Edit. fhaken out of the Earth, as that ancient Writer Job expreffes it, Chap. 38. 12. to make way for a Kingdom of Righteoufnefs and Peace, which muft at laft take place upon the Earth. And as thefe Defolations are by our Bleffed Lord reckon'd amongst the Signs that fhall precede the Coming of Antichrift; fo are they by the Holy Fathers counted as the very Means that fhall introduce him. So fays St. Cyril of Jerufalem *;* Cat. 14. The fecond Sign of the Coming of Antichrift is, pag. 209. when ye fhall bear of Wars and Rumours of Wars; Oxon. and even now are the Perfians and Romans at war about Macedonia. And a little after ; The Contentions between Brethren make way for Antichrift; and the Devil fhall fow Difcord be tween Nations; that the Enemy (viz. Antichrift) may with more eafe overcome them. All which is largely attefted by Lactantius † ; † P. 647. The whole Earth fhall be in Confufion; Wars Edit. Shall rage in every Place; All Nations fhall be in Oxon. Arms against each other, &c. where this §6. THE Quarter from whence this 6. The Rebloody Defolation fhall firft arife, is ex-gion or prefly afferted to be the North, or the Sides Quarter of the Earth. So faith the Prophet Fer. Fudgment Chap. 25. v. 32. Thus faith the Lord of Hofts, fhall begin. Behold Evil fhall go forth from Nation to Nation, and a great Whirlwind fhall be raifed up from the Sides or Coafts of the Earth: Which is also largely attefted by many other Places of Holy Scripture 4. Befides which, there is another + See Chap. not contemptible Argument, (efpecially to 6. 22. 50. fome Men) fetch'd from the Contemplation of the Harmonious Providence of God, who in the Oeconomy of the Moral, as well as Natural C 4 41. Natural World, fo fitly orders and difpofes all Occurrences, that even the leaft and moft contemptible, do to those who are difpofed to receive them, difcover in the Spirit and Mystery of them great and furprizing Truths. An Inftance of which, the whole Story of the Deftruction of Judea by the King of Babylon, and of Babylon by the Medes and Perfians, has been thought to be by many, both Ancients and Moderns; whofe, both Crimes and Punishments (as I before observ'd) are tranfcribed and applied to Apoftate Christendom, by the Divine Author of the Apocalypfe. Many of the moft minute Circumstances of which are not flightly to be paffed by or neglected; but this more particularly, that the Judgment is so often threatned to If. 13, 14. them both from the North *, which was and fer. 6, certainly mention'd for fome good Reason. 50, and 51 The Word † which we tranflate the North, Chapters. fignifies properly a + Place of Darkness, becaufe (fay the latter Rabbins) of its great distance from the Sun, and enjoying fo very little of its Light. Whether it be upon this or fome other Accounts largely infifted upon by the Cabbaliftical Writers, I cannot determine: But the North has been generally used to exprefs the Place of Darknefs, of the Curfe or Vengeance; as may be feen at large in the afore-cited Places of the Holy Prophets. And this I conjecture to be the Reason why the Destruction of Judea by the Babylonians, and of Babylon by the Perfians, is fo often faid to come out of the North; though Babylon, in respect of Compare + צפן צפfrom t ObnubiJavit. Judea Judea, and Perfia from Babylon, feem rather to lye North-Eaft. For the Destruction of Babylon having a double End and Defign; 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 Defign. 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 shall come from the North; meaning, no doubt, Cyrus with his Medes and Perfians. Nevertheless the Prophet Ifaiah, comforting the People of God with the Promises of Deliverance, upon the Destruction 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 Verse 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 Beside the 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 listorians, istorians, Western Chriftian Church by the Goths, se Salvian Huns, Vandals, and other Barbarous Nations: of God's Gover, Which Western Church was understood, by ment Vid.com. the highly Illuminated Abbot Joachim * in Jer. to be expreffed to us in the Type, by the Per Al- 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 Christendom, fo dreadfully defcrib'd by the Prophet Joel 2. 20. Such as there bath never been the like, nor ever shall be, to the Years of many Generations. And as the Apoftle St. Peter (1 Ep. 4. 17.) tells us, that Fudgment must begin at the House of God; and the Prophet Jeremiab, that the Destruction must begin at Jerufalem, Ch. 25. 29. I understand by it, that the Defolation must 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 shall 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 wreftles and spreads it felf, in fpight of Oppofition, to the confuming of the whole: So fhall the Northern Princes kindle a Flame that fhall 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 Defign 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 destroy 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 against 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 last fball help to destroy each other; as in the Day of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 19. 23. or as the Philiftines, 1 Sam. 14, 16, 20. and the Mi I dianites, |