Limits of Time could not be known by Time, Times, Semi Time, being Hieroglyphi­cal, and a Number Vague, and Floating in the vast Compass of four Monarchies; There is therefore a Third Vision, in which the Babylonian Monarchy, as having no farther Place in Time, is cut off altogether, Dan. 8. 1. &c. For it had been accounted in a Former Scripture-Line of Time, viz. the 390, and forty five Days for Years, Ezeck. 4. 5, 6. And therefore if it had not been cut off, when a new Line of Time was to be given; it must needs have disturbed that Line, and all Account by it. The Persian therefore, the Grecian, and the Roman Monarchies are given in new Sym­bols, and a Line of twenty three hundred Even. Morn. of Pro­phetical Time, till the Cleansing of the Sanctuary, and the Breaking of that Prince, so Insolent against Christ, the Prince of Princes, broken without Hand, fitted to them.

And still to shew the principal drift of Prophecy, at the Little Horn; it is first particularly, and notably pourtraied in Antiochus, as a Type, and therefore call'd, a Little Horn, and his principal Action is recorded to be the taking away the daily; For so I translate it exactly according to the Hebrew Verity, the Divine Spirit seeming to have design'd a Liber­ty for the supplying the Sense, either with Sacrifice before the Death of Christ, or with Service, or daily Worship af­ter Christ, according to the Rules of the Gospel; And it is Remarkable, except in this Place, and its parallels, Dan. 11. and Dan. 12. there is not any Example of Tammith, or the Continual, without the Addition of Sacrifice; so that I can­not but suppose it so plac'd for an especial significancy.

Now for the sake of Taking away the Daily, the Vision is call'd, the Vision of the Daily, even as in regard of the 2300 Even. Morn. It is called the Vision of the Evening and of the [Page 15] Morning; although it is most evident, the Vision contains much more matter, than just of the Daily taken away, viz. of the Persian Monarchy, and the former parts of the Greci­an; and the 2300 Even. Morn. embrace much more Time, than the mere duration of the Daily taken away by Antio­chus, as a Type, or even by the Antichristian taking away, as is made to appear upon that Vision. For in the Explana­tion of that Type, when Daniel was made to understand the Vision; in the Explanation of that Type, I say, All is so ex­pounded, as to be most agreeable to the little Horn, and his Action in the former Vision, Dan. 7. and to his Bestian Apo­caliptick Tyranny; Now this taking away, first by the Gen­tiles begun, then continued by the Beast, lays a Foundation for the beginning this Line of Time we are upon.

For, by reason of the length of a Line of Twenty three hundred Years, seeing no particular Time can be ascertain'd by it; Therefore the next Visions, either explicitely in the 70 weeks of years, viz. 490 till the end of the half Week, or three years and a half after Messiah cut off, and in the 1335, in which the Antitypical, Antichristian taking away of the Dai­ly, begins, and endures these very 1260 Days, which we are upon, or implicitly, viz. 75 years, during the Words going forth to restore and build Jerusalem, first by Cyrus, (though immedi­ately interrupted by Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, till the second of Darius) then by the same Darius, and after him, by Artaxer­xes, called Longimanus, completed. All which is fully expoun­ded on the Vision, Dan. 9. And implicitly also in 400 years, from the last half week after the Resurrection, which is plain­ly the Epoch of Apocalyptical Time (as is also made good on that part) during the Time of the Seals opened, till the Trum­pets began, and with the very first of them the 1260 dayes; All which make up together the 2300 Even. morning, the 1260 leaving 75, for the finishing all things to the blessed and happy State; which is Daniel's end of wonders, Dan. 12. and the State of the New Jerusalem after the destruction of the Beast, Revel. chap. 19. chap. 20, &c. even as it is the clean­sing [Page 16] of the Sanctuary, and breaking that proud Prince with­out hand. Dan. 8.

All these things being so fix'd, that they cannot be other­wise, for a Time there must be for the word going forth, by a full Evidence of Sacred Prophecy in Daniel, and History in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and this Time is fairly resol­ved into 75 years, and then the 490 years of the 70 Weeks, agreed by all Christians, after which, the 1335 must needs be, and they must be the last of the 2300. So there is onely space for 400 necessary, which during the Seals opening until the Trumpets sounding, viz. from three years and a half, or the last half week, so long after the Resurrection, to the Vul­gar Year of our Lord, 437. when the Western Empire un­der Valentinian, the Son of Placidia, began to be violently shaken by the Wind of the Trumpets, and its Flourish blasted by the Fire and Hail of the first Trumpet mingled with Blood, by the agreement of all History, was four hundred years. By all which Account, we must needs be in or about the Twelve hundred and fiftieth year of those dark Twelve hun­dred and sixty, and no more of them then about Ten remain, when Christianity shall grow much brighter and clearer, till the full cleansing of the Sanctuary, or the New Jerusalem, at 1772.

Let us now then proceed to the Apocalyptical Account of this Line, and the first Note of the Time is the Forty two Months, and that is first given, that it might exactly touch the taking away the Daily.

For whereas the Priests of Jesus Christ, even all his pure Worshippers, were to come into the Outward Court, the Type of Publick Evangelical Worship, or Spiritual Sacri­fice, and to fill it, and his Kings, under his Universal King­dom or Monarchy were to Reign; They were all seal'd up into a Beginning Retirement immediately after the Christian Empire of Constantine, and the desolation of Heathenism by him; in signification, that that perfectly cleans'd Sanctuary, nor that Kingdom should not yet appear in Glory, but at [Page 17] the first Trumpet, the Paganiz'd Antichristians crowded in under the very Title of Christs Priests, or Servants, and so took away the Daily, and prepar'd the way to the Beasts sur­prisal of the Kingdom, upon which the Witnesses put on Sack-cloth, and the Woman, or Church, fled into the wilder­ness; so that the Forty two months, and the twelve hundred sixty dayes began together, at the daily taking away, as that Divine Person, Jesus Christ, the man in linnen, had declared to the Prophet Daniel, Dan. 12. and Apoc. 11. 2, 3.

And whereas there is in Daniel no mention of the Forty two months of the Gentiles, nor of the Beasts forty two months, which we shall be to consider in this Line also, it is with admirable contrivance of the Divine Prophetick Spirit; For in as much as the Time, Times, Semi-Time, are so appropriated to the Beast, as that they are never alienated from his Action, and the Servants of God suffering under him, and are as descri­ptive of him as the very Name, Beast; for Times in some ca­ses are as descriptive of Persons and Things as Names; as we all know, what is meant by our last 41, or 71, apply'd ei­ther to Persons or Things; Further, in that Season, Seasons, Half-Season, are absolutely proper to the Beast; and that yet they respect principally the intimate part Time, of which hath been spoken; therefore Time, Times, Half Time, could not be attributed to the Gentiles, or the other Beast, Rev. 13. For that had been an Entrenchment upon the Grand Beast.

And yet because the Beasts time of duration, much more of his Regnancy, was not so early as the Twelve hundred sixty dayes, begun in the Sufferings of the Servants of God, and that the Daily Service is no where said to be taken away by him, but rather from him, or before him, and as in pre­paration to Dan. 8. 11. Marg. his rising; there is of necessity some additional Character of Time to coextend the Time, Times, Semi Time, as at large, and equal to the 1260 dayes; when the Line comes into so distinct a Fixation; and none so fit, as taken out of the 2300 Even. and so declaring their Linage, as these Forty two months of the Gentiles under the Influence of him whom [Page 18] the Scripture calls the other Beast, both of the Eastern and Western Empire, of which two Horns, for the sake of that so notorious Dicholomy or Division of the Roman Empire into those two parts, and of a Lamb, for the pretensions they made to Christ, are the Embleme; of which Beast more is after to be spoken; and whereof the Beast himself was no small part before, from the first till his Regnancy. Ap [...]. 13. 10.

Now these Gentiles, and this other Beast, which were to be Subjects of the Grand Beast, have these Forty two months assign'd to them to prepare for this Grand Beast, till his Ri­sing, to cause an Image to be made to him, and to give Life to the Image, that so the Beast, that had been wounded in its sixth head might recover, and live in its seventh head, although it did not appear in his Infancy, nor till He came to his Number, or manly Age, viz. at 666. when He took upon him, as Prince, and Lord of the intimate part of Time, which is most precisely [...], Season, Seasons, Half Season. All which is a full Answer to any Objection that the Universal Monarchy of the Beast cannot be trac'd so early as the Prophecy supposes.

Thus therefore the Gentiles tread the Court, and Holy City, the first Forty two months, that is, so long of them, as till the Beasts Existence especially, and indeed till his Time of Reg­nancy, and that as Principals in the Apostacy; After that their Forty two months are merg'd in the Beasts forty two months, although for the Decorum, or Grace of the Type, they are given intire Forty two months.

And because the Beasts intimate Time or Season will be spent and exhausted, and the Gentiles forty two months also expired before the 1260 dayes be expir'd; He, the Beast, hath therefore full Forty two months power of duration, Re­vel. 13. 5. into which, as was said, the Gentiles forty two months fall, and subside at the Beasts Regnant Time. And by these is the Time at large furnished out for his Action, to keep the Witnesses in Sack-cloth, and the Woman in the Wil­derness, and also to continue the Gentiles treading the Holy [Page 19] Court, and that the Daily Service may remain Taken away, and to do many great Acts of Cruelty upon the Servants of God, even after his intimate Time, and possibly to give in little, and as in Epitome, a Recollection of the 1260 years, in the last three years and half, or some such proportion of Time when the Time of the Witnesses Testimony is so near finished, and all this by vertue of his large permissory Commission, given to him by God, above that given to his Gentiles; though He cannot expand, or spread, nor culminate, or rise any more to the height of his intimate Time, when it is once past.

And if there be such a Prince, whom the Scripture calls a Beast, that is, a Paganiz'd Idolatrous Monarch; the Gentiles must needs be his People, and in his Service, else he must be a Prince without a People; so that though the Gentiles for­ty two months are necessary before the Beasts forty two months, yet they are not necessary to be a distinct time after; for the Beasts Power necessarily supposes them; they serve there­fore not only the Grace of the Type, as was said, but the Secresie of the Prophesie; both which require, these num­bers should be given entire, and parallel, even as Adams years of Life ran along to his Death with the common Line of Time to the Flood, though it was necessary only until the Time of his Begetting, and after that the Line was set upon a succeeding Patriarke, and so in the whole Roll, every ones Life, though it did not support the Line, yet corroborated it after the Paidogony or Begetting, and so concurred with it to the last, even thus the Gentiles Fourty two months support the Bestial Line, till the Beasts rising, and concurr in it with the Beast, while they last, and when they are ended, there is no alteration, because the Bestian Times include to the very last of them the gross Gentilisme of them that dwell on the Earth; and the false Prophetisme, into which the other Beast sunk down, as into a proper Character after the Beasts 666, as Apoc. 19. v. 20. He is called, and c. 20. v. 10.

But further than this, the Beasts forty two months have a certain Epoch, viz. at the Year of our Lord 475, in the cessa­tion [Page 20] of the Christian Empire in Augustulus. Compare 2 Thess. 2. with Revel. 17. 10, 11. For the Christian Emperours being the sixth King, but none of the seven Heads, was the [...], or he that letted or with-held, as the Empire was the [...], or the thing that letted or with-held, that the eighth King, that was yet of the seven Heads, could not succeed: for an after King cannot succeed till the former is gone off the Stage, es­pecially where God holds the Line of Succession firm: so that by adjusting the forty two Months of the Beast, as lunar Time to the 1260 Days of solar Time, we find thirty eight Years difference; and seeing All the whole Line must end with the 1260, the Time of the Beasts forty two Months beginning ex­actly agrees with 475, thirty eight Years after the 1260 Years of the Witnesses Sackcloath, at 437, and All end at 1697.

