Sad and Serious Political Considerations, Part 7
VII.
Entring at length upon my Notes on the afore-said Chronology, I think it meet first to strengthen the former Epoch's of the ruine of Rome, downfall of the Turk and Tartar, and the Conversion of the Jews by the Conduct of certain memorable Numbers in holy Scriptures. Grave and judicious Authours have with wonder and admiration observed the heavenly and inimitable Method of holy Scrjptures, how all the Mysteries and memorable Occurrences in the same are comprized in Numbers, how within the compasse of such a Quantity of years, God alwayes divulged his Counsels, and manifested what he purposed should be wrought among the children of men. So that in considering the admirable consent and agreement of Times by things past, we may probably conjecture of things to come. From the Creation to the Floud was 1656 years: the Floud was a sign of the Consummation of all those things which are to be fulfilled before the conclusion of time. Anno Christi 1656, let the Church of God expect with joy and comfort, the acting of the first Scene of the Tragedies of all those European Kingdoms, which have been implacable Persecutours of the Gospel of Christ. The whole Government of Moses (who was a second Noah to the Church) is a shadow of the Kingdom of Christ. The Law continued in force 1529 years to the Passion of Christ: But 1598 years to the Destruction of the Temple by Titus: The Destruction of the Temple by Titus was according to the accompt of Dionysius Exiguus, A. C. 69. From thence reckon the Number of 1598 years, and you come to A. 1667; which is the year which shall smoke with the ascending up of the Flames which consume the Kingdom of the Beast. From the Nativity of Christ to his Re-nativity in the preaching of his Gospel by Luther and other eminent Ministers are 1517 years: And from the beginning of the Reign of the Maccabees untill the Birth of Christ are 169 years: Put these two sums together, and you come to Anno 1686, in which God having 18 years before enlightned the eyes of those who for almost 2000 years have sit in darknesse, and in the shadow of death, and having laid the Kingdom of the Beast and the false Prophet in the lowest dust, shall bring that people into the bosome of the true Church, which within 13 years after shall deliver his children from all adversity. From the universal Deluge of man-kinde by the Floud to the beginning of the universal Captivity of the Church under Nebuchadnezzar beleaguering Ierusalem are numbered 1698 years: So likewise from the Birth of the King of Kings unto the final Consummation of the Miseries, and restauration of the Felicity of the Church by the Destruction of Gog and Magog, shall be reckoned the very same Number of 1698 years. From the Confusion of the Tower of Babel to the return of the Jews from Babel, are 1666 years: and from prophane Pompey's spoiling of the Temple at Ierusalem (when the Kingdom was taken from the house of David, and Superstition and Gentilism began to spring up amongst the Jews) to the Birth of of Antichrist and Apostasie in the Church of God are 666 years; from thence …eckon a 1000 years wherein the Saints must suffer Persecution and Martyrdom for the Testimony of Jesus Christ, and the truth of a good Conscience, Revel. 20.4. and you come to A. 1666, in which shall be fulfilled all those things which are mentioned, Revel. 18, and the 19 Chapter. So likewise from the Departure out of Aegypt, untill the Death of Christ, are numbered 1542 years: to these adde …hose 169 years, which are from …he beginning of the Reign of the Assomonaei or Macchabees to the Birth of Christ, and you come to Anno 1711; which year shall be wonderfull and terrible to all the world, because that in the year next going before (viz. Anno 1710.) the abominable Names and mention of Papists, Turks and Tartars being eradicated from the memories of men, the glorious Estate of the Gospel, and the terrestial Felicity of the Church of God shall begin over the face of the whole Earth. From the Birth of Moses untill the Destruction of Ierusalem by Titus (which typifies the end of the world) are 1646 years: so many from the Incarnation of our Saviour, denoted that year, whose influence hath begun, and shall prove fatal to most of the Kingdoms of Europ…: adde to these 20 years to come after, from that time (which 980 years ago were prophesied of, to be those years, in which the Kingdom and the Dominion, and the greatness of