A Scripture Line of Time, Treatise · Part 2 · Section 15 – Table of contents
SECT. XV.
Wherein is given a very brief Diſplay upon the Vials. Ʋpon c. 15. c. 16.
I Am now come to the laſt part of the 75 Years, or the 40 of the Vials, at the end of which is Bleſſedneſs; and yet it ſelf is a Time of Trouble, ſuch as never was ſince there was a Nation even to that ſame Time: and it is yet that Time in which ſhall be the Deliverance of Daniel's People, even of Dan. 12. 1.every one of them that is found written in the Book.
It is moſt evidently the Time of the courſe of the last Plagues, in which the Wrath of God is fill'd up. But who can declare before-hand his Judgments, that are as the deep Waters? I will therefore warily paſs by the Banks, and remonſtrate only upon what is moſt plain.
And firſt, beſides the contiguous, and even continuous Iſſue of the Vials out of the laſt Voice, we ſhall find the Sword of Chriſt's Mouth fighting against the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans, and the Rod of Iron aſſur'd to Thyatyra, brought forth in the laſt Vial; and then the Hour of Temptation, that ſhall come on all the Earth, foretold to the Church of Philadelphia, comes; from which, by peculiar Favour, Chriſt will preſerve it: Then the Days of Vengeance prophecied of by our Lord (which ſhall yet be ſhortned for the Elects ſake,) are to be fulfilled in theſe Vials, to which that ſhortned Time agrees: Of which Vengeance, the Deſtruction of Jeruſalem was but an Exemplar; for in that Deſtruction all things written were not accompliſh'd, but in theſe, all that is written ſhall be accompliſh'd.
And yet there is a cloſer Relation this whole Viſion hath, and it is to be found in thoſe very firſt Words of this Viſion, I ſaw another ſign in Heaven, great, and marvellous. This may indeed ſeem to be another ſign, with regard to the precedent courſe of the Voices; but becauſe there is a very lively Juncture betwixt a former Viſion and the Entrance to this, and the beginning of that Viſion was call'd a great ſign, and c 12. v. 1. v. 3. c. 13. ult. c. 14. 1.there is added another ſign, viz. of the Dragon, from whoſe both Hiſtory and Power is deriv'd that of the Beast, that leads to his End, viz. his Captivity and his Armies and People being kill'd with the Sword. The Vials are introduced as another third ſign to that, and conſequently derives it ſelf from the Voices, and the Voices begin at the End of the Whatever divine Inſtruments lye under this Type, it is certain, They are of unexceptionate Authority and Commiſſion from God, and of an undeniable Purity.Beaſts Number, and ſo go on to his being taken, and his Partiſans kill'd by the Sword of Christ. So the Angels coming out of the Temple in Linnen pure and white, and the Witneſſes ſtanding on the Sea of Glaſs before the Throne, having the Harps of God, are the Continuation of the Viſion of the Voices, advancing to greater Glory and Perfection at the Time of the Vials: as ſhall be farther manifeſted in a full Treaty of theſe Things, if God permit. This only may ſuffice to the ſettling the Time, and the Continuation of both the Time, and Hiſtory of the Vials, to that of the Voices.
That only is to be by no means omitted, or inobſerv'd: Till the ſeventh Trumpet, and its Voices, and Vials, there is no mention of the four living Creatures and the twenty four Elders, nor of the Temple, as opened, but only as ſhut; viz. from the Half-time of the Churches Purity ballanced by the Symbol of the third Seal, which ended and the fourth juſt begun, was the last Voice of the fourth living Creature, or of any mention of them, but only a farewel mention in the ſixth Seal, as proper to the Time of the ſixth Seal, but as there is grafted on the Appearance of the Kingdom of Chriſt in the Chriſtian Empire as an Emblem of it, a Scheme of the New Jeruſalem: and here, as a Signal of the Calling of the Jews, the Order grows towards an Inverſion, and the Elders are ſet firſt and before the Apoſtolical Church, repreſented by the four living Creatures, and extending it ſelf over the Chriſtian Empire, [as is intended in a future Treatiſe to be more particularly clear'd,] whereas the Elders preſent the true Iſraelitiſh Church. Rev. 7. 11. with c. 19. 4.
