THE GOOD HOPE THROUGH GRACE..  
The Jubilee of the Kingdom of Christ shall come upon the Counterfeit Jubilee of Rome; and before the end of the Following Year 1700▪ shall begin to bring under Desolation that Great City and its Papacy: Therein Uniting the Year 1697 with 1700. according to Prophecy.  
Humbly Presented to the Faith and Prayers of all Sincere Protestants.  
By, T. BEVERLEY.  Rev. xviii. nineteen. In one Hour is she made Desolate. 
LONDON, Printed for William Martial, at the Sign of the Bible in Newgate-Street, and John Marshal, at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street.   

TO THE HONOURABLE His much Honoured Sir Samuel Barnardiston.  
Honoured Sir,  
ALthough I must ever Acknowledge a long Series of very great Obligations to your Friendship, and Favour for me; Yet That is not the Sole, nor so much as the Principal Reason of the presenting this following Discourse to your Acceptance: The more Due Reasons of that are, That by the Freedoms you have Allowed me of Conversation with you; I have very undoubted Evidences of your sincere Love to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory; in its present Spiritual Evangelical Administration; and in its Gradual Illustrations of itself in Glory, Promised and Foretold to the latter Days. And yet more particularly, as in All Things I had observed, your Patriottal Spirit, your Great Love to your Country, the true English Spirit; so your Great Love to Protestancy, and Bewailing, That no Greater Liberty and Security could be procured, for the Suffering Protestants beyond the Seas, and particularly in France. But I hope God supports you in so long a Life, to see the Openings of his Kingdom. And That your Honourable Lady, whom I have long observed the Truest Consort of All the Varieties, that God hath been pleased to Dispensate to you, may Rejoice with you in that so Great Joy, is the Humble Earnest Prayer of, Most Honoured Sir,  
Your most Affectionate Humble Servant in our Great Lord, T. BEVERLEY.   

The PREFACE to the Favourable Protestant READER.  
THE Discourse following, I Humbly Present, as the Result of the most Close Researches into the Sure Word of Prophecy, after the so great Disappointment of the Hopes I had at the Year Ninety Seven. I Humbly Acknowledge to Infinite Grace, it gave me not the least Doubt of the Truth and Divine Authority of sacred Scripture, or particularly of the Prophetic Scriptures of Truth, which the Divine Spirit takes such care to assure, Are the True Say of God, and that These Say are Faithful and True; And I Humbly Bless Him, I have besides all those Great and Weighty Arguments, that so many Holy and Learned Men have Established the Autopisty, or self-evident Diviness of Scripture upon, I have the particular Assurance of so Admirable a Prophetic Scheme and Frame; God hath given me, that I am sure none, but Infinite Prescience, could ever have Projected, or so curiously have Wrought and Inlaid; and only to be Found by Compare of one Prophetic Scripture with another, and when they are so matched one with another, the Admirable Artifice is seen.  
Now this very Adorable Workmanship led me to Ninety Seven by Prophetic Iconisms, or Images, adjusted to Prophetic Numbers of Time, and justified and verified by Matters of Fact, or as Prophecy calls them, Effects of Vision in 
Ez. 12. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Matter of Fact of Vision.  universal History and Chronology, Corresponding to them.  
And in the very last Year, after all Hope seeming to be passed, it pleased the Lord to show me that Character of Time, styled, Indictions or Fifteen of Years; even studiously observed in adding 2 and 3 Fifteen to 1260, made up of so exact 
Dan. 12.  Fifteen; making them, 1290; 1345; All which sure could never be by Chance. This Note of Indiction, I say, what I had always accounted, I found enclapsed, whole Prophetic Time, from Solomon's Death to the Blessed Time at the end of the 1335 Days, all which make 2730 Days ●● Indicted; As any one versed in Accomptancy may easily find. And the very first, the 390 Days of Ezekiel's bearing Judah's Sin, begin in set Indictions. Hereby I have found Ninety Seven established by even Arithmetic Demonstration, as I have made out in a Treatise on purpose, Printed 1699.  
Upon all this, I could not remove from Ninety Seven; However, so great a Failure looked so unfavourably upon it: What therefore God, upon earnest unwearied Prayers, and so strict Enquiry, a● the Holy Oracle, was pleased to give in the Night at the House of an Elect Lady, near Sarisbury; and to enable to Cultivate and Improve; I have here given to public view, consisting of Four Heads.  
1. The Certainty of a most Stupendious Judgement, to be executed on some City, descyphered by Babylon, and this City proved to be Rome.  
2. That the Time of this Judgement to be executed, is at some pompous Time of Babylon, such as the Holy Year or Jubilee, and great Princes appearing for it.  
3. That whereas the Time this Judgement to be Executed, was most properly Ninety Seven; there is by a curious Artifice of Prophecy, a Reserve of 3 Years and a half, reaching to 1700: With an Answer of Objections to search of Time from Mistakes.  
4. That such a Reserve is called God's Infraction or Breach of Promise, or his Abruption, and Breaking off the Series and Contexture of Begun Providences; the Notions of which are opened and applied to the present Case; there are also Reserves in a way of Wisdom and Goodness, from Ninety Seven.  
And all recommended to Faith and Prayer, under Divine Blessing; and Humbly laid at the Feet of the Supreme Palmoni, or Wonderful Numberer of Time, the Apocalyptes or Revealer, the Highpriest, or Man Clothed in Linen, and the Apostle of our Profession; That He may judge, whether his Word or not. To Him, God over all, Blessed for ever, be Glory for ever, Amen.   

THE JUBILEE OF THE Kingdom of CHRIST, Coming on the Counterfeit JUBILEE of ROME.  Rev. xviii. seven. viij. She saith in her Heart, I sit a Queen, and am no Widow, and shall see no Sorrow. Therefore shall her Plagues come in one day, Death, and Mourning, and Famine; and she shall be utterly burnt with Fire; for strong is the Lord who judgeth her. 
THE Intention of the following Discourse, is to give Encouragement from this Scripture first; then, to excite and even arouse the Protestant Zeal, Faith and Hope; and to oblige the earnest Prayers and Supplications of the Reformed Churches and Nations; and humbly to beseech the Princes and Governments of them, by their Commands and Examples so to lead the way, that we may all 
Rev. 6. 10.  cry out with the loud Voice of the Souls under the Altar; How long Lord, Holy and True, dost Thou not avenge the Blood of thy Servants; on Them, who dwell on the Earth! which is a Prophetic Periphrase of Pagan Rome first, and then of Rome Antichristian.  
And this at a Time, whereunto the Divine Spirit hath directed us so plainly, and specially to look for it; as at a proper Season God hath forescen, and singled out for the Execution of his Judgement on Babylon; even this her Enchanting Jubilee, when she says, I sit a Queen; I am now on a Throne giving out my Pardons and Indulgences: I am no Widow, nor shall know the lofs of Children; Behold from all Parts, how they gather about me at this very time!  
And at the time of so violent a Persecution upon the Servants of God, making the same Protestation with ourselves against the Papal Idolatry, Superstitions and Tyranny.  
If we are not concerned at such a time as this, we have only a Name to live, as, Protestants and the Reformed, but are dead; as God Charges upon the Church of Sardis, the Prophetical Emblem of the Churches styled the Reformed; We have forgotten, how we Received and Herd, in that so great Appearance of God, by the 
Rev. 3. 1, 2.  first Reformers; and Princes will too sadly seem to have lost that first Protestant Spirit, etc. which acted those Princes in the Transactions at Spire Am. 1529. Oh that therefore we might Remember, Hold fast and Repent: And if there were a Spirit poured out from on high upon us, a Spirit of Prayer, who knows but that in the midst of this false Jubilee; These two things, Widowhood and loss of Children, Alienation of Princes and People, might come on this Mystic Babel in one Day, in one Moment! If we could wrestle with God, as Jacob, these Two Things would certainly come upon Her in their Perfection, as on 
Esay. 47. 8.  that Babylon of Old, for the Multitude of her Sorceries and Enchantments in this very day of her Jubilee.  
To this very purpose, I will draw out from the Text, as it stands in connexion with This, the Former, the Following Chapters, Six great Propositions; and then argue further upon them in compare with other Scripture Prophecies.  
Proposition 1. There is undeniably a great Judgement denounced by God, and largely described upon some City, Figured by Babylon the Great, that must most certainly be Executed in its own Time, and upon the City designed, according to the sure word of Prophecy, Cap. 1. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, that God gave to him, to show to his Servants things shortly, that is, with great speed; from that very time it was given; to come to pass successively; till the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in comparison of which all time is short: Now because this Judgement cannot yet (as will appear) be possibly supposed to have come to 
1 Cor. 7.  pass, it must yet come to pass: And because so much hath all along, and for so very long time been coming to pass, according to this Prophecy; and yet this Judgement hath not been Executed, the Execution of it must needs therefore be very near.  
Prop. 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by the Prophecy in these Chapters before us, on the the City so denounced upon; assuring this City is the present Papal Rome. For if Rome be the City Characterised, as it is now Papal, it is that City so threatened by this Judgement; For the Characters, and the Judgement are inseparable; Now Rome will appear to be the City Characterised, and therefore on it must the Judgement here written be Executed.  
Prop. 3. It is one of the great Glories of this Judgement; that the first coming of it into Execution shall be with great suddenness and surprisal; and when very Few (styled by Christ the Few Names in Sardis) have a Thought, or Apprehension of any such thing: One Day, one Hour, one Moment, as of Ancient Babylon, speak the very great Velocity of the Judgement.  
Prop. 4. The Princes, that at this time Bear up the Grandeur and the Haughtiness of Papal Rome, by giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast; called therefore His Horns, shall be by the Lamb, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords so overcome, as to be made Instruments in the Execution of the Judgement in such Parts, and Degrees, as the strong Lord, who Judgeth, shall Commission them unto; which shall highly Exalt, and make Illustrious the Judgement: As an Indication of this, it is said C. 17. 16. The Kings shall hate the Whore; shall make her Desolate, and shell eat her Flesh, and shall burn her with Fire; and in this Text, her Plagues are Death, and one concurring with the other Mourning, Famine, and burning with Fire.  
Prop. 5. The Greatness and the sudden Invasion of this Judgement, as denounced by God, are uncontrollably to be demonstrated, not only as to the possibility, but the certainty of both; as from the Truth of the Lord, who hath so long ago denounced it, so from the Wisdom and Omnipotency of the strong Lord that judgeth.  
Prop. 6. The Divine Prescience and Wisdom, hath chosen out a Time, and decreed it for the Execution of this Judgement, when Babylon shall show itself in its Pride, its Pomp, its Presumption, Security; For it is, when she shall say, I sit a Queen, and shall see no Sorrow; and 'tis most undeniable its Jubilee is such a Time, and when Great Princes shall so be at her Devotion, as for her sake, with such a violence to persecute, and Protestant Princes stand by, and have nothing to say against it.  
Prop. 1. I begin with the first Proposition; that the Judgement here forewritten must most certainly be executed: That there is a great Judgement here described and denounced on some City, Figured by Babylon the Great, is most contestable; every word in the Foregoing and this Chapter assures it; and in the following Chapter, we have most solemn Doxologies and Thanksgivings upon it; In Cap. 17. 1. The Vision gins thus; John is called to come to the Angel, who would show him the Judgement of the Great Whore: In this C. 18. 1. Another Angel having Great Power, and with whose Glory the Earth shone Appears; and he cried mightily with a loud Voice, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen; certainly and irrecoverably Fallen; and so the Vision goes on in the most dreadful Expressions, and Pourtraies of a Judgement most stupendious: The Kings of the Earth bewail, and stand afar off for fear of her Torment; her Merchants throw Dust on their Heads, and cry out in their Lament, Alas! Alas! and at last her Irrecoverable Ruin is set out by a Millstone, cast into the bottom of the Sea by a mighty Angel pronouncing; So shall Babylon be thrown down, and found no more at all, ver. 15. 19 21.  
If this Judgement then be Prophetically denounced by the Holy, the True, the Mighty God; It must and shall certainly come to pass in the Time, and upon the City designed: This is a Principle of Natural Light and Intellectual Reason so clear, I shall no further insist upon it.  
What then can be levied by way of Objection? I can possibly suppose but two Things: Either the Authority of the Book of the Revelation must be called into question, as not from God; or it must be said, the Judgement hath been already Executed.  

Object. 1. As to the first, I shall say these three Things.  
Answ. 1. That this Book hath such a Majesty of Truth in the most awful Representations of the Divine Being, of the Redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Beauty of Holiness, and of the Abominableness and dreadful end of Sin; That whoever hath any Fear of God arising from the light of Natural Conscience, or any Gust of the Excellency of Sacred Writings, cannot but acknowledge it from God: Add hereunto those bright Rays, that shining from it, every where enlighten the Purity of Divine Worship, in detestation of all Idolatry and Superstition; and Illustrate the Glory of Martyrdom, for keeping the Commandments of God, and for holding the Testimony of Jesus: In all, The Glory of it, is as of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, given to him by God; and who then will dare to set himself as a mark for that Commination; If any Man take from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book, God will take away his Part from all the great Promises of it, and will add to him the Plagues written in it; which both are most dreadful. C. 22. 18, 19  
Answ. 2. Let any one consider the Curious and Admirable Iconisms, Images and Figures found in this Book; and if he have a Mind, that hath Understanding to apply them to the Events foretold from their first beginning, shortly, that is, to begin from the time of giving it, immediately to come to pass, and reaching down to this very time, he will find them so exactly to answer the prophetical and predictory Types; as to justify this Book of the Revelation to be from God, by that very demonstration of Divinity God appeals to Esay 41, 23. Show us things to come, that we may know ye are Gods; Hence therefore we may be assured of the Divinity of this Prophecy, even from the prescience of God in it.  