And because we have spoke much of the Intimate Time of the Beast, or of his Season, Seasons, Half-season, within time, times, half a time, we have the Pillar of that Time erected, Revel. 13. 17, 18. when his first Season was well, or about eighteen Years enter'd, viz. at 666, when his Name or Na­ture was come to his Number, and when he was come to his Age of 666 from his Conception, which by searching the Root, and as the Ʋnderstanding and Reason of a Man search­es Number, we find to be Twenty Five by the consent of all Arithmetick, as the Time of his Conception, when the My­stery of Iniquity, like a Womb, was at work for him, who, as a man of those Characters, 2 Thess. 2. was indeed [...], or a Beast; and from Twenty Five, after the Resurrection or Apo­calyptical Epoch, the first visible Variation from the Aposto­lical Twelve, both in Time and Nature, when it became the Base of another Doctrine, Kingdom, the Root of another Name, the Apostacy conceiv'd, and wrought within the My­stery of Iniquity, not openly, but secretly, and as in the low­er parts of the Abyss, out of which the Beast comes, as a Womb at 725, when the War concerning Images began, and continued till all that refus'd that Worship were anathema­tiz'd by the second Council of Nice; I say, to that 725, when [Page 21] Leo Conon, the Grecian Emperour, was struck by the Thun­derbolt of Excommunication, interceeded just 666 Years from twenty five Years after the Resurrection: and if by the three days and a half by themselves, as also by many other Circumstances leading us to the three days of our Lord's Death, we ballance Time, we shall find the Proportions; for, as Christ died in the last fourth part of the first day, and rose in the first fourth of the third day; so was the Condition of the Witnesses. Begin their 1260 days at 437, and at 707 be­gan the last fourth part of the first Day or Time; viz. the last 90 of the first 360, as Christ's Death began at the sixth Hour, or at twelve, the last fourth part of the Nycthemer, and was perfected by the end of it to his Burial; so the Wit­nesses from 707 to 797, the end of the first day, lay dead in the Street of the great City. But it did not become the Type they should be buried: and so to 1517; then their first mo­tion to a Resurrection began, and their compleat Resurrecti­on at 1697, even to admiration answering the last half day.

And lastly, because Imperial Revolutions, as being under the eye of all History, most livelily represented by their Em­blems, and fixed upon their just Rests of Time, must needs strengthen Prophecy concerning the Church of God, when one joyn Hand in Hand with the other; there is therefore the Fall of the Western Empire given by the Divine Apoca­lyptical Prophecy to the Fall of the Eastern Empire, or the taking of Constantinople, by such wonderful Types and Fi­gures of the gradual Impressions on the Western Empire, (Apoc. 8. v. 7. to the end) by such Images of the Mahometan Saracens, as Locusts, c. 9. to v. 13. and of the Turkish Horse­men, to the end of the Chap. and with such a Relation to the Antichristian Idolatries, and their Impenitency therein; a­dorn'd with such Notes of Time, as the five months, and five months, to the Locusts, and the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to the Horse-men call'd for by the Voice, from the Golden Altar of Incense within the measur'd Temple, when the Daily of publick Worship was taken away, as [Page 22] makes the Line out of measure excellent, and adorable, as gi­ven by the Holy Spirit; to the killing the third part of men, or taking Constantinople, 1453.

Behold then, as at a Review, the admirable Structure of it, and the great Instructions arising from its order of Repetiti­ons upon these short Particulars.

1. The intimate Time of this Line is especially most so­lemnly appointed and design'd, and the whole, as united with it; for it is made, and constituted not without an Oath, Dan. 12. 7. to be Time, Times, half a Time, and therein Sea­son, Seasons, half a Season: and it is cut off, not without an Oath, at the end of intimate Time, though the whole of the Time, Times, half time, be first supposed to run out at large, and the whole both of Time at large and intimate Time also cut off for ever at that end. Apoc. 10. 6.

2. The whole of this Line, and of the last seventy five Years, is measured by even Indictions, or Fifteens of Years; the use of which Rising in the Reign of Constantine became well known by the beginning of this Line, which is one great Confirmation, that we are upon the true Time of it; for to declare this, as it were with Industry, there are even thirty joyn'd to the 1260, and more openly Three Fifteens, or For­ty Five to the 1290, that we may thereby be engag'd to look back upon the whole Line, and find it throughout so com­pacted, as may be easily computed, and hath been before observ'd on Daniel's Vision.

3. Each Community hath its just share in the intimate and full extended Time of this Line, and each twice given: The Beast hath first his intimate Time, twice given in Daniel; and by two forty two months, given first to his Gentiles, till his own rising, and then forty two Months to himself; he hath the utmost extent of Time, Times, half time, as before decla­red; and drawn out of the 2300 Evenings: In just corre­spondence with which, the Servants of God, as collected and congregated in the Woman, the Church, that they might not be accused as having Relation to no Church; and single in the Witnesses, and the Seed, who have the Witness, that Apo. 12. 17. [Page 23] the Church might not seem a Notion onely, have each one and the same 1260 da. drawn out of the 2300 mornings as­sign'd to them; and the Witnesses three dayes and a half, and the Woman three times and a half, or season, or inti­mate Time, answering the Beasts intimate Time, who must have the Servants of God as a subject to work upon while his Tyranny lasts.

Now that the Time at large, or the Twice 1260 Days, must needs be the same, and differ only in notion, as the Church, and the Witnesses, or the Seed that have the Witness of Jesus do, is most evident; because lying within the same Conti­nent of Time, Times, Semi Time, and being both of the long­est reach, and exactly of the same size, it is not possible they should begin or end sooner one than another, as we have found it possible the Gentiles and the Beasts months may do; For neither are they so united as the Woman and the Wit­nesses; And their months, though of the same size one with another, are yet not of an equal extent to time, times, half time, at their full length; nor to the 1260 dayes, the just measure of the three times and half; although both the Forty two months uniting, as we have said, are neither long­er nor shorter than the 1260 dayes, nor than the Three Times and half, the common Womb of all.

And even so the three Times and half of the Woman, and the three dayes and half of the Witnesses must be the same also, seeing the Witnesses and the Woman are the same, and the 1260 dayes the same, and no difference, but only notional, as was explain'd. For if they were different, the Woman should have no parallel to the three dayes and half of the Witnesses, nor the Witnesses have any parallel with the three times and half of the Witnesses, which, as most unbecoming so Uniform a Type, are impossible also in such a sameness.

Thus the Marches, or Out-lying Borders, as well as the Intimate Time are full, on the side of both Communities, the Beasts Tyranny, and the Sufferings of the Servants of God.

The last Seventy five years, by the Voices, Revel. 14. and by the Vials, Rev. 16. move on to the two utmost Pillars of Time. It is done, It is done, Rev. 16. 17. Rev. 21. 6.

Object. In the former or after Parts of this Discourse, I offer, as I hope, most Convictive Proofs of all these things in particular, and answer all Objections; I shall only at this time remove this one, viz. There seems no more reason to under­stand the forty two Months, as Lunar Months, than the days of Years, as Lunar Years.

Answ. There is very great difference, for if we look throughout the Scripture, and the whole manner of Jewish Computation of Time, we shall find, They always under­stood Months, Lunar Months; and the very Solemnity of their New Moons absolutely requir'd it, so that to under­stand them otherwise, must needs be to understand against that constant use of Scripture, and the Importance of the Name of their Months Scripture uses.

But now their Years were so necessarily Solar Years, for there can indeed be no Year but strictly Solar, that they most industriously provided to Adequate their Lunar Time to their Solar; by Intercalations, and Inserted Months, or a double Adar, which was their last Month of the Year; we every Leap-Year by a double Twenty Eighth of February; As may be seen by the Learned, in that Excellent Tract of Maimonides of Intercalations; which gives great light to this whole Matter: As shall be farther taken notice of in the af­ter Management of this Discourse.

Having given this general View of this Grand Prophetical Line of Time, which appears to be of sovereign Use to the Church of God, by the so often Repetition of it; I think it necessary to make these Practical Remarks upon it, for the universal profit of all that read it.

It ought to administer no Scandal to us, that Christianity Remark 1 hath yet had no greater Effect in the Universe upon Jews, Mahometans, Pagans; That it hath not won upon the world to an universal Conversion to it; That it hath not prevail'd upon Christians themselves, to higher degrees of Religious and [Page 25] Holy Affections and Actions; That it hath not reconcil'd Men more to one another, and made the Wolf and the Lamb to lye down together; That it hath not fill'd the Earth with the knowledge of God, as the Waters cover the Sea; That it hath not deriv'd down a more universal state of outward Bles­sing, Prosperity, Peace and Happiness; For these are the great Promises, and Pretentions of the Kingdom, Christ de­sign'd to erect in the World; now an Enemy hath done all this; in the Wisdom of God and Christ, the old Dragon, the Serpent, Satan hath inhabited, and acted a Bestian Empire, first as Pagan, and in the very appearance of a Dragon, watch­ing to devour the manly Birth of Christianity; and since That Empire became Christian; in a Bestian Kingdom of Aposta­sie; and this hath surpris'd and cut off the blessed Emanati­ons of Christianity and the Gospel, and made the Christian World, except in some small chosen Parts of it, like the Wil­derness, like Heathen, Pagan Nations and Kingdoms, full of Scandals, to the great hinderance of the other parts of the World from submission to the Scepter of Christ, or taking upon them his Name and Profession, and made ineffectual this Profession to the very Professors of it.

And this hath been, lo these twelve hundred and fifty years, wait only, till the ten are run out also, and you shall see a greater change in the World, than ever yet it hath known; Christianity shall then prevail more in a little time, than it hath done ever yet; The Light of one day shall be as the Light of seven, till it grows brighter and brighter, to the per­fect Day of Christs Kingdom; the first Conversions to Chri­stianity, though so great, as to be a very strong Argument of its Truth, were small, in comparison of what this shall be; for the Mistery of Iniquity began early to work; Ephe­sus, the Type of the Apostolical Church left its first love, as soon as the Apostles went off the World; and notwithstanding all the sufferings of the Primitive Christians, under the Type of Smyrna, yet a Synagogue of Satan, an authoritative Eccle­siastick Apostasie then overshaded it, till in the times figur'd [Page 26] by Pergamus, all was cover'd with the Throne of Sathan, a Supremacy of Apostacy; and so things went on, and they are not yet recover'd in the Best Christian Churches; but they shall be after the space of ten prophetical Days, that is, years; to that degree, that the Kingdoms of this World shall be proclaim'd to be the Kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, and so things shall go on amain to the Restitution of all things, as God hath spoken by his Prophets, since the World began, the Lord will hasten all this in his own time; and if it be wonder­ful in our Eyes, should it be therefore wonderful in Gods?

The Witnesses shall then put off their Sack-cloth, the ever­lasting Gospel shall be preached to every People and Language; the Monarchy of Christ Jesus shall be an Ʋniversal Monar­chy, and the Tenfold Principality, the ten Kings shall fall per­fectly off from the Beast, and the City, that is born up on high by it, that hath so long reign'd over the Nations and Kings of the Earth, shall fall.

Stay then you Atheists, and Despisers of all Religion, and asswage the high Atheistical Humour, see whether God hath not call'd the end, and declar'd it from the beginning, and de­clar'd all along the great things to come, that you and all may know that he is God, have so much Patience, as to see what these ten years will produce at their end; but if you will not be perswaded, take your fill of Atheism, and your fare­wel also; for the very Air you breath in, will be too bright, and hot for Atheism to live any longer in.

Let us, considering at what Door this fatal Apostasie Remark 2 enter'd, even at a departure from the Apostolical twelve, and so grew up to its number 666; let us, I say, fear the least re­move in Doctrine, Worship, and Practice from the foundati­on of the Prophets, and Apostles, or from Christ, the chief cor­ner stone.

We need not so much mind combating Parties in Reli­gion, by names hateful or reproachful to them; much less those little snatches at them by trifling Reflections upon them; let us center our selves upon Truth it self, in the [Page 27] word of God, and grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and that will secure us from this Error of the Wicked, and from falling from our own sted­fastness; this will cut off Offence from all but those, who are resolved to take Offence; this will preserve us in due regard to Authority, if we dissent from it, in matters of Religion; and yet we shall preserve our Religion, while we keep close to those Images of things, Scripture hath given us, and ob­serve those notes of Time it hath fitted to them, and suffer History, which is every mans Priviledge to read, to hear, or to know, even by the Law of Nature, to declare what fell out; and this we cannot be deny'd, since God hath fur­nished us in all things, and commands us to search his word, and to hear and read the Words of his Prophesie, and count the numbers he hath given, with Wisdom and Ʋnderstanding; and his Ministers are to expound to us, and then we are to search and try whether those things are so or not; and in all things receiv'd from the word of God we know, and all know, it is more reasonable to obey God than Men.

These are two things, in which the Happiness and Welfare of Man consists, for this World, and for that to come; both which he hath made, as certain and evident to us, as the Light.

