28, 29, 30. by a People that shall come with Speed ироп. the Church, none shall be weary nor stumble amongst them, none. Shall Number nor sleep, their Arrows are sharp. and all their Bows bent, their Horses Hoofs shall be counted as Flint, and their Wheels as a Whirlwind, that because of them the Land shall be full of Darkness and Sorrow, and the Light shall be darkned in the Heavens thereof; Is it not of the Times of his Reign that we are to understand the Temptation that the Church shall be under, Chap. 8. v. 19. to have recourse to Familiar Spirits and WizZards, which they are warned against, and advised to seek unto their God, at a Time when the Antichristian Company shall be hardly bestead and Hungry, and when they shall be hungry they shall fret themselves and curse their God and their King, and look upwards, and they shall look unto the Earth, and behold Trouble and Darkness, Dimness of Anguish, and they shall be driven to Darkness. Doe not the Prophecies against the King of Babylon, Il. 14. refer ultimately to Antichrist? Is not he that Leviathan the piercing Serpent, even Leviathan that crooked Serpent, (who is a King over all the Children of Pride. Job. 41, 34.) that for the sake of his Vineyard (or Church) God will punish with his sore and great and strong Sword. If. 27. Is not this that Time to which we muft refer IS. 65. 13. My Servants shall eat, but gje (viz. the Antichristian Company)

ye Shall be bungry,;, behold my Servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: My Servants shall rejoyce, but ye shall be ashamed. 14. My Servants Thail ling for joy of beart, but ye shall cry for for

row

row of Heart, and shall bowl for vexation of Spirit. This I understand to be that day of trouble which Habakkuk mentions Chap. z. and which he prays to be delivered from, v, 16. which he calls being at Rest in the Day of Trouble; the Contemplation of which draws from him this generous and Heroick Resolution, that though the Fig-tree should not blos.fom, nor the Fruit should be in the Vines (as at that time it will not) though the labour of the Olive should fail, and the Fields shall yield no Meat, though the Flocks should be cut off from the Folds, and there should be no Herd in the Stalls that he will nevertheless rejoyce in the Lord, and joy in the God of bis Salvation. It would be endless to refer to the many passages concerning him in the Prophets, but particularly in the Psalms, in which Sense Dr. Allix explains many of them, though meaning indeed nothing elfe by Antichrist, but the Pope of Rome. Lastlý, (to mention no more ) to him I apply that Prophecy of Jeremiah Chap. 49. 19. that he shall come up like a Lion from the swellings of Jordan, and the same Chap. so. 44. to which he also alludes, Chap. 12. 5. where after he had talked of the miserable Effects of the Apostacy of the Church in that dreadful Day, he expoftulates with them, If thou hast run with the Footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canft thou contend with Horses? if in the Land of Peace wherein thou trustedost they have wearied thee, Yor as the Original seems racher.to express it, if thou trusted'ft in the Land of Peace, i. e. been fecure in the

Prosperity

1

Prosperity of thy Land) bow wilt thou do in the Swellings of Fordan? i, e. how wilt thou be prepared to bear the last and great Conflict of the Church: For the better understanding of which we will observe, I. That Lactantius asserts, P. 645, and 646. that the last Deliverance of the Church or Children of God out of the Antichristian Earth, was typified by the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Ægypt, as were the Plagues that shall be sent upon the Antichristian Company, by the Judgments fent upon Pharaoh and the Ægyptians. II. That

the Scriptures themselves call their taking Pofsession of the Land of Canaan their entering into Rest, Psal. 95. 11. Heb. 3. 18. and accordingly the Author to the Hebrews makes that Rest to be a Figure and Type of that great Sabbatism, that the Church shall enjoy in the latter Times after the Destruction of Antichrift, Heb. 4. 19. III. by consequence the last and great Afliction of the Church, may be aptly represented by the Overflowings of Fordan, which does constantly overflow its Banks in Harvest or Autumn, ( at which Season of the Year Antichrist shall also come, as we before observed out of the Prophet Foel) and that does seem to be the compleating Act of the Suffering Oeconomy of the Jews. For as soon as they were got over, Circumcision was commanded anew for those who had escaped it during their Forty Years travel in the Wilderness, which is called the removing the Reproach from

Israel

So that,

Israel, i, e. the Reproach of the Cross or
Suffering Period, upon which the Passover
was observed in Commemoration of their
compleat Deliverance out of Ægypt ; as
may be seen at large, Fosbua. 3. 4, s.

S 25. Now when this Man of Sin shall
The De-
struction of have finished his Time, and the Number
Antichrist of his Days shall be accomplished, then
by the Et, fhall God visit upon him the AMictions of
fufion of the his People, He shall break the Staff of the

Wicked, and the Scepter of the Rulers.; be that
Smote the People in Wrath with a continual Stroke,
be that ruled the Nation in anger, shall be
persecuted, and none shall binder. Ifa. 14:5, 6.

6
So be that said in his Heart I will ascend into
Heaven, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars.
of God, I will fit also upon the Mount of the Con-
gregation, in the sides of the North. I will ascend
above the Heigths of the Clouds, I will be like
the moff High. He that made the Earth to trem-
ble and destroyed - Kingdoms, that made the World
a Wilderness, and destroyed the Cities thereof,
shall be brought down to Hell to the sides of the
Pit, v. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. This God will
accomplish by various and gradual Steps,
first, to magnifie the Greatness of his Pow-
er, and that every Act and Instance of
Vengeance may have time to produce its
designed Effect; i. e. reclaim those who
are within the possibility of Mercy. The
grand. Pomp of this Destruction is largely
described to us by the Author of the Apoca-
lypse ; who having described to us, Chap. 15.
the Joy and Triumph of those who had
gotten the Victory over the Beast, &c.

ز

tells us, v. 6, of that Chapter, that he saw Seven Angels coming out of the Temple having the Seven Plagues, cloathed in Puré and White Linnen,

' and their Breasts girded with Golden Girdles. By the Seven Angels may possibly be meant, either literally Seven Spirits, or Seven Men of those who had been shut

up during the Beast's Reign, or perhaps the Souls of Righteous Men departed commissioned by God to execute his Vengeance, of which more hereafter. They came forth cloathed in the Habits of Priests and Kings, to shew the Royal Priesthood of Chrilt's Kingdom and Heavenly Temple or Tabernacle, out of which thefe Judgments proceed, v.7. and one of the four Beasts, (or living Creatures) that were the Representatives of the Apoftolical Church, gave unto the Seven Angels Seven Vials (or Bowls, 2 Chron. 4. 22. Rev. 5.8.) full of the Wrath of God who liveth for ever and ever. v. 8. And the Temple was filled with Smoak from the Glory of God and from his Power, and no Man was able to enter into the Temple till the Seven Plagues of the Seven Angels were fulfilled. The filling of the Temple with God's Glory is a Phrase expressing his dwelling in the midst of his People, Ezek. 43: 5, 7, 9. whereby is signified the Approach of the New Jerusalem Sabbatism. The Smoak appearing with it does intimate to us the Glory of God, who dwells in thick Darknefs, or Light inaccessible, Isa. 6. 4. 'And adly, By the Impossibility of entring into the Temple till the Vials are poured out,

may