of the R E V E L AT I 0 N. M.,h 11 met,mifH. So in like manner, Thcfc are a Company of True Believers r>.J\JI fcattered up and dowo under the growing Superfhtions, and encrea!ing Dark- Chap. 8. nefs of Popifh Antichriflianifm; which until the Year of Cbrifl: 1 roo, did in'~ creafe more and more upon the World. They jl.md 11pon Mount Sion, which wM railed the City of David, as not yet having a Temple, or inflituted Churches oiflincr fi·om 1\michrifl, erected and built, as in DJvid's Time Mount Ston had not. And though they fung a New So11g, (the Truth of the Gofpel which themlelves believed) yet fo confufi:dly and indi(hnc:tly, as none could learn it, or underfland, that they differed from them. It was a 5\(:w So11g, differing from what the Papiflstaught about Chrifl, yet they did not propagate it to many ; there were few or none (it is C1id) that could learn lt. And they are faid to ling it fecretly, before this R.eprefentative Chor11s of the four Beafl:s, and the four and twenty Elders, (as they are con!idered as a fl:anding Company, that do view all the Vi!ions of this Book) but themfdves were not cafl into fuchan Order of Wor01ip, they not having Churches or Officers to begin the Song, as in other Times you may obferve, that it is l.1id, the four Beafls began, and the four and twenty Elders fu ng that Song. So that, they had no diflincr Churches and Jlil(mblics, nor Officers of their own who fung this Song; their Voices being fcnnet imes as tbe Voice of many Waters confufedly murmuring again(\ the Superflitions Claily ariling in thofe Times, and thundering aloud. Firfl:, Againfl: fettinp; up of Images, An110 707, both in France and Germany: And then,againfl: Tranfubframiation : fometimes fweetly harping melodious Strains of true Devo– tion ; which Believers (and fame Writers of thofe Times (as we in their Writ– ing• find) were full o( Thofe kept themfdves Virgins from the gro!s Idolatries of the Whore, not defiling themfelves with the refl ofthofe Women; by which are meant the Daughters of the Whore, that is, thofe Cities and Kingdoms in which they lived ; which (as the Daughters receiving themfelves the Fornica– tions of Rome, the Mother City) allured thefe alfo unto Spiritual Fornication with them. Thus during thofe Times of. grofs Idolatry, we read of thofe who profdfed their detefl:ation of Images, and that Idol of Tranfubfl:antiation. The fecond State of the Church is, that of the Separation which Believers made from Antichriflian Churches, having a new and a further Light broke forth among them; which we have defcribed unto us by three degrees, riling higher and higher, prefented under three feveral Angels, from the 6th Verfe, and fo on, (according to the ufual courfe of this Book) the firfl: of which flies in the midfl: of Heaven, being to publi(h his Meffage unto many Nations, having the Gofpel to preach, that is, Jefus Chrifl: and Juflification by him, and the true Worlhip of him: which in thofe Times was counted a New Gofpel, therefore in oppoGtion to that made Calumny, the Holy Ghofl: here calls it the Everlafl:– ing Gofpel. And this began to be done about the Year r I oo. But becaufe I mean to begin the Second 'Part of this my Expofition of this Book, with the Story of the Church's firfl Separation from Popery, which here begins at the 6th Verfe of this Chapter ; therefore I referve the particular Expo– fition thereof unto that Second 'Part in its due place, and break off this Firfl 'Part here, although in the middle of a Chapter, yet at a right Joint or Period. F I :1\( I S.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=