kind, there is Long-fuffering, there is Kindness, there is no Envy, no Vaunting, no Puffing up, no unfeemly Behaviour, no Self-feeking; Love is not eafily provoked, thinketh no Evil, rejoiceth not in Iniquity, but rejoiceth in the Truth, beareth all Things, believeth all Things, hopeth all Things, endureth all Things, (which I would rather interpret, comprehendeth all Things, for Reasons hereafter mentioned) never faileth, when Prophecies fhall fail, when Tongues fhall ceafe, when Knowledge fhall vanish away. In a Word, it is greater than Faith and Hope; and, Rom. xiii. 10. Love is the fulfilling of the Law, as the Apoftle fhews by an Induction of feveral particulars, with a general Clause in the End of all; if there be any other Commandment it is all comprehended in this, Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thyself. For Love worketh no Ill to his Neighbour, therefore he concludes, Love is the fulfilling of the Law. So the Apostle to Timothy, 1 Tim. i. 5. faith, Love is the very Scope, the End of the Commandment; which is as much as to fay, the Fruit, the Flower, the Perfection of it; yea, fo doth the Lord ftudy Love, fo doth he delight to fee Love in his Creatures, that he defigns this Image to be brought forth upon the very Brute Creatures, and the fierceft of them in the Reftoration, Ifa. xi. 6. The Wolf fhall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard hall lie down with the Kid; and the Galf, and the young Lion, and the Suckling together, and a little Child fhall lead them; and the Cow and Bear fhall feed them, their young ones fhall lie down together, and the Lion fhall eat Straw like the Ox, and they shall not hurt nor defiroy in all my holy Mountain.

Now as the Pfalmift argueth, He that made the Eye, fhall not He See? fo may we in this cafe. He that teacheth Love to all his Creatures, and works it in them, hall not He Love? Yea, why doth he lay it as a Law upon all his Creatures: But becaufe it is the Law of his own Nature and Being?

for fo faith the Apoftle, God is Love. Not only that he hath Love, nor only that he doth Love, but that He is Love. And you can no more feparate Love from him, than you can feparate his Effence or his Nature from him. Doth God require Love of all, yea Love to all Men; yea, and that we should abound in it; not only Saints one towards another, but towards all Men, 1 Theff. iii. 12. Yea, that we fhould Love not only our Neighbours, but our Enemies, Blefs them that Curfe us, do Good to them that Hate us, and Pray for them that defpitefully use and Perfecute us; and though we cannot delight in them, yet to forgive them, and not to be overcome of their Evil, But to overcome Evil with Good? And hali the Evil, yea, the Defpite of the Creature, fet the Creator, who is the very Omnipotency of Goodness, fo hard, that He shall never overcome it, never recover it into the Arms of his Goodnefs and Love? Are all Gifts and Excellencies in the Creature, or the Creature in thofe Gifts and Excellencies nothing without Love? Is Love the Diamond, the Sparkle of the Diamond, even in Holiness and Unblameablenefs itfelf? Othen let us fear to fet up a Wisdom, a Power, a Juftice, a Holiness, a Greatnefs in God, without Love! Without Love as its Ground, its Root, its Effence, its Defign, its Fruit, its Image, its End. Is Love the fulfilling of the Law Is all Obedience to a Letter, without Love, lank, lean, and poor? Is it the Scope, the End of the Commandment given unto Man, and is it not God's End? The Scope of all his Ways and Works, of all his Difpenfations and Adminiftrations? Can he be faid to have attained his end, to have reached his Mark, and to be at reft, till he hath brought forth, and manifefted Love to all; to all his Offspring, the Off fpring of his own Bowels; as the Nature of Man is faid to be? Is it the Nature of Love to bear all Things, to endure all Things, and is there any thing that God whofe Name and Nature is Love

L 4

fhall

fhall not bear, hath not born and endured for us, for and from the worst, the chiefeft Sinner? Is it the nature of Love not to feek its own, and shall God who is Love feek his own otherwise, than in the Good, the Salvation, the Happiness of his Creature? Doth Love never fail? fhall it furvive and over live Prophecies, Tongues, Knowledge? and fhall the Wrath and Severity of God outlive, outlaft his Love, his Grace, his Sweetnefs? Is Love greater than Faith? than Hope? and Is Wrath greater than Love? or is Wrath that Word which God hath magnified above all his Name; or rather is it any other than his Loving-kindness and his Truth, which is all one with Love, Pfa. cxxxviii. 2. or his Mercy, Gen. xix. 19. Which upon this account may be faid to rejoice against Judgment, Jam. ii. 13. Yea, fhall every Creature lie down in Love, though their former courfe hath been Rapine and Cruelty, and fhall God alone fet and lie down in Wrath with the greatest part of the Work of his Hand? If Love be his Effence, his Nature, how can this be? Nature will have its courfe; expellas · furca licet.