One, and the First, and Principal, is true Religion, fix'd in his Word, with the present Consent of Natural Conscience, and the Awes of that, even whether we will or no. If we would but rest in the clear, plain, and undoubted Truths of it, and not be hasty of removing from them, till we have full Evidence from them to conduct us farther into Divine Knowledge, without suffering our own Fancy to mislead us, or our Credulity and sudden Belief of others, to hurry us ac­cording to their Impositions.

The Second is Loyalty, or Subjection to the Sovereign Pow­er set over us by God, and what that is, we may easily know; For the Sword of Justice is Supremely in the Hands of it, and the Government of that World in which we live, [Page 28] that the Disorders of Mankind may not swallow up it self, depends upon it; It carries before it a Terrour to evil works, and a praise to them that do well; Upon which account we must be subject, not only for wrath, but for Conscience sake. And when this is in the Hand of a Prince, whose Ancestors have been Princes throughout many Ages, when the Succes­sion is Clear and Lineal; we can have no greater Assu­rance, The Power that is, is ordain'd of God; And such, bles­sed be God, is the Case of our Nation, that we can have no possible Scruple.

Now our Subjection is clear, what it ought to be, even in all things, but our Religion, whether Reveal'd or Natural, for that is Gods; and to be rendered to him onely; All things else are Caesar's. A Christian, as a Christian, can have no Scruple or Doubt in any thing else, whatever it be; This he can by no means submit; It is to impeach Sovereignty in its highest Orb, even as it is to obey a Subordinate Magi­strate, sent by the King, against the King and his Supremacy. But in all things else, he needs as a Christian ask no Question for Conscience sake. What men may, as men, as the Subjects of such Laws, such Establishments, as every Nation hath pe­culiar to it self, insist upon, I leave to those Laws. I know as Christians, the rendering our Lives, our Estates, if call'd for by God, and the Edicts of Princes, cannot hurt our Consci­ences, but rendering our Religion to any but God and his Word, will.

So these two things, Religion and Loyalty, can never clash, can never interfere; for to deny the surrender of our Religion, can never hurt our Loyalty; for to be Religious according to the Word of God onely, and Natural Consci­ence guided by that, is the highest Loyalty: This is all the Loyalty Man can require; to render All things else without Resistance, and to Love, Honour, Pray for the Prince that re­quires all; our Loss God will recompence in the Resurrection of the Just. So a Christian hath no need to be Disloyal, if he understand his Religion aright: It is not our Loyalty to [Page 29] our Prince, to be of our Prince's Religion, though it be right, it is our Loyalty to God in the first place; so it is not Dis­loyalty not to be of the Princes Religion, if it be not accor­ding to the Word of God, when we render All but our Re­ligion, He can require; And this we need not fear to do, be­cause we cannot lose by it, our Reward will be great from our Father, who is in Heaven; and as Christians we should be asham'd to deny it; but in Religion, even to the least Ce­remony of it, except determined by natural decency or or­der, we have but one Father and Master, God and Christ, and here he hath neither Vicar, nor Vice-gerent, but his Spi­rit in his Word.

We should be content in this time of the Apostasie, with a Remark 3 mean Condition upon the account of Religion, not to seek Grandeur and Honour upon that Title; If God casts it on us, we should improve it to his Glory and the support of the Service, and Servants of Christ, it is the Beast and his Adhe­rents, that carry the Pomp and Greatness of this World in a Religious Equipage; it is even a suspition upon what is high, and stately, and in Opulency by Christianity; for Christs Wit­nesses are in Sack-cloch, it is the Time of the Delay of his Kingdom, and all his Servants are with him in the Patience of it; they ought not to ravish Glory, and surprise Dignity before the time, but to stay for it, till the appearance of Jesus Christ, the 1260 Days of Mourning, and of the Church in the Wilderness are not yet run out, the Beast is yet in Power; the Tenthliness of the City is not yet fallen, the Kingdom of Christ is not yet proclaimed.

It is no wonder, there is yet so great a Rent and Division Remark 4 in Christian Religion, that any thing unreasonable, or a frame of things most contrary to it, bears up against all the urgencies of Scripture and Reason, and will not be bafled nor ashamed; but vouches high, and pretends aloft; so it should be, that Prophesie may be fulfilled, The Beast and his Adherents are obstinate to the last, even when the Elevation of things against them shall be much higher then now, when [Page 30] Evidences from Heaven shall be much more sensible, they blas­pheme and repent not. Christianity from so long an Antiquity, and the profession of it shields and defends their Pretensions, and carries a shade over them, even wherein they depart from it, and most Apostatize, this keeps up the Controversie, and perpetuates the Dispute.

But within a Time, a short Time it will be decided; it will come to that publick Declaration of the Witnesses Ascen­tion, of their Song before the Throne, the positive Denunciati­on, If any man worship the Beast, and his Image, He shall drink of the wrath of God, and &c, will put an end to all Dispute, Revel. 14. 9.

In the mean time, let not any pretence stagger us, The man of sin ought to sit in the Temple of God; his seat then must be founded in a profession of the true Religion; his Antiquity signifies nothing; for he ought to be a Beast of forty two months of years, or above twelve hundred years standing. His Pretences from any thing said or done before that 1260, how early soever, if it be not found evident in Scripture, is of no avail; for the Mystery of Iniquity, the Womb out of which He came, was at work, and in a Mystery so secret, so cunning, as not to be discern'd by many good men; and all to bring him to what he was, and is; the Spirit of Antichrist was then in the World.

It is no wonder Princes continue so devoted to him, and his City, he calls a Church; the words of God are not yet ful­filled concerning him, but they shall consider, and change their Minds when God puts it into their Hearts; and therefore we ought earnestly to pray for them, whatever their Perswasions are now; that God would continue their Lives, for they shall then be Instruments in his hand; that change so near approaching shall be most orderly, most regularly by Princes themselves induced by Evidences from Heaven, of an extraor­dinary nature; God will not be help'd herein, but by his own Vicegerents, whom he hath appointed, whom he hath or­dain'd; no Sedition, Rebellion, may grow from hence; It is [Page 31] to be quieted, appeas'd, and even rooted up by this Doctrine, even as it is utterly condem'd by it, for God will appear, and Princes with him.

But yet on this, nor on any other Account, can there be a Reconciliation, a Composition with this false state of Chri­stianity: there may be such Attempts, for there will be a Synagogue of Satan rising a-new at the very approach of Christ's Kingdom, before the end yet of the 1260 Days: It appears as if there would be so; for Philadelphia, the best State of the Christian Church before the New Jerusalem, and with which it united, shall receive Acknowledgment from such a Synagogue, that Christ hath lov'd it. Revel. 3. 9.

But this Representation of Bestianism, obstinate, impeni­tent to the Last in the Body of it, as it is the decisive Argu­ment, and beyond all Volumes of Dispute, because it is di­vine, perpendicular, down-right, swift, and sudden in its De­termination; so it shews the impossibility of meeting half­way, accepting Terms to any good Effect.

We know not what may be between this present Time, though but a Remnant, and the end of the 1260 Days. There may be an Eye of the Witnesses kill'd, and lying dead, three days and a half, a return of former Darkness in some parts at least: I apprehend it not in this Nation; yet God only know­eth; it is not so far reveal'd, so far as I have found; but I hope not: There may be a Synagogue of Satan; a Project of Compounding; this I more fear: but let us obtain and main­tain a full Victory over the Image, the Mark, the Name, and the Number of the Name. But it is certain, it is but ten prophetical Days, and the Witnesses shall not only every where rise, but every where come out of their Sackcloath, out of which, the true Witnesses of God are no where yet come: Then they shall, for the mouth of the Lord hath spo­ken it.

So many certain Notes, Characters, and Boundaries of Time as I have drawn together in the compute of this Line of Time with it self, and that are given as Assistants to it, [Page 32] though not immediately of the Essence and Body of it; can be no more by chance than many Pictures exactly resembling several Persons pertaining to a Family, and found in the Mansion of such a Family, and at such Times when such Per­sons were known to be so appertaining to it, can be by chance: Forc'd they are not; for things themselves conspire: Fancyful and Arbitrary they are not; for they cannot be chang'd, or remov'd at Pleasure, nor any like them made.

If then they are truly Scriptural and Divine, How cer­tainly shall they be fulfilled in their Season? All counter-Appearances can signifie no more, than the Israelites severer Usage by Pharaoh argued against their Deliverance by Moses. All the Disaffection in the Age to Interpretation of Prophe­cies, or its insensibleness of them, can no more disprove them than Christ's coming as a Thief upon Sardis at an Hour it knew not, shall be disprov'd by the Sleepiness and Unwatch­fulness of that Church.

Let us then with Resolution, Constancy of Obedience, Strength of Faith, Labour of Love, Patience of Hope, wait for, and come to the end of these ten days, and from them to the 1335 Days, where Blessedness shall certainly be.

But if we should say, We may dye before those Ten Years are come to their Period, and there is no Probability or Possibility we should live to the seventy five beyond, or the 1335 of Blessedness:

I answer; The Saints of God living on Earth shall receive their share in all the Glories of his Kingdom, and the several degrees of it: and they that dye, hoping, waiting, desiring, praying, shall be rais'd in the very same posture of Soul wherein they died: so that they, who by a general Faith and Obedience waited, and came in Daniel's Time, and ever since, viz. by earnest Prayers, Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly, shall be blessed; even as they who by particular Faith and Obedience wait, and come at the Time it self.

And in the mean time, the Souls of Saints above, the Spi­rits of just men, who shall be perfected at that time, cele­brate [Page 33] in Heaven all the Advances of Christ's Kingdom, even as they pray for it: as the Souls under the Altar, cry, How long Lord, &c. so they rejoyce at every Rising of Christ's Kingdom; so do the same Souls, Rev. 12. 10. So Rev. 14. 3. They, that sing that new song, harping with their Harps. So They, Rev. 15. 3. So they, Rev. 19, &c. Such is the univer­sal Song of Triumph of the Palm-bearing company, Revel. 7. 10. Let us not therefore despond, but be abundant in the work of the Lord, knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.

Why should it be thought an incredible thing▪ that God Remark 6 should draw in his Word the Plot of Future Time to so great a Period as the Kingdom of Christ? That all Futurity is within the Grasp of Infinite Omniscience, cannot be doubt­ed, Known to God are all his Works from the beginning to the end. The Scheme of all that hath been, before it was, or that shall be, is always with Him, as if it just now was, in all the circumstances and Life of a present Appearance, in whose E­ternity, All present, past, to come, are all one. The whole Table of Time is always before Him.

Does it then pertain to the Prerogative of Omniscience, that Future Things should be known only to himself? It does so indeed, any further than he is pleas'd to reveal them. But He that challenges the false Divinities of the Heathen, that they could not declare things to come, hath certainly gi­ven Isa. 42. 23. Instances of his own Prescience, and Demonstrations of it to his People. Hath he not done so in all Ages, by his Servants the Prophets? Is he not as Liberal to the Ages of Christianity, to the state of things under the Gospel of his Son, whom he hath constituted Heir of all things, and put in subjection to him the World to come, of which we speak.

Or, is the Glory of Divine Truth so great, that even as immediate Appearances, the Power of Miracles, and extraor­dinary Revelations have ceas'd since the full Settlement and Sealing the Volume of Truth in the Gospel, so Prophecy needs not now. This indeed hath much of Reason, yet even [Page 34] as all Truth is compriz'd in that Volume, so are the Grand Revolutions pertaining to the Christian Church, in the same Volume; and therefore whatever God hath done for the former World, the very same hath he summ'd up in the New Testament.

When therefore we have, besides the Interspersion of Pro­phecy in several places of it, a Book wholly Dedicated to Prophecy, Blessed is he that heareth and readeth the words of this Prophecy; Have we not reason then to expect the course of things to the very end in it?

But does not the Prophecy it self say, The Things were shortly to come to pass? So that what is to be found in it pertain'd to the primitive Age, the Destruction of Jerusalem, to the Time when Christianity was well settled, and till Pa­gan Rome became Christian.

It is true indeed, The Divine Revelator, Jesus Christ our Lord, does say, the things were shortly to come to pass, that is, to begin to come to pass. They were then upon motion; but as a great Army is said to come immediately, when the Avant-Corriers are coming, or come, although the whole Body and Rear may be considerable distances off, so this whole Series, and Chain of Events in the Revelation come quickly, although the first and the last part differ so many Ages. Is it not clear and visible, that there is the Beginning of Things, and the End of Things in every mans Apprehen­sion plain and evident, that is, from the Resurrection, and to the Day of Judgment? and why then should we not be­lieve, there is the Middle of Things also? Why should we imagine, Prophecy hath made such a Leap over the Between Lying Times, seeing they were very great? Did it not be­hove his Church and Servants to know of so great, and wide spreading an Imposture as Mahometanisme? Was it nothing to it, Christianity should be in so low and dark a state, as it was from the lowest Fall of the Western Empire to the Ruine of the Eastern Empire, in both which the principal Residen­ces of it were; and so long space as from 666, to 1453.