Kingdoms under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the Saints of the most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all Dominions shall serve and obey him, Dan. 7.17.) and it will amount to the year of the fatal Ruine of the Beast, Anno 1666. From these few Particulars of the Consent and Agreement of times in the holy Scriptures, I infer thus much.A Pr…gnostick of the Estates of c…tain years Of An. 1657 About the year 1657 shall be great Changes and Alterations in Government in every Kingdom in Europe, as well Protestant as Papist, attended and accompanied with such horrid Combustions and Massacres, as hath not been before since the memory of man. This shall make way (as I said before) for the Protestants to unite in a general Combination to send Forces under the Conduct of an invincible Cyrus over the Alps to harrow Italy with fire and sword, and after level the wals of …ome with the lowest dust, Anno 1666. For as in the year of Grace 666, Popery was brought to a full maturity in the Womb by Vitalian (who ordained Latin-Service in the Church, contrary to Christs Institution, and the precedent Primitive times) and as 1000 the Number of Perfection and Eternity is seldom used in our ordinary Computes, but left out for brevity sake (as we use to say, The Spanish-Armado was in 588 for 1588, and the Powder-plot in 605 for 1605.) so it is most certain and indubitable, that as the Birth of Antichrist was in Anno 666, so the death of it shall be Anno 1666, though the Carkasse of it may lie unburied for 30 years after, yet questionlesse it shall with Gog and Magog b… cast into the Lake of Gods wrath at one and the same time. This ruine of Rome shall make way within ten years after to the Conversion of the Jews: For seeing the Kingdom of Antichrist (as now it is) is the only Let to their Conversion (for all the Jews that now are, live within the Papacy, and are prohibited from turning Christians, partly because of the Idolatry they see amongst the Papists in their worshipping of Images (the Jews being Zealots in the second Commandment) partly because at their Conversion with the Papists they must renounce all their goods as ill gotten, which rigid Condition a worldly people will never yield to) therefore till the very name and power of Popery be destroyed, and they admitted amongst Protestant Kingdoms, there can be small hope of their Conversion. But now Antichrist totally destroyed, they begin to see into their Errours and Ignorances, endeavou… to learn the wayes of God, and that the Saviour of the world (whom they so long expected) is come so many years since and suffered. This Conversion of the Western Jews shall be compleated in that fatall and terrible year 1683. And six years after that shall they be united with their Eastern-Brethren the 10 Tribes captivated by Salmanasser, who have for 2433 years lien invisible in the bowels of the Kingdoms of Turks and Tartarians. The Christian world neither must nor ought to enquire, how this people which have lien hid and obscured so long a space, shall in so small a time as a year and an half, so visibly, so powerfully, and so magnificently arise to the Terrour and Conquest of the whole Earth. The holy Ghost declareth, Ezek. 37.8. by the dry bones, fleshed and indued with life in an instant, so that they stood upon their feet, and became a great Army; what a strange, horrid and wonderfull thing this shall be, and how terrible it shall appear to the sight of the world in that year; which within 15 years after (viz. Anno 1698.) shall fight that famous and fearfull pitcht-field with the united For…s of Turks and Tartarians, which shal… prove the Deliverance of the Church of God from all adversity. Thrice shall Europe within this time strive to establish that power, which Superstition and Tyranny first pro…reated: Thrice shall the children of this world raise innumerable Forces to destroy the Saints of the most high: Thrice shall the Power of Godliness prevail in the hearts and arms of those, who shall make the Land thrice drunk with the bloud of the Enemies of Christ; and whose grand Ancestours stew'd it so oft with the bloud of the Prophets and Apostles. Preparatives to these fearfull Wonders shall be those horrid and ominous Eclipses preceding the year 1660, fatall and conspicuous to Europe; signs both of God's paternal Chastizements for Sects and Schisms in the Church, and of his consuming Judgements impending upon the implacable Enemies thereof.
