A Discourse Upon the Powers of the World to Come, Treatise · Treatise proper · Part 8
Now then firſt, I muſt premiſe, that there is not the ſame Reaſon to expect ſo particular an Illuſtration of it by any pecuculiar Event, as in ſome Caſes in the Line of Time, For the Line of Time it ſelf muſt Umpire, and Determine which ſhall be ſuch, or ſuch an Epoch, or Point of Beginning; when a Great Likeneſs or Similarity of Euents gives a Likelyhood to One Point of Time, as much as to another.
Thus when the Seventy Years of the Captivity of the People of God in Babylon began, (becauſe there were ſeveral Captivations) cannot be Judg'd, but by very ſtrict Attention to the Line of Time; as I have endeavour'd to make appear in Diſcourſes proper thereunto.
In like manner, where we ſhould Fix the Seventy Weeks beginning, Dated from that Word given forth for Reſtoring Jeruſalem; which went forth firſt by Cyrus, then by Darius, and by Artaxerxes in Full; muſt be Judged by deep Intuition into the Line of Time; And to bring this to our purpoſe, The Epoch of Time, Times, and Half a Time, muſt be cheifly aſſured by the Line of Time, and Evidences thence ariſing; becauſe if we would Judg of it either by the Barbarous Nations Invading the Roman Weſtern Empire; the Deſign of the Four first Trumpets; whoſe Impreſſion upon the Univerſal Roman Territories, was the often taking the City Rome; Removing out of the midſt the very Name, and Thing of Weſtern Emperor; the taking away all Conſular Power from it.
Now here is ſuch a Similarity of Events, no certain Judgment can be made; but as Samuel was deceived in the Sons of Jeſſe, concerning the Lord's Anointed, by the Fairer Appearance of ſome of them, than of David, whom God had alone Choſen; So ſhall we be miſtaken in the Fairer Appearance of ſome Events to give the Epoch of the Time, Times, and Half a Time, than that which is indeed ſo; ſuch another Concatenated Similarity of Events was Ceremonialneſs; preparing to Superſtition; Superſtition to Idolatry; So Love of Pre-eminence preparing to Hierarchy, Hierarchy to Papacy; and this from the very working of the m…ſtery of Iniquity in the Apoſtles days, until the Beast, or that Papacy entring into its Succeſſion; when the Roman Empire ceaſing, viz. at 476. That Name of Biſhop then, and to this Day by an Eſpecial Ordination of Providence was the Sole Title of a Single Perſon over that great City Rome (tho in Spirituals) who thence Roſe to Supremacy over all Biſhops. Thence he came to his Number in having an Image made to himſelf in the Worſhip of Images, ſettled by the 2d Councel of Nice; and Aſſuming Power over Emperors, from that Time, to the Exalting himſelf above All Styled, Auguſt.
Now in ſuch Chain ſhot Events, as theſe may be Juſtly Denominated, No ſingle Event either ought or can expreſs the Epoch; For neither in Nature can a Chain of Events ſuffer it ſelf to be engroſs'd by any One, nor can one be Comprehenſive of All, tho it be a very grand, and principal one; indeed when any Epoch is wholly, and fully Comprehended in one Event, then the Time is Fixed, and …olely Determined by it; as the Ceſſation of the Chriſtian Empire in the Weſt, as in one Indiviſible Point, fixes the very Succeſſion of the Seventh Head, and Eighth King, call'd the Beaſt; together with the Ten Kings Receiving Power, at the ſame Time with him. In the Reformation, tho the Event indeed did not conſiſt in an Indiviſible Point; yet in that it began the Retrenchment of the Papal Power, that had ſo long been Intire; It was as in an Indiviſible Point of one ſtraight, or Right Line Drawn out.
But indeed in the very whole Courſe of Events, the Plumbing by the Line of Time, and comparing every part of the Line with the Event, and of the Event with the Line is the moſt Stable, and Satisfactory Aſſurance that can be Given; and in ſuch a Multiplicity of Events Frees from Diſtraction, and Perplexity: And this hath given me Plerophory of Aſſurance, as from the Bright Shining of the ſure Word of Prophecy in the midſt of ſo many Miſtakes, and ſo much Incertainty thereupon.