But still, it may be said, If such a Prophecy be, it does not become us to pry into it; it is the Ark of secret things, that do not belong to us. Why then does Christ say, Bles­sed is he that heareth the words of this Prophecy? Why doth he command him that hath Wisdom and Ʋnderstanding, to count the Number of the Beast? Why doth He, in explication of the Seven Heads say, Here is the Mind that hath Wisdom? Why had Christ the Revelation to shew to his Servants?

But was it not all one, as if they had not been reveal'd, since the Revelation was not pretended to be understood in former Times? I answer, we do not know what was under­stood, the Apostacy so cover'd and muffled all Things, and does yet so darken them; The universal prejudice against the Explanation of this Prophecy is, I doubt not, the effects of this Apostasie: But that there hath gone a stream of Light from hence to the Servants of Christ, by the Witnesses in eve­ry Age, is to me out of all question, and that it hath disco­ver'd the Things most necessary to that Age, although the Light hath been not only clearer, but the knowledge that such a Light hath been, more certain to us since the last Age and Half, and shall be every day clearer and clearer.

When therefore there are so many Types so very propor­tionable to Events, so agreeable to the Notes of Time, and even so scituated in the Course and Series of the Revelation, except that in some Chapters, as 11, 12, 13, 17, 21, there are on great occasions Recollections, and yet even those, in order to going on, as I have abandantly shewn; I cannot un­derstand, why these things, and their Explications should ap­pear so strange and unreasonable to us.

But however, the Glory of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be unspeakably Great, when the whole Admini­stration of his Kingdom delay'd shall be drawn out of what he had so curiously depainted in the Prophecy of the beloved Daniel, and the Apocalypse of the beloved Apostle John, and with Admiration and Ravishment His Servants shall behold the one in the other.

Let all this perswade us, to have kinder, and more benign Inclinations to the Interpretation of this Prophecy; which, if we are the true Servants, and Lovers of Christs Kingdom, we have no reason to fear: only the Apostasie, and Enemies of it, have reason to fear it. And they indeed have, and do still operate against its Exposition, as knowing it speaks no good of them nor to them, and, which is wonderful, convey, in­ject, and insinuate the same Disgust into the minds of many good men.

Seeing one great Reason of the unholiness of Life among Remark 7 the generality of Christians, is the Apostasie, prevailing against the Power of Christianity and Godliness, under the Form of it; in this we ought above all to overcome it. It is impossible so excellent a Doctrine, as of the Gospel, should be environ­ed and cover'd with such an outrage of Prophaneness and Wickedness, if the force of its Beams were not intercepted and eclipsed. In this therefore, I say, we ought most particu­larly to overcome, in all the lustre of Christian Graces, where­by we may shine as Lights in the midst of a crooked and per­verse Generation. For to this Overcomming all the Promises are made. Rev. 21. 7.

If we do not overcome the Apostasie in this, we do not over­come it at all; but sink into it, while we never so much pro­fess to abhorr it; but if we overcome it by sincere Faith and Repentance, and Fruits meet for those Graces, so that we thus wash our Robes white in the Blood of the Lamb, we may, notwithstanding darkness and mistake in some things, have right to enter through the Gates into the City, to eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradice of God, to drink of the Wa­ter of Life that runs through the midst of it; but if we are in the foul Impurities of the Apostasie, our dreadful doom is to be without the City, as Dogs, and to have our part in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone, where the Beast, and the false Prophet are, and the Devil, that deceived them, is at the end of all cast for ever. Rev. 20. 10. ch. 21. 8.

SECT. IV.
A more particular Allocation, or just placing of the States and Times one to another, shewing the necessity of their enfolded Equality to, and with one another.

I Have thus far in a more general view of the Particulars of this Line, presented the compute of the Times, and of each of their Characters, with the correspondent States: I will now more amply and particularly remonstrate upon the States, and so adjust them to the Times, and their Characters, as may fully evince their close Connexion, and the absolute and most necessary equality of all the States and Characters of this Line, one to and with another.

And that we may plainly have together, and under one Glance, that which hath been spoken of, and is farther to be spoken of and made good, I thus delineate it.

The States are the Beasts Tyranny, and the Sufferings of the Servants of God under it; distinguish'd by various live­ly Remarks.

The Characters are those Notes of Time God hath affix'd to, and determin'd upon these States, making up one Line of Continuance, or Duration of those States.

These two▪ the States and the Characters, are thus to be suited one to the other.

There is one common Continent, or Womb of Time, that incloses each State, and all the Characters of Time given to each State, that is, Time, Times, half a Time, with three days and a half, declaring Time at large, and intimate Time, or Seasons.

There is one equal Standard-Line, making certain and de­finite the space of that common Continent, taken out of the 2300 Ev. Morn, viz. 1260 going on to 1290. The State fit­ted to it is the taking away of the Daily, Dan. 12. v. 11.

Intimate Time taken out of that common Continent is twice given on the Beast's side, viz. Season, Seasons, Half Season. The States fitted to each are wearing out the Saints of the most High, changing Times and Laws given into his hand, Dan. 7. 25. scattering the Power of the holy People, Dan. 12. 7. doing all these to the utmost, or accomplishing to do them in the highest degree.

The same intimate Time is twice given to the Servants of God also; viz. Three days and half to the Witnesses. The State fitted to it is to be kill'd, and to lye dead, but not to be suffer'd to be buried or extinguish'd, Revel. 11. 7, 8, 9. and three Times and a half to the Woman, whose State fitted to it is to be so in the Wilderness, as to be hid from the Face of the Serpent, but yet to be nourished, Rev. 12. 14.

The Time at large is twice assign'd on the Beasts part, Forty two Months taken out of the 2300 Even. or Nights, given to the Gentiles. The State fitted to them is treading the outward Court, and Holy City, whereby the Daily is taken away, at the very Beginning of the 1260, lying in 1290, ac­cording to Dan. 12. 11. compar'd with Revel. 11. 2, 3. The second Time Forty two Months to the Beast himself, Doing all he does to the last Continuance or Accomplishment to the last Moment, is the State fitted to them, Revel. 13. 5. and both these Forty two Months twist into one Space, equal to 1260 Days.

The same Time at large is twice adjusted to the Servants of God in twelve hundred sixty Days, taken out of the 2300 Morn. or Days; once to the Witnesses; and the State fitted to it is Prophecy in Sackcloth, yet with great Vertues and Powers resident in them, Revel. 11. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. and once to the Woman in the Wilderness, yet as in a Place prepared by God, where they should feed her, Revel. 12. 6. And these two 1260 Days are perfectly both one, neither longer nor shorter than themselves.

Between the Time at large, and Intimate Time, or Season, there is a Pillar erected to shew where Season begins, and [Page 39] by proportion where it ends, viz. The Beasts Number, as Lord of the intimate Time especially, and it is 666, from its Root 25, after the Resurrection, to 725; and the State of it is, That no man may buy or sell that hath not the Mark, or Name on his Right-hand, or on his Fore-head, or the Name, or the Number of the Name, nor so much as live if he doth not worship the Image. The end of which intimate Time is by Proportion 1517, and so on, Rev. 13. 15. to the end.

But now besides this measure of intimate Time, because the Beast is Lord of Time, Times, Half a Time, and so con­stituted by God, his Forty two Months are an exact Measure also of the whole Line, beginning at that most famous Epoch, so well known to History, the Cessation of the Western Em­pire 475, whence his Forty two Months, to be set as Lunar Time to the 1260 Days of Solar Time, must be 1222, and so beginning at 475, must end at 1697, with the 1260 Days beginning 437, thirty eight Years before them with the Gentiles Forty two Months; according to the Laws of this Line of Time, and of the Sun's and Moon's Motion, collated one with another.

And to confirm the right Calculation of this whole Time to us, Imperial Time is adjusted to it by the Emblems of the falling Empire in the West, till the vulgar 606, when the Beast, as a Star falling to the Earth, enlightned that Western Empire, so darkned before, that neither Sun, nor Moon, or Stars, shined in its third part, and presently after arose the Mahometan Hegira, or Account of Time at 626; the which Imperial Time is accounted till the Fall of the Eastern Empire, under the same Emblem of the third part of Men, which also is to be cleared: within seventy Years of which, intimate Time ceases, and that Change we call the Reformation ensu'd at 1517, represented by its most significant Emblems, and the Mahometan Power still continued, and yet is to conti­nue to the end of the whole Line 1260, which goes to 1290, and so to 1335, the happy end of all the 2300 Ev. Morn. All which I cannot but hope will be acknowledg'd a rational and clear Account of this admirable Line.

Now of every of these particulars, I undertake particu­larly to discourse; and although, I confess the Order of Nature is first to speak of the Kernel of Time, or the inti­mate Time, to which the Fore-going Time at large is but a Preparation, and After-Time but an Accomplishment; yet because I must follow, as the Divine Spirit hath gone before, I begin with the Ambient Time of the Gentiles Forty two Months, and of the Witnesses twelve hundred sixty Days in Sack-cloth, and of the Woman in the Wilderness, that first ap­pear, and are plac'd as in Complex one with another, before the Inner Time, or Season. In beginning with which, Sacred Prophecy is pleas'd to make the way plainer to us.

To begin then first with the Gentiles, Treading the Holy Court and City, which, as hath been declared, does not run as a principal Character, but at farthest, to the first part of the intimate State, or Season, and there is supported by the latter Forty two Months of the Beast to the very end of the whole 1260 dayes.

Now the knowledge of this either State or Character of Time, is peculiarly given by the Apocalypse, and hath no other Intimation in Daniel, than what is common to the Time, Times, Semi-Time, and to the Twelve hundred sixty, joyn'd with the Thirty more, and so making Twelve hundred ninety, at the taking away the Daily, and yet, because it is of very great Use and Necessity in this Account of Time, there­fore is given so distinct and express in this excellent Apoca­lyptick Prophecy, which surpasses Daniel, even as the New Testament exceeds the Old, and as Revelation, however my­stical, excells Type, and Figure of an older date.

Now the great Use of this Character is this, When the Beast does neither in the Account of Prophecy, nor Accord of Hi­story, rise, till some years after the Twelve hundred sixty years began, nor reach his State especially design'd to be set out by Daniels Prophecy, till many years after the 1260 years began, viz. the very beginning of his most intimate State, at his so often mentioned 666, in prevision of which, it is said, The [Page 41] Saints, Times and Laws are given into his hand, Season, Sea­sons, Dan. 7. 25 and half a Season, meaning this intimate Time. Upon all this, it may well be ask'd, How came the Daily to be Ta­ken so early away? what is the occasion of the Witnesses put­ting on Sack-cloth, or the Womans flying into the wilderness, seeing all these belong to the Beasts Tyranny, who did not yet exist, nor till so long after appear'd Regnant, or why are the Twelve hundred sixty days made to begin so much soo­ner than the Beasts Forty two months?

Now in Answer to this, The Gentiles treading under foot the holy Court and City, appears timely, to give cause to all these things; and to shew the Agreement of Prophecy here­in with it self; These Gentiles are no other, than they, that are said, Revel. 13. to dwell on the Earth, whose Names are not written from the foundation of the world in the Lambs Book of Life, whom that [...], that other Beast, ver. 11. (of whose two Horns like a Lamb was spoken before, and who is hereaf­ter further to be explain'd) instructed to worship the Grand Apocalyptick Beast, as one with the Pagan Roman Empire in its Idolatrous Universality, call'd therefore the First Beast, and to make an Image to it, viz. an Image unto its Idolatry, and to its Monarchy; which Things are hereafter to be ex­plain'd upon the Beast; but at present it is easie to be un­derstood. The newly Christianiz'd Pagans of the Roman Em­pire, were, under the Change of the Emperours to Christians, violently chang'd to the Profession of Christianity, and yet at the same time fond of their Ancient Pagan Rites and Cu­stoms, as also, of the Glory of their Ʋniversal Empire, East, and West: Now meeting with that Two-horn'd Lamb-like Beast, fond of the same Sensual Religion, but in another sort of Imagery, as also of the Earthly Universality and Glory, but of it, in another Appearance also; it may very readily be conceiv'd, how complyant they were one with the other in both these things, so as immediately to fill up the Out­ward Court, and to Take away the true Datly Publick Wor­ship of God, and so to prepare for the Bestian Kingdom un­der [Page 42] the Seventh Head, before his Existence in his own For­ty two months, and much more before his Regnancy, to which he himself, as a principal or chief Member of the other Beast, though not yet the Grand Beast, and after in his own Infancy, when his 42 Months began, as that Grand Beast, was never wanting in his Contributions; All which rightly con­ceiv'd, does wonderfully conciliate the Prophecy to the Hi­story; especially when I come to clear all Doubts upon those two Beasts, Apoc. 13.