In the year 1654, August 2. shall happen a fearfull and lamentable total Eclipse of the Sun in the 39 Degree of Leo, Of the Eclipse in An. 1654.about half an hour before high Noon, where shall be seen the mighty hand of God working Wonders in Italy, Sicily, Bohemia, Greece, Armenia and Syria, the Kingdoms subject to Leo. The body of the Sun in this Eclipse will be totally darkned for the space of two hours and 29 Minutes: it will be so great, the like hath not been before, nor after shall be: greater then that Eclipse of the Sun which was Feb. 25. 1597. commonly called the dark Saturday. Of this Eclipse thus Baudensis M.S. fol. 105. Exercit. 59. Papa, Baudensis Prognostication of Anno 165…, 1658, 1661, 1663.dum Petri patrimonium dilaturus, Italicum quendam Ducem possessionibus spoliabit avitis, &c. The Pope attempting to enlarge Peter's Patrimony by seizing upon the ancient Estate of an Italian Duke deceased without Issue, sets his own Nest on fire, and Rome in a Combustion. This year shall a new Sect of Sodomitical Monks arise, which being tollerated by the Pope, sets that Quarrel betwixt him and the Duke of Florence, which shall prove the downfall of both in a few years. This is affirmed likewise by Grebner, Ban. 75. Yet in the interim (saith Baudensis) God shall promote the happiness of Ierusalem, Peace shall be within her wals, and plenteousness within her Palaces. And fol. 134. Exerc. 67. he saith, The years 1657, 1658, 1661, 1663, shall be formidable to Austria, Silesia, Hungary, Holland, France and Portugal, because that every one of those years shall be attended with four Eclipses apiece, portending the Mutations of all those several States, and that the Revolution of time is come, wherein they must give place to the Lion of the North, whose Scepter shall bruise their power to nothing, and his Gauntlet lay their Forces prostrate at his feet. At which time all Europe shall sing this mournfull Ditty;
Heu mala progenies fatis servata nefandis,
Gensque nefandarum domitrix altrixque ferarum,
Quid fueras, quid …isque vide: tua prima propago
Bella gerit, …ibolémque petet lues atra secundam.
At Leo terribilis Borealibus editus oris
Fammiferam ex Orco & pelagi plangentibus undis
Educens aciem, pecudes… urbésque virósque
Sternet, & antiquis Solem Lunámque movebit
Sedibus; ille etiam pacrio jure infima summa
Reddet, & Occasum sub leges mittet inermem.
Thus Englished.
Alas ill race, to dismall Fates reserv'd,
By whom dire Beasts are tamed and preserv'd,
See what thou wert and art: Thy first issue
Inclines to War, Plague doth the next subdue.
But Lion fierce sprung from the Northern shore
Shall bring from deepest Hell and waves that rore
A blasing Army, he shall men o'rerun,
Cities and cattel, yea the Moon and Sun
Shall he remove; and Father-like the least
Make highest, and give Laws to the weak West.
Yet he that returns back in reviewall of the conjunctions and fiery Triplicities,A Description of the 7 …iery Triplicities. may see how they have in part prognosticated the present troubles and and distractions of Europe, with the Common-wealths of England and Scotland. Anno 1603 in the first great conjunction of Saturn and Iupiter, in the fiery triplicity, K. Iames came to the Crown of England, and so was fulfilled that Prophecie which an holy Anchoret made 890 years agoe, English men for that they wonneth them to drunkeinesse, to treakson, and rechlesenesse of Got's house, firsten by Dancs, thenth by Nortmans, and the thrid time by Scots, whom they holden lest worthen of all, they shallen be overcompn. Then the world shallen be unstable, and so various and diversable, that the unstablenesse of thoughts shallen b… betookeineid by many manner diversity of cloathing. This could never be fulfilled but by a Scottish King swaying the English-scepter; and therefore never came to passe till the Union of the two Kingdoms under the said King. As the second Conjunction, Anno 1623. found Germany and most of the West involved in civil Wars, and as the third An. 1643. found the King and Subjects of England in the field one against the other; so the fourth Conjunction, An. 1663 in Sagitarius shall begin those destructive Combustions in Italy, which shall allure the Protestant Armies to make a third all-conquering Party in the same; and the fifth An. 1683 in Leo shall bring forth the Conversion of the Jews: but the sixth Conjunction happening in Taurus, An. 1703, shall behold that which many glorious Saints and children of God have read of, and …ejoyced and desired to see, and yet could not see them. For now Revel. 22.1. …hall the Sea (that is, the miserable estate of the World by Wars, Desolations and Sicknesses) be destroyed, and no more extant. Now shall the time of Tribulation, War and desolation, the time of torments, temptation, heresie and persecution be utterly abolished from the memory of men For a new Heaven and a new Earth, a renovated Church, purified Saints shall succeed in the room of those Wolves, who in sheeps-cloathing devoured the Flock of Christ. These are the dayes, for the hope of which the stones of …ion cry day by day, though little esteeming seven thousand deaths in regard of that precious assurance g…aven in their Brests, that they shall then, and in that day behold the Lord, which hath mercifully gathered them from all Nations, and hath so wonderfully preserved them from the sorcery of Babylon (which hath destroyed all the Earth) that leadeth them in and out bef…re Pagans, Hereticks and Idolaters, before the covetous and foolish-wise of this world, so prudently and so invisibly, that they seeing are not seen, and living are not known.
