Judea, and Perfia from Babylon, feem rather to lye North-Eaft. For the Destruction of Babylon having a double End and Design; the one of Mercy, in delivering the Jewish Captivity and the other of Vengeance, in deftroying the Enemies and Oppreffors of the Church; fo there is a different Stile appropriated to each Part of the Design, For when the Prophets fpeak by way of Denunciation of Judgment, they always fay it comes out of the North, as may be feen at large; but when they speak by way of Comfort and Encouragement to the Jewish Captives, they then change their Stile from the North to the Eaft. Thus Fer. Chap. 50. 9. fays, That God will caufe to come up against Babylon, an Affembly of great Nations from the North-Country: which he confirms, v. 41. faying, A People fhall come •from the North; meaning, no doubt, Cyrus with his Medes and Perfians. Nevertheless the Prophet Ifaiab, comforting the People of God with the Promifes of Deliverance, upon the Deftruction of Babylon by the fame Cyrus, fays twice, that God calls him from the Eaft, Chap. 41. 2. 46. 11. Cyrus being an Eminent Type of our Bleffed Saviour, who is called The Morning, Job 38. 12. Light, Ifa. 8.20. The Day-Spring, Luke 1.78. The Day-Star, 2 Ep. Pet. 1. 19. and Rev. 22. 16, he fays of himself, I am the MorningStar. And to fhew how both these Designs were united in him, he is faid in the felffame Verfe to come from the North and from the Eaft too, Chap. 41. v. 25. I have raised up one from the North; from the rifing

+

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of the Sun fhall be call upon my Name. And as from this Quarter of the World the Judgments came upon the Jewish Church of the two Tribes, fo did they alfo upon the Western Chriftian Church by the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and other Barbarous Nations: Which Western Church was understood, by Vid.Com. the highly Illuminated Abbot Joachim in Jer. to be expreffed to us in the Type, by the Edit. Ven. Jewish Church properly fo called, or the two Tribes. So alfo it will be again; and out of the North fhall come that terrible Army upon Chriftendom, fo dreadfully defcrib'd by the Prophet Joel 2. 20. Such as there hath never been the like, nor ever shall be, to the Years of many Generations. And as the Apostle St. Peter (1 Ep. 4. 17.) tells us, that Judgment must begin at the Houfe of God; and the Prophet Jeremiah, that the Destruction must begin at Jerufalem, Ch. 25. 29. I understand by it, that the Defolation muft begin in the Northern Parts of Christendom or Europe; which (as I may fay) are the principal Parts of the Holy Catholick Church, for whofe Purgation and confequent Glorification, all thefe Punishments are defign'd. So then the Scourge fhall first light upon the Western or European Church, and probably for the fame Reafons on the moft corrupt Parts of it, to bring them to a Senfe of their fad Condition, to put them in mind of their abominable Deviations, and lamentable Apoftacy from their first Love and Zeal, which were once ftronger than Death; but now, thro' the miferable abundance of Iniquity, quite cold

cold and dead. And as a raging Fire arifing in one Corner of a City, often wrestles and spreads it felf, in fpight of Oppofition, to the confuming of the whole: "So fhall the Northern Princes kindle a Flame that Thall not be quenched, till it have accomplifh'd the End for which it is fent. Their Difputes and Contentions fhall influence and engage their Neighbours, either by Virtue of Leagues and Alliances, or upon the Account of Publick Safety, by keeping the Ballance; or of Politick Intereft, by promoting their Divifions, with a Design to make an Advantage thereby; or by fome more fecret contagious Influence of the Enemy of Peace, the Author and Spirit of Confufion; till at laft all fhall be involved in War and Bloodfhed, tho' perhaps not at the fame Point of Time, nor upon the fame Interefts and Pretenfions. By this God will break to Pieces and deftroy the Antichriftian Powers of the Earth, and prepare a way for the Eftablishment of the true Primitive Evangelical Spirit, which fhall at laft take root and flourish as out of the Earth, notwithstanding all the Oppofition that either Men or Devils can make againft it. Here then we fee the Wrath of God gone forth, and his Sword drawn against the Antichriftian Nations; a Spirit of Drunkenness and Fury is upon them; fo that Ammon and Moab fhall be divided against Mount-Seir, and at laft Thall help to deftroy each other; as in the Day of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 19. 23. or as the Philistines, 1 Sam. 14. 16, 20. and the Mi

dianites

dianites, Judges 7. 22. Every one fhall help to deftroy bis Brother, and every Man's Sword Jhall be against his Fellow. Which the Prophet fore-told fhould happen again at the times of the Meffiah, Ifa. 9.4. For as Chrift at his firft Coming, though ufher'd in by a moft profound Peace, yet came to kindle a Fire; and as he himself faid, Luke 12. 51. to bring Divifion; to fet the Father against the Son, and the Son against the Father: So alfo in thefe laft Days, when he is coming to fettle and reconcile the whole Creation to the Creator, and to afcend his Throne in Peace, his rifing in Spirit is ufhered in by hot burning Wars, and bloody Revolutions through the whole Earth: And the Man of Blood muft introduce the King of Peace, and precede and prepare the Way for the glorious Building of the Temple, I Chron. 28. 3, 4.

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$ 7. BUT in the midst of these Deftrunant factions God will preferve a Remnant; who, ved. as they have, by his Grace efcaped the Infection and Contagion of the Antichriftian Spirit, fo fhall they alfo efcape their Punifhments. This is the Promife to the Church of Philadelphia, Rev. 3. 10. Because thou hast kept the Word of my Patience, I alfo will keep thee from the Hour of Temptation, which shall come upon all the World, to try them that dwell upon the Earth. Thefe are Men who though living in the World, and in an Apoftate Antichriftian Church, yet were not of it; . e. of its Spirit as Corrupt and Antichriftian; who, though rejected and difallowed of Men, yet are precious in

the

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the Sight of God; whofe Righteoufnefs confifts not in Word and Name, but is fubftantial, fincere, and powerful, in the Heart and Spirit, whofe Praife is not of Men but of God; who fhall accordingly teftify to all the World his Approbation of it, by fetting his Mark and Seal upon them, and fo preferve them from the Great Defolation. Thus under the founding of the Se-/ ven Trumpets, Rev. 7. God took fpecial Care for the Protection and Prefervation of his Servants; giving a particular Command to the four Angels, to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea, v.3. Saying, Hurt not the Earth, neither the Sea, nor the Trees, till we have fealed the Servants of God in their Foreheads. Accordingly they were fealed and preferved from the Judgments, which upon the founding of the Trumpets fell heavy upon the reft of the World. Which Mark or Seal, though like the New Name or Nature, Rev. 2. 17. No Man knoweth (perfectly) but he that bath received it: Yet it hath pleafed God to give us fuch Intimations of it in his Holy Word, that even we who have but the very FirftFruits of the Spirit may be able,with God's Affiftance, to improve to fome imperfect Degrees of Light and Knowledge. The Ufe of a Seal moft commonly referred to in Scripture, is to fet a Mark or Character upon Wares and Commodities, to denote the Owners Right and Property, and to diftinguish them from the Goods of others, Now the Church of Chrift, or the New Peculium, is in innumerable Places of the New

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