For thus, according to Daniel, All these things were ne­gotiating for the Beast, who was the Prince design'd, and on whom all redounded in the Issue, and these Gentiles un­der the other Beast were to be his Subjects, and the other Beast his False Prophet, zealous of him and of his worship, and so the Daily worship was Taken away from before him, or out of his way, the way of his Rising, as Daniel fore­told.

And thus, according to the Revel. the Gentiles tread the Holy Court, and the Witnesses put on Sack-cloth upon it, and the Woman flyes into the Wilderness; for what these Gen­tiles do, they do by the Conduct of that other Beast, who from his Lamb-like Horns, yet spake as a Dragon, in resem­blance of the Pagan Dragon, while they convey his Power to the Grand Beast of the Seventh Head.

How fitly then, the Gentiles Forty two months of treading the Holy Court are made the First note of Time, will be easi­ly understood, if we consider these particulars.

1. That the Holy City first, and then the Outer-Court of the Temple was the onely due place of Sacrifice, of the Jews Daily of Publick Worship, after God had plac'd his Name there; So that no fitter Type of the Daily Christian Services and Sacrifices, than the Holy City, and the Outward Court of the Temple.

2. That nothing could more express the Taking away the Jews Daily Sacrifice, than the Gentiles invading, crowding in, and filling the City and Court; For how great a violati­on [Page 43] and defilement, even according to the Divine Appoint­ment, that was, appears by the uproar against the Apostle Paul, upon a supposition of a Gentile brought by him into the Temple; so their Daily Sacrifice must cease of necessity, upon the Gentiles coming into the Holy City and Court, by an Authoriz'd Violence, like a Flood, and continuing so to do; therefore the Gentiles Treading the Court, makes a fit Symbole of the Jewish Daily Service Taken away; Propor­tionably these Gentiles, or Paganiz'd Christians, taking up the whole room of it, as if they were the Church and Peo­ple of God, do as notably answer the Type, as can be con­ceiv'd by defiling the whole Christian Publick Service, and thrusting out the true Worshippers; These uncircumcised, in Heart and in Flesh, not inwardly Gracious, nor keeping so much as to the outward circumcision of the pure Worship of God, break the very Covenant of Sacrifice, and Holy Ser­vice to God; for no such are to enter the true Christian Temple, Ezekiel 45. 7. [...], what placing together can there be of the Temple of God and Idols? Of True Christians and Pagan Christians, it is a very unequal Yoke. 2. Cor. 6. 16.

This most admirably also answers the prophetical Type of the daily Sacrifice taken away by Antiochus, Call'd Epiphanes. for first the false and revolting Jews would make a Covenant with the Heathen, and obtained Licence of the King to do after the Ordinan­ces of the Heathen; because the Land had more Peace then, whereupon they built a Place of Exercise at Jerusalem, ac­cording to the Custom of the Heathen; and then in Gods Account the daily was taken away from, or before that wicked Prince Antiochus, Dan. 8. 11. Then he entred Proudly into the Sanctuary, and so things went on to the utmost Extremi­ty and height; that all should leave their own Laws, and the People be one, and whoever would not do according to the Com­mandment of the King, should dye, and the daily Service was openly forbidden; so Jerusalem became [...] a Habitation of Strangers or Gentiles, then the Sanctuary be­came [Page 44] a Desolation, [...], It was desolated as a Wilderness, and became [...], an alien to its Off-spring and they to it, and then all was turned, [...], into the Mourning and squalor of sackcloth at the Appearance of the Abomination that maketh desolate, which was set up the fifteenth of the Month Casleu, in the 145th year of the Grecian Kingdom; and on the five and twen­tieth day of the same Month, they sacrific'd upon the Idola­trous Altar, and that this might be done without controul, and the true Religion banished; they rent in pieces the Books of the Law, wherever they were found, and wheresoever was found with any the Book of the Testament, or if any consented to the Law, the Kings Commandment was, that they should put him to death. Howbeit many in Israel were fully resol­ved, and confirm'd in themselves to keep close to the Divine Law and Rule, in all things, and accordingly suffer'd.

But exactly three years after, as the History reports, the sanctuary was cleans'd, and the daily service restored; and a year after that Antiochus dyed as a Prince broken without hand. This is the sum of the Relation, 1 Macc. c. 1. c. 4. cap. 6.

Now how admirably this prophetical Type of Antiochus's enacting the taking away the daily Jewish service, the way being prepared by the paganiz'd Jews, the Methods and De­grees by which all was done, the Restoration that followed, and then the divine Judgment upon the Tyrannous Prince himself, how admirably I say all this Answers the Table of things before us, is even amazing; as also that the History was not onely preserved by Providence (Divine Revelation being then intermitted, till Christ, which is not without its significancy) that it hath not been only, I say, preserved, but inserted however unduely into the sacred Records, by those, by whomsoever it was done, that by a Witness and Prophet of their own, a Scripture of their own Canonizing, such an Eye of time though much shorter, and such a Typical Deline­tion, allowing for some lesser Disagreements, so wonder­fully exact should be ratifyed, and that this Map of things [Page 45] might be not only extant, but so illustrious, as to have be­come in their Account part of the Bible, and bound up so generally with it by their Influence who were indeed con­cern'd, it should have been blotted out from under Heaven.

But that in which we are at present most interessed, is, That by the Apostacy of the Gentiliz'd Christians, the Dai­ly of the publick Worship of Christians first ceas'd; and so in God's Account, the Mourning or Sackcloth of the Wit­nesses, and the Wilderness-state of the Woman the Church, by that Gymnasium, that Place of Exercise, or Academy for Idolatry, to train and school men up to it, was brought in­to the Holy City: even thus the remaining Love to Paga­nism began the Covenant or Composition between Gentilism and false Christianity, exchanging the one into the other, and on the very same Account, because the Land then infested with the barbarous Irruptions, needed such Maozzim, or Pa­trons, and Defenders, as Idols before, and the Saints Departed now. And so all things went on to the 666, the Number of the Beast, his Image, Mark, Name, and the Number of his Name; so that one would be prone to think, The [...]. Treading the Ho­ly City under foot by the Gentiles, [...]. the Witnesses Sackcloth, [...]. the Wilderness of the Woman, [...]. Her Seed at the same time aggress'd, were all taken from the Maccabean Words we mention'd before; although it is evident, they have their Ground of Allusion chiefly from Sacred Writ it self, yet by way of Argument, ad Homines, to the Men themselves, this is no unworthy Observation, nor can it seem undesign'd by Providence.

4. There is in this very Epoch of the wonderful Line we are upon, such a Concurrence of Prophetical Notes both of the States, and of the Times adjusted, that it is as if the Ho­ly Spirit of Prophecy had said to us, Observe it; This is the Beginning, the Era, and Epoch of it.

For first, the treading the Holy City and the Court, is in words the very same with the place of the Sanctuary cast down, and the Sanctuary, and the Host given to be trodden under foot, [Page 46] Dan. 8. v. 11. 13. in the Vision of the Daily taken away, and of the 2300 Ev. Morn. From whence is to be concluded, that the Forty two Months must, as was before asserted, be de­tach'd from the 2300 Even. and that there the Daily taken away begins.

The 1260 Days immediately following in Account, as concurrent with the 42 Months, shew, They are taken out of the 2300 Morn. and confirm this to be the Time of the Daily taken away, because the Daily taken away is the Cha­racter of the first Point of Time to the Twelve hundred nine­ty; of which Twelve hundred, sixty must needs be part, see­ing they go on to 1335 at the end of all; and so many can­not be found in the 2300, which is the Date of the whole Vision of the daily taken away, or in so great a Number, but in these 1290, joyn'd with 1335.

The twelve hundred sixty being joyn'd, and the same twelve hundred sixty, with those of the Womans dwelling in the Wil­derness, do both set the Era, or beginning of that State, to be even with the Daily taken away, and do also shew the Equality of Time, Times, half a Time, with the twelve hun­dred sixty days, if taken at their full extent; for they are joyn'd, Dan. 12. with the scattering the Power of the Holy Peo­ple, which scattering was 1260 Days, Revel. 12. 6. And Time, Times, half Time, com­pare v. 14. there be­ing not a plainer Expression of the Wilderness-state in an Old Testament mystical Prophecy, than scattering; and that Word, accomplishing to scatter, does subindicate some Power that be­gan this scattering, which was this of the Gentiles, and then that the Antichristian Prince accomplish'd this scattering, both to the highest degree, and to the utmost moment it was to last; and because he, as hath been said, is Lord of the Time, Times, Half Time, the very naming them is naming of him: And now, if all this be not demonstrative of the Epoch, or Beginning of these 1260 Days, I shall be bold to say, No­thing in Prophetical Scripture is capable of being demonstra­ted, so much as by, and within Prophetick Scripture it self; which to assert, must needs weaken the Evidence of Scrip­ture by and from it self throughout.

I confess, it may seem, the Church is sooner in the Wilder­ness than the Witnesses are in Sackcloth; for assoon as the Wo­man brought forth the Man-child, it was caught up to the Throne of God; which Bringing forth and Enthroning was certainly when the Empire became Christian in Constantine; and that was long before 437, when the Witnesses put on Sackcloth, as I assert.

But to clear this, it is to be consider'd, there are three synchronous Descriptions of the very Beginning of this Line of Time, or of the Apostacy.

The first is bottom'd upon the substantial and sensible Foundations of Imperial History, under prophetick Figures; viz. Of the blasted Western Empire, embellish'd with very curious Types of the Apostacy then beginning, as shall be shewn upon the first Trumpet sounding, when we come to it.

The second is by the more Scriptural Images of the Wit­nesses putting on Sackcloth, on account of the Gentiles treading the Holy City, or Court.

And the third by the parallel Shade of the Woman flying into the Wilderness.

The First hath a plain distinct Indication of things prepa­ring to the Apostate State, in the Declaration of a new Roll of Martyrs, Revel. 6. 11. c. 7. c. 8. v. 1. in the sealing the 144000 Sufferings after the Christian Empire, in the Silence in Heaven for only half an Hour, in the Angels preparing to sound; all which were so many distinct Steps towards the Apostacy. This is the most full and clear.

The Second hath one like it, in the Reed given to John, with a Command to measure the Temple, which was parallel and contemporary to the Sealing, by all Rules of Proporti­on; as we shall see.

The Third is, the Womans flying into the Wilderness; where indeed there is no open mention of a Preparation, but the Event is given in one view, viz. The Woman flying into the Wilderness; yet in that the Woman having been first spoken [Page 48] of, her History, as to the utmost extended Time of the Apo­stacy, is given together; so, as to make it evident, the so sudden Assignation of the 1260 Days in the Wilderness is gi­ven both to match the Preparation of the two former Types to the Apostacy, as also to joyn the Witnesses, and the Womans twelve hundred sixty Days into one; and the true Order both of that Preparation and Vergency, as also of the 1260 Days beginning is given in the second giving of the Womans Times and Half Time, as shall be made most clear, when we come to parallel these three synchronous Descriptions in their Events at the First Trumpet.

Now as to the Involution of these Three States, and Cha­racters, as necessarily contemporizing one with another, it is even self-demonstrative: for when the Daily Service of God is taken away, and the Bestian Gentiles delay the King­dom of Christ in Preparation to the Antichristian Prince; the Witnesses must, if there be such a prophetick Type, prophecy in Sackcloth, and retire to the Altar of Incense, as to private Worship: and if the Woman be the same with the Witnesses or her Seed; if They are hid in Sackcloth, and there be such a Type as of her self in the Wilderness fed with hidden Manna; how can both be, but at the same Time? And if the Witnesses be in Sackcloth, and the VVoman in the VVilderness, and there be such a Type as of the Gentiles treading the Holy Court, That, and That only, being then in view (the Beast being not ri­sen) must be the occasion of it: And if there be such a Type as Sealing, which signifies Secrecy, Retirement, and Delay, the efficacy of that must be at the same Time with the parallel Symbols: for this ought to be a Standard throughout; The Gentiles and the Beast causing the Sufferings of God's Ser­vants, and the Servants of God, the Sufferers must in all things parallel one another, according to the Degrees of Ele­vation; for the Action of the one necessarily produces Suffer­ings, the State of the other receives Sufferings, as necessarily; so their several Symbols require there must be the Efficients to work; there must be the Subjects to work upon, Both at the same Time.