But to proceed to a ſummary Enumeration of the Vials, That they are an orderly individed courſe of ſeven Vials, is ſo evident, that I ſhall not offer one Word in Confirmation beyond the moſt viſible Letter of the Prophecy. But the ſenſe and importance of this courſe of Divine Judgments, I conceive ſo heavenly and ſpiritual, as to be impoſſible to be explain'd but by either immediate Revelation, or the nearer Approach of themſelves; only God hath aſſign'd to them 45 Years, and hath given Lineaments of each of them; the Particulars whereof I referr to a farther Diſcuſſion, and preſent only this Breviate of them.
But that we may know, they are not yet begun, whenever they begin they move with ſo ſwift a Courſe, that it is impoſſible there ſhould be any delay in them after they are begun, or that Any of them ſhould be enter'd, and not All of them in their order ſwiftly pour'd out.
That Earth out of which Antichriſtianiſm and the Worſhip c. 16. v. 1.of the Beast riſes, that earthly and ſenſual Religion that is his Foundation, by Divine Judgment upon him, ſends out a poyſonous Vapour, that becomes a moſt loathſome and tormenting Boyle upon his Worſhippers; His Foreign Dominion compared to a Sea, is not only ſtaguated, but corrupts as the v. 3.Blood of a dead Man: His inward Fountains of Riches, Power, and Pleaſure, are made like drinking of Blood, in juſt Recompence v. 4. 5.of the Blood of Saints and Martyrs.
The ſupreme Kingdom and Monarchy of Christ, like the Sun, which Antichrist ſurpris'd, and borrowed from it, as the v. 8.Moon, his falſe Glory, now intollerably ſearches him. His Throne of Supremacy is by the Vengeance of God made a Hell of utter Darkneſs to him. And in all theſe He and his Beſtians v. 10.repent not, but gnaw their Tongues, and blaſpheme. The beginning Glory of Chriſt in the Jews returning to be the Imperial v. 12.Metropolitan Church on Earth, and to reign as Kings, is made uſe of by God, in juſt Judgment, to call to Armageddon the whole World of Enemies, as acted by Furies, the v. 13, 14.Spirits of Devils. Upon which Chriſt with his mighty ones, according to Rev. 19. comes down, and the whole Air is full of Divine Judgments: ſo that this Battel juſt before the Kingdom v. 17.of Christ, is with Burning and Fewel of Fire, and not Garments roll'd in Blood, of which all the immediate Judgments from Heaven, as on Midian, as on the Aſſyrians, Eſa. 9. 5. are Types; which laſt is joyn'd to a clear Prophecy of this Glorious Kingdom of Christ.
I can give no fitter Remark upon ſo unfathomable a courſe Remark.of Judgments than the recording that Song of Moſes, the Servant of God, at the final Overthrow of the Egpptians in the Red Sea, and of the Lamb, c. 15. 9. Great and marvellous are thy Works, Lord God Almighty, juſt and true are thy ways oh King of Saints. Who ſhall not fear thee, Oh Lord, and glorifie thy Name? for thou only art Holy, and all Nations ſhall come and worſhip before thee; for thy Judgments are made manifeſt. And this courſe of Judgments comprehends all the Dead, both ſmall and great, to that very foreign, IT IS DONE, and at laſt to theſe Dead at the ſeventh Vial are gathered, All, whoſe Names are not found written in the Book of Life; and are caſt with Death it ſelf into the Lake of Fire and Brimſtone, which is the ſecond Death.
SECT. XVI.
Wherein is given, in a most brief Account, the ſtate of the thouſand Years, both as to Time and Excellency. On c. 20.
THE Time of the Duration of the Kingdom, which is the Sabbath of Time, when all Anti-ſabbatical Time ſhall be at an end, and NO MORE, is a thouſand Years.
