Jn ExPOSITION ~Names, and Titles, and feveral Dignities, (take in all forts of them, from the PART 11. highe!t to the !owe(\) in all thofe Kingdoms, may haply be found to amount to ~ 7000 (that Number being an Indefinite kind of Number, and taken for more or lefs) even befides fuch Mini!ters of Pari!hes and Affemblies, as have for the fubfhnce of their Office, a Warrant from God ; though for their ufual Names, whereby they are called, they retain a Name of Ma!''s devifing. Ye~, is not this very Thing made the Q),larrel now, Whether their Ranks of Mmill:ry, be Namet of God, or of Men ?_ About which the. Witne!fes have, from the very be– ginning contended, Yea, ts It not the SufptciOn, and general Optmon, that to continue and to [ecure thefe their Names, they would agam mtroduce Popery? And is n~t the Matter as thus !tated, the very ground of their Q),larrel ? And bath it not long been the Ground of all the OJ?pofition again!t the Witneffes and Saints in this Kmgdom; as of Silencmg, Fmmg, Depnvmg them, and De– pofing them from their M,ini£\erial Charges, &c.? 1e!l: that (as the Ph.rifees [aid of Chrift) the Peoples runnm& after the Wttneffes Doctnne? !hould en- - danger their Names, Credtts, and Dignmes, and fo take away thetr Kmgdom! Hereat the Q),larrel firft began, and for that fecret Caufe bath all along been continued, though under other outward Pretences. Yea, this is the thing that !hall provoke them to the enfnaring Oaughter of thefe Witneffes (which now approacheth): They fay, within their Hearts, Ltt 11< kill thefe Witneffes, and the Vineyard will be Ollrt. Now upon all thefe-Grounds, how fairly probable does it feem, that there Occurrences here mentioned, as tho[e that !hall attend the R.efurrecrion of the Witneffes, are to fall out in this tenth Part of E11rope, and in one or both of thefe our Kingdoms above-mentioned, more eminently than in any other Euro– pean State or Kingdom? And how ju!t were it with God, to give up t!Jefe Names of Mw, (who have been the Enemies of his Witneiles in all Times fince the Reformation ) to receive, at !aft, the Number of the Beajl's Name; and un– de.r his Name and Po~er, to become, in the end, the killers of rhefe Witneffes, and his Trained Band, and Leaders in this his lafl War. And how wonderful and wife a Difpenfation of God, will it be towards his own in thefe Kingdoms, to have referved the utter extirpation of there Names of Men, (though fa long while contended for) unto fuch a Time and Occafion as this? And, that after they !hall firfl have done this Fear and Exploit for the Beafr, in killing the Wit– neiles, they !hould then be facrificed as Baal's Prieft's were by E!i<U; even when thefe Witneffes, whom they fo perfecuted, !hall rife, and die no more ; and fo by this means, the ruin of rhefe their Enemies, !hould be made the Wirneffes Triumph, and the removing them out of the way by this Earthquake, made the Foundation of their Afcenfion into Heaven: After which, the Work of meafuring the Temple by thefe Samaritans interrupted, !hall go forward in the Hands of ]oj/JIIa and Zembbabel; and the People who before were afraid of rhofe Hinderers of the Work, lhall now begin to cry Grace, Grace, unto it· and fo, the rearing of thefe purer Churches, !hall be upon the R.ubbi{h of thi~ Samaritan Mountain the Falfe Church. And if the fifth Vial be alfo aimed at in this Earthquake, and the fall of Rome, the Sear of the Beaft, (as ultimately I think it is); then how comely will it be, and fuitable with the long expectation of God's Witneffes and Holy Ones, that the Ruin of rhefe Epifcopal Seas, and Seats of rhofe that {halLdo Antichrift fuch Service, fl1ould fall out with, or be a preparative unto the Fall of that great Bi!hop's See, (as I faid in expounding the fifth Vial) and both to go down together, as alike pertaining to the fame Building of Man's not G~! , And laflly; If this prove the Iffue of _Go~'s dealings with thefe Kingdoms; How glonouOy !hall God thereby acqutt htmfelf m the conclufion of all his Difpenfations towards them ? For to fee two fuch contrary Streams running fo !trongly one again!t another in the fame Channel, hatb indeed caufed a wonder– ment in the Godly-Wife of this !aft Age, what God meansto do, and what end he means to make with E11gland; This is that which is now the great expeCl:ation of the Churches there, how equally God means ro proceed, both towards them that fear him therein, and alfo towards the oppofire Party that are and have been
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