There are yet two Symbols more, Tangents, or immedi­diately joyn'd with the beginning of this Line, that come in to our Assistance; and they are the true Worshippers, retiring within the Temple, enfolded with the Gentiles entring the outer Court, and the Servants of God under the efficacy of their Seal, at the first Trumpet.

That we may make all things then most clear, with rela­tion to this Epoch, let us more distinctly compare all the Symbols of this Prophecy, that immediately touch it, and pierce as far as we can into their sense and meaning, and joyn therewith that their immediate Touch of this Epoch: For if by all these we can well fix it, it is an absolute, and undoubted foundation of the whole Time.

Now there are four Symbols, all meeting to begin this Time, upon each of which, we may either Recollect the Substance of what hath been already spoken upon any of them, or dilate our Thoughts upon what in any of them hath not yet been explain'd, and see how any Intimations, or Notes of Compare among themselves reflect Light from one to another.

1. That which comes first in the order of the Prophecy, as also in order of nature, is, the sealing the hundred forty four thousand, into a Secresie and close Retirement; For a Seal on their Foreheads, and the Name of the Lambs Father written on their Foreheads, differ, as a Writing seal'd, and a Title open, and in Capital Letters; compare Revel. 7. v. 1. &c. and Revel. 14. v. 1. &c.

2. The Temple, the Altar, and the Worshippers therein, Re­duc'd within close, and confin'd measures, is the next given Symbol. And here it is necessary to inquire, what is meant by the Temple, and the Altar, because the Temple sometimes is taken for the whole Area or ground, upon which it self, and all its Courts and Avenues stood, yea, even the whole City Jerusalem was reputed a Court to it, and the Holy City thereupon we find it styl'd. But the Temple at other times is taken strictly for that retyr'd part of it that was under co­vert, [Page 50] and into which the Priests only came; There were al­so two Altars, one in the Outer Court, which was the Al­tar of Burnt-offering and Sacrifice; in approach to which the Congregation came: and the Altar of Incense within the Tem­ple, to which the Priests only drew near, and the People stood without. Luke 1. 9, 10. 2. 22.

Now it may be a Doubt, what Temple, and what Altar are here intended, and the deciding of the Altar will much contribute to the deciding of the Temple; And that the Al­tar of Incense is alone intended, and the Inward Cover'd Temple, in which it stood, before the Vail, or the Holy of Ho­lies, these three things do enough assure us.

1. The Altar of Incense is brought into view and obser­vation, just before this Time, of the measuring the Temple, (as shall be prov'd) and in distinction from that Altar, un­der which the Souls lay as Sacrifices, compare Revel. 6. ver. 9. ca. 8. v. 5. &c: as it were to intimate, that the Daily Pub­lick Worship, under the Type of Sacrifice, was near its Ta­king away, and the private close Worship at the Altar of In­cense succeeding, and within the Temple, with both which the silence agrees.

2. The Cry for the loosing the four Angels, bound in Euphra­tes, sounds from this Golden Altar of Incense, whither the True Worshippers had been long retir'd before the Time of that Cry, and were close within the Temple. c. 9. 13.

3. The very Symbol it self speaks an inwardest Retirement within the Temple, and to the Altar enclosed within that; For whatsoever was outward, viz. the Outward Court and City, was cast out to the Gentiles, who trode under foot the Sanctuary, and Holy place of Publick Sacrifice, viz. the Court, where the Sacrifices and People had place, and so make up this Symbol: For the Gentiles having the Outward Court of Sacrifice under their Feet, the Daily Service became taken away; so the True Worshippers retir'd to secret Service at the Altar of Incense, the Apocalyptick Type of Prayers, c. 8. v. 3.

3. The third Symbol is the Witnesses in Sackcloth, that, as hath been said, is a mournful Habit, and covers that Glory [Page 51] and Excellency wherewith they were endued by the great Powers committed to them; and their Prophecy imports a Delay of some admirable Things they declar'd, which till Twelve hundred sixty dayes past could not come to pass.

4. The Woman in the wilderness, yet in a place prepared by God, where she shall be Fed, as Elijah in the wilderness, in a high and wonderful manner, 1 Kings c. 19. v. 5. 6. makes the fourth and last Symbol. Revel. 12. 6. Now a Wilder­ness condition is out of view, seemingly lost and forlorn; the Church therefore in the wilderness, fed like Elijah, cou­ples the Church with the Witnesses, who are so eminently re­sembled to Elijah; and shews, they are the same in substance Revel. 11. 6. with the Woman, under onely the different Notions of single, and collected, as was before explain'd.

Now all these Symbols are of nearest Importance; for all speak Invisibility, Secresie, and a State out of view and sight, and which conceales its true Excellency within it self; so does being Sealed, so does worshipping at the Altar of Incense, and within the Temple, so does the Sackcloth of two so great Prophets, so does a Church, or Woman in the wilderness, and all these are upon Personages of the same Character; For so are the Servants of God, so are the true worshippers at the Al­tar in the Temple, so are the Martyrs or Witnesses, so is the Woman that brought forth the manly Child, and whose Seed keep the Commandments of God, and hold the Martyry or Testimony of Jesus: And then all these we shall find cope, and bind with the Gentiles Months in some or other Prophe­tical Point and Regard.

All these so closely coordinated Symbols, would of them­selves much incline us to suppose, that they all begin toge­ther, especially when two of them have the same mea­sure of Time, viz. 1260 d. But because there can be no proof so great of the Beginning of these Twelve hundred sixty dayes, nor of their whole, full, and entire length, and the several other Notes of Time that will fall in, each in their due place, as the Beasts forty two months, His Number 666, [Page 52] within his Season, Seasons, half Season of intimate Time, the Five months, and Five months granted to the Locusts, Re­vel. 9. v. 5. 10. the Hour, Day, Month and Year given to the two hundred thousand thousand Horsemen, v. 15. 19, and that great Period, at which Christ swore, Time should be no more, but that in the days of the 7th Trumpet, &c. Revel. 10. 6, 7. Because, I say, all these things can no way be so satis­factorily prov'd, as by subtending or stretching out under them, and applying to them the course of historical Time and its Events all along, so curiously painted out in this Pro­phecy, I propose this Method of Progress.

1. To apply to the sealing, to the Altar of Incense, and the Temple-worshipers, to the Witnesses in Sack-cloth, and to the Woman in the Wilderness, the Notes of History correspondent to their Beginning, according to the Prophetical Symbols, and beginning together with the Gentiles forty two Months.

2. From this Epoch or beginning to pass by the Prophe­tical Symbols in agreement with the historical Records to the Beasts forty two Months, and to demonstrate their Epoch, Continuance, and Period.

3. By the same supports from Prophecy, and History, to pass to the beginning of the five and five Months, and the space of Time thereby denoted, granted to the Locusts, Revel. 9. 5. 10.

4. Within which space, the beginning of intimate Time, the reason of it, and its whole duration will fall under Ex­amination, and its 666, by Prophecy and History.

5. About the midst of intimate Time, the Hour, Day, Month, and Year of that vast Army of the Horsemen, will en­counter our Enquiry, and the whole Duration require to be stated from their beginning to the killing the third part of men, or the end of that space of Time, but not of that Power figured by them, nor of the Woe they brought.

6. At the end of intimate Time, and after the killing the third part of men, we shall be brought upon the Time of the aforesaid solemn Oath, that Time shall be no more, which will carry us to the end of this whole Line, and wind us up with [Page 53] its self, and by every one of these we shall find the Line of this black Time must end at 1697, as it began 437.

All which, by the guidance of the Prophecy it self, and the assistance of the Holy Spirit of it will assure us by the most illustrious and stately products of that whole Time and of greatest Concernment to the Christian World, that these 1260 years are a most definite space of so many, and no few­er, nor more in number, and that seeing they must be either Natural or Prophetical Time, according to the Standard of a day for a year, for the Scripture-Register knows no other sort of Time, nor can any instance be given of any other, therefore they must be prophetical days, or days of years, and months of years, since the Events destin'd by God to them, are so much too great and large for natural Time in their own Nature, and in the prophetical descyphar, that no more, then a year can be a year, and yet be crowded up within a Month, a Day, or Hour; no more can those long Tracts of Time-some Action be fettered within three years and a half, the highest amount of those Characters of Time, if naturally un­derstood, without a Contradiction in the very Nature of things.

SECT. V.
WHerein it is proved, the sealing so intermatched with the inner Temple and Altar measured, with the Wit­nesses in Sack-cloth, and with the Woman in the Wilderness; and the three first Trumpets (in which the Efficacy of the sealing entered) intermatched with the Gentiles treading the outer Court, with the Dragons persecution of the Woman, at her first flight into the Wilderness, must according to History, begin the whole Time, Times, half Time, the Gentiles forty two Months, the 1260 of the 1290 Days, when the daily Service, Dan, 12. 11. was taken away, and the Witnesses and the Womans 1260 Days altogether at 437, and so move for­ward [Page 54] till the fourth Trumpet, when the Beasts forty two months began at 475.

THat I may settle the beginning of the 1260 Days, &c. aright; the Contents of this Section must be an­swered, and made good in the Body of the Discourse with­in it: I must endeavour these five things then to attain that End by these Enquiries.

1. How far the seven Seals had brought down Time from Enquiry 1 our Lord's Resurrection to the first of the seven Trumpets, must be diligently enquir'd and settled, seeing one follow on the other.

2. The Importance of the sealing the Sevants of God after the seven Seals open'd, and the conspiring of that Symbol with the Retirement of the Worshippers within the Temple, the Witnesses under Sackcloth, and the Woman into the Wilder­ness, must be determin'd and settled; for the Sealing's Effica­cy begins All, even the very Trumpets which could not sound till the sealing over.

3. The Scope and Intention of the Trumpets is to be care­fully estimated in the strict Attention to the Emblem it self; and seeing the first four and the sixth display upon third part of Men, what third part of Men it is they play upon, must be found: for the Trumpets play upon that Third of Men runs along the whole Line we are upon; and why all this Play upon a Christian Empire?

4. It must be duely research'd, what the Symbols of the three first Trumpets convey to our notice, to what Time Hi­story directs us, that we may find their Effects.

5. It must be justly stated, what the Dragon means, and how his Persecution of the Woman can agree with the Expla­nation of the Trumpets, seeing both must be at the beginning of the Line, because then was the Womans first Flight into the Wilderness, which was at the first of the 1260 Days.

Now if all these can be rationally according to this Pro­phecy, and the Argument of History resolv'd, so as to unite [Page 55] with the Gentiles forty two Months, and all of them to de­termine the beginning of this Line to be at the beginning of the Trumpets sounding; and both to be at Ann. Dom. 437, and to reach in the three first Trumpets to the Beasts rising, at 475; then that will be done which ought to be done: for by necessary Consequence, the Line must end at 1697.

I begin with the first; viz. to enquire, How far the seven Seals open'd had brought down Time from our Lord's Re­surrection to the first of the Trumpets sounding: for the Trum­pets must needs follow upon the Seals, as is most apparent.

Now, since it is very evident, the Resurrection of Christ begins the whole course of Apocalyptical Time, I know not what can be more demonstrative of any point of Time, than to find the Prophecy by the most lively Pictures, and Em­blems to draw the course of Events from a Time given, as from the Resurrection Ann. Dom, Vul. 33, to a Time given, viz. to the Trumpets suppos'd to be Ann. Dom. Vul. 437. that is from the Resurrection the Apocalyptical Epoch or Time be­ginning 404 Years.

Now what could more congruously, and even undenia­bly, follow the Resurrection, than Christ riding out in his Majesty and Glory in the universal preaching of the Gospel by an Apostolical Ministry, and thereby claiming his King­dom according to the first Seal opened?