Now it may be a great doubt, How this Time is to be underſtood, whether literally or myſtically: if literally, How then will it agree with the whole Frame of the Prophecy, which hath very little that is not myſtical, and of a typical Signification, and moſt particularly all the Lines of Time? But if the thouſand Years be myſtical, either they ſhall expreſs no definite Time, or they ſhall, if myſtically multiplied, ſet the State of Eternity at incomputable Diſtances yet from the laſt Time and Ends of the World we are now ſubſiſting upon, contrary to all the Reaſon and Faith of Chriſtians, and the whole Analogy of the Scriptures.
Now that which I would reconcile the Thoughts of all the ſerious Conſiderers of Prophecy in this matter by, is, That here The literal and the myſtical Senſe conſpire, and cloſely embrace one another, The literal 1000 Years compriſes higheſt Myſtery in it; for beſides that in round Number as we compute Time, it comes in as the ſabbatical thouſand, for which I perceive there is a general Favour of all Chriſtians, if not Jews, that have any Eſtimation of myſtick Types of Prophecy. Beſides this, and that, the millenary Number hath great Reputation in Pythagorick myſtick Numbers, as a cubical Number riſing from 10, and filling up the Perfection of Number; even as the millenary State is the perfecteſt State of Conformity to the Law of Creation, given by God in the 10 Words we call the Decalogue, in which Sabbatiſm hath ſo great Place and Reaſon. It is alſo the Time, wherein Sathan is bound, chain'd, and ſeal'd up; the Sanctuary is cleans'd, in the other foreign, or IT IS DONE, in the New Jeruſalem. Beſides all this, It is the great Emblem God hath choſen to repreſent his own and his Servants bleſſed Eternity in. This thouſand Years is as one day to him, to repreſent his and his
SECT. VIII. Wherein the 42 Months are meaſur'd by the exactest Rule of Prophecy, and found to begin at the Ceſſation of the Chriſtian Weſtern Empire and to end whenever the 1260 Days end (the Date of the Kingdom of Chriſt immediately enſuing) and by compare with the 1260 Days at 1697. Page 90.
SECT. IX. In which the Time from the 42 Months beginning is ſet out till 622, or the Mahometan Hegira, by Rome's dark State in the fourth Trumpet, by the Angels proclaiming the three Woe Trumpets, by the Beaſt becoming a fallen Star, at 606, and the Key of the Abyſs given him, viz. in the univerſal Paſtorſhip by Phocas, and the Miniſtry of the other Beaſt to him herein, and the State of the Witneſſes are alſo declar'd. Revel. c. 8. v. 12. &c. c. 9. v. 1. &c. Page 114.
SECT. X. Wherein is undertaken to be proved, That the Mahometan Saracens are the Locuſts deſign'd in the fifth Apocalyptical Trumpet, and that the 25 Months given to them comprehend 435 Years from the Mahometan Hegire at 622, and ſo reach …o 1057. Ʋpon Rev. c. 9. v. 1. &c. Page 124.
SECT. XI. Of the Number 666, ſhewing the Certainty it gives to the whole Line of Time, both as to the Nature and Time of the Beaſt, upon a true and right Explanation of it. Rev. 13. v. 15, 16, 17, 18. Page 132.
SECT. XII. In which is given an Explication of the Woe of the ſixth Trumpet, especially to the taking of Conſtantinople, and by proportion to the Reformation, and to the End of that Woe, and an Adjuſtment of the Hour, Day, Month, and Year, to the whole Time. Ʋpon Revel. 9. 12, 13, 14, &c. Page 149.
SECT. XIII. This Section enters into the Half-time of the Reformation, and by the Agreement of Prophecy with the Event, demonſtrates the Beginning and End of that Time. On Rev. c. 10. Page 155.
SECT. XIV. Wherein is contained a brief Diſquiſition upon the ſeven Voices as they run along. Apoc. c. 14. Page 177.
SECT. XV. VVherein is given a very brief Diſplay on the Vials. Page 185.
SECT. XVI. VVherein is given in most brief Account the Time of the 1000 Years, both as to Time and Excellency Page 189.
FINIS.
End of the text · Thomas Beverley, A Scripture Line of Time (1684)