up) will deftroy Antichrift and all his Followers.

By this Period of Time thus differently expreffed, I cannot but think are meant Natural Days, Months, and Years, as finding no Reafon to the contrary; befides that I have the Authority of almost all the Ancients upon this Head, whom I have occafionally referred to. However, far be it from me that I fhould depretiate the Learned Labours of those who have endeavoured to prove the contrary, viz. that thereby are to be understood Days and Months of Years, &c. if they have prov'd their Point, applying it to the Duration of the Antichriftian Church or Mystical Body of Antichrift; yet that will not at all weaken my Affertion, that by the fame are to be understood Natural Days, as I apply them to the Perfon of Antichrift, but will only help to make the Correfpondence between the Myftical and Natural Body of Antichrift the more remarkable and Myfterious; if the Duration of the Spiritual Tyranny of his Myftical Body be limited to the fame number of Years, as that of his Perfon or Natural Body is of Days; though even thefe muft acknowledge that if by the times of Antichriftian Perfecution be meant 1260 Years, it will be fomething difficult, if not impoffible, to give an Account how that Time fhould be called a fhort Time. Rev. 12. 12. as our Bleffed Lord promises, Mat. 24. 21, 22, Mark. 13. 19, 20.

N 4 $24 THIS

Places of § 24. THIS Grand Crisis of the Church Holy Scrip under the Workings of this Myftery of Iniquity hath been variously pointed at by the this Reign Prophets of the Old Teftament. St. Jerome

ture al

luding to

has maintained that All the Prophets have fpoken of Antichrift, in which (fays the Learned Dr. Allix in his Preface upon the Pfalms, p.12) there is no Exaggeration; for it was impoffible for the Prophets to speak of the Meffiah's Kingdom, without fpeaking of that Enemy who was to invade his Spiritual Kingdom, and without the Deftruction of which he cannot obtain his Univerfal Empire over the Ifraelites, and afterwards over all Nations. Though it must be acknowledged that the Doctor means no more by Antichrift, than an Antichriftian Kingdom or Church, notwithftanding his quoting St. Jerom, whom he could not but know to be a Friend to the Hypothefis of a Perfonal Antichrift. I fhall not pretend to be fo particular as to point out all the Remarkable Paffages of Holy Scripture that refer to him, but only to fome few that may be useful for the clearer understanding of this Theory. May not this be the Time that the Prophet Ifaiah principally intends, Chap. 5. 14. Therefore Hell bath enlarged herself, and opened her Mouth without measure, when the Honourable Men are famished, and their Multitude dried up with Thirst, and the Glory and the Multitude and the Pomp of the careless Rejoycers (mention'd v. 11, 12) shall defcend into the Pit. Does he not mean the Antichriftian Army. v. 26, 27,

28,

28, 29, 30. by a People that shall come with speed upon the Church, none shall be weary nor tumble amongst them, none shall flumber nor fleep, their Arrows are fharp and all their Bows bent, their Horfes Hoofs fhall be counted as Flint, and their Wheels as a Whirlwind, that because of them the Land fhall be full of Darkness and Sorrow, and the Light fhall 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 fhall be under, Chap. 8. v. 19. to have recourse to Familiar Spirits and Wizzards, which they are warned againft, and advised to feek unto their God, at a Time when the Antichriftian Company shall be hardly beftead and Hungry, and when they shall be hungry they shall fret themselves and curfe their God and their King, and look upwards, and they fhall look unto the Earth, and behold Trouble and Darkness, Dimnefs of Anguish, and they fhall be driven to Darkness. Doe not the Prophecies against the King of Babylon, If. 14, refer ultimately to Antichrift? 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 fake of his Vineyard (or Church) God will punish with his fore and great and strong Sword. If 27. Is not this that Time to which we muft refer If. 65. 13. My Servants fhall eat, but ye (viz. the Antichriftian Company) Shall be hungry; behold my Servants Shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: My Servants fhall rejoyce, but ye shall be ashamed. 14. My Servants Shall fing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for for

row

row of Heart, and shall bowl for vexation of Sp rit. This I understand to be that day of tre ble which Habakkuk mentions Chap. 3. and which he prays to be delivered from,v. 16 which he calls being at Reft in the Day of Trouble; the Contemplation of which draws from him this generous and Heroick Reolution, that though the Fig-tree should not b fom, nor the Fruit should be in the Vines (as that time it will not) though the labour of th Olive Should fail, and the Fields fhall yield Meat, though the Flocks fhould be cut off from t Folds, and there should be no Herd in the Stalls that he will nevertheless rejoyce in the Lord, and joy in the God of his Salvation. It would be endless to refer to the many Paffages concerning him in the Prophets, but par ticularly in the Pfalms, in which Senfe Dr. Allix explains many of them, though meaning indeed nothing elfe by Antichrift, but the Pope of Rome. Laftly, (to mention no more) to him I apply that Prophecy of Jeremiah Chap. 49. 19. that he fall com

Б

up like a Lion from the fwellings of Fordan, and the fame Chap. 56. 44. to which he allo alludes, Chap. 12. 5. where after he had talked of the miferable Effects of the Apoftacy of the Church in that dreadful Day, he expoftulates with them, If thou haft run with the Footmen, and they have wearied the then how canst thou contend with Horfes? if in the Land of Peace wherein thou trusted'ft they hav wearied thee, (or as the Original feems ra ther to exprefs it, if thou trufted'ft in the Land of Peace, i. e. been fecure in the

Profperity

Profperity of thy Land) how wilt thou do in the Swellings of Jordan? i. e. how wilt thou be prepared to bear the laft and great Conflict of the Church? For the better underftanding of which we will obferve, I. That Lactantius afferts, p. 645, and 646. that the laft Deliverance of the Church or Children of God out of the Antichriftian Earth, was typified by the Deliverance of the Children of Ifrael out of Egypt, as were the Plagues that fhall be fent upon the Antichriftian Company, by the Judgments fent upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. II. That the Scriptures themselves call their taking Poffeffion of the Land of Canaan their entering into Reft, Pfal. 95. 11. Heb. 3. 18. and accordingly the Author to the Hebrew's makes that Reft to be a Figure and Type of that great Sabbatifm, that the Church fhall enjoy in the latter Times after the Destruction of Antichrift, Heb. 4. 19. So that, III. by confequence the laft and great Affliction of the Church, may be aptly re-" prefented by the Overflowings of Jordan, which does conftantly overflow its Banks in Harveft or Autumn, (at which Seafon of the Year Antichrift fhall alfo come, as we before obferved out of the Prophet Joel) and that does feem to be the compleating Act of the Suffering Oeconomy of the Jews. For as foon as they were got over, Circumcifion was commanded anew for those who had efcaped it during their Forty Years travel in the Wilderness, which is called the removing the Reproach from

Ifrael

.