Answ. 3. The Prophecies of the Old Testament, in Isa. C. 47. and Jerem. 51. and in Daniel throughout, are such an Exemplar of Judgement, on whatever shall come under the Name of Babylon the great, (as Nabuchadnezzar memorialized it for after Ages,) that if we are duly persuaded of the Divine Authority of the one, we have all the just Inducements of the same persuasion of this Apochaliptic Prophecy; and that the Spirit, who breathed the one, breathed the other also; who foresaw Mystical Babylon in literal, and prepared the Shades of the Destruction of it, the Latter in the Former; which highly aggrandizes the Evidence of the Divine Authority of the Revelation: For none but the Divine Understanding could ever have excogitated such an Admirable Agreement.   

Object. 2. As to the second Objection, That the Judgement hath been already Executed, and the Prophecy fulfilled, it shall be answered under the second Position; that the City, which is here denounced upon, is Papal Rome, from whence it will necessarily follow, It is not, nor can can yet have been Executed; because the City Rome is yet in Being and Greatness, but by this Judgement is utterly to be destroyed; But in the mean time, it may be envinced, from the glorious Consequences, drawn out C. 19 C. 20. C. 21. C. 22. which are so close connexed with this Judgement, which have not yet come into effect, that therefore not the Judgement itself; for who can apprehend such Glorious Appearances, as the Heavens opening, Christ's coming forth Attended with the Armies of Heaven, such an Universal Conquest of Enemies, and such a New Jerusalem, and Illustrious state of it, have ever enlightened a World continuing yet so dark! He that can persuade himself to believe that, may believe any thing most unreasonable: I come therefore to the second Position.  
Posit. 2. There are Infallible Characters fixed by this Prophecy, by which we may be most assured, It is the present Papal Rome to be Judged; For the making out this Position, Two things are to be proved.  
1. That Rome itself is the City intended.  
2. That though Rome Pagan be intended, yet Rome Papal is the Babylon, on which the Judgement is to be Executed, so fully here described: That it is Rome, There are two undeniable, even Litteral Affirmations; that even the Popish Expositors, who have so great Reason to ward off the Blow from Rome, yet they have not the face to deny, the City must needs be Rome, and therefore some of them fix on Pagan Rome.  
But Rome, take it Pagan, take it Papal; Rome itself is the City to be thus Judged, as the Divine Spirit hath made known to us by saying, the Seven H●ads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth; Now the Seven Headed City, was as plain a Character of Rome, when the Apocalyptick Apostle writ, as if we described London by the City, whose Shore the Thames washes, or Constantinople by the Bosphorus coming up to it.  
Again, the same Divine Spirit hath told us, the City is she that hath the (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Kingdom at this very present time over the Kings of the Earth; which is as plain a Distinction of Rome, as at the time of the Revelation given, as if we described London by the City; where the Courts of the King, of Judicature, and the Councils of the Nation are, and the chief Seat of Trade is; or Constantinople by the Ottoman Port: Who that knows the History of the World at that time, knows not; That Rome was the Seat of the Empire of the World at that very Time: This being so plain, though other Proofs may be given, I pass off from it, and come to the second part of the Position; That though Pagan Rome is to be taken in, yet Papal Rome is the City to be Judged, especially, Ultimately, Finally.  
That this may be made out, I must lay in the Foundation; That, as the City Rome is Evidently shown to be the Babylon, to be Judged; So the Supremacy meant here, by the Beast, must be a Supremacy closely Related to the City Rome, and Bearing up that City in Glory and Grandeur; as Pope of Rome, in the place of Emperor of Rome, or any other of the Supreme Magistracies of it. For the City, and the Beast that Carries it, are Inseparable; If it be therefore made out that the Supremacy is Papal, on which the City is Born up when it is Judged; It will most certainly follow, that the City to be Judged, is Rome Papal; Even as if it be proved, that the Rome to be Judged, is Rome Papal; It is therein proved that the Supremacy Judged is Papal Supremacy; For as is said; They are Inseparable and Proportioned one to another: I will therefore draw out several Characters of Papal Supremacy, and of Papal Rome, that are most Plain Matters of Fact upon both, in Relation to, and Compare one with another, and that are given in Prophecy upon each, as the most plain and easy to be understood (waving what is more Critical and Curious,) and yet most Argumentative and most Conclusive, as laid one to another, considered together; that Papal Rome, with its Papacy, are here Represented to be Judged.  
The Characters are these Following.  
Charact. 1. It is undeniable, The Papacy lays claim to a Supremacy, as the Vicar of Christ, Universal Bishop, Pope of Rome; as Universal as Emperor of Rome heretofore over the Princes of Europe; and a Pastor above Princes, and the Supreme Powers here upon Earth; So the Church of Rome, Universal Catholic Church, The Mistress of Churches, or Lady, as Babylon of Old; or as Rome, when Mistress, Lady of the World; All this is undeniable Matter of Fact in general knowledge of the World at this day; and much more so before the Reformation.  
And what more plain in Prophecy! In Daniel, in this Prophecy of the Revelation; Beast is Interpreted into King or Kingdom, as a Succession of Kings; Having Times and Laws given into his Hand to Change. Horns are Kings, and so must the Little Horn be, and as more 
Dan. c. 7.  Stout than his Fellows, an Imperial King: In this Vision of the Revelation, the Beast is the Eighth King, and of the Seven Heads, Supremes over Rome. To show his Imperialness, Ten Kings are as Horns upon his Head, in Subordination to him: Power was given to him over all Kindred's, and Tongues, and Nations; An Universal Monarch. 
C. 13. 7. ●. 17. 9   
As for the City, it is Babylon The Great, the Great City, who saith, I sit a Queen. As she had sat upon Formor Kings, so she is Carried on high by the Beast; The Kings of the Earth Live Deliciously with her, her Merchants are the Great Men, the Grandees of the Earth made Rich by her Costlyness; And the Greatness and Variety of her Merchandise speaks her Greatness; Now seeing it hath been Proved by the Letter of the Prophecy, Rome is the Seven Headed City, that was Imperial at the Time of the Prophecy given: I appeal to all Persons who know the State of Things now in Europe, and what it was in Ancient Time; whether there be in the Roman Empire, that then was, any Supreme like the now Pope for Universality; For not only the Kings, (excepting those who Renounced him in the Reformation) but even he is who called Emperor, is no Emperor, in Comparison of the Papal Supreme, whom he himself owns, and pays Subjection to; or any City that can pretend to be a Queen, as Rome pretends to be; as it calls itself the Catholic Church. There can be no pretence of the Otoman Supreme, or of Constantinople like it, Though that be so fixed as it is, as a Spiteful Rival of it by the hand of Vengeance, as might be further shown, if Seasonable now: And therefore this Character, I look, upon, even Demonstratively Distinctive of Papal Rome, and the Papal Supremacy: But if this can be thought not sufficient, what follows will more assure it.  
Charact. 2. The Papal Supremacy, However Prevalent it hath been, and is; is yet in the Balance of Worldly Powers, a weak, Precarious, Impuissant Supremacy; and hath no Martial Strength to support or Defend itself by; as is well known in all History and Daily Experience; So that Great Statesmen 
Puffendors Introduction to the Histor. of Europe. Cap 12.  and Politicians have been much Amused; How so Unarmed a Supremacy should have so long continued itself; We in this Nation are Witnesses, how uncontrollably the King of this Nation (Henry the 8th at his own Pleasure) Revulsed himself and it from him; and Queen Elizabeth, after the Resumbmision of Queen Mary, Abdicated the Papacy anew, as other Princes about the same Time did.  
In the same manner let us Judge of the City Rome now; and we know it is not the Residence of the Ancient Martial Spirit, and Prowess that Inhabited it; But, as its Supreme, is Unarmed, so is the City upheld by the Kindness of the Ten Kings, that shall Hate and Famish, and Burn it hereafter; and by the Fraud and Cunning of the Pope, the Cardinals and other the Preisthood of it; an Imperial City in a Mystery; that is a False Catholic Church held up by Art.  
Let us observe now, How Prophecy speaks of this Character, both as to the City, and as to its Supreme; and we shall find in Daniel; The Feet and Toes of the Image, Dan. 2. Which make the last State of the Fourth Roman Monarchy or Kingdom, were Part of Iron and Part of Clay; Partly Strong as Iron, and Part Broken Fragile v. 42. Weak and Frail as Clay. And what could the whole Ingeny of Man have found out more Curiously, and yet Significantly to Express the Feeble Supremacy of the Papacy; Like Feet of Clay upheld by the Iron of the Ten Kings; and in the other Vision the Ten Horns Surround and Cover the Little Horn,; that else could not defend itself; his Power shall be Mighty, but not in his own Power, C. 8. 24. In the Revelation the Beasts Supremacy is continually Represented with an Image; Conjoined with a Spiritual Power, an Ecclesiastical Supremacy, which is a Supremacy in an Image: And it is by Gift under a Divine Decree, The Ten Kings Agree, and with One Consent give their Kingdom, and Power, and Strength to the Beast: It is by Gift, and by Agreement, and as by Balance on One Another's Power, as Event hath proved.  
Let us now behold the Character drawn by Prophecy, in relation to the City; She sits indeed a Queen; But it is by the Sorcery of a False Religion, upon Princes and People, by making them drunk with the Wine of her Fornication and Adulteries; an Impure, Senseless sort of Devotion, and the False Hopes of Salvation by it; a Drunken Dream fit to Enchant, and Enslave those who are bereft of All Judicious Understanding in Christianity; and pleased with a Faith, Worship of God, and Conversation, suited only to a Carnal Sensuality: All this shows us wherein the Strength of this City, or False Church lies.  
And how Exactly do these Things Answer One Another! What we Every Day see with our Eyes, and hear with our Ears, and have all manner of Assurance of in Papal Rome; and these Delineations of Prophecy, carrying us out of all manner of Doubt, that the City here described to be Judged, is Papal Rome.  
Char. 3. In the Papacy of Rome, and its City, or False Church, we find the Collection of All the Superstitions and Idolatries, that ever have been (almost, if not altogether) in the World, under One Pretence, Colour, and Coverture, or other; Running like Filthy Drains, into this Foul Great Sewer; enough to fill Volumes with their incredible Multitude and Variety; Such as if duly considered, cannot but be thought most Strange and Horrid, in so Divine, Spiritual, and so Intellectual a Worship of God, as Christianity teaches.  
And how hath Prophecy Represented this! In Daniel, by the Infamous Name of Beast, common to Him, with other Idolatrous Pagan Supremes; So by His thinking to change Times and Laws given into his Hand for such a Term, plainly signifying Sovereign Power, Engaging itself in the Devising and Introducing False Religion, as Jeroboam of old, 1 Kings c. 12. 32. 38.  
In the Revelation He is Full of the Names of Blasphemy; that is, of Idolatry: For so the Idolatry of such as make a Profession of the True God, is styled, Isa. 65. 7. by the Judgement of the most Learned Interpreters: And indeed it can be no other; For to acknowledge a Being so Holy, Wise; Jehovah, the Eternal, Infinite Spirit; and then to put upon him the Folly, and Nothing, as the Apostle styles it, of an Idol, is perfect Blasphemy.  
And so it is to arrogate to be worshipped with him; And it is most observable, the Revelation frequently Joyns this Beast Worshipped, and his Image Worshipped, plainly importing his Idolatrousness.  
Aholah, and Aholibah, those Idolatrous Churches of Israel and Judah, are a most Graphical Description of this City, or False Church, in the same Kind of Style; Aholah and Aholibah, were set out, Ezek. c. 23. in all the Lewdness of Infamous Women; Those False Churches of Israel and Judah; if it be Lawful at all to use the Name of Churches in their Case, and particularly Judah have the Title of an Imperious, or, as it may be rendered exactly to the present Case, Imperial Whorish Woman, Ezek. 16. 33. So Rome is Pictured having in her Hand a Golden Cup, full of the Wine of her Fornication.  
Charact. 4. That which is so Generally to be observed in the Papacy, is the very Height of a most Bold, Blasphemous Arrogancy: The very Supremacy he usurps in the Christian Church, shows his Luciferian Pride. The Title, HIS HOLINESS, is most Sacrilegious, Seeing God Only Holy is, much more Alone Holiness itself: His Claim of Infallibility above Counsels, is a small Thing; for he exalts it above Scripture itself; That (in the Sense of the very Pharisees) Blasphemous taking upon him to Pardon Sin, his Indulgences, Pretended Deliverances from Purgatory, his Counterseit Miracles, his Anathematising and Cursing down All to Hell, who detest his Idolatries, shows him that Proud and Haughty Scorner, who Deals in Proud Wrath: His setting his Throne, and Lifting his Sceptre above the Thrones and Sceptres of Princes, is most Horrid, and Intolerable Insolency: In All this the City is one with him, sitting alought upon him, and Born upon him in all this Babylonish Lucifertanism. 
Esay 14. 12.   
Let us observe, how Scripture-Predictions show this his Sathanic Presumption; Daniel calls it his speaking Words, High, Great Words against the Most High; c. 7. 25. Standing up against the Prince of Princes, c. 8. 25. Speaking marvellous things against the God of Gods; and He shall magnify Himself above every God, or Supreme: c. 11. 36. He sitteth in the Temple of God as God, showing himself he is God. He exalts himself above All that is called God; (the Scripture Expression for Princes) or that is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is styled August; taken from the Name of Augustus, the Greatest of Rome's Emperors; and become at that Time the Imperial Title: Thus the Apostle describes the Beast, calling him the Man of Sin in the Antichristian Apostasy, he was describing; and that we may know him to be the Beast, he is called, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That Lawless Prince that does what he will, Dan. 11. 36. and the Son of Perdition; as Revel. 17.  
In the Prophecy of the Revelation he is thus set out: To him was given a Mouth speaking Great Things: He opened his Mouth in Blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his Name; The World wondered after him; They who dwell upon the Earth shall worship him; whose Names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life; He comes, as Satan, with All Deceivableness of Vurighteousness in them, who perish, on whom God sends strong Delusion to believe so great a Lie, as the Papacy in its whole Frame, makes up. Compare herein 2 Thes. 2. 10, etc. Rev. 13. 3. 8, etc.  
