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