The Exposition of Nebuchadnezzar… Image, in Dan. 2.But from these low things let us ascend up to Scripture further to prove the certainty thereof. Daniels Image as it gave the first, so it gave the fullest Knowledge of this great Mystery of the Church of God, Dan. 2. per tot. In which Image is described in brief the Estate of the World, from the very day God revealed this to Daniel, and he to Nebuchadnezzar, to the full and final End and Conclusion of time. By the golden Head, silver Arms, brazen Belly, and iron Legs, we must understand the Chaldean, Persian, Macedonian and Roman Monarchies, which successively one after another, tyrannized over mankinde by cruelty, and by cruelty came to as miserable Destructions in the end. The feet part of Iron, and part of Clay, denoted the declining Estate of the Roman Empire (after that indiscreet Division of it under Charles the Great into the Eastern and Western) under the present Papacy, and now-vulturizing house of Austria, which hitherto doth and shall continue until An. 1694. Therefore the Stone cut without hands (in the 34 verse) (which smote the Image on his feet, that were part of Iron, part of Clay, and so brake them to pieces, that the Iron, Brasse, Clay, Silver and Gold became as chaff of the Summer-flowers that the winde carried them away, and no more place was found for them; And the Stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain, and filled the Earth) must needs be understood of a glorious Monarchy of the Church of God upon Earth, which by the Conversion of the Universal Nation of the Jews shall overcome all her Enemies, and reign triumphantly in all Nations under Heaven, in universality, uniformity, integrity and inn… cency of life and conversation.
This blessed and happy estate of Christs Church upon Earth (after the aforesaid battel of Gog and Magog described Ezech. 38. and 39 Chap. of which enough before) is graphically deciphered in the nine last Chapters of the same Prophet,The Exposition of the 12 last chapters of Ezeckiel. beginning at the 40; where under a specious and large type of restoring the old Jewish Temple with the Sacrifices (chap. 40.) the measuring, ordering and disposing of it in every thing thereto belonging (chap. 41.) as the chambers of the Priests in the Temple, the holy Utensils (chap. 42.) the glory of God filling the house (chap. 43.) his paternall upbraiding the Israelites for their antient Idolatry, and demonstrating his great and affectionate love to them for the present (chap. 44.) is contained (as I said before) a pithy discourse how powerfull and magnificent these new converted Christians shall be; how holy, learned and unanimous their Ministers should be, how ardent and studious they shall be in communicating the Gospel of Christ to such as yet sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death (chap. 45.) how vigilant their Princes and Magistrates shall be in being keepers of the house of God, that is in incouraging the Ministers, tam praemio quàm paenâ, to instruct the people in the knowledge of the truth, that so both Ministers and people may render due obedience to their common Saviour, in love to God, and charity toward men. And again, the reserved portions of Land for the Temple, City, Priests and Princes all in just measures and dimensions, the waters issuing out of the Temple, ever increasing in Latitude and Profundity, the severall divisions of the particular lots of Priests, Temple, Levites, the City and the Princes secondarily repeated in the 45, 46, 47, and the last Chapters, evidently declare the undoubted certainty and verity of this wonderfull mystery, that the Jews shall repossesse their antient possessions and severall inheritances in the Land of Iudea; how devout, pious and chearfull they shall be in the worship and service of God, intimated by the frequent performing of spirituall Sacrifices and Oblations: how potent and spatious their Church shall be, how great and infinite the Priviledges, and never decreasing Graces of God shall be to it, signified by the depth and latitude of the spiritual waters of Life.