The City, that Sodom, and Great Whore, that corrupteth the Earth with her Fornications, Rev. 11. c. 17. That Woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a Prophetess, which Teacheth and Seduceth the People of Christ, Christians by Profession, to commit Fornication, to have Communion with Idols, Rev. 2. 20. She hath on her Forehead a Name written, Mystery, as if she were indeed the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Foundation of Truth, the Catholic Church, out of which none can be saved: But it is the Mystery of Iniquity; For the Inscription goes on, Mother of Harlots; So that a most Unintelligible Composition of Wickedness makes up this Mystery.  
I Appeal now to All, whether such Insolences of Arrogation eaten to be found in the whole World, as in the Papacy and its Church of Rome; or whether such Known Matter of Fact, in All these Things, could be more plainly set out, than they are by these Prophecies.  
Charact. 5. The Great Fraud, Dissimulation, Worldly Policy and Intrigue, we know in the Papacy, and the Pseudo Catholic Roman Church, all its Cheats and Impostures make up such a Character of it, that we find that Great Swedish Statesman, Puffendor, spends the whole Chapter forementioned in the Discourse of it; who, the he does not appear to have the least Relation to Prophecy, yet writes so according to it on that Subject; That it is very wonderful; even as if he had aimed to Justify Prophecy by so notorious matter of Fact.  
Let us then Review Prophecy on this Head, first in Daniel; The Little Horn had the Eyes of a Man; a Look, or Aspect more Great, Rabbi-Like; of more Perspicacity than his Fellow Horns; He had Eyes, and a Mouth that spoke Great Things; the Mouth, as of a Man of Eyes, Dan. 7. 20. He understood Dark Sentences; Through his Policy; He causes Craft to prosper in his Hand, c. 8. 25.  
In the Revelation, c. 2. 14. In the Church of Pergamus, the Prophetic Symbol of the Church of Christ Under the Antichristian Throne of Satan, the Papal Supremacy; we read of that Politician Prophet— Balam, who taught Balac to cast a Stumbling-block before the Children of Israel, by drawing them into Idolatrous Practices: In the Church of Thyatyra, the Symbol of the Protestant Churches, under Popish, Persecuting Princes, stirred up by the Papal Antichristian (Church, as it will be called) which is Represented by Ahabs' Queen Jezebel, than which none more apt in the whole History of Scripture could be found, as might by a Compare be made apparent: But her Whoredoms and Witchcrafts cannot be passed by, with which Jehu upbraided her so reproachfully, as the Protestant Princes have done Rome: Oh that so many of them had not fallen into Jehu's great Evil, not to have made a perfect Reformation. But That which is most to the present Purpose, is, That she had, together with her assumed Propheticness, the Depths of Satan, as the Arcana Regni, her deep Maxims of Sathanic State, by both which, she enchants, be witches, intoxicate Princes and Nations.  
Charact. 6. There is nothing more notorious, than the dreadful Persecutions, and Storms of Violence, the Papacy, and Its Roman City, or False Church hath raised against those who have embraced Christianity, and desire to enjoy it in the Purity, and Simplicity of it; or have not submitted to that Tyranny they have so grasped at, as hath been described. And we see the Princes and Powers of this World, that have been the Devotionists of it, have contributed their Force thereunto; The secular Authority, as they call it; and which Prophecy calls, The Ten Kings making War with the Lamb. And all this together hath come to that Extremity of Blood, Slaughter, and all manner of Torture, as continue to this very Day; History and Experience are so full of it, I need say nothing. The Waldenses, or as we call them, Vaudois, are a lasting Monument hereof, and continue so before our Eyes.  
Now this Cruelty of Christians (as they would be called) upon their own so honourable Name, is so monstrous, that even Pagans cannot but be astonished at it, and call into doubt that holy, harmless and compassionate Religion, so full of Mercy, Peace, all good Fruits, when they find the Professors of it, and the Papacy and Church of Rome, who would be Supremes of it, breathing out Slaughter and Blood; to be as Lions, Tigers, Wolves, yea Devils let lose, set on Fire of Hell, upon those who profess the same Lord and Christ; and such Princes; as the French King to outdo the nero's, Domitian's, Decius' and Dioclesian's; and the Papal to equal, yea to exceed the Pagan Rome herein.  
And it should make us bewail, that ever, what hath been called Protestant, should have any of these Stains upon it, and abhor the least Thoughts of the Return of any such Thing in our own Nation.  
Let us now take a View of the Portraiture of Prophecy and its Abundance, when it gives us the Character of the little Horn; of the King of Fierce Countenance; of the lawless King, that does after his own Will; of the He, to whom Time, Times and Halfpenny are given; of the Beast in the Revelation; all which are one and the same, Papacy of Rome, as hath been already, and may be now made out, even to the very Nicety of Prophetic Explications; and as to the Pseudo-Catholic Church of Rome: Dan. 7. 21. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. Ver. 25. He speaks great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High. Chap. 8. 24. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power, and he shall destroy wonderfully, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. Ver. 25. By Peace, as if he did nothing but in a Peaceable Way. Any thing of Force lies wholly on the secular Arm; He shall yet destroy many. In the Revelation, Chap. 11. 7. The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit shall make War against the Witnesses of Christ, shall overcome them, and kill them. Chap. 13. 7. It was given, by Way of Permission, but most judiciary Licence also to make war with the saints, and to overcome. Ver. 15. He causes, by his Supremacy in an Image, that all who would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed. Ver. 17. And that no man might buy nor sell, have Freedom of Trade, (as it is now in France,) who would not receive the mark of the Beast, etc. And till his Term expire, this must be; when it expires it shall end: There is therefore set up, as a Pillar inscribed, as a Boundary of Time. Ver. 10. Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints, Thus far it reaches, till the Time of Judgement on the Beast and his Horns: Then, He that leadeth, into Captivity shall go into Captivity; he that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword. Chap. 17. 14. The Ten Kings, Horns of the Beast, make war with the Lamb and his Saints. But the Beast is taken, and the Kings slain with 
Chap. 19  the Sword of Christ.  
And as for the City, or Papal Church of Rome, how abundant is Prophecy? Chap. 17. 6. I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and of the martyrs of Jesus. Chap. 18. 6. Reward her as she rewarded you. Ver. 20. Rejoice over her, Tbou Heaven, and ye Holy Prophets and Apostles, for God hath avenged you on her. Ver. 24. In her was found the blood of the Prophets and Apostles, and of the Martyrs, all that were slain on the Earth. Chap. 19 2. God hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And Chap. 11. 8. The bodies of the witnesses lay dead in the street of the great City; which by Compare must be Babylon the Great, the great City, spiritually called Sodom, for its corrupting the Earth with her Fornication; and Egypt for her Cruelty and Tyranny; and with that as distinct a Remark, as could be set; Spiritually: All knowing their Antichristian Usurpation on that Word; The Spirituality; for the sake of which, I could rejoice, if that very Word, in Use in our Nation, Lords Spiritual were utterly blotted out. Chap. 16. 3. The Angel that poured out his Vial on the Waters, and Rivers of Babylon, its Papacy and Kings, said, by way of Praise, Thou art righteous, Oh Lord, which art, waist, and art to come; because thou hast thus judged, for they have shed the blood of thy Saints and Prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And an●ther Angel from the Altar, where the souls of Martyrs cry out, How long Lord! Answers; Even so, Lord God Almighty, True and righteous are thy Judgements.  
Seeing then these Things of the Persecutions of the Romish City in its whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Breadth, its Papacy and ten Kings, are as clear as the Day; and that Prophecy is so direct upon them, if this very Character were alone, it were even sufficient to assure it is Papal Rome under the Eye of Prophecy; much more in this sevenfold Concenterment.  
Charact. 7. The Papacy is the last Supreme of the Roman Empire, and that Supremacy the very last State and Time of this City Rome. Now of this indeed we first say nothing beyond those Scriptural Reasons; That the final and most destructive Judgements of God are to be expected on a City of so great Idolatries, Filthinesses, Pride, Cruelty and the bloody Persecutions of the Servants of God, and of so long Continuances therein; as not only other Cities, who when they have filled up their Measures of Iniquity, have been judged by God; but Jerusalem, which God made so great an Exemplar of Judgement; we may also observe in the Course of Providence, and the Government of the World, All humane States and Governments have come to their Periods; and Rome having had so long a Duration from the Vrbs Condita, or first Building of Rome, and even since it became Rome Papal, a Time as we may according to the most usual Allowances of Time to Cities and States, the Sovereign Lord of Time hath determined, very well expect its Downfall to be near, and that it must needs be sitting on its last Supremacy.  
But when we calculate according to the sure Word of Prophecy, as we have utmost Assurance, that Papal Rome is the Babylon, that is to be judged. So we have no Room for Doubt that it is the last Supremacy; For as the City is adjudged to final Destruction, so the Beast is thrice said to go into Perdition. Chap. 18. 21, 22. compared with Chap. 17. ver. 8, 11. If therefore the City sitting on the Beast, is cast as a Millstone into the Sea; That cannot survive the Beast, to sit on any other; And if the Beast go into Perdition, as he is also called by the Apostle, the Son of Perdition, [as the Judas of Christianity, going into his own Place,] while the Woman sits upon him; there is a perfect End of his Supremacy also; he is therefore said by the Apostle, 2 Thess. 2. to be first taken away by the Breath of the Lord's Mouth, and then brought utterly to nothing with the Brightness of his Illustrious Appearance, 2 Thess. 2. 8. And he is taken, and cast, alive, into the Lake; And even this gives certain Proof, This is the last Supremacy; For there can be none after the Eighth King, upon which the City sitting is destroyed: It could not therefore be the Seventh King, which by being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Another, a very Forreigner, of another Kindred to the other Kings, No Head of Babylon, though a King of Rome, is therefore certainly known to be the Christian Emperor, and came after the Pagan Emperor, called the Dragon, who then was in his Regnancy, when the Apostle writ. Let us then argue thus; which ever of the Kings is the Beast, must be the Supreme; sitting on which Babylon, (proved to be Rome) must be destroyed: It cannot be the Sixth King who then was, when the Prophecy was given; and who might be supposed to have lasted till I now. For who can suppose in any Sense whatever, Rome is upon the same King it was then! nor can it be upon the Seventh King, but no Head on that Account; for he could continue but a short Space (as hath been elsewhere made out) it must be therefore some Supreme, that hath continued a long Space in Opposition to the short Space. This therefore must be the Papacy which hath lasted longer than any Government over Rome without Variation in any Essential Point, and than (so far as I know) any other in the World. Beside, it is expressly said, the Dragon, by which I apprehend all Interpreters understand the Pagan Imperial, persecuting Power at the Time of the Revelation given, is expressly said to receive a deadly Wound from the Christian Emperor; on which, he, as it were, secretly conveyed over his Power, Seat, and great Authority to the Beast, gliding it, as unobservedly, by the Christian Emperor, unto the Idolatrous Antichristian Papacy; by whom his Deadly Wound was healed; which is therefore the Eighth King, but Seventh Head; Seventh from the Sixth Head, or Pagan Emperor, of whom, when the Apostle writ, it is said, he now is. Then follows the Seventh King, no Head; then the Beast the Seventh Head who hath continued even above 1200 Years: So that the Time from the Cessation of the Western Christian Roman Empire, when the Beast received Power, and the Ten Kings with him at 476 of the vulgar Account, exceeds the Time from the first Building of Rome to that Supremacy of the Bishop, or Pope of Rome; so that no Title of Principality in Rome hath by a kind of Providential Fatality been assumed by any Secular Power, precisely over the City Rome, but Bishop, or Pope of Rome; This argues beyond Possibility of Denial from this so long Continuance of the Papacy in Opposition to the short Continuance of the Seventh King, no Head, or Christian Emperor; that the Pope is indeed that Seventh Head, and Eighth King, and so the Last, even the Beast that goes into Perdition.  
Posit. 3. It is one of the Glories and Lustres of the Judgement of God on Babylon, That the first coming of it into Execution shall be with great Suddenness and Surprisal. It is expressed in one Day, and one Hour, and in the same Hour. I know Day and Hour may signify any determinate Season. But in such very constant and pregnant Expressions of Suddenness, exceeding Suddenness is intended. The same Expressions are used concerning Literal Babylon, 
* Esay 47. Jer. 51.  In one Day, and in a Moment, one Post shall run to meet another, with the Tidings, so sudden and unthought of Tidings; when Belshazzar thought of no such Thing; the 
† Dan. 6.  Handwriting appeared upon the Wall: And the same Night Belshazzar was slain, and the King of the Medes took the Kingdom, the Babylonian Monarchy then utterly ceasing. This was Prophetically Typical of Mystical Babylon: It is therefore no Argument this Judgement cannot be executed a long Time yet, because there are no present Appearances: Herein shall appear the Glory of this Judgement, as one great Point of it, the Suddenness of it; In many of the most high and lofty Works of God, Suddenness hath been the peculiar Lustre of them. In the Creation of the World, He spoke, and it was done; He 
Psal. 33. 9 Esay  commanded, and it stood fast; He called to the whole Creation, and it stood up together: In the Giving the Spirit, suddenly there was the Noise of a mighty rushing 
Acts 2. 2.  Wind. In the Day of Judgement, sudden Destruction shall come, when they shall cry Peace, Peace; 
1 Thes. 5. 1.  upon all the Enemies of the Kingdom of Christ. The third Woe cometh quickly, in the hasty and sudden Effects 
Rev. 11. 14.  of it.  
Now by this Suddenness it is not intended, That the whole Execution of the Judgement should be in so short Time, though it is and shall be in short Time. For the whole Progress of the Third Woe is quick and speedy as it passes through the Tubuli or Pipes, till it comes down into the Ocean of Everlasting. Yet, it shall not be in one Day, Hour, or Moment: But the first Invasion or Assault shall be so. Then it moves by seven Voices, and by seven Vials of the last Plagues, wherein is filled up the Wrath of Almighty God.  
