thy God thy Glory. The Sun shall no more go down, Part 2. neither shall thy Moon withdraw it felf: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting Light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. This shall be as the 154.9, 10, waters of Noah unto me; for as I have worn; that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the Earth, fo have I fworn that I would not be wrath with thee, nor rebuke thee: for the Mountains shall depart, and the Hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed, faith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee.

meant by

All these and the like Expreffions, which we What is read in the Prophets do import. I. A profound all thefe Peace, which fhall never be interrupted by war, prophecies. 2. Plenty and Abundance of all forts of Goods. 3. An Exemption from all Evils. 4. Such a Profperity, where are Riches, and Plenty, and Joy. 5. A Felicity that is net to be interrupted by the. return of Calamities. This muft be fixt, that all thefe Prophecies refpect the State of the Church una der the Meffiah: for as to thofe who endeavour to turn them to another fense, and apply them to the Temporal bleffings of the Jews, I cannot confider them as Chriftians, but reckon them enemies to Christianity.

plisht.

We must therefore fearch for the accomplishment These proof thefe Prophecies in the History of the Church: miles have that no fuch thing can be found there, the Anti accommillenaries themfelves confefs. For they conftantly tell us, that these thousand years of Reftareal-t together inconfiftent with the orders of Divine Providence, and the condition of the Church, which is appointed to be always calamitous and af flicted upon Earth; that Sorrow and Suffering, Perfecution and the Crofs, do infeparably belong

to

Part 2. to it; that we muft judge of what is to come by the History of what is paft. "Tis true, in the three firft Ages, the Church was under the Cross of the Pagans, in the fourth under that of the Arrians, in the fifth fhe began to fink into fuperftition, and hath remain'd overwhelm'd with it during the whole reign of Antichrift. Where then fhall we place thofe happy days the Prophets promife? "Tis trifling to apply thofe promifes of Peace and Tranquillity to certain little intervals of Quiet, which from time to time the Church hath had in fome places; for it would be a very ill use of Rhetorick, and a ftrange force put upon figures, to reprefent fo imperfect a calm, by fuch terms as give us. an Idea of the greatest and most perfect Profperity imaginable. Moreover, the Prophets fpeaking of an endless Peace, to which no affliction fhall fucceed, it must be fuch a one as is like the waters of Noah which fhall never return to cover the Earth, it must be a peace fo firm, that though the Mountains be overthrown, fhall never be changed.

Thefe Pro

phecies

plisht by

Church

ved.

We may not fay,that all this hath respect only to not accom- fpiritual Graces, the ftability of God's Covenant, the fpiriand the Joy of the Faithfull. I will not deny but tual graces the Holy Spirit may have fome reference thereto; which the but it is falfe, that thofe fpiritual favours (in that hath recei- weak degree wherein we fee them at this day) can. comprehend the full fignification of fuch great. Expreffions, which clearly import a peace in reference to Earth as well as Heaven. Add to this, that though thefe Promises should not be applied. but to Spiritual Bleffings, there muft yet be a new Kingdom and a new Age for the fulfilling of them; for we have never yet feen any, wherein Spiritual Peace and invifible Graces have been fo

abun

abundantly poured out, to fatisfy in any measure Part 2, the greatnefs of fuch Expreffions.

U. CHAP. XIX.

The fourth Head of Arguments, for the reign of a thousand years, are the Types.. Four Types of this Period; the Principal is the feventh day of the Creation, which is not an immediate Type of Eternal Reft, but of the Peace of the Church on Earth.

I

Come now to the fourth Head of Arguments. viz. the Types. They as well as the Prophecies are Pictures and representations of future Events. They are not vain fpeculations of Divines and the Great wits that look upon them to be fo, approach very near to Impiety. 'Tis very certain, that God hath been pleased to shadow forth his Myfteries in certain difpenfations of his Providence. Saint Paul teacheth us, that Hagar the fervant of Sarah, Sinai a Mountain in Arabia, were Types of the legal Inftitution. As Sarah and Sion were alfo Types of the Covenant of Grace. That Melchifedeck was a Type of our Lord Jefus Chrift and in general, that the Law had shadows, of which the fubftance is to be found in Chrift. The Types therefore are no falfe or deceit full Light whereby to judge,in cafe they be rightly ufed. Now I pretend, that all the Types make for the Reign of Chrift before the end of the World.

We may find a great number of them. The Captivity of Ifrael in Egypt was certainly a Type of

that

figured that

from under

Part 2. that bondage under which the Church fhould The deli- groan, during the Reign of Antichrift. The AnIfrael out tichriftian Empire is therefore called Egypt. Now of Egypt, after the Ifraelites were come out of Egypt, they of the entred into Canaan, the Land flowing with Milk Church and Honey; which did certainly prefigure the the bond- happy State of the Church, after all her enemies age of An-fhould be fubdued. 'Tis fuppofed, that the Land of Canaan was the Image of that great and Eternall Dwelling, to which the faithfull fhould be tranfported, after the last judgement. I deny it not. 1.Typestle But you must know, that in the Old Teftament the Land of defcriptions of the future Bleffednefs of the Canaan. Church, by Emblems, Types, Figures, and meta

tichrift.

Reft in the

2. Type;the

the Baby

phorical refemblances, have not their immediate relation to Eternal Bleffedness. St. Paul hath

told us, that eye hath not feen it, nor ear heard

it, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive: and confequently 'tis not that which the H. Ghost would immediately defcribe, because he would that we fhould be kept ignorant of it. So that those Defcriptions have an immediate relation to the flourishing State of the Church in the last Period; and by analogy they may be transfer'd to the bleffings of Paradife.

The Captivity of Babylon was doubtless another Reft after Type of the Captivity of the Church under Antilonish ca- chrift; and therefore the Papacy is called the City privity. of Babylon and after that Captivity, the People returned to their own Land, and lived peaceably there. So doubtlefs the Church being delivered from the bondage of Antichrift, fhall return to its 3.Type; the rest here on Earth.

the perfe

Reft after The Perfecution of Antiochus was alfo a Type cution un- of the Perfecution which the Church hath fuffered der Antio- under Antichrift. Now after the three years

and half

half of that Perfecution, the People of the Jews Part 2. returned to the poffeffion of their Temple, and rofe

to a more flourishing condition than they had ever been in fince their coming out of Babylon.

number

often men

I leave these and many other Types which may be 4.Type; the found, to infift on one which I find to be very evi- feven, dent and convincing. 'Tis that which may be which is fo found in the number of feven. "Twill be granted tioned. that this is a myfterious and facred number,and that it fignifies perfection: 'Tis on this account it is mentioned fo often in the Apocalypfe; There are feven Churches, feven Stars, feven Candlesticks, feven Spirits, Seven Lamps, feven Eyes, feven Horns of the Lamb, feven Plagues, feven Trumpets, Seven Thunders, feven Viols. So in the Books of Mofes, the feventh day is Holy; and the feventh year, was the year of Reft; and the feven times feventh year; was the great fubilees The living Creatures entred into the Ark by fevens; the firft-born of every beast remained fever days with its Dam; the male Children were to be feven days old, before they were circumcifed the Candlestick of the Tabernacle had feven Lamps; a Woman after her uncleanness, a Leper after he was cured of his leprofy, were to be purified for feven days. It would be too long to recite all the Examples of this nature which might be mentioned; for the number feven is almost every where to be found.

For what reafon is it fo? who fees not that this number fignifies Completion and Perfection? and of what can it fignify the Perfection, if not of the greatest work of God, that for which all his other works were wrought,that is,the Church? If then the 7th be every where facred, why is not the seventh Period, reckoning from the creation of the World,

alfo