Thirdly,The Exposition of the end of D…ni…ls 11 chap. … Daniel in the end of his 11 Chap. doth above all other, most plainly and specifiquely picture the two grand preparations to this spirituall Monarchy of Christs Church in the end of the World: viz. 1 the foreign of the enemies of God, and 2 the Conversion of the Jews. For in the 40, 41, 42, and 43 verses of the said 11 Chapter, declaring first, what Victories, the Saracens should get over the Roman Empire, by saying, that the King of the South should push at him (viz. the Saracens should invade the Emperour) and secondly, what lamentable havock the Turk should make of the Roman Monarchy by conquering and subduing from them all the Eastern Empire of Constantinople, in these words, And the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwinde, with charets and horsemen and many ships, and shall enter into the Countries, and shall overflow and passe thorow; which was verified in the Turks conque…ing all Greece, Scythia, Moldavia, Servia, Asia, Syria, Mesopotamia and the Isles of the Aegean sea: And he shall enter into the pleasant Land, and many Countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape out of his hands, Edom and Moab, and the chief of the Children of Ammon, which also came to passe when Selimus I. invaded Egypt, slew Tomumbey the Sultan thereof, eradicated the very name of the Mamalucks, and so got all the wealth and treasures of Memphis and Grand-Cairo, and added also Iudea as a member of Egypt to the Turkish Empire, An. 1517. His son Solymon the Magnificent, awed India and Ethiopia, and his Grandchilde Selimus II. conquered Tunis and Algiers in Afrique, yet neither of them medled with the Arabians, Edomites or Moabites, as thinking them a people not worth conquering. In the 44 verse, Daniel saith, But tydings out of the East and West shall trouble him; the conversion of the Eastern and Western Iews, shall so inrage the Turke, that he shall levy innumerable Forces, and march forth in great fury to destroy and root them out: And he shall pitch the Tabernacle of his Palace between the seas in the glorious and holy Mountain, shall fight a most terrible and bloudy pitcht Field with them in their own Land of Iury, and yet shall he come to his end, his power, by God's Providence, shall be overthrown, and totally eradicated by them from off the Earth, and none shall help him.
The Exposition of Rev. 9.15.Lastly, S. Iohn in Revel. 9.15. setteth down in plain and evident numbers, the very beginning, increase and downfall of this hellish generation. For in saying the Turkish Armies shall be prepared at an hour, a day, a monethmonth, and a year, he analogically declareth the very time of their birth, and the year when they shall come to a finall annihilation. Here a Day is to be taken prophetically for a year, a MonethMonth for 31 daies, which likewise make so many years, and a year for the daies of a bissextile Iulian year (which are 366) making in the same manner as many propheticall years as in the former Epoch's of Daniel and Ezekiel… So the sum's of 366, 31 and 1, make a compleat Product of 398 years, which added to An. 1300 (the year in which the Ottoman Empire first saw light in the world) plainly demonstrates, that as the Turkish Empire began An. Christi 1300, so in An. 1698 shall be the fatall end and finall downfall of the same. Thus it is evident, that as the downfall and captivity of the Jewish Nation fell in the building and birth of that City, which was afterward the fourth Monarchy; so in the buriall and ruine of the same City and Monarchy shall be their conversion to the Gospel of truth, and the institution of the Fifth Monarchy; in which all power, and earthly magnificence must submit to the Kingdom of the Saints of God, and all Scepters bow to the Authority of the Church of Christ.