To the Ancient Literal Babylon, it is said, Esay 47. 7. etc. Thou sayest, I shall be a Lady for ever, so that thou didst not lay these things to thy Heart, neither didst thou remember the latter end of it; therefore hear now this, thou that art given to Pleasures, that dwellest carelessly; thou that sayest in thy Heart, I am, and none else besides me; I shall not sit as a Widow, neither shall I know the loss of Children: but these two things shall come upon thee in a Moment, in one Day; the Loss of Children and Widowhood; they shall come upon thee in their Perfection, for the multitude of thy Sorceries, and for the great abundance of thy Enchantments. But than it is destroyed for ever, sunk as a Millstone. This speaks the Perpetuity of the Judgement. All this is most Prophetically Typical of the Judgement on Mystic Babylon. We have found it was literally fulfilled, as indeed in one Day, and one Night, on old Babylon, and so it shall in the first Onset on the Mystical. But the Judgements of it are so much of another Nature, they shall continue much longer in the Execution, like the second Death; it suddenly surprises, but it continues for ever; so is the Judgement of Babylon; her Smoke rises up for ever and ever. And, If any man worship 
Chap. 14. 9, etc.  the Beast or his Image, etc. the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God without mixture; and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the Presence of God, and of the Lamb, and of the Holy Angels; and the Smoke of their Torments riseth for ever and ever. Thus, though the Beginning of the Judgement be sudden, the Continuation of it is by certain Distributions of its self, till it become an everlasting Lake of Wrath and Torment.  
Posit. 4. The Princes that long bore up the Grandeur and Haughtiness of Papal Rome, by giving their Power and Kingdom to the Beast; called therefore, his Horns; shall be so overcome by the Lamb, as to be made Instruments in the Execution of the Judgement in such Parts and Degrees, as the strong Lord shall, when he becomes Universal Monarch, King of King, and Lord of Lords, commission them unto. This shall highly exalt and make Illustrious the Judgement.  
It is therefore much to be considered, and is a great Confirmation, that Babylon means Papal Rome, as hath been already at large set forth; that the so strange and unaccountable Subjection of so many Kings to the Papacy, a feeble Power, if we consider its Force of Arms, which Statists, and Men of Politics have so wondered at, is here accounted for; It is indeed called Sorcery, and Intoxication, being made Drunk with the Wine of her Fornication, the most Lively Description of False Religion. But all is under the Divine Supreme Ordination;  
For God put it into their Hearts to Fulfil his will, and to agree together, and to give their Kingdom to the Beast, until the words of God should be Fulfilled; And they have one mind to give their Power and Strength unto the Beast; and hereupon they make War with the Lamb, and so Persecute his Truth and Servants. And 
C. 17. 2, 13, 15, 16.  the People of these Kingdoms, Nations, Multitudes, Tongues, the Inhabitants of the Roman Babylonian Earth, falling under the same Enchantment of a False Religion, made Drunk and Commiting Fornication with her, are as a Confluence of Waters to her, on which she sitteth: Was there ever, or could there be a plainer Description in Prophecy of what is so plain matter of Fact, which hath raised the Admiration and Wonder of all Observers!  
But when the words of God shall be Fulfilled, and the Time Allotted expired; Then these Kings shall so far as God pleases, be the Executioners of the Judgement; For as the Plagues in the Text are Death, Mourning, Famine, Burning with Fire; so the Kings shall hate the whore, make her desolate, Eat her Flesh, Burn her with Fire: It's True, there are Kings that Bewail her, v. 13. 18. But that pertains to another part of the Judgement, when it is Advanced to the Eternal Judgement, with the Explication of which I have not at the present to do; But how wonderful and Illustrious will the First Execution be, when these Kings shall First Appear in it! Sure It will be very Great and Glorious.  
Propos. 5. The Greatness and Sudden Invasion of this Judgement, as Denounced by God, and by such Instruments as the Ten Kings, are uncontrollably to be Demonstrated, not only as to the Possibility, but the certainty of both, as from the Truth of the Lord who hath so long ago Denounced it; So from the Wisdom and Omnipotency of the strong Lord, who is the Judger.  
This is not therefore in the least unreasonable, but the Highest Justification from the Truest Principles of Reason, is to be found in the Expectation of the Judgement upon the Beast and the City; Let it be never so sudden. For the Lord is every way Infinitely Shrong, who Judgeth; God therefore in such, his great works of what kind soever, appeals to the Consideration of himself, as the God that stretcheth out the Earth, and that which cometh out of it, that giveth Breath unto the People upon it, Es. 42. So in the Judgement on Old Babylon: He that made the Earth by his Power, he hath Established the World by his Wisdom, and he hath stretched out the Heaven by his understanding; when he uttereth his Voice, there is a Multitude of Waters in the Heavens, and he Causeth the Waters to Ascend from the Ends of the Earth; He maketh the Lightning with Rain, and bringeth the Wind out of his Treasures. Jeremiah 51. 16. 17. It's therefore a very great Misprision of Infinite Wisdom and Power, when we make that an Argument against the most Extraordinary, and most Miraculous Works of God, which he makes an Argument for Faith and Expectation of them, as if he were Tied by what he had done, to do no more, or had done all he could do; and nothing to be Expected, but according to the Laws of Creation, and daily providence and Leisurely Progresses, and not in those Immediate Effects of Sudden Power; The great God argues differently, because those Works of his are so great and so high; That therefore still so great and so high are to be Expected; and that they should stand up so together, when he pleases.  
And so we unwisely think, we very well argue, he that so Wonderfully and Miraculously appeared in the First Times of the Gospel, hath done all that he will do, or thinks fit to be done, till the day of Judgement: But undoubtedly we may better argue, he hath much greater things to do, to make the very latter times of the Gospel-Glory, as Illustrious as their very beginning, and entrance was; Before his Kingdom, the Man of sin and Son of Perdition shall be Consumed and utterly defaced; his Spirit shall be poured out; The Everlasting Gospel shall be Preached; The Heathen shall come to the Lord from the Ends of the Earth, and shall know his hand and his might, and that his Name is Jehovah; And all Israel shall Turn to the Lord and be saved. For Strong is the Lord, who shall do all these things.  
Posit. 6. The Divine Prescience, and Wisdom hath chosen and singled out a Time, and decreed it for the Execution of this Judgement, when Babylon shall show it  in its Pride, in its Pomp, it's Presumptive Security; For as, hath been said, it is when she shall say, I sit a Queen, and shall see no sorrow, as Babylon of Old said; I shall be a Lady for ever, and shall know no loss of Children.  
All Scripture speaks of Sudden Destruction, when Men cry, Peace, Peace. It is a Time when Men are High and Proud, and Haughty, that their Fall is near; Nabuchadnezzar was laid hold on by Vengeance with those words in his Mouth; Is not this Great Babylon, (from whence it had its Name in this Prophecy of the Revelation, 
Dan. 4. C. 11.  Babylon the great;) The Great City, (said he) which I have built for the Honour of the Kingdom by the Might of my Power, and for the Honour of my Majesty. And while the word was in the King's Mouth, the Judgement came upon him; So while Belshazzar was in his Highest Jollity; Drinking Wine in Vessels of the Temple; and Praising his Idols of Silver and of Gold; The Hand writing appeared, and that Night he was slain.  
Now it is certainly such a Time to Romish Babylon at this very day. The Jubilee, especially the Centurial, is a Time, when she sits a Queen; is espoused by the Princes, and is no Widow, when her Children gather about her; the King of Poland so lately turned to her, and she thinks she can know no Loss of Children; when she sits, as on a Throne, Dispensing Pardons and Indulgences, And a time it is, when so Nebuchadnezzar-like a Prince is so Insolently Vaunting, and so outrageously Persecuting, and Protestant Princes stand by, and are so Tender of the Articles of their late Peace, as not to be at Liberty to offer their Intercessions to the contrary.  
Thus far I have settled the Great Positions concerning the Judgement upon Babylon; To which I shall add to Corroborate what I have already laid down, and to make way to the Remaining Part of the Discourse, these following Observations.  
Observe. 1. That together with the Judgement on Babylon, not when it gins; I would not be so mistaken; but when it comes to its Perfection and filling up; There will be a concurrent Judgement upon the whole World of Wicked Men, the World of the ungodly; the Time of the Dead will then be come, that they should be Judged: The Judgements of 
C. 11. C. 15.  God will be made Manifest in all the Earth. Small and Great, Bond and Free, are slain with the Sword 
C. 19 20, etc.  that proceedeth out of the Mouth of Christ, the word by which he Judgeth at the last Day; In the Burn of Babylon, the Cities of the Nations fall; The Fire gins there and fpreads all over the Earth; Then will be the great Earthquake and Hail, Cap. 16. Vlt. All these Expressions and many other are made concurrent, with Great Babylon coming up in Remembrance before God, to give her the Cup of his Fury; Now this aught to make greatly Remarkable to us the Judgement upon Babylon.  
Observe. 2. The Judgement of God upon Babylon is Celebrated with his Highest Adorations, and Praises of his Servants; Showing at once the Highest Glory of God, and the Happiness of his People in it: There were Loud Voices in Heaven, of Praise; and, the Four and Twenty Elders fell down on their Faces, saying, We Praise thee Oh Lord, who Art, who was, who Art to come; because then hast taken to thee thy Great Power, and haste Reigned; Which is at Babylon's being Judged: For then is the Allelujah of the Lord 
C. 11.  God Omnipotent Reigning. Psal. 149. Then is the Time 
C 19  of the High Praises of God in the Mouths of his, of their Rejoicing in Glory; Then do they sing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb, as we find it at large; Then shall be the Four Courses of Hallelujahs; 
C. 15. 3.  and all arising from Babylon, being Judged; that we have C. 19 3. etc. And then is the Glory of the New Jerusalem State coming down, as a Bride Adorned for the Bridegroom.  
Now then as the Eternal Judgement and the Allelujahs of Eternal Glory, and Happiness are two so great points of Scripture Truth; So by these Scriptures, the Judgement of Babylon is declared a Great and a high point of Scripture Truth; Because with 
Cap. 21.  it are Complicated and Conserved the Truths of the Gospel, that have such a Principality and Supremacy in it; and they are so Interwoven with it, that the one cannot be Separated from the other; and the Judgement of Babylon ought therefore to be most closely attended to, and not looked upon as a dark Prophetical Truth, with which we have little to do; Let us then Humbly set ourselves, as Daniel of old, to search the Time in the Books of Prophecy, when this Babylon, as that of old, is to be Judged; and the whole Confederacy of the Enemies of the Kingdom and Servants of Christ, yea all both small and great Wicked; And then the Glory of Christ and his Reign shall appear; And let us hast on to it with Earnestness of Prayer, Desire and Expectation of it.  
Observe. 3. It is most undeniable, The Prophecies of Scripture have continually given Numbers of Time, as when Laws and Times are given into the Hand of the Little Horn, there is a Limitation of Time and Times and Half; when the Vision of the daily Sacrifice was given for the taking it away, and the 
C. 7.  Treading it under Foot; There is a Time assigned from the very First Date of the Vision to the Time of 
C. 8.  Justifying the Sanctuary, even 23000. Eves Morn's, When the Question was unto, how long the End of the Wonders; There is a Threefold Account of 
c. 12.  Time; Time, Times, Half a Time; 1290. Days and 1335 Days; In the Revel. C. 11. On the Gentiles coming into the Outer Court There are Forty Two Moons Dererminate; and to the Counter Prophecy of the Witnesses 1260 Days; Three Days, and a Half of the Witnesses lying Dead in the Street of the Great City; 1260 Days of the Church in the Wilderness, and Concurrent Three Times, and a Half; Forty two Moons of the Beasts continuated Supremacy; And the Number of the Beast; 666 with a General Rule, and a Solemn Elogium of the Wisdom of Counting; Here is Wisdom; Let him, that hath it Calculate, as the word properly signifies: And I say it is a General Rule, There is the Same, or a Parity of Reason to Count throughout; And there are the same difficulties to be overcome; For who indeed can once suppose, the Blessed Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Truth Leading into all Truth, the Spirit showing Things to come, would have given in the Scriptures of Truth, which we are Commanded to Search, and in the sure word of the Prophecy; to which we are Commanded to give Heed as to a Light, that Shineth in a Dark Place; would have given these Numbers of Time, if he had not intended they should be understood, and guided our Hopes and Prayers to the Time of his Kingdom.  
Observe. 4. The Time of Babylon, or Rome Judged is the Time of the Papacy going into Perdition; The Time of the Papacy going into Perdition is the Time of Rome Judged; For as the City and the Beast have been shown to be Inseparable; If the one be Roman, So must the other be also; so are they also, as to the Time of their being Judged: Herein they are Inseparable, when the one is Judged, So must the other also be.  
Observe. 5. That the Time of the Judgement of the City and of the Beast, that carried her, must needs be very near, as will appear by that Account of Time, I shall now present upon such Prophetical Grounds, as I hope, I cannot be mistaken in.  
Observe. 6. These Numbers all considered, and Adiusted one to another, Reach down to Sixteen Hundred Ninety Seven of Vulgar account; and so as I have (in another Discourse) even to Demonstration made out; That from Solomon's Death to the very Glory of the Kingdom of Christ; There lie in a due Series, and Connexion of these Numbers, 2730 Years, and in a most Exact Succession of an 182 Indictions or Fifteen of Years; of which Eighty Four make the Just; Time, Times, and Half Time, ending at 97: This with many other Assurances, especially of the coming to pass of Events according to the Prophetic Figures, and the Times settled for them, so exactly agreeing, show that Year, as the Year fixed for the Commencing from it of the happy Revolution of the Kingdom of Christ; I have in many Discourses affirmed this, and find no Reason to Retract it.  
That, which will, I know, with all Severity be objected against it, is, That things have not come to pass according to Prediction and Expectation at that Year; And from thence will be enforced, That It is Presumption to inquire into Prophetic Time, or to make any Determination upon it; I will therefore endeavour to show; It is not Presumption, but a Duty to Inquire, what, or what manner of Time, The Spirit of Christ in his Prophecies, hath signified; Notwithstanding whatever, can be Aggravated against mistake: And that it is better to search, notwithstanding mistake, then by Neglecting to search, to think to be secure from mistake; And then in the Second Place I shall apply myself to show, how the mistake is from Prophecy to be explained and set Right, and yet Ninety Seven to be Vindicated, as the Great Prophetic Year.  
