Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v2

of the REVELATION. III done to the Church~s of thefe btter Times ; but they rather take it of the Pa- ~ pills themfelves thm poffeffing throughout all Ages the Face o_f the Church ~ (which they interpret the Outward Court) becaufe of th1s that IS added, and that followeth upon it, [and they Jba/1 tread down the Holy City for 42 Months]. As if it imported, that after t?e Outward Court is jli':en up to th~m, they fhould have fo many Years of reignmg over u. Wh1ch. 1f lt. were fo, 1t could ncit be -meant fo particularly of the Temple or Church m th1s !aft Age, and the Out. ward Court thereof. But this (according to the former coherence given) need not divert any Man's Thoughts from the prefent Age to former Times (as it h•th done fome Mens, to think the Churches of the Primitive Times td be the Temple meafured,and the 0Htward Court to be the Outward Face ofthe Church,which the Pope bath poffdied thefe 1200 Years) the coherence may eafily be found to be this; as if the Angel had faid, 'Meafure anew the Temple you now fee ' ftanding in thefe !aft Times of the fixth Trumpet, and of Anticbrifl: before his 'Fall, and call: out the Outward Court thereof; for it is ag•m giv~n to the 'Gentiles : and fo (namely with this !aft treading down of it, and regaining, ' as it were, the whole anew) they fhall fully accomplifh their allotted T ime 'of treading down the Holy City, namely, their 42 Months. But the removal of this Miftake more fully, I refer to the .Appendix that fol– lows. Only for the prefent, for a Confirmation that this is, and may well be th~ meaning of the coherence ofthefe words, Obferve, 1. It is not faid, that they fhall tread down the Outward Court for 42 Months; · but the Holy City, which is much vafter than the Outward Court ; the greater part of which City, (namely of Europe) they kept the Lordfhip over, even when the Outward Court was feparated from them, and not yet recovered. So that to me, the Outward Court here is one thing, and the Holy City another, (though this Court indeed ftahdsin the City) even as the Outwara Court and the Temple were difl:intt Things from the Holy City of Jerufalem, though fianding therein, (as I fhall afterwards in the particular Expofition more fully fhew). · And, 2. The purpofe and fcope of the mention of their whote Time of 42 Months here, is to fhew how in this latter Age it fhould be fulfilled and ended ; even in a full Power and Jurifdiction over the Holy City, in a re-entry on that part of it the Outward Conrt alfo; which is again laid common with, and un– to_ the reft of the City._ A~d fo now it may be (aid of them, as of a King who re1gns, and bath Jurtfdlcrwn over a Country ( fuppofe ) for fifty Ycars, it may be faid he bath reigned over it fifty Years, (although fome few Yeors before the end of his Reign, fome of his Subjects haply revolted from him) if fo be he were their King before th\' Revolt, and in the end again recovered his Royalty over them ; (the Account being taken from the beginning to the md, firft and !aft). ' And one Reafon why Antichrift's Time of doing is reckoned by Months, and not by Days, may be to fhew, that though be bath not, the whole Time of his Reign, the fame continued Jurifdiil:ion; yet by Months be bath, from fuch a T1me to fuch a Time, though not the like Power all that Time. For fo at firft the Goths interrupted him much in the exercife of his Power. And then, 3· thefe words [and they Jba/1 tread down the Holy City for 42 Months] do fitly come in, as a juft Reafon, why tliis Outward Court is now in the~e !_aft Times given to thefeGentiles; and fo do infinuatea Reafon why Anti– chrlft IS thus permitted again to take Po!Ieffion of the moft (and chief part, if not all). of this Outward Court, fo as to have fair hopes of recovering all Eu– rope agam. [.And they flJall, &c. J The word [ ""'' J or [And] is often ufed as a Caufal Parucle, and notes out a Reafon of a Thing. So then, the term of their Commiffion over all the Nations and Tongues of Europe being 42 Months, and none exempted, but fuch whofe Names are written in the Book of life, (as you have it, Chap. 13. 7, 8.); therefore, though this Outward Court of Carnal Protefl:ants, and Unregenerate, bath made a Separation wgether with

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