What follows more uninterruptedly upon that than that warlike sett of Emperours, and upon the red Horse of War, arm'd with a great Sword given them; viz. Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, respecting especially the Desolations of the Jewish Nation, according to the Prophecy, Dan. 9. ult. which was perfectly fulfill'd by the last of these nam'd Empe­rours, according to the second Seal.

Can any thing more justifiably follow this Train of Em­perours, than the grave, just, rational Succession of the An­tonines, or close with greater Esclatt and Renown than in Alexander Severus, so fam'd for Justice, that the Ballances are most worthily put into his Hand, and by a Voice from [Page 56] the Throne in the midst of the Beasts, the whole Scheme is directed upon the Church, and the Half-Time fix'd from the Resurrection to the Apostacy or taking away the Daily Ser­vice of God; under the Type of the Wheat, Barly, Oyl, and Wine, the Materials of Sacrifice, the Type of the Chri­stian Service; all which are the Result of the third Seal opened?

Who can deny, that a Chain of salvage Emperours press'd upon the Heels of Alexander, in whose Equipage, Famine, Pestilence, the Sword attended, and was most fitly given with the Device of Hell and Death waiting upon the dismal Pomp of these Beasts of the Earth in the fourth Seal.

Is it possible to oversee the Persecution rais'd by Diocle­sian, that ceased not by the space of ten Years, in which all the Christian Blood shed by the Pagan Emperour was summ'd up; Is it, I say, possible to oversee this in the fifth Seal, the Emblem of which is the Cry of the Souls under the Altar?

No more can it be denied, That that great Shake of the Power of the Spirits of the Air above, and of the Heathen Idolatrous Powers below, is admirably pourtrayed in the sixth Seal opened.

After which, we find an industrious Delay to the seventh Seal in the new sealing; and the seventh Seal, when opened, did most leisurely produce the very sounding of the Trumpets; for first, There was the silence of half an hour, a short and imperfect Time indeed, but it stay'd the Effect of the Sealing; for not till that half Hour past, the Trumpets were deliver'd to the Angels. After that there was a solemn Service of Chri­stian Religion, signifying the daily Service yet continuing, and upon the Acceptance of it a second demolishing of Paga­nism by Theodosius Defeat of the last Rallyings of it; by Eugenius and Argobastis; after Julian and other Heathen­izers upon his Prayers.

Now from that Time, or Theodosius the Great's Death, within a Year after, at 395, or near it, all History dates the Declination of the Western Empire, and Prophecy agreeably [Page 57] denotes the Angels preparing to sound, in the many Impres­sions upon the Empire by foreign Invasions upon it, yet re­spiting the very date of their Sound from the Time Theodosius died to 437, or 404 from the Resurrection, somewhat above forty Years, but according to the Half time exactly before observ'd, at Alexander Severus's death, An. Vulg. 237, or 202, from the general Epoch, the Resurrection, with this half 404.

Let us now Review the wonderful Consent and Harmo­ny between the Relation of History in Things so undoubt­ed, as to be incumbred with no Controversie, and the Schemes of this Prophecy, the one keeping hand in hand with the other, in such an even, uninterrupted, and just sucessi­on, and course of Time, as does abundantly prove this Line, and its Beginning, so far as is necessary in this first particu­lar, to be at 437, and consequently its End at 1697: All which have been more fully Treated, and are here only summ'd up, to make the Perspective the clearer and more entire.

I come now to the Second Enquiry, viz. into the Impor­tance Enquiry 2 of the Sealing; wherein these two things will deserve our particular Examination.

1. What the most natural and ready significations of Sea­ling are, and which is here to be chosen, as most agreeable with the other Symbols of the Worshippers Retir'd into the Secret of the Temple, the Witnesses Sackcloth, the Woman in the Wilderness, upon the Gentiles Treading the Outer Court.

2. When the Efficacy of this Sealing began; for that leads the Time of the Trumpets, even as the Trumpets fix the Time of the Sealings Efficacy.

As to the First; it is to be known, that Sealing imports three things;

1. Secrecy, and Retirement from general and ordinary ob­servation. Thus the Servants of God, by the Antichristian, Apostatical Times coming on, are hidden; no eye but the eye of God, or of men inlightned by him, could discern [Page 58] all of them: The Disguise put upon them by Antichristians casting them out for Gods name sake, their Retiring from the common corruption of Publick Worship, their mourning for the Gentilisme brought in, and the Kingdom of Christ not appearing, their not being suffered to meet as a Church, a Body, or Congregation of Saints, and the Glory of God and Christ not shining out yet upon them, brought them into the Secresie of a sealed condition, immur'd them within the Temple, and at the Altar of Incense, cas'd them in Sackcloth, and scatter'd them as into a Wilderness; so that at length the Serpent himself could not find them; and all this from the beginning of the first Trumpets sound, at 437, till 1697, more or less.

2. Sealing intends Security and Preservation; Thus Trea­sures are sealed up in Safety, and defended from violation and rapine; thus the Servants of God are safeguarded by their Sealing, the Temple being the Secret of Gods Presence, their Sackcloth Prophecy arm'd them, as by vertue of the Sealing, with a mighty power of Miracles, and Fire going out of their Mouths to destroy their Adversaries; the Church, even in the Wilderness, is deposited in a place prepared by God for her, that she might be fed: and all to this purpose, That they might, though they might suffer in the common Cala­mity of the several Trumpets, yet not be hurt in their true Essential Glory by the Dragon, but that they shall Reign when He is Bound; nor so shut up, but that the Temple shall be opened, &c. nor be so overcome by the Beast, but that they shall Rise again, ascend to Heaven in a Cloud, their Ene­mies beholding them with terrour, and appear in Mount Zion with the Name of God written in legible Characters on their Foreheads, and at last, in an innumerable company, cloath'd in white Robes, and Palmes in their Hands, and the Church it self, as the Bride, the Lambs Wife, be admirably Glo­rious.

3. Most immediately, and close to the purpose of the pre­sent Symboll, Sealing speaks Delay, and Estoppage from a [Page 59] present Exposal or publick Shew. And thus the Symbol of sealing is provided to claspe and indent with the former Sym­bol of the Seals; for the whole Symbol is taken from sealing the Book of Christ's Kingdom, Dan. 12. 4. till the end: when therefore at the sixth Seal opened, the Empire became Chri­stian, the manly Birth was caught up to the Throne of God, the Dragon was cast down, and a Song of Victory sung up­on it, immediately this sealing followed to stay this Glory, and as it were to arrest its Appearance: it was therefore hid from hurt, because the Glory did not appear to be hurt, du­ring the time, times, half a time, according to the Oath of Christ; immediately therefore, in pursuance of the former Symbol, the Servants of God are seal'd, the Worshippers wor­ship not in an open, but reserv'd Temple; the Witnesses do not enjoy, but prophecy, and that in Sackcloth; the Woman flies to her close Receptacle in the Wilderness; and even in pursuance of this same Symbol, the seven thunders are seal'd, as we shall see, Cap. 10.

And all this to that very purpose, that the Beast may have his time, times, till the Morning of the half-time, when in Declaration of the Right of Christ, even then to take the Kingdom, because the half-time was entred, as the third Day was in the Morning of Christ's Resurrection, the Thunders began. But that the Beast might have his whole half-time al­so, the Thunders were again seal'd down.

For were not the Kingdom of Christ thus under Seal, its Brightness would immediately consume the man of Sin and his Bestian Kingdom, as will be seen at the end of the 1260 Days, viz. Ann. 1697, in the first appearance of Christ's Kingdom, and more fully at the Appearance it self 75 Years after.

Let us now inquire when this sealing had its Efficacy, and we shall find it hath its Efficacy distinguishingly, as to the fixing its Epoch, or Beginning, at the first of the first Trum­pet, and so on, during the whole Time of the first and se­cond Trumpets, until the falling of the Star in the third Trum­pet; [Page 60] So that the Trumpets and the sealing necessarily begin together, as they ought.

For we find it is thus expresly determin'd to the first of the first two Trumpets; for nothing that was hurt in those two first Trumpets, viz. the Earth, nor the Sea, nor any Tree, was to be hurt till the sealing past: And why was it so? but that the Seal might have its defensive Vertue on the sealed; which Defence was certainly as early as the hurt, else it could not defend. It is expresly continu'd all the first and second Trum­pet by naming the Earth, Sea, and Trees; for all these were hurt in the two first Trumpets. But the Fountains are not nam'd, nor the Sun, &c. not because the sealing did not con­tinue; for we find the express mention of it, rising within the Time of the first woe Trumpet, Revel. 9. 4. as of a thing sup­pos'd to have continued all along.

But because the Spirit of God would lead us to the new date of Time, viz. the Beasts forty two Months, negotiated by the event of the third Trumpet, or the Imperial Star fall­ing; which Star, as all History knows, fell at 475, immedi­ately on which, the Beast in prophetical Account succeeded, as the eighth King. So that then, in the very space of the third Trumpet those Months began, and the fourth Trumpet ran upon that new Line of the forty two Months, concurrent with the 1260 Days, and so forward, till Both end at 1697: the one as Time of the Moon, or Months; the other as Time of the Sun, or Days: by which we know also when the 1260 days began; viz. by computing and adjusting the Lu­nar Time of forty two months to the Solar Time 1260 days. If the months began so famously at 475, The days, that both may end together within time, times, half a time, must be­gin thirty eight Years before, or at 437, as hath been before intimated, so as to be plainly understood, but shall be fully proved.

Now because of all this, the Spirit of God comprehends only what pertain'd to the first two Trumpets within the ex­press security of not being hurt; viz. the Earth and Trees [Page 61] of the first Trumpet, and the Sea of the second Trumpet, till the Servants of God were seal'd, Revel. 7. 2, 3. shewing plain­ly, that then the Efficacy of the sealing began: where first, the Earth, and all green things were hurt in the first, and the Sea in the second Trumpet, and as it were, to hint the Beasts forty two months, falling within the third Trumpet, and so going on in the fourth; There is no mention of the secu­ring the Fountains, nor the Lights of Heaven, until the Ser­vants of God were seal'd; which the Beast could not yet sur­rogate for, being in his Infancy till a Star fell to the Earth, Revel. 9. 1. which, by all Count, was at the Time Phocas gave Universality to the Bishop of Rome.

Then Rome seems to be again enlightned, not long before the Mahometan Hegire, when the Locusts came forth; and therefore then Divine Judgment pursues by three woe Trum­pets, because then the surprise of the Kingdom of Christ, by the cheat of Antichrist reigning, more appear'd.

But after another concurrent date of Time, viz. the Five, and five Months of the Locusts, Revel. 9. 15. 10. given new in the fifth Trumpet, the sealing is there mention'd again; and in the sixth Trumpet, where the Hour, Day, Month, and Year of the Horsemen began, there is a parallel Symbol of Secresie and Security with the sealing, viz. the true Worship­pers crying out from the Altar of Incense, where they were hid, Revel. 9. 13. within the first of which, viz. of the Lo­custs, fell in the Beasts intimate Time, or Season, with his Number 666, as shall be shewn, Revel. 13. ult.

Now, by all these the Spirit of God does interpoint and distinguish the beginning of the Lines of several Times, that fall in with the great entire Line of the 1260 Days; and notes when they began; which new Lines, do some way or other note when that great Line began, and when it shall end; viz. by the Proportion those other Lines, however be­ginning after, hold to it; all joyning with it, when they are once begun: and by that Proportion, The Beginning must be 437, and the end of it 1697, as shall be shewn upon all of [Page 62] them. Wherein also the Time remark'd with the Voices of the seven Thunders seal'd, will admirably shew it self at 1517, when the last 180 Years, or Half-time, began; at which Time the Division of so many States from Rome first ap­pear'd also. And the End of all at 1697, will declare it self.

So strongly, although requiring strict Attention and Ob­servation, hath God secur'd the fixing of this Line, both in its Beginning and End, as shall be all along by Gods graci­ous permission to proceed, made evident.

I shall but just salute the Third Enquiry, and finish the first Point discours'd, viz. its Beginning: And because it joyns in assuring this Beginning, I must, as I say, salute it.

And this Third Enquiry is to Research what is the mean­ing Enquiry 3 of this Grand Apocalyptical Symbol, the Trumpets.

Now from the general Use, and universal Signification of a Trumpet, as an Alarm to War, and the dismal consequences of it, these Trumpets certainly signifie the same, as appears by the course of the Trumpets; for every Trumpet calls to some War, and the seventh to the Battel of Armageddon; They are therefore so many loud Sounds of the Indigna­tion of God upon those against whom the Sounds are Di­rected.