For the first, That it is not a Presumption, nor Daring to 
C. 49. 19 Jerem. C. 50, 44.  Appoint God a Time, or to stand, as a Shepherd, or Governor of Time before him: But Duty to search Scripture throughout, even to the Prophetical Numbers given us therein. It is not for us indeed to know the Times and Seasons, God hath set in his own Power; Yet to use all means, even by Books to understand, what ever God hath been pleased to give so far out of the Peculiar of his own Prerogative, as to Reveal, though in Mystic Numbers; when he hath been pleased to Reveal, Things, They then belong to us: And He that hath a Mind and Wisdom, hath an Obligation by Command to Count; and our Lord charges it as Sinful 
Rev. 13. 18.  Hypocrisy, not to search, Discern those either Prophetic or Moral Signs of the Times: And I cannot find what can be said against the Commendation, the Apostle gives to them, who give heed to the sure word of Prophecy, as to a Light, that Shines in a Dark Place. Nor can I see;  
Why it should be looked on as an Offence, that is placed as a Character of Honour on the Sons of Issachar, 
1 Chron. 12. 32.  that they had understanding in the Times, which they attained undoubtedly by enquiry into and Meditation upon any Oracles, God had been pleased in those Times to vouchsafe: Daniel thought it no Presumption to inquire further of the End of Wonders, when he understood not what was first Revealed; The 
C. 12.  account of the 1290, and of the 1335 Days to the very Blessed State was then given to him, not so much for himself, who was to go his way to Rest until that End, but for us the People of God in every Age.  
What can then be objected against Searching into the Mysteriousness of those Numbers? and what may be from the difficulty of Interpretation Argued? The very same may be objected against searching into any of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Scripture, as the Apostle Peter calls them, or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as The Apostle Paul Styles them, Things hard to be understood, Interpreted; and so we should be Confined only to the most plain Scriptures, and of most Indisputable Interpretation; whereas the Apostle Resolved to Leave the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ, as well secured; And to go on to Perfection in search after the more Retired Truths of the word of God, as concerning Melchisedeec the Type of Christ, though hard to be Interpreted. Heb. 5. 11. 2 Pet. 3. 16.  
To the Objections Arising from the Danger, and mischief of mistakes; It may be very well Answered by the due Consideration; That in very many things without Error in the main Points, we Darken Counsel by words without Knowledge; And if the mistakes in 
Job. 38. 2.  the most Eminent and Learned Servants of Christ, in Interpretation of Scripture and Explication of Extra-Fundamental Points, most Inoffensively to Substantiali Principles, were as Visible, as mistakes in Computation of Prophetic Time, we might, if mistake were a Valuable Reason, be Discouraged from Researches, either into Scripture Exposition, or the Truths of it, any further than in those most undoubted Points, wherein all Holy Good Men agree.  
It is True, Prophetic mistakes are, as I may say, surviving, and still in the Eyes of Men; whereas the mistakes of the other sort, are, as they say of the Errors of Physicians, under Ground and out of Sight: Yet in themselves no more; or Less Culpable; being useful for the showing the Weakness and Fallibility of Humane Understanding, wherein it is not under the most certain Conducts of Truth.  
And as in other Cases, Variety of Sentiments, and Inquiries show the undoubted Excellency of Divine Truth; And Search into the word of God speaks it the Greatest Business and Exercise of Understanding; And is like the Running to and fro, whereby knowledge is Increased; whereas on the other hand a Kind 
Dan. 12. 4.  of Resolved sullen Neglect, in General brings forth Ignorance, and Stupidity; and either a Superstitious Dread of Intermeddling with Divine Things, if some what Removed from Common Catechism, or an Irreligious Carelessness; And in particular, In Prophetic Points of Time, this kind of Reserving ourselves from all the search, we can make, is, as if God had given such parts of his word to be only a Sealed Book; or the Cruces, the Torment of all search and enquiry into them; or that we were Profanely Careless, How Things are to be according to Prophecy with the Church of God, and with the Kingdom of Christ; or how the many and Great Predictions of Scripture, and of the Spirit of God by the Prophets, are to be Fullfilled; But much Light, Knowledge, and awakenedness concerning them comes in by search; and from hence also proceeds Light, when we may humbly expect the Fulfilling of them, and thereby Faith, Hope, and Prayer be excited amongst the Servants of Christ, arising from the Elaborate Treaties of those, whose Hearts God hath engaged to Separate themselves to Intermeddle with this Wisdom, and Armed with Courage to bear the Reproaches of Men, upon their being mistaken in openly Declaring and Publishing, what they have Found; And then this opens a way to 
Paraeus. Napier. Brightman. Mede Goodwin. Moor, Jurieu.  further inquiries of themselves, or those, who may arise after them, for the setting Right in those mistakes. For so God hath been pleased by many Servants of his to make advances further and further, till the Day Dawn and the Day Starr Arise in the very Hearts of all his Servants.  
Nor can any one show, why mistakes in these Prophetical Enquiryes should tend to Atheism, but quite the contrary; even as Different Apprehensions upon Faithful and Diligent searching into other points do highly assure the main Foundation. Nor do I find mistakes Springing from Faithful Endeavours, and sincere Designs for the Truth, Glory, and Kingdom of God, although Clouded with Infirmity, and our knowing but in Part, and Prophesying in Part, are through Grace in the Mediator Displeasing to him, equally as Ignorance, Negligence, and Gallio-like, not caring for any of these things; The Evils of the present Sardian State, and even of the Angel or Ministry of it; That they do not search with More United Inquiries; That they might, as the Watchmen of Zion see 
Essay 52. 8.  Eye to Eye, and lift up their Voices concerning these things.  
There is a Great Instance of a Prophetic mistake, 
2 Sam. c. 7.  and yet we find no Censure fixed by the Spirit of God upon it, where David Discoursed with Nathan the Prophet concerning Building God a House; He spoke as a Prophet; Go, and do all, that is in thy Heart; For the Lord is with thee, undoubtedly he understood by Scripture Oracles God's choice of the Tribe of Judah and his Intention of Building a Sanctuary, like the most High and Loughty Buildings, and of that Firmness to be like the Earth Estblished for ever: And therefore Collected; It was to be Built by David; Whereas, it is plain God had Determined, it should be Built by Solomon the Son of David: He was Right 
2 Sam c. 7.  in the main, but Erred in the Person, that was to be the Builder; But we find no severe Rebuke or Reproof; Only God is pleased to set him Right by his word coming to him that Night, and Instructing him concerning Solomon. I have humble hopes, that what may appear mistake in the very Circumstance of the Year 97, is Yet Right in the Essential Matter of a very near Time to be United with it; And, that what he hath been pleased to Enlighten me into in his word, shall set it Right; While I with great Humility and Modesty, and not with too Great a Positiveness or Presumption of Assurance, but Submission to the Supreme Governor of the World, and Lord of Time, as to his Dominion over all, so to his Wisdom and Prudence in his Sure Word of Prophecy, Declare, what I find.  
For the Vindicating the Year 1697 to be the Great Year, where the Scripture Prophetic Line Centres for the End of the Times and Half; of the 1260 Years of the Sackcloth, and the Wilderness State; of the Forty two Moons of the Gentiles, and of the Beast: and yet that the great Effects of that Time did not appear I shall lay down this Position, as the Foundation of what is to Fellow; The Great Effects to be Expected at the End of the Foremention'd Times 
Position.  are to be by a Supreme Ordination of God, Transferred from Ninety Seven, and are to be Humbly Expected at the End of Three Years, and a Half after the End of Ninety Seven, viz. at 1700.  
But in the first place, that I may clear the sense of this Position; It must be considered; That Prophecy doth not Reckon the Beginning and End of Years either according to the Sacred Israelitish Account, in the Vernal Equinox; or at our Vernal Equinox, which we call March 10th or 25. Nor at what we call January 1. But according to the Beginning of the Civil, Jewish, Year at the Autumnal Equinox: Of which we have an Unexceptionable proof; In, that The Sabbatizing Sacrifice and Oflering, by the offering 
Dan. 9 27.  once for all of the Lord Jesus Christ, is Fixed in the Middle of the last of Daniel's Seventy Weeks, so Universally allowed to be Weeks of Years by All; The Time of which Offering must needs be (as All agree) at the Vernal Equinox; which was indeed made the Beginning of the Sacred Year, but not of the Civil Year; For than was the Time of the Jewish Passover: If then the Vernal Equinox was the Middle, or Half of the Week of Years, it must needs be the Half or Middle of the Fourth Year, whose Beginning and Ending can be no other than the Autumnal Equinox; to which Two Extremes ●he Vernal is the Half, or Middle Point. And the Reason of Prophecy so accounting by the Civil Jewish Year, is very plain; For that it should be some Account of Time, according to the Usual Computations of the People of God, is most agreeable; because To them were committed The Oracles of God; And seeing these Prophecies have Respect to the Monarchic Periods; Therefore that which concerned the Sacred Constitutions was not so Congruous to Civil, and especially to Pagan Dominions most intended: Let us then account from the Autumnal Equinox 97, to the same 98, we have One Year; to the same 99, Two Years; to the same 1700, Three Years; and from thence to the Vernal Equinox of 1700, ending at 1701, according to the Computation of the Years so Beglnning, as we speak in the Church of England; and we have the Three Years and a Half, at or before the End of which I have most Humble Hopes, through Grace, there shall be such Assurance from the Great Effects, that we shall not doubt, the Year 1697, United with the Year 1700, is the very Time Prophecy hath set so Great Remarks upon, as the Time for the High Changes, and Revolutions, God will please to make in the World.  
Now if the Lord please, upon the Foundation of these Propositions, to Direct his most Unworthy Servant, that hath Reason to be Humbled and Abased, in Regard of the Failure of the Great Expectation at 1697. and yet to show him, how the Great, and Complete Effects then Expected, and that That Year made some Offertures of Themselves, may be Transferred to this present Year of Jubilee, 1700, as a Year so Remarkable by the Providential Ordination of the Jubilee upon it; a Time to which Prophecy so Points; without any Dishonour to 97, or Injury to Prophecy. And that I may, without Just Imputation of Presumption, Humbly Present that Fair Collineation of Prophecy, together with the Plain, Undeniable Encouragement of the Text, I am upon, to stir up the Earnest Prayers, and Humble Waitings of All his Servants, Loving and Looking for his Kingdom; to see what God will please to do this Year; Oh how Great will his Goodness be herein! and beyond this I will not dare. And if the Lord be pleased to Honour this Enquiry with his Great Works,  
I will therefore propose these Six Heads to insist upon, in order to so Great Ends.  
1. I will consider what is to be said concerning Ninety Seven, with Relation to the Great Events I have assigned to it.  
2. I will show, that there are Reserves in Prophecy, in some Cases, within itself, of some further Time, that shall lie within the most Known, Noted and Expected Time; and though it Reach out beyond it, it is yet United, as One Time with it; and so it will be found in the Times now before us.  
3. This shall be Endeavoured to be made out, That in such a Case there may be found in Prophecy a Curious Artifice, or Contrivance of the Divine Spirit of it, that there shall be an Equipoize of it, that may without Injury to it, be inclined the one way, or the other, by the Hand of Interpretation: And though that Blessed Spirit, the Author of Prophecy, most Certainly Before knew to which it would be by Providence Determined; yet without Immediate Revelation from Himself, no Humane Understanding could Determine. All which shall be particularly shown in this Instance between 97 and 1700.  
4. I shall observe with Scripture-Authority, That when there is a Delay of Events, and Effects of Mercy, beyond the Principal Time, most Openly held out in Prophecy, it is called Infraction, or Breach of Promise: And when Providence Retracts what it had Begun, and given some Essays of, It is called Abruption, or Breaking off what was so Begun; And That, Sin is the Demeritorious Cause in Both These Cases, and herein also a particular Application to the present Case shall be endeavoured.  
5. That the Certain Determination of a Time Accessary, and in Delay of the Principal Time, is in neither made doubtful, or Incertain; but it carries the more Forcible Assurances from the Delay, upon that further Time. And this is also Reduced to the present Case.  
6. That the Closest Inquiries into these Things, according to the Word of God, is on no True Account of the Matter, a Blame-worthy Presumption, but encouraged by Scripture.  
Head 1st. With Relation to Ninety Seven Past, I must take the Humble Boldness to say, I have made a Review upon my whole Prophetic Scheme, Backward and Forward; and considered the mutual Respects to, and Configurations of Prophecy, one with another; and their Just Spaces of Time; and could find nothing that should shake my Assurance, but had it much more Confirmed by that Plerophory, or Full Assurance of Understanding; arising from the whole Prophetic Line, being from Solomon's Death compacted under that Chronologic Period of Indictions, or Fifteen of Years, (as I have most Fully in a Discourse on that Subject, made to appear), even to the End of the 1335 Days, or the Blessed Time: So that I cannot remove from Ninety Seven, as that Central part of Time in the Prophetic Line, without distrusting the Truth of Human Faculties, and even Arithmetic Demonstration.  
But being very well Ware of this Great Pressure upon me, That seeing the great Effects I expected at that Time, did not appear; It must necessarily be inferred; That either the word of Prophecy, (which is to be abhorred) is not sure; Or that Ninety Seven is not the Time, Prophecy hath Directed us upon; For it cannot be the Time, if it be not Illustrious with those mighty Events, as the Great Effects of Vision.  
On this therefore I most Humbly besought the Lord, that he would clear this Difficulty to me; concerning which I cannot but have Greatest Search of Spirit and Thoughts of Heart; And it hath pleased Him, and doth still please him to Impress much on my Thoughts; That the Three Days and a Half Assigned to the Witnesses Lying Dead in the Streets of the Great City, Should according to the Prophetic Standard be, as Three Years and a Half laid to Ninety Seven; And then shall those Mighty Works expected show forth themselves.  
But that this may not appear Fanciful or Enthusiastic, I am obliged to turn myself every way to the Law and to the Testimony; As the Prophets Searched (no doubt) throughout the Sacred Records to find; What, or what manner of Time, The Spirit of Christ 
1 Pet. 1.  which was in them, did signify; So that I may find, How these Three Days and a Half may be so added to 97, as to be Consonant, and Agreeable with Scripture; and Prophetic Measures; and particularly how it may be Reconciled with what I have Found, and can yet find no Reason to Retract, concerning 97.  
