dianites, Judges 7. 22. Every one shall help deftroy his Brother, and every Man's Sword be against his Fellow. Which the Proph fore-told fhould happen again at the tim of the Meffiah, Ifa. 9. 4. For as Chrift his first Coming, though ufher'd in by moft profound Peace, yet came to kindle a Fire; and as he himself said, Luke 12.51 to bring Divifion; to fet the Father against th Son, and the Son against the Father: So alfor thefe laft Days, when he is coming to fe tle and reconcile the whole Creation to the Creator, and to afcend his Throne i Peace, his rifing in Spirit is ufhered in by hot burning Wars, and bloody Revolution through the whole Earth: And the Man of Blood muft introduce the King of Peace, and precede and prepare the Way for the glorious Building of the Temple I Chron. 28. 3, 4.

7. A Rem. §7. BUT in the midft of thefe Deftr mant fa- ctions God will preferve a Remnant;

ved.

who,

as they have by his Grace efcaped the In fection and Contagion of the Antichriftian Spirit, fo fhall they alfo efcape their Pu nifhments. This is the Promise to the Church of Philadelphia, Rev. 3. 10. Becau thou hast kept the Word of my Patience, I allo will keep thee from the Hour of Temptation, which shall come upon all the World, to try them that dwell upon the Earth. Thefe are Men who though living in the World, and in an Apoftate Antichriftian Church, yet were not of it; i. e. of its Spirit as Corrupt Antichriftian, who, though rejected and difallowed of Men, yet are precious in

and

the

the Sight of God; whofe Righteousness confifts not in Word and Name, but is fubftantial, fincere, and powerful, in the Heart and Spirit, whofe Praise is not of Men but of God; who fhall accordingly teftify to all the World his Approbation of it, by fetting his Mark and Seal upon them, and so preserve them from the Great Defolation. Thus under the founding of the Seven Trumpets, Rev. 7. God took special Care for the Protection and Prefervation of. his Servants; giving a particular Command to the four Angels, to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea, v. 3. Saying, Hurt not the Earth, neither the Sea, nor the Trees, till we have fealed the Servants of God in their Foreheads. Accordingly they were fealed and preferved from the Judgments, which upon the founding of the Trumpets fell heavy upon the rest of the World. Which Mark or Seal, though like the New Name or Nature, Rev. 2. 17. No Man knoweth (perfectly) but he that bath received it: Yet it hath pleafed God to give us fuch Intimations of it in his Holy Word, that even we who have but the very FirstFruits of the Spirit may be able,with God's Affiftance, to improve to fome imperfect Degrees of Light and Knowledge. The Ufe of a Seal moft commonly referred to in Scripture, is to fet a Mark or Character upon Wares and Commodities, to denote the Owners Right and Property, and to diftinguish them from the Goods of others. Now the Church of Chrift, or the New Peculium, is in innumerable Places of the

New

า

New Testament faid to be bought or redeemed as a Property. So I Cor. 6. 20. Te are bought with a Price; which is again repeated Chap. 7. 23. So the Apoftle St. Peter, 1 Ep. 1. 18, 19. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible Things, as Silver and Gold, but with the precious Blood of Chrift. And in this Senfe our Bleffed Lord is called the Lord that bought them, 2 Ep. 2. 1. meaning, that he hath re deemed us from the Bondage of Corrup tion, and made us his Sons by Adoption and Grace. This Redemption and Adop tion is two-fold; the First inchoate, or in its firft Principles, which is meant by the first fealing in Baptifm, answering to the First-Fruits of the Spirit: The Second, which is the End and Confequence of the First, is the fulness of the Spirit, the compleat Adoption and Redemption. So faith the Holy Apostle St. Paul, Rom. 8. 23. We that have the First-Fruits of the Spirit, (which is the first fealing) even we our felves, groan within our felves, waiting for the (compleat) Adoption, even the Redemption of our Body. Which plainly fhows that the Adoption here meant is diftin&t from the Firft-Fruits of the Spirit, becaufe they which had thefe, yet waited for that; and what a Man feeth (or hath) why doth be yet hope for? As the fame Apoftle fays, v.24. And as the Redemption of the Natural Body is the last compleating Act of the perfect Redemption, it will follow that the internal Work must be firft finifhed, and fo the Redemption to which we were fealed by the (First-Fruits of the) Spirit, as the fame Apoftle witneffeth, Eph.

Eph. 4. 30. must be the Reftitution of the whole Man, Body, Soul, and Spirit, from the Bondage of Sin and Corruption, by the over-fhadowing Power of the Holy Ghoft producing in us the New Birth or Nature, which is from Heaven; being not born of corruptible Seed, or of Blood, nor of the Will of Fleth, nor of the Will of Man, but of God. These therefore having paffed through the Crofs, and by Faith overcome the Spirit of this World, and the Corruption of their Natures, have by confequence overcome Death and the Curfe, and are out of the reach of both: I do not mean in fuch a Manner and Degree, as they fhall be when they shall have put on their Refurrection-Body, and are come to that State of Impaffibility which is the Privilege of the perfect Renovation; but that they fhall be in fuch a State or Principle that God fhall interpofe his Providence, perhaps in a miraculous Way, for their Prefervation, with fome faint Appearances of the afore-mention'd fupernatural State, hinted to us Rev. 15. by their being upon Mount-Sion. This is what the Prophet Joel tells us, Chap. 2. v. 32. Whofoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, fhall be faved. The Reafon of which is gi ven in the following Words; For (or be caufe) in Mount-Sion and Ferufalem fhall be Deliverance; (faith the English Translation) or as it is in the Hebrew, a faved Remnant or Company. Which is confirm'd by the put for the Prophet Obadiah, v. 17. Upon Mount-Sion fhall Adjective be a Deliverance; or (as it is in the Margin)

they

LXXII.

* Ἐξ ὄρος Σιών.

they that escape; who are, v. 21. called Dot Saviours (or the faved) † upon Mount-Sion; Aydow- (or as the LXXII understood it, from μόνοι Mount-Sion *) expreffing those who are preferved from the Judgments and Vengeance, by being in the Spirit of the Heavenly Kingdom; who by the Faith and Patience of the Crofs have fitted and difpofed themselves for the Reception of their Influences. For nothing hinders thofe heavenly Worlds, or Principles, from opening and difplaying themselves in our Souls, feeing we have in us the Seeds of them all, but our unfitness to receive them; fuch as thefe fhall be preferved from the Power of the Sword, Job 5. 20. And whilft the rest of the World are groaning under the Miseries and Confufions of Battle, They shall dwell in peaceable Habitations, in fure Dwellings, and in quiet refting Places, Ifa. 32. 18.

8. The

§ 8. THE Manner of this Preservation, Manner of or wherein it fhall confift, is hard to detertheir Pre-mine: Whether they fhall be, like the Iffervation. raelites in the midst of the Plagues of Egypt, preferv'd fecure, not only in their Perfons, but alfo in their Eftates and Poffeffions, God making a miraculous Distinction betwixt the one and the other; or whether it fhall be only of their Perfons; but the latter is moft probable, viz. That God fhall fuffer them to be robbed and stripped of their Eftates and Poffeffions, but shall fave their Lives by a wonderful Deliverance; that they fhall furvive thofe dreadful Times of Vengeance, and when they are ended hall come forth with Songs of Praile,

and