These two first Trumpets then, as beginning at 437, sum­mon the Barbarian Nations to fall on, on all parts of the Empire, as they had began to do, by the vertue of the An­gels preparing themselves to sound. About this time, Gense­ricus the Vandal-King took Carthage, the Hunns over-ran the upper and lower Pannonia, (now called Hungary) Thrace, and Illyricum; the Brittish Provinces soon after fell into the Hands of Strangers and Barbarians. Thus the Glo­ry and Greenness, the Flourish and Verdure of the Roman Empire, was universally blasted by the Hail and Fire min­gled with Blood of the first Trumpet, running every way. At the same time, no Green of true Christianity was unblasted by the Apostacy, and Rome it self, as a great Mountain bur­ning [Page 63] with Fire, was thrown into the Sea, that is, it had been indeed taken under Honorius, in the preparation to Sound, and immediately recover'd: But now, at the Second Trum­pet, it was made the Ball of War, in a continual Taking and Retaking for many years after; so that the Flames of War from several Parts of the World, and the People of it com­par'd to a Sea, congregated about it, and in the midst of the fearful Broil, the Imperial Starr, Augustulus, the last Empe­rour, fell.

From hence therefore we obtain the clear Agreement of Time with the Symbol of the First three Trumpets, as their Blast fell upon the third part of men, the Figure of the Ro­man Empire, in Agreement with the Dragon, or Roman Emperours drawing down the third part of the Starrs with his Tayl. Revel. 12. 14. Where all Interpreters understand that Imperial Power. Now at the very time of the Barbarous Na­tions, coming like the Gentiles into the chief Residences of the Christian Religion, is the Symbol of the Apostacy of the Gentiles, treading the Holy City and Court, and the Dragon Rev. 11. 2. c. 12. 13. 14. persecuting the Woman, just now taking her flight into the Wil­derness, fairly made out, both as to Similitude and Time.

But that the Ministration of the Trumpets may answer the Ministration by the Servants of God in his Church, at the Seals opened; besides this Semblance of the Trumpets with War, Holy Writing leads us to another, viz. the Sacred use of Trumpets in the giving of the Law, Exod. 19. And they were instituted by God to call the Congregation of the Ser­vants of God together, which was now not into Publick, but in Private at the Altar of Incense; There was also the Feast of Trumpets, on the First Day of the Seventh Month, joyn'd with the Reading of that Law, upon which follow'd the Solemn Fast, on the Tenth Day, Levit. 23. 23, &c. and Numb. 29. 2. Thus by these Trumpets, the Witnesses began their Prophecy, and Testimony for the Commandments of God, and Doctrine of Jesus, and in Sackcloth and Fasting. These Prophets and Watchmen blew the Trumpet according to the [Page 64] charge laid upon them, Ezek. 32. v. 1, &c. And according to this Blowing the trumpets, the Camp, the Congregation, the Woman the Church, made its motions in the Wilderness, ac­cording to Numb. 10. v. 1, &c. So admirably does this Sym­bol agree with the Gentiles forty two Months of treading the Holy Court, with the Worshippers at the Altar of Incense, with the Witnesses Prophecy in Sackcloth, and the Womans Flight into the Wilderness, as on Eagles wings, in regard of Divine Providence, as well as of the Roman Eastern and Western Empire Apostatizing.

And how fitly does the whole Apocalyptical Time an­swer the Jews Feast of the Passover at the Resurrection of Christ, united with the Feast of Weeks, at the giving of the Spirit, and John's being in the Spirit when he receiv'd the Revelation: and then follows the Interval of the Seals opened, like that Interval of Feasts, till the day of blowing the Trumpets, and the Fast, or Sackcloth; after which, follows the Trium­phant Feast of Tabernacles, so celebrated Numb. 29. by the Ennumeration of every Day's Services, like the cleansing of the Sanctuary, by the solemn Observation of it at the resto­ring Jerusalem, Ezra 3. 4. in Image of the New Jerusalem; and Nehemiah 8. after the Feast of Trumpets, with Olive­branches, Pine, Myrrh, Palm-branches, ver. 15. like dwel­ling in a Garden of Eden, and in Resemblance of the Palms, Revel. 7. 9. and as a prophetical Emblem of the Paradise of God, Revel. 2. 7. c. 22. 2. compar'd: according to all which, the Prophet Zechar. so distinguishly proclaims in that won­derful Prophecy of the Glory of Christ's Kingdom, Zech. 14. this Feast of Tabernacles, v. 16. and as if it were the entring a Caution against understanding that, as the True Feast of Tabernacles, Nehem. 8. 4. A solemn Fast follows, as it were irregularly upon it, Nehem. 9. to shew, the True Feast of Tabernacles was not yet come, but a long Mourning to in­tervene. And how excellently do the seven Thunders ut­tering their Voices, agree with the Trumpets sounding so long? For towards the latter Time of the sixth Trumpet, [Page 65] and at the last 180 Days beginning, the Gospel Law was given in these Thunders, like those of the Law, Exodus 20. v. 28.

Thus all things concurring, even to Miracle, or a De­monstration of the Almighty Wisdom and Power of God, I cannot doubt, I have fix'd upon the true Epoch, or Begin­ning of the Line of 1260 days, at 437, and so upon the end of it at 1697.

Let it then be certainly apprehended by all that love Christs Remark on the whole. Kingdom, what God hath so determin'd shall come to pass, and that He the Lord will hasten it in its own Time, He will work, and none shall let it; The Israelites went out of Egypt to a Day, at the 430 years end of their sojourning, and no sin­ful Exod. 12. 41. unsensibleness that God would deliver them by Moses, or their other sins could interpose: Christ wrought Redemption at the very night of the Fulness of Time, viz. at the middle of the last half Week, and no unworthiness of the Age could Dan. 9. 27. hinder it, though never so great: so nothing shall hinder the Rising of the Witnesses and their Ascension at the 1260 days, Revel. 11. 9. Ten years hence, no though there should be Three dayes and a half, not only signifying the intimate Time, as hath been decla­red, but a Blush, a Recollection, a drawing the whole Time past again in little at the end: For no Appearances, how great soe­ver, shall surprise the Divine Decrees upon Time; Nullum tem­pus occurrit Regi. There may be a deep Reshrouding Christiani­ty, at least in some Parts; The Israelites slavery sate closest upon them when their Redemption was so nigh. We see what a change was begun 1517, by those seven Thunders, when all was one Night piece; and the Voice so little from Man, and wholly from Heaven; much more at 1697.

We see how at this day the Turkish Power, that hath been so long the Terrour, Scourge, and Woe of the World, call'd Chri­stian, Falls when God pleases; their strong Holds are like the first ripe Figs, that fall into the Mouth of the Eater. Their Nahum. 3. 12. Warlike People are as Women. This is a visible Pledge God will be ready with all things else; the Tenth of the great City [Page 66] falling, and that Turkish woe passing away, when his Wit­nesses shall rise Revel.. 13. 11.

Our Duty is to stand still, to be in our Station of Subjection to the Powers that are over us, and to see the Salvation of God, and He, that put it into the Hearts of Princes to agree, and give their Power to the Beast, untill His words shall be fulfill'd, will also put it into their Heart to agree to do, what shall then be to be done by his Appointment. Our right sense of which, and suitable Obedience to our Prince, will be an Honour to Christianity, to our Hearing and Reading this Prophecy and a Safety to our Souls, (if it should not be, as it is most likely to be, and we have the Royal Promise it shall be, and I much hope it in these Nations, even according to this Prophecy) to our Concernments in this World.

And thus I have brought to a Point the Beginning of this Line, at 437, which is the Foundation of all, and according­ly we shall find the whole going on to 1697.

SECT. VI.
Wherein, The Third Part of Men, upon which the Trumpets have their Effects, is more fully made clear to be the Roman Imperialness, and that the Symbols of the Three first Trum­pets do most plainly agree with the History, in full Answer to the second and third Enquiry.

HAving given a general Account of the things nam'd in the Contents, so far as is necessary to settle the Begin­ning of that Line, upon the beginning of which we have been so intent; it is now necessary to give a more ample Sa­tisfaction concerning the Third part of men, both that, It means the Roman Imperial Power, as also why, the Empire being Christian, there was such an Effusion or Wrath upon it, that so the whole Line may be thereby ascertain'd.

The first Time then, in true order of nature in this Pro­phecy, though not in Place, or in the Contexture of it, this Third Part is found and made use of, is in that Vision of the Dragon, Revel. 12. 3. Where, I think, hardly any Interpreter does not think there is a Representation of the Roman Pagan Empire, in one Line or other of that Table.

And indeed, when we consider the Prophecy hath the Roman Empire for its great Subject, seeing in the Days of that, and at the end of that, Christ's glorious Kingdom is to be establish'd, it is every where (where it can be) to be sup­pos'd; and seeing here All things agree to it, and that the Careir of Time was guided directly to it in the parallel Vi­sion to this, viz. of the fifth and sixth Seals, upon the Dra­gon watching to destroy the Prince, the Christian Church was to bring forth, and to devour it, in which Cause so many Souls lay under the Altar, and yet that the Lamb was on the Throne; from all this, we cannot but suppose the Roman Pagan Empire intended.

The third part then of the Stars brush'd down as it were with the Tail of the Dragon, whatever spiritual Signification it hath of the Sathanick Power, does also suppose those Su­preme Princes and States that the Roman Imperialism dis­mounted, and made tributary, stamping upon them with its Legs of Iron, according to Daniel. The Emblem is lively, Dan. 7. 7. and elegant to present their Dominions, converted into Pro­vinces, subjected to the Roman Dominion.

So that from hence; That Empire Thirding the East and West of the Sovereignties of the habitable known World, in the divine Judgment of it, is symbol'd by a third part of Nature it self, viz. Earth, Trees, Sea, Fountains, Sun, &c. for of the third part of the Stars brought under its universal Mo­narchy, it was constituted.

And in this very Vision, where the Holy Spirit, who fore-knew and fore-saw what Interpretations would be made of what he writ, and what Interpretations he would have to be made, and in what Time, and to what degrees of Certainty and Assurance these Interpretations should rise; and so from thence, what was fit to be laid in the Founda­tions, and what to be superstracted: The Holy Spirit that knew all this, knew that in the Vision of the Dragon there would be found the Roman Monarchy agreedly; so that there would be a fair Conduct to its third part in Domini­on: and wherever that Imperialness resided, whether in the East or the West, it was mounted upon the Ruine or Subje­ction of the third part of the Stars; and so the third part be­came the Figure of the Roman Imperialness, not of the whole Territory of the Empire, but of the Imperialism or Gran­deur of Supremacy.

And what was most immediately and properly to touch that, is according to the most solemn Symbolicks of this Pro­phecy said to touch and impeach that third part.

For otherwise, the whole Empire is call'd in the Evang. Luke the whole Habitable World, and in the course of the Luke 2. 1. four Judgments of the fourth Seal, which rang'd equally, as [Page 69] it were over the whole Territory and Dominion of the Em­pire. Death is said to have Power given it over four parts of men, or over every fourth part with each Judgment, sig­nifying the free Expatiation of those Judgments upon the whole Latitude of the Empire, and, as it were, quartering it with a judiciary staff. But here the Territory of the Em­pire, with its far and wide Dominion over the Earth, was under the Ravage of Death, without any touch upon the Imperialisme it self, although so many Emperours fell under it, and so there is no mention of the third part, Revel. 6. 8.

So in the change of the Empire from Heathenism to Chri­stianity, there was no Change upon the Imperiality, which continued as high still in the Christian Emperours from Con­stantine to the Death of the Great Theodosius, as it was be­fore: the Description therefore is as if Heaven and Earth were concern'd in the Mutation; but there is no mention of a third, Revel. 6. ult.

The opening of the bottomless Pit darkned the Sun and the Air, with the Smoak, out of which the Locusts came upon the Earth, and they had Power to hurt men universally: but Revel. 9. 6. because the Imperial Sovereignty was not to be hurt in the very Imperiality, there is no mention of the third part; but when the Turkish Number was to seise upon the Eastern Throne, that had its first Establishment upon the third part of the Stars in the East and West, the third part of men are said to be kill'd: and thus the third part was under the force Rev. 9. 18. of every one of the first four Trumpets, because every Trum­pet was in an order or series to the destruction of the We­stern Empire in the three first of them, and upon the Re­mains of Senatorian and Consular Power in the last of them.