CHAP XVII.

An Argument for this Hypothefis, drawn from the Oath of the Angel, Rev. x. from ver. 1. to 6.

TH

HIS other mighty Angel is fo ftiled, either with Relation to the Angel employed before in delivering this Revelation to John, or in Comparifon with all the Angels of the Trumpets prefented in Vifion before, and it muft needs be Chrift;

because

because the Characters which are given to this Angel are given to none but Chrift in this Prophefy, nor any where elfe. And moft probably 'tis to be underflood of Chrift's coming in his Father's Power of Dominion and Kingdom, in order to Reign with his Saints. His Characters are these :

1. Mighty as a diftinguishing Epithet, we fee no difference put between the Angels of Miniftry in the other parts of this Revelation, but here and in' chap. xviii. ver. 1, and 21, where therefore Chrift is intended.

2. His coming down from Heaven, which fignifies his Place properly to be in Heaven, and this to be a condefcenfion which is not obferved of the other Angels, whofe Office is to be fent forth for the good of the Heirs of Salvation.

3. His being clothed with a Cloud, which fignifies his Confideration of us, for his excefs of Glory;" for though the Angels are in excefs of Glory to us Mortals, yet they are not prefented to us in that excefs, as to need a Cloud, but only Chrift.

4. The Rainbow on his Head, which is an Emblem of the Covenant whereof he is head, no Angel but Chrift hath the Rainbow on his Head.

5. But this is more, his Face is as it were the Sun, this ties this expreffion to Chrift, whofe Character it properly and only is, Rev. i. 16. where we have him fo firft defcribed in this Prophecy, as leading to the understanding of every particular mentioned as they should occur through the Book, and teaching us how to apply them.

6. His Feet as Pillars of Fire. This also is the fame with what is given to Chrift, chap. i. 15, and to none else in this Prophecy.

7. The open Book in his Hand was his own fingular Acqueft, chap. v. 7.

8. His pofture, his prevailing Pofture on the Earth and Sea, the Principles and Seats of his two grand Enemies, both the Beafts; is the fame with that

Dan.

Dan. xii. as is the Oath and the Matter confirmed thereby, as Interpreters do accord.

9. The Voice as of a roaring Lion, agrees moft properly to him, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and is often applied to him by the Prophets, And,

10. The Seven Thunders that utter their Voices hereupon, are never mentioned but as proceeding from him and from the Throne of God, which Throne is he, or the Temple of God, which he likewife is, and the Seventh Angel which he likewife is, or at the Heels of, chap. xi. 19. chap. xvi. 18. chap. iv. 5. Thus much for the Perfon and his Defcription.

The next thing is the Contents of the Seven Thunders, which John is forbid to write, according to the Command given to Daniel, chap. xii. ver. 4, But thou, O Daniel, shut up the Word and feal the Book, even to the time of the end. Many fhall run to and fro, and Knowledge fhall be encreased. What these things were, more than the Wonders that were to be accomplished, and the Mystery declared to the Prophets, which should be accomplished in its Seafon, and till then, (tho' Men fhould be getting a little Light, time after time, there would not be yet a full Underftanding untill the time of the end) we cannot Divine, unless it were the terribleness of thofe Trials that fhall ufher in this Bleffed State of Reft, which are fuch, as the Creation never knew, as both Daniel and our Saviour fay, and therefore fhall pafs quickly, and fo are forbidden to be written, Matt, xxiv. 21. 22.

But the next Words which acquaint us with the Action of the Angel that flood upon the Sea and the Earth, who lifted up his Hand to Heaven, and fwore there fhould be Time no longer, acquaints us with a great Myftery, viz. that the whole Myftery of God, as he hath declared to his Servants the Prophets, fhall be finished at the Seventh Trumpet, and with the finishing thereof, Time itself fhall expire and go out.

Here