But altho Any ſingle Event among ſo many, and in a Conjunction one with another, ought not without the Peculiar Diſtinction of the Line of Time to ſeparate it ſelf from all the Reſt, and Claim to it ſelf the Right of Giving the Epoch; yet it was moſt Condecent to the Wiſdom of that Providence, that looks to the bringing to paſs All, that hath been declared by the ſure word of Prophecy; to take care, that there ſhould be a ſufficiency of Events to Type out the whole Chain, having a Concentring and Reſt upon that year as the Epoch of Time, Times and Half a Time; as I ſhall very briefly preſent to View.
When then God had been pleas'd to make known by the Types of Prophecy; that ſoon after the Empire in Conſtantine became Chriſtian, the Apostaſy was preparing to Enter; in that the Hundred Forty, and Four Thouſand were Sealed; that the Worſhipers were taken, as it were, in their laſt Appearance in the Outward Court, and Retired into the Inner-Temple; and the Church Flying into the Wilderneſs; and the Trumpets in preparation to Sound. Thus All being in Readineſs, God gives Types of thoſe Four great Events, to which Time, Times, Half a Time, Three Days and an Half, Twice Forty two Months, and Twice Twelve Hundred Sixty Days as hath been often obſerved, are allowed; and which Receiv'd their Epoch here; Types I ſay; For I have not, I declare, dar'd to Rely upon them, as events Determining the Epoch, of theſe Great Times, but fair Types, and Repreſentations of Each.
1. The Firſt Event, I would obſerve, is; That, which I find moſt agreed in All Chronology; that this very year; Cyril, Biſhop of Alexandria, brought forth his Cyclus Paſchalis for ſetling the Due Time of Eaſter; Adjuſting Lunar years to Solar, according to the Golden Number. Now this is very Wonderful, that juſt at the Time, when the Lord, for the Interpretation of Prophetical Time ſhould, (to Allude to the Need Chriſt had of the Aſſe in the Goſpel,) have need of ſuch an Adjuſtment to be ſollemnly brought in, and Avowed in the profeſſion of Chriſtianity Antichriſtianized; which is the Outward Court given to the Gentiles, viz. the Antichriſtian Gentiles to Tread under Foot, it was ſo done: For then Forty two Months of the Gentiles Precalated to the Forty two Months of the Beaſt, This was very obſervable.
1. Becauſe hereby Providence gave notice; that this was the very year, that by Prophecy, according to the Foundations, upon which a ſetled Time of Eaſter is Found, viz. by Conforming Lunar, and Solar Time one to another; The Moons of the Gentiles, and the Beasts Moons are together made juſt even to the 1260 Solar Years; And which is very wonderful, juſt ſo many years, as the Beaſts Moons want to make them equal to 1260 Solar years of the Witneſſes, and the Woman according to that Golden Number; (the very Ground of any Cyclus Paſchalis;) viz. 38 years, and ſomething more; Juſt ſo many are Found between 437, (when the Paſchal Cycle was, as I ſay, firſt brought forth,) and the Ceſſation of the Chriſtian Empire; when the Beaſts Succeſſion, and ſo Time Dated from him, as the Supreme or Seventh Head, and Eighth King (for ſo it ought to be) began, viz. at 475 ending, or 476.
2. It is very obſervable, Becauſe as hath been alſo more Fully ſpoken of elſewhere, and as is very well known; The Apoſtaſy hath in regard of Shrivings, or Confeſſions, Pennances, Indulgenceo, Pardons; the ſo ſuperſtitious Sollemnities of its Good Friday; the Idolatry of its High Eaſter Day Maſs; ſuch deep Intereſts in Eaſter, and the Moveable Feaſts dependent upon it.
But altho I cannot but think this very Remarkable, when I find 437, the very year Determin'd upon by the Line of Time; yet I could not dare to reſt upon it without that; For ſome Attempt the Predeceſſor of Cyril, Theophilus Biſhop of Alexandria had made this way; and Dionyſius, Sirnam'd Exiguus, perfected upon what Cyril had done; But when the Line of Time concurs with ſuch a Note of Lunar Time, proper to Moons, Equated to Solar Time; It appears to me very great.
