"fhall they Tread under foot forty two Months. Thus we find, that this Time of the End, and Time of Trouble, upon a due. Tracing of it, in-. cludes the whole Period of the Forty two Months,

which means the fame Thing with the Time, Times Dan.XII and a Half, mentioned in the Angels Oath, in Daniel, and which may, on this Occafion, be

6.

proved to agree exactly, as I before afferted, with Rev. X the Oath in St. John, That there should be Time no longer, which should be render'd, That there should not be yet another Time; that is, in other words, That this should be the Time of the End.

And what follows, gives the Reason of this way of speaking, and fhews what was this Time of the End. For when "The Seventh Angel "fhall begin to Sound, the Mystery of God fhall: "be Finished, as he hath declared by his Servants: "the Prophets."

And accordingly, when the Seventh Angel Sounded, it is faid, The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord.

By which, compared with the whole Thread of this Chapter, We may perceive, that the

Mystery

7.

Mystery of God, which was then Expired, confifted in the Sufferings of the Witnesses, who had then finished their Teftimony, of a Thousand two Rev. xi. Hundred and Threefcore Days, Cloathed in Sackcloth. Which was Contemporary with the Forty 2. Two Months, during which the Gentiles were to tread under Foot the Holy City.

And thus we may obferve, that This Mystery

XI. 3.

II. 7.

XVII. 6.

of God, as it was Contemporary with, so it was Oppofite to that Myftery of Iniquity, which 2 Then. was the Mystery written in the forehead of the Woman in the Wilderness, who was Drunken with Rev. the Blood of the Saints, and who was to be Nourished in the Wilderness for a Time, Times and XII. 14. a Half. Where it is again obfervable, that the Greek word used in Time, Times and a Half, is not the fame with the Greek word ufed where it is faid, There should be Time no longer, as the fame has been obferved in the Hebrew. And by this we have a Specimen of the exact and nice Care used to express these Prophetical Visions, fo that there may be no Confusion or Uncertainty to perplex a careful Enquirer into the

Rev. X.

meaning of the Expreflions, for tho' in the Tranflation it founds Odly, that the Time of the End, fhould be a Time, Times and a Half, yet if the Original were duely rendred, it would be very easily apprehended, that the Time of the End may include Three certain Meafvres of Time and a Half, which upon Examination appear to be Prophetical Years, and include all thofe One Rev. xi. Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Prophetical Days, during which the Witnes are to Prophefj,

3.

Cloathed in Sackcloth; and at the end of which Dan.XII Time of Tromble, thefe Witnesses, who are written in the Book, are to be delivered.

1.

Dan.

XII. 10.

A

Of the Wife and the Wicked.

Nd now having obferved what is the Time of the End, next follows a General Character of Mankind in that time.

"Many fhall be Purified and made White,

and

❝and Tryed, but the Wicked shall do Wickedly, "and none of the Wicked fhall Understand, but "the Wife fhall Understand.

Thefe that are Purified and made White and Tayed, are the fame that are called in the first of Daniel's Vifions, The Saints of the Meft High, Dan. vii. and in the next, The Holy People, and in this laft of Daniel's Visions, The People who do know X1. 32. their God, who shall be Strong and do Exploits.

"And they that Understand among the "People fhall inftru many, yet they shall fall by the Sword and by Flame, by Captivity "and by Spoil, many days.

"Now when they fhall fall, they shall be "holpen with a little help, but many fhall cleave

"to them with Flatteries.

"And fome of them of Understanding shall "fall to Try them, and to Purge and to make "them White, even to the Time of the End.---”

Here is a kind of Paraphrafe upon that fhort general Character, given in the 11th Verfe of the XII. Chapter, which is justified by Hiftory. And we may easily be fatisfied from thence, that

during

25. VIII. 24.

33.

34.

35:

32.

Dan, xi. during the Time of the End, when fuch as did Wickedly against the Covenant, were corrupt by Flatteries, thofe that did know their God were Strong, and did Exploits, for there has been always, during the Times of Popery, Men of Integrity and Courage, who have publickly taught and wrote against the Corruptions of that Church, and Numbers of People who have followed them, as particularly the Vaudois and Albigeois, but they have been Over-powered with Perfecutions and Croifades, till at laft, before they were quite extinguished, the Refor mation came in to their Afliftance; but this did not make a fincere Change in great Numbers Pfalm who profeffed it, but they Flattered the Refor Lxxviii. med with their Mouths, while their Hearts

36.37. were far from them, and still continued to like

the Policy, and Grandure, and Power of the Church of Rome, and by this means there is wanting a fecond Purging, even among those who call themselves Reformed, which will not xxiv. 14 be compleated till the End comes.

Matth.

With this Description of Daniel's agrees what

We