Head. 2. I will come therefore to show; That there are Reserves of Prophecy in some Cases within itself; and that it sets a further Time, when it hath First set any Time more open, and in view; and that further Time Reaches out beyond it; It is yet but as one Time United with it; And so it will be found in the Time now before us. Concerning two such Times United, as into one; I would set in full, and open view to Run on every occasion into Consideration, these Rules to Judge of them by, which have been already Intimated.  
1. The Principal Time is held out more clearly and openly; The other by way of Reserve is given; as a Mantissa or Surplusage, or as an Epitome or Recollection of that Time; and cannot be found but by closest Attention to what hath been before Revealed; Or by New Revelation.  
2. When such a Reserved Time is, the Principal, Primary, Determined Time is not Removed from its Dignity. But it is always Decorated, or Graced with offertures of some very Great Events, And though the further Reserved Time is made most Illustrious with the whole Constellation of Events, yet that Surplusage or Consummation of Time Rests upon the Principal, as its Basis and Foundation both for Time, and also for those Great Events. 
Dan. 12. 4.   
3. When such a Reserved Time is, it is Generally a very short Time, with Relation to the Time that went before that Principal Time, and was to End in it.  
4. When this Reserved Time is Expired, God is pleased so to order; It shall never be Transcended or Exceeded, but the whole of Events designed shall be Completed at it.  
5. This lengthening out Principal Time by such a Reserve, or Mantissa of Time, it is either in a way of Wisdom and Goodness for Gracious Reasons towards his Churches; Or it is in Justice and Displeasure against the undue, and unsuitable Frame and State of his People to such Mercies, as that Time designed should have brought forth.  
6. When it is in a way of Displeasure, It is Expressed by a word, that Imports Infraction, or Violation, or as in our Translation, My (i. e. God's) Breach of promise, Numb. 14. 34. The same word signifies Abruption or breaking off the even Contexture of Events begun; All which have been mentioned already.  
I will now, according to these Rules, discourse this Head. But that I may do it with Greater Clearness, I find it most advantageous to show, that in the Two Last Rules, the various Instances of Reserved Times in Scripture, are Deposited, viz. Reserves of Time in a way of Goodness, and Mercy; and in a way of Displeasure, and Breach of Promise.  
Of these Two Reservings of Time, being the only Kind's, viz. Mercy, or Displeasure;  
I will first give an Instance of God's Dispensations in a way of Goodness, Grace and Mercy, in such a Reserve of Time.  
The Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, was that very Fullness of Time, that very To Day of his being 
Gal. 4. 4.  made Known the only Begotten Son, and for our Lords Entering into his Glory. All Power in Heaven and Earth 
Psal. 3.  was Given to Him, for his Spiritual Kingdom, which He then Received, and for the pouring out of his Spirit; Then he Received the Sealed Book of all disposes over the Kingdoms of this World. 
Rev. 5.   
And yet there were Forty Days Surplusage of Time from the Resurrection of Christ to his Ascension; And Fifty Days from his Death to the giving the Spirit: Now the Death of Christ was plainly Foretold in the Middle of the Last Week; And then he could not be Holden of Death, but must Rise again the Third Day according to the Scriptures: But that he should continue with his Disciples so long, and that from his Death Fifty Days should be made up to the Giving of the Spirit was not so plainly Revealed. Indeed if we could have laid our thoughts before, or now closely, consider the Distance of Time between the two Feasts of the Passover, and Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks; and that the Antitype must Answer the Type; we might find some Ombrage of it; But it was so obscure, as hardly to be Traced till Revealed in the History of the Event, though, so prefigured at such a D●stance. Now this was in Mercy; That our Lord Christ might give those many, and Infallible Proofs of his Resurrection, and speak to his Apostles, whom he had chosen, of the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. But the Effect of Vision was herein much Lower, then in his sitting down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high in the Heavens, and his making Intercession for us. So the most Glorious Effects were not till such a Time after, yet still the Principal Time was not Removed from its Dignity; For the Death and Resurrection in that most Eminent Period of Time, the Half Week, Remains the very Base of the Forty Days; and to all Aftertime, the very Hinge on which it turns, till it shall come to the Fullness of All Times, the Kingdom of Christ, Ephes. 1. 10. And as this was but such a short Time, so it did but sum up, and Recollect the Glorious Ministry of our Lord Jesus, and could not be exceeded.  
In the way of Judgement, I give a Second Instance; The very self same Night of the 430 Years, Inclusive, of the 400 Years assigned to Abraham, Gen: 15. had indeed the Great Event of the Going out of Egypt; yet that Glorious Constellation of Events, Bringing into the Land of Promise, and Casting out the Nations, was not performed till Forty Years after. This was indeed no way, that we Know now, to have been found, but by God's so Immediate Revelation of Forty Days Prophetically given, a Day for a Year: It was but a short Time, compared with the 430 Years; And it could not be Transcended: The Certainty of the Highest Compliment of the Great Promise Fullfilled, was there to Begin: And the Forty Days of Years was but a Surplusage of Time, and a Recollection, and Summing up of the Sojourning State of the 430 Years.  
But that which I have especially to Remark upon it, is, That it was in the way of Infraction of Promise, and Abruption of that Contexture, or God's Breaking off from what he had begun to do in the Deliverance out of Egypt, signified by that Hebrew Word, so Emphatic hereof, Numb. 14. 34, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   
But yet this very End of the 430 Years Remained the Foundation of the Time following after, and was not moved from its Dignity; For the passing through the Red Sea, and Pharoah's Overthrow in it, the Victory over Amal●k; the Nomothesia, or the Giving of the Law, the Rearing of the Tabernacle, Rested All on this Time, and its Great Event; and the Forty Years are dated from it; which were else but Thirty Eight Years from the Ill Report of the Spies, to the Entry upon Canan; and the Ending of the Following Course of Time, to Solomon's so Resplendent Reign; and the Building of the Temple is Dated from it; 480 Years, 1 Kings 6. 1. Even from the Going out of Egypt. And this Instance is the more Remarkable; Because although this Time was Known to, and Resolved of God as before, as all his Works, from the Foundation of the World; Yet it comes in by way of Infraction of Promise; and it broke off the Contexture of Great Deliverances: It is Given so in Prophetic Language therefore, a Day for a Year, as in our present Prophecy, we are upon, and was upon the Account of Provocation, and unsuitable Frame to Deliverances; and the End of this Surplusage of Time touches the Entering into the Land of Promise, the Type of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ.  
Another Instance of this Kind may be; The Seventy Years of the Babylonish Captivity had their most Known and Celebrated Period in the First Year of Cyrus, as the Universal Monarch in the Second of the Four Kingdoms, the Persian Kingdom; we find therefore his Proclamation Twice Recorded in Scripture, viz. in the End of the Second Book of Chronicles, and in the Beginning of the Book of Ezra: But here was not the Compliment of Effects; The Spirit of God Gives Account of several stops and stays, till the very Seventh Year of Artaxerxes, There the word of Restoring Judah and Jerusalem had its full going forth; It was all yet, as one United Time of the Words going forth to Restore and to Build Jerusalem. It began in the Decree, First of Cyrus, then of Darius, then of Artaxerxes King of Persia. Ezr. 6. 14. which so full decree of Artaxerxes we have C. 7. 12. etc. This he makes as Successor to Cyrus in that Monarchy, and of which Nabuchadnezzar was the Golden Head; viz. of the Four Universal Kingdoms; and so styles himself King of Kings; Now here Great Abruption had been from what God begun in Cyrus. So that the work was stayed to the Second Year of Darius. Ezr. 6th 24. Then another Seventy Years had slid in, Recorded by Zachariah. C. 1. 12. Which had their Epoch or beginning as may be Computed from Nebuchadnezars 23 d Year. Jerem. 50. 30. At the last Captivation. And here the Provocation was, as may be Collected from the Holy Writers at that Time; the unwillingness of the Jews to Leave their Babylonish Plantations; And those who did go up to Judah, neglected the House of God to 
Hag. 1. 4. Zech. 2. 6.  Build their own Ceiled Houses.  
The Great Delay of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ due to him at his Resurrection, is so Transcendental to all other Cases; and for which delay Vision and Prophecy was sealed at his Death, until the very Time we are now waiting for; I do not undertake to Insist upon at this Time; being so ordained by the Father, and by the Mediator for Holy and Wisest Reasons too large for the present.  
Now in these Reserved Times they are so given in Prophecy; That they might wholly have United with the Principal Time's beginning and ending together; but when they by the Event Run out beyond such Principal Times, It than appears they were so Designed by Prophecy to do. And when they are in Judgement; They seem, as it were to Usurp upon the Time immediately following Those Principal Times; As the Forty Years in the Wilderness, Invaded so much Time of enjoying Canaan before the Reigns of David and Solomon, Abridging and cutting it 40 Years shorter: In The stay of the Building, and Restoring the House of God from Cyrus to Darius, and the full Restoration not made till Artaxerxes' Seventh Year, The following Time of enjoying that Restored State was so much Decurtated, Abbreviated, and Retrenched.  
When such a Delay is in Mercy, as in our Lords stay upon the Earth beyond his Resurrection; The Time following the Principal Time, as the Forty Days of Christ with His, is Enriched with Great Appearances of the Bridegroom not taken from the Children of the Bride Chamber; And yet it was a Delay of Christ's Appearance in Heaven, and of the Spirit poured out.  
I look upon these Instances as full Proof, That there are such Mantissa's, or Surplusages, such Recollections, or Epitomes of Reserved Time, beyond the most Noted and Principal Times, before which the high Events may not be Completed, but then most certainly shall; I shall now in the following Heads apply myself to Ninety Seven; whose Great Events have not yet been filled up.  
Head. 3 d. I come therefore to the Third Head; And most particularly to show the Curious Artifice, and Contrivance of the Divine Spirit in the so giving the Times, and Half in the 1260 Days; That there may be a Reserved Time, and under such an Equipoize of Interpretation; that the Reserved Time may be drawn up into, and within the Principal Time; Or may be extended beyond it into some further Time, and no Determination, but by the Providential Event.  
The Time, that may be Reserved, and Extended beyond the 1260 Days, I have already assigned to be the Three Days of Years and a Half; The end of which shall have the whole Constellation of Events, Transferred from the End, or Period of the 1260 Days upon itself; viz. from 1697 to 1700, As on purpose to Fulfil; I trust; the word of the Lord; That what Time Babylon saith, I sit a Queen, her Plagues should begin to come in one Day. And herein I cannot but hope, The Beauty and Symmetry of Prophecy shall be seen between 97, as the Principal Time; and the Three Years and a Half as the Recollectionary Time ending with the Jubilee 1700; To this very great purpose I lay down the following Scheme of Prophecy concerning this Point, as in its Equipoize between 97, and 1700.  
1. The first thing I observe herein is; That after the Great High Priest, and Apostle of our Profession; The Man Clothed in Linen, had given in Answer to the Angels, who asked, How Long to the End of these Wonders? 
Dan. 12. 5. etc.  That there should be a Delay of Finishing for Time, and Times, and a Half. He also added; when He (i. e. the Scatterer) shall have accomplished to scatter the Power of the Holy People; All These (viz. Wonders) shall be Finished. Daniel complains, He heard, but he understood not. Now it is true, the Prophets did not understand the Particularities of All that was Revealed to them concerning Time; but were left to search, what, or what manner of Time, the Spirit of Christ, which was 
1 Pet. 1.  in them, did signify: Yet even their Doubts, Recorded in Scripture, were under Divine Inspiration, and are so ordered, as to give Occasion to Further Revelation; But Time, Times, and Half, were Revealed to Daniel before, to be given to the Little Horn, to wear out the 
C. 7.  Saints of the Most High, which was the same thing with scattering the Hand of the Holy People: That then needed not a New Repetition: The Thing therefore he understood not, was, What Time the Accomplishing to scatter might take up.  
He Appeals therefore to his Lord, and our Lord; My Lord (saith he) what shall the End of These (i. e.) Wonders be? His Question is directed upon the very Point he understood not; and Receives Answer in Three Particulars:  
1. That there will be a Closedness, and a Seal of Secrecy, set upon the Determinate Time of Wonders Finishing, viz. till the Event determines it; The Seal on the Foreheads of the Servants of God, Remains till the End; and till the End, or very Accomplishing to scatter, They cannot be distinctly known; For till then the Witnesses appear not Unsealed, or with the Father's Name writ on their Foreheads, in a Risen State, on Mount Zion.  
2. It is Given as a Diagnostic, or distinct Note of the Time between the End of the Times and Half, or the 1260 Days, and the Time of Accomplishing to scatter; Many shall be Purified, and made White, and Tried; which we may very well understand of those they call, The New Converts, or the Reunited; who have since been made White by Repentance, and Purifying Grace; who have been made Wise, by Remembering what they had Received, and Herd of the Gospel-Purity, and Returned to it, coming a new out of Babylon; while Persecutors will not understand, but do more and more wickedly, Persecuting and Scattering, till the Utmost End and Accomplishment of Scattering.  
3. The Great Palmoni, or Wonderful Numberer of Time, insensibly, and yet as in Answer to Daniel's Question, gives a further Delineation of Time in Thirty Days, added to the 1260, making them 1290; under an Epoch, or Beginning, Characterised with the Taking away the Daily, viz. Sacrifice, and the Abomination, that maketh Desolate, set up; which I look upon, most Undoubtedly, to be argued to be the Antichristian Apostasy, by the Papal Gentiles Entering into the Outer Court, and so Taking away the Truly Christian Worship.  
And to these Thirty of the 1260, are added Forty Five, making the 1290 1335. Reaching to the very Blessed State of the New Jerusalem, in which Daniel is assured a Lot: and, in the mean time to rest his Further Inquiries, and Himself to Rest in Spirit with Christ; and his Body in the Grave.  