Event 2▪ The Barbarians, or Goths this year made an Excurſion upon the People of the Empire, call'd the Arverni, with all manner of Calamities; This was a Type of the Hail mingled with Fire in the First Trumpet; yet ſo that this is not to be taken, but in Conjunction, as hath been already ſaid, with what went before, and followed after; For it could not be in one year, that the whole third part of Trees, and of Green Graſs; that is; the Territories of ſo great an Empire, (of which Empire Third part is made by this Prophecy as a Hieroglyphic,) ſhould be deſtroyed. But a Reſemblance of this, Any part of the Empire, and at what diſtance ſoever from Rome (the Further, the more Lively the Emblem) might be of the Hail Diſhevelling it ſelf year after year, through the whole Empire; Yet on this neither dare I rely alone; For as great Events of this Kind, and much Greater before and after There were; yet this, however a ſmall Figure coming in its juſt Place after ſo great a Figure, as the Line of Time, Directing perpendicularly upon 437, as the Epoch of the Time, Times, Half Time, is very puiſſant Aſſurance of that very year.
Event 3. As a Reſemblance of the Gentiles Entring into the Outward-Court, this very year; Genſericus, the King of the Vandals, ſet himſelf to Extirpate for the ſake of Arrianiſm, the Faith of Jeſus Chriſt, the Eternal Son of God; and Raiſed in Africk, where he had planted himſelf within the Roman Empire, a Cruel Perſecution upon it.
Now, as in the Former, I do not Lay ſtreſs upon this without that principal Figure, Teſtimony and Evidence from the Line of Time: But that lying in the Foundation, I Reflect in theſe Obſervations upon this, as Agreeing to this Epoch of this Time.
1. That taking the Arrian denial of Jeſus Chriſt the Son of God, it was in two Regards a moſt fit Type to give notice by of the Antichriſtian Apoſtaſy.
1. That tho it be not a plain Point of that Roman Antichriſtian Apoſtaſy; yet in that it is a Denial of Chriſt being come in the Fleſh, which the Apoſtle John ſaith is the very Spirit of Antichriſt; …t is moſt Fit, as a Type to Repreſent that, which in many grand Inſtances has overthrown Chriſts coming in the Fleſh, in the Scripture ſenſe of him, as the One Mediator; a Point as Fundamental in Chriſtianity, as the one God is in Natural Religion.
2. It was Fit in this Regard, that it might give notice of Antichriſt in that Antichriſtianiz'd Age, in a Point wherein they were ve…y Zealous; that is; the Eternal Godhead of Chriſt; in other points of Antichriſtianiſm found in Themſelves, they could not diſcern it.
2. There could not be a fitter Type of the Witneſſes putting on Sackcloath, than the Spread of the perſecution, and ſeveral Excellent Perſons Eccleſiaſtical Hiſtory makes mention of, who ſuffered even to Death in that perſecution, though I own it but a Type; And this gives alſo the Fourth Event, viz. of the Witneſſes putting on Sackcloath, and the Church flying into the Wilderneſs.
3. Africk was a very fit place to be uſed in ſuch a Type, both as it was one of the Three Parts of the Kn…wn World; and as it was a worthy, and excellent part of the Chriſtian Church; where God had ſetled ſo great a Light in the Miniſtry of Auguſtine Biſhop of Hippo; who had in his Epiſtle to Januarius, Remonſtrated againſt that Throng of Ceremonies, Crowding in upon Chriſtianity in that Time; and in that, a place was moſt Fit to be Choſen, that ſhould not it ſelf be the Seat of either pretenders of Rome, or Conſtantinople.
4. Genſericus being King of the Vandals was a fit Type of the Gentiles coming into the Outer Court, and Holy City; as he was one of thoſe that came in upon the Chriſtian Empire, that had been made an Emblem of the Kingdom of Chriſt; and as thoſe Irruptions Cauſed great Mourning of all the Servant… of Chriſt from a Sympathy with thoſe Calamities upon their own Country, and the Profeſſion of Chriſtianity.
2. As the People he brought in were to Coaleſce, and become Incorporated with the People of the Roman Empire; and ſo to be the Beaſts People, and to Conſtitute the ten Kingdoms under the ten Kings, that ſhould receive Power with the Beaſt.
And tho all theſe are thus very Worthy to be Conſider'd; and It Appears, when once the Line of Time hath pointed upon them; They fall in with great Conformity to the ſhewing the Epoch of the Time, Times▪ Half a Time, the Forty two Months and the 1260 days of years, to be 437.