Now then seeing these Thirty are added to the Times and Half, which the Spirit of Prophecy hath Expounded into 1260 Days of Years; And that there can be no Time between the Times and Half, and Finishing, by the Express Word; except the space of Accomplishing to Scatter; and that the same Spirit of Prophecy hath given no other, so much as supposeable space, but the Three Days of Years, and a Half; Either those Three Days and a Half must be supposed to Unite with the Three Times and Half, and to be One with them; or they must Extend themselves upon the Thirty, and be the First Three Days of Years and a Half of them; For they cannot lie between them, as a part of Neither: If so, either the 1260 must be 1263, and a Half; or the 1290 must be 1293 and a Half; Either of which is very contrary to Prophecy, which is most express in each; viz. Times and Half, or 1260 Days; and 1260, with Thirty added, 1290 Days, and no more of Either. Now here is the Equipoize of Prophecy: It could not be Determined before the Event, whether the Accomplishing to Scatter might Unite with Time Times, Half Time, as the last scattering; Or go further within the 30. But the Event hath Determined, The Three Years and Half Extend upon the First Three Years and a Half of the Thirty, making 1260 1290. And the Curious Artifice of Prophecy is herein seen; For thus the 1260 and 1290 are joined in the Taking away the Daily by those Three Years, and Half being the Accomplishing to Scatter, and so carrying the wearing out of the Saints so much further than the Times, and Half, or 1260 Years; even unto the 3 Years and Half, First of the 30; and then their Remainder Unites with the last 45 in Finishing; For as I have shown, there can be no Distance between in the 1335 of Scattering and Finishing. And the whole 1335 are Joined, as leading by various Delays and Appearances, since especially the last Half Time of the Reformation; to the Kingdom of Christ. And this is an Artifice of the Divine Hand of Scripture most Curious and Admirable. And the same both Equipoize and Artifice, are also most Conspicuous in the 1260 Days of Years, and the Three Days and Half of Tears, Rev. 11. These 3 Days and Halfpenny Hold the only Possible Addition of Time beyond the 1260 Days, or Three Times and a Half for Accomplishing to Scatter; For we find no other Measured space of Time Mentioned either in Daniel, or the Revelation, that can be so much as supposed to lie at the End of the 1260 Days, and before the Seventh Trumpet, Except these Days and Half alone; But these with all Harmony and Symmetry of Prophecy, are Placed there; For they are Situated near to the 1260 Days to give a Mantissa, or Surplusage of Time to them, for the Accomplishing the Scattering and wearing out the Holy People, that had been During their whole Space; And they must be as near the Seventh Trumpet, because the Holy Spirit is Express; Immediately upon the Accomplishing to Scatter, The Wonders shall be Finished; And he is as Express, The Seventh Trumpet is the Trumpet of Finishing; For when the Seventh Angel gins to sound, The Mystery of God shall be Finished, as he hath Evangelized by all his Servants, the Prophets. Thus as in Daniel, The Accomplishing 
Revel. 10.  to Scatter lies between the Times and Half of Weaing out the Saints, and the Finishing Wonders; So in the Revelation, the Three Days and Half lie between the 1260 Days of the Sackcloth Prophecy (which are also Three Times and a Half,) and th●●e Seventh Trumpet of Finishing; And they must be One either with the 1260 or with the First of those Thirty making 1260, 1290; Or else they could have no Room; For the Divine Spirit Clasping 1260 so close, as to make it immediately 1290; There can come in no Three Years and a Half possibly between, that is not United with one of the Numbers; Which is even Arithmetic Demonstration.  
But now as to the Equipoize of Prophecy; It must be Acknowledged, that before the Event Determined the contrary, the Three Days and Halfpenny might have been Intended to be Incorporated with the 1260 Days of the Sackcloth Prophecy, and the Beasts Victory over the Witnesses; answering to the Three Times and a Half of the 1260 Days of the Church in the Wilderness; The Witnesses and the Woman being one; and the Sackcloth, Being Overcome, Killed, worn out, Scattered, the Wilderness State being one, as to the main Intention also; Only the Deepest Time of Sufferings expressed by one more than the other; and so the Three Days and Half; the Three Times and Half, the two 1260 Days had been all one Time, and had begun and ended together. And I must Ereely, and Humbly Confess, This was my Apprehension, and my hope it would be so, although I had always a Jealous Eye upon these three Days and Half. But nothing but Event could Determine to the other side, The Balance of Prophecy stands so even concerning the Case; And indeed if Ninety Seven, as I affirm, and see no Reason to Retract, be the end of the 1260 Days; It must needs be, that when the Three Days and Halfpenny have done the Service of Three Times and a Half, Coequal with the whole 1260 Days, and pointing to a deepest Time of Suffering, and so Pararelling one another; The latter than do the Service of an Epitome, a Mantissa, a Recollection of the whole, and Run so far as upon the Three First Years and Half of the Thirty, which Thirty, are Principally for Finishing; And though they suffer the Cloud of the Witnesses Summed up Scattering, Yet they are Recompensed with the Glory of the Constellation of Great and Illustrious Events at their Rising; Now the Three Days and Halfpenny doing this Manifold Service, and bearing this variety of Aspects, is most usual in Scriptures Improvement of its Types, so that I need not Insist further on it.  
I will give only one Instance in a Case of near Affinity with this; The Three Hundred Ninety Years 
C. 4.  of Ezekiels Bearing the Iniquity of the House of Israel, gave the very Chronological space from the Death of Solomon to Ezekiel's Temple; It first set out the Sin of the House of Israel in the Ten Tribes making Defection from the House of David; and then turns, as it were back, and settles the standard of Prophetic Time a Day for a Year, as an Epitomizing of Prophetic Time to the very End.  
To Sum up this Point of Discourse then, I look upon the End of the Times and Half, or 1260 Days of Years, as the most Unmoveable Rest of the Three Years and Half; And that, They are but as a Summary and Recollection of them, or a little Surplusage added to them; And that the 1260 Ended at 97. And, That Ninety Seven began in the Autumnal Equinox, of what we Generally Count 98 but in the Prophetic Calendar; 97 Just Ending; I therefore as before, so now again give the Account from 97 and to Ninety Eight in the same Prophetic Style one Year; To 99 is Two Years; To 1700 still in the same Prophetic Style is Three Years, viz. at each Autumnal Equinox; and at the Vernal Equinox of 1700 ending, in Vulgar Account, but in Prophetical the Half of 1700.  
The Last Half Year of the Three Years and a Half will Expire then, in the very Middle of the Year, at the Vernal Equinox, The Time of our Lord's Resurrection; Illustrious, I Humbly hope, with mighty Effects of it, in the Rising again of the Glory of the Gospel, the Witnesses, and all the People of Christ so long lying Dead in the Breadth of Babylon; and its Antichristian Papacy then beginning to be Judged.  
I have now with all Humble Reverence of the Divine Oracles, Covering as it were my Face, whatever of Light and Understanding God hath given me, as yet not Able to behold their Glory; And my Feet in the sense of my Unworthiness and Great Darkness and Imperfections in Knowing, or Prophesying; I have yet with Reverence and Godly Fear shown; That there is a Frame of Prophecy Curiously and wonderfully made; By which Insensibly (however certainly foreknown to God, which way every Thing would come to pass;) the Great Events should with such an Equal Balance be made Inclinable to 97 or 1700; That Providence should with the Truth of Prophecy, as it saw Fit, Determine upon either at the very Time; I come therefore to the Fourth Head proposed; Viz. To consider the Reasons of the Translation of the Great Events, to have been Expected at 97, from thence to 1700.  
Head. 4th. The Translation of the Great Effects of Prophecy; The Accomplishing to Scatter the Power of the Holy People; the Rising of the Witnesses; and the beginning to Finish Wonders; have been Translated from 97, and are Humbly to be expected,  the End of 1700, on this Threefold Account.  
1. Principally, and in the First place by way of Infraction, or what Scripture is pleased to call; God's Breach of Promise; or Repenting of the Good he said, He would Benefit his People with, at such a Time; 
Jreme. 18▪ 10.  We know in strict sense; The Faithful God, who notwithstanding our Unbelief cannot deny himself cannot Break promise, nor can any of his Predictions Fail; Yet he knows how so to order Things, that the Sin of his Servants should be under such an Ordination of Providence, as if both Promises and Prophecies did fail for the Punishment of their Unbeleif, and Disobedience, and Unsuitable Frame.  
I have Reason therefore more to bewail the Disagreeable Frame of my own, and other the Hearts of those who are called Protestants, and the Reformed; in not being more Ready for those Great Effects at the Time, than the being mistaken i● the Explanation of Pr,ophecy ophecy, and the Prophetic Numbers, or even the Determination upon Ninety Seven.  
For it is most Evident, God hath Reserved to himself a Prerogative of Pronouncing Evil, very positively, as in the Case of Nineveh; Jonah. 3d. Yet Forty Days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed; And yet God seeing their Turning from their Evil ways, also Repent of the Evil, that he thought to do unto them; So on the other side, he makes a seeming Breach of Promise in Delay of the Good, he intended at such a Time; And yet as I have before Argued in Nathan; So it is plain no Blame could lie on Jonah for the mistake of Time, but for his too high Resentment of the Dishonour, as he Apprehended on himself, of being Accounted a False Prophet; However God Justified him, not long after by the Irrepealable Prophecy of Ninevehs utter Destruction by Zephaniah.  
The Delay, or Translation of the Great Effects of Vision from 97 to 1700, I Impute therefore in the First place to Infraction, or God's Breach of Promise, with Great Assurance and Boldness of Speech, as to the manner of Expression; Because God hath been pleased to use it, else I should not have Dared make use of it; and then as to the Thing itself, I am Bold because I Find so Great Reasons for 97, as the most Central Time of Prophecy and such Fair Delineations, and so Curious a Hand of Prophecy, Reserving a Liberty and Freedom of so Uniting 1700 within it, as Providential Righteousness and Justice, by way of Infraction or Abruption; Or Wisdom in a way of Mercy and Glorious Illustration of Vengeance on the Enemies of the People of God, saw Fit. To give therefore a more full Account of Infraction, or Breach of Promise, I would offer my Apprehension with all Humility and Modesty, and yet with Uprightness and Sincerity; I say therefore, God had by the Prophecies of his word Pointed to 97, as the Ending of the Sackcloth of the Witness Prophecy, in their Prophecy Fulfilled in the Kingdom of Christ; and of other the Great Effects but with a Conditional Reserve, if there were a Suitable Frame in the Witnesses, both the Sufferers and the more self-Subsistent Protestancy under Reformed Princes, Nations, and their Laws: I say, If there were a Frame and Activity Suitable to so Great a Revolution; Such a Frame as Agrees with the Spirit of Life from God, with their standing on their Feet, with their Appearing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, having the Fathers Name written on their Foreheads; But there was not such a Frame among Protestants of any Distinction, or Denomlnation, of any Title, Order, or Degree; Hereupon Rises the Lord's Breach of Promise; For in the Room of such a Spirit of Life, the Sardian State lies heavy upon the whole; They have a Name to Live, and yet are Dead; They do not Fill up the Things that Remain, and are in order to the Kingdom of Christ; They are in a very Sleepy, and Vnwatchful Temper, as to the coming of Christ; so that it is like to come upon them, at an Hour, they know not. When the Lord saw this, it displeased Him; then said He, they shall know my Breach of Promise: What I had Determined at 97, shall be as a Further Delay. If they had been in a Condition to have Smitten, as often as they would, with a high Impulse of Will the Antichristian Earth with Plagues; to have Shot with all the Arrows of the Lord's Deliverance; their Accomplishment to Scatter, should have immediately commenced with Finishing of Wonders. But even the Suffering Part of Protestants, and much more the Generality, being found in the Condition before described (without any Reflection on the Protestant Princes); It looks, as if in David's Numbering the People; the Lord was Displeased, and left him under Effectual Motives so to Number, which brought a Plague on All; So God, Provoked Justly with the Universal Declination of the Reformation from His Truth, and the Purity of His Worship, and the Holiness of His Ways, withdrew that Spirit of Zeal, Courage, and Resolution in the Cause, and Interest of God, His Gospel and People; His Spirit not coming upon them, as on the Worthies of Old: Nor was He pleased to give them that Resolution, To make no Peace, without the Security and Freedom for that which they accounted the True Christian Religion; or with them, who would, and do now, make Advantage of that Peace, to the Persecution and Slavery of them, with whom they are, or aught to be, of the same Character; who keep the Commandments of God, and hold the Testimony of Jesus. So that this Peace was not at all to their Honour, before God, and His Servants; although those under them aught to be Humbled, because their want of Faith, Love, Holiness, Peace, and Union, so Dishonoured God, that He, in Just Offence, left Princes, States, Governments to themselves, not to Appear for God, as for their own Interests.   

Object. I know it may be said, Because the Time was not come, There was not that Spirit of Life from God foretold by Prophecy coming upon them; and therefore they could not Act according to it: And this alone was Argument enough, Ninety Seven was not the Time of Accomplishing to Scatter, nor of Beginning to Finish the Wonders.  
Answ. It is most True; the Spirit of Life from God, not coming down, and Entering the Witnesses, did show, It was not the Time: But it is yet True, the unsuitable Frame of Spirit in Protestants did Provoke God to Breach of Promise; the culpable Cause of Mercies denied or delayed, is the want of that Holy Agreeable Frame, although the Gift of such Grace is from God; For in God alone is our Help; yet still our Destruction is of ourselves. It is always His Spirit, that makes that other Spirit in us, that was in Caleb and Joshua: The want of such a Spirit, as is Agreeable to what God hath promised to do, provokes Him most Justly to Breach of Promise, as to the Time held out to our Eye; although he alone Gives that Spirit and Will at the very Time, when the Promise must and shall certainly be Fulfilled. Want of Holiness, is a full Reason of Want of Deliverance; although at the Time when Deliverance shall be, Holiness shall be also: The peculiar Frame agreeing with the Kingdom of Christ is the Frame, we find 
Obab. 17.  in the Church of Philadelphia, not in our Sardis. 
Rev. 3.   
2. Let us now Consider the Delay, or Translation of the great Effects expected at 97, from 97 to 1700, as the word Breach of Promise signifies Abruption, or Breaking off the Series, and Contexture, God had pleased to have Begun, and seemed to be Going on in; as therefore it cannot but be acknowledged, There was not in 97, the glorious Appearance of the expected Effects; So on the other side, it cannot be denied, There were such Beginnings, that if God had pleased to go on in, there had certainly been, before this Time, a very great Change and Revolution in the World▪ But no sooner were those Offertures made, but God showed his Abruption, or Breaking off from any Thing he had Begun; Two great Instances of which, we had in that Year.  
First, The Treaty of Peace at Reswick, was a very Remarkable Dispose of God, bringing the Antichristian Princes to a Necessity of making Peace, while Protestant Princes and States had a Balance upon them and the Peace. This looked very Hopefully, that the Interests of Protestancy, and the Reformation, wherein the Glory of God, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Safety of His People, and their Peace and Quiet, was so undeniably Comprised, should have found great Advantages; and by an Embarrassement on all further Persecution on Protestancy, there might have been an Accomplishment of Scattering. This was a gracious Honorary Dispose on 97; and at the very Autumnal Equinox, as the very Time, that was to bear the Signal of the Witnesses Rising. Herein God was pleased to set Judgement before those Protestant Sovereigns, and to show them what they were to do; especially, considering what Just Pleas they had to Insist upon, as particularly and eminently that Edict of Nantz, in behalf of the French Reform, where the Persecution hath since been Pursued with so great Barbarity.  
But to show God's Abruption, as in the very Time, and in the very Act of the Treaty concluded, and so his Infraction in the very Year of Ninety Seven, and of the Peace concluded. And to Remonstrate both, as before all the Nations about, as he hath sometimes put a Word into the Mouth of his very Enemies, especially when they are of Eminency; as Balaam, an exalted Prophet; Caiaphas, the Highpriest: So it is much to be Reflected upon, what the King of France, that Prince of Persecution, writ to the Archbishop of Paris in the beginning of the Month called January, in Popish Style 98, but in True Prophetic and even Protestant Style 97: Requiring the Thanksgiving of Te Deum after the Popish Manner for the Peace, thus He Began; The Time, which Heaven hath Ordained (How express for 97.) for the Reconciliation of the Nations; Sure the Protestants of each Nation made up the Nations. This looked Fair for the Accomplishing to Scatter; For the Protestants making up the Nations, and the Time for the Reconciliation of the Nations being come, their Scattering or Persecution was to Cease, or to be Accomplished, How else Reconciled!  
But as if at the same Time God made an Abruption upon what was so promisingly Begun in 97, and put a Reproof into that Prince's Mouth, upon the Protestant Princes, and in them upon the Nations, and even the Churches; walking so much beneath the True Spirit of the Reformation, and so provoking God to withdraw His mighty Spirit and Presence from the Princes: That King thus expresses himself.  
That which I Glory in most of all, is, the Worship of the true Religion, as Authorized by a solemn Treaty under Sovereigns of a Different Faith; the Author of so many Graces, shows Himself too manifestly not to be Acknowledged; and the Visible Characters of his Almighty Hand, which they Bear, seem to be the Seal, he hath Affixed to them to Justify my Intentions; Busied from this Time forward in Causing him to be truly Worshipped in all my Dominions.  
In all which, I have not the least Regard to the Assume of that Haughty Monarch, in which there is much of the Spirit, and Style of the King of Assyria's Letter by Rabshakeh; when he asked, Am I come up without Jehovah? All I consider is, What of Agreement there can be Found, between His Words, and the Words of Prophecy, As when he saith, The Time for the Reconciliation of the Nations is Come; a Word of great Extent in Scripture-Sense, and Introducting a great Change indeed among the Nations, and very Consonant to Scripture Predictions; For I have all Reasons of Assurance to Conclude, It was so in the First Institution of God, and the Treaty of Peace was a Fit Method in Human View to it: When the Treaty therefore was Concluded, and a Peace, so called, made without Reconciliation of the Nations, in that great Interest of the People of God, the Freedom and Peace of the Reformation in France, Piedmont, Savoy, the Palatinate, and other Parts; and He Himself the Principal Persecutor, under the miserable Bigotry of Thinking, He Does God Good Service, in Persecuting, as the Tenor of his Letter Imports; wherein he Appears Drunk with the Wine of Babylonish Fornication.  
Secondly, Another Instance of Divine Abruption, and so of Insraction, in the same Year, was that Monumental Victory over the Mahometan Army and the Ottoman Sultan in Person with it. Now seeing, That Tyranny more immediately presses the Grecian Professors of Christianity, and Hath laid them under so great Slavery, and Darkness; This Eastern Part of the Christian Church Falling into a like Superstitious Ignorance, Any True Servants of God among them, were carried as with the other of the Two Wings into a Wilderness-State, and fell into 
Re. 12. 14.  great Darkness from the Light and Purity of the Gospel, and so into Slavery under Mahometan Imposture and Tyranny, and thus have continued to this Day; And in how Lethargic, or rather a State of Death; All those, whom we call the Greek Churches, or Grecian Christians do at this Time lie, None that know them can be Ignorant, There being only Remainders and the Ruins of those Ancient Churches, even as of their Cities.  
The Prophecies and Promises of Scripture Reach, yet unto them; and at that very Year 97. Accordingly therefore about the same Autumnal Equinox of it; It pleased Infinite Wisdom, and Goodness to Arm with a Mighty Power and Spirit the Imperial Army, and the Leaders of it; and to give them a very Monumental Victory, even a Victory, like as in the Day of Mid●a●, or upon any other of the Ancient Enemies of the People of Israel, to their Greatest Consternation, and the Breaking all their Measures and Designs; Hereto Add, what God was pleased not far from the same Time to do by the Czar of Moscovy, a Prince of the very Grecian Profession of Christianity; These Victoriousnesses had undoubtedly been carried to the very Gates of Constantinople, Had there been but that Spirit of Life from God upon them! But all lying in that Dead State; The Emperor in the very God of Popish Antichristianism and the Bond of that Evil; The Russian Prince in all the Superstition and Blindness of that Profession; There was then First God's Infraction as to the Year 97: The Great and Complimental Effects shone not to expectation that Year as Light Day: And therefore there was an Abruption, a Breaking off that Series and Contexture God had begun; So all is laid still in a Peace between the Port and the Empire; and a Truce betwixt the Ottoman and Moscovian Princes; Which how God will Dispose of, we are yet to observe in the following Course of Providence. Disposes of God with Relation to the Ottoman Signiory are the more to be observed on these Great Prophetic Considerations.  
1. It pleased the Divine Spirit to place the very opening of the Kingdom of Christ and Finishing of Wonders on that Mahometan Potentacy coming to its End, and none to help it. Dan. 11. Last with C. 12. 1. etc.  
2. That the Grecian Churches, as we Style them, Are the sad Remains of those Seven Apoclyptic Churhches, made the Types and Emblems of all Christian Churches till the Glory of the New Jerusalem; And therefore from the Time of that given; However under such a Rejection Now, Yet, are Beloved for the Father's sakes, I mean Those Primitive Churches.  
3. The Hour, the Day, the Month, the Year allowed to the Turkish Empire to stand Armed and in Procinctu Reaches 
Rev. 9  Just to 97: as hath been by other Apocalyptic Interpreters, as by myself Less than the Least, made out.  
4. From the passing away of the Second or Turkish Woe, That great, and Blessed Sound Commences. The 
C. 11.  Kingdoms of this World are Become the Kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ; But as Mahometism came first, as a 
Rev. 11.  Judgement on the Latin, as it is to be Distinctly called, or Western Antichristianism; So it is to be Preferred in the Expectation of Judgement First upon itself; That so Tyrannous a Pseudo-Proph●tism that came upon it, may not be Removed before the Provocation of the Sin Oh how much Reason have we then to cry to Heaven for that Spirit of Life upon us all; I hope, I much more Des●re it upon myself, than the Honour of being a True Prophet concerning it, If one could be Separated from the other.  
Although I am afraid to defer any thing to Phantastry, I cannot yet but Just Mention; That, That so unaccountable, even Phrenetic Superstition of the Turkish Procession, was ordered on the First New Moon in the Month called Decemb. 97. and fell out on its Third Day.  
That Procession was a Public Declaration, Their Affairs were come to Extremity; Their Deprecation of the Displeasure of Heaven so Vehemently, spoke an Apprehension of the Tottering, and Ruin of their Port and Empire. Thus Providence Discovered, what was in the Womb of Prophecy, if there had not been an Abruption; And that Abruption showed itself, in that, So great a Victory was not made an Advance to further Victoriousness, and even Ruin of that Empire.  
And indeed I cannot but make a Parallel of it, with 
Esay. 16. 21.  Moabs' wearying himself on his High Place, and then coming to his Sanctuary to pray. And the word of the Lord since, and from that Time is, That within Three Years as exactly Numbered, as the Days of an Hireling, and the Glory of the Ottoman Power shall be Contemned; And all that great Multitude and the Remnant shall be very Small and feeble. Now these Three Years are to be Accounted to End in the Month December in the Year 1700.   

Objec. But may there not be on continuing Provocation, and Unpreparedness for Mercy, a further Infraction and Abruption, even at the Year 1700.  
Answ. By That Situation of the Three Years and a Half between the 1260, and the Seventh Trumpet, and the so closely Conterminating on each; and Prophecy so express and positive therein; That it should be Subjected to any such Balance of Prophecy, is utterly Impossible; For though when there is an Equilibration of Prophecy, there Providence, does, as it sees fit, although all way in itself Determined; Yet where Prophecy is Peremptory and Absolute, Providence always Acts according to it; And so it is here, that there can be no Fear of an Infraction or an Abruption.  
Having thus discoursed the delay according to the Scripture words, God's Infraction and Abruption; For he is pleased so to Style it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, My Breach; The True and Faithful God takes such a Prerogative to speak his Intentions of Grace at such a Time, under the Reservation of a Condition, That there should be a Suitable Agreeable Frame in his People to his Promises; Or else a further Time Reserved; But as I have made out, there is also a further Reserved Time for Wise and Holy Reasons in a way of Grace, in the Retirements of Prophetic Sense; And so I cannot but hope, There is at this Time That Wise, Holy and Gracious Purpose of the Delay; That the very Just Season of the Judgement on Babylon, should be taken according to what hath been already laid down, and needs no Repetition, that shall also concur with those of Displeasure. Viz. The Popish Jubilee,  
And seeing, according to what I have Humbly laid down; The Prophecies of Scripture have placed nothing beyond these Three Years and a Half, ending with the Year 1700; but the Finishing Wonders in Daniel, and the Seventh Trumpet of Finishing in the Revelation: As I have most Abased Sense of my own Weakness, Darkness, and Unworthiness; and Profoundest Reverence of the Divine Wisdom, Holiness, Supreme Dominion; In which Regard none can stand before him, or as a Shepherd appoint him the Time; So I cannot but Trust in his Mercy, and the Mightiness of his Arm, He will bring it at that very Time to pass; and I observe; That in Callenging of any Shepherd to stand before him, he especially Directs to those, who, when they hear of the Judgements of God on the Enemies of his People; Edom and Babylon; and So now on Babilonish Rome, think; They can bring up 
Jerem. 4● 50.  those, who shall Oppose the Counsels of God, like a Lion coming up from the Swell of Jordan with all speedy Rage and Power, and oblige him to choose another Time for the Execution of his Judgement; These are 
Jer.  they, who would stand as Shepherds before him, and appoint him a Time; Not they, who would wait upon him in the way of his Judgements, and would Discern the Signs of the Times thereof; For it is a Severe Reproof; The Stork in the Heavens knoweth her Appointed Time, and the Crane and the Swallow and the Turtle observe, But my People know not the 
Jerem. 7. ●.  Judgement of the Lord. Surely the Prophetic Scribe; especially in Accounting the Numbers Time it sets; He made it in vain, the Pen of that Scribe is in vain.  
It is true, the Apostle does most Vehemently persuade 
● Thes. ●.  not to be moved with Letter, or Spirit or Word, as if the Day of Christ were at Hand; But then at that Time He gives the most certain Substantial Line of Time in General to it; Viz. The Course of the Son of Perdition, till he goes into Perdition; And then the Apostle John very particularly gives the Definite space of Time, his Forty Two Moons of Years, that we may know how to Distribute betwixt the Too Great Suddenness, or the Too Long Delay of the Expectation, and yet throughout to maintain that Looking for and hasting on to the Day of God in all Holy Desires, and Preparation by Suitable Conversation, while we daily Consider; How he hath Declared the End from the Beginning, that we may see and behold it together, and be struck with Admiration; This is that Glorious Challenge, God makes upon the Idols of the Heathen, in Justification of himself against, them, Declare, Show to us the Things, that are to come, Do, 
Esay. 41. 23. etc.  Work Good or Evil, Judgements, or Deliverances; that we may know, you are Gods; To attend our God therefore herein, in searching out, and declaring what he hath first declared, is to give Glory to him; And this is the only End I have through his Grace proposed in this 
Esay. 41. 13. etc.  Discourse; In its Beginning, By setting out the certainty of Babylon's Judgement, at the Times of its Greatest Solemnity, of Pomp and Pride; and of the Strongest Combination of the Horns of the Beast, the Princes of Europe to strengthen, and exalt it; and for the Persecution of the Servants of God, who will not Receive his Mark, nor Worship his Image. Now that in this Time, its Plagues may come upon that City of Fornications, Drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus, as in one Day; I cannot but Humbly Beseech, and Recommend it to all the Servants of God, who Love the Appearing and Kingdom of Christ, not to be Discouraged with the Delay beyond 97; but to cry with the Spirit and the Bride: Come Lord Jesus come Quickly: knowing the Time so undoubtedly Fixed, and so near Herein,   
The Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.   

Books lately Printed and Sold by John Martial, at the Bible in Grace-Church-street.  
A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Reverend Divine Mr. Thomas Gouge. Who Deceased Jan. 18th 1●99. By John Nessbit one of the Merchant Lecturers at Pinners-Hall, Breadstreet.  
2 The Government of the Thoughts Prefactory to the Government of the Tongue, by the Author of the Duty of Man.  
An Ellegiack Essay on the Pious Memory of that Eminent and Learned Divine Mr. Matthew Mead, with his True Effiges newly Engraved to the Life, also most of his Works with most sorts of Books to Learn Shorthand.