A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemn fast…A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast…

5. That which I now draw from Ezekiels vision, is no other but the same which was showed to John, Rev. 11. 1, 2. a place so like to this of Ezekiel, that we must take special notice of it, and make that serve for a Commentary to this; And there was given me (saith John) a Reed like unto a Rod, and the Ange•stood, saying, Rise and measure the Temple of God, and the Altar, and them that worship therein. But the Court which is without the Temple leave out, and measure it not: for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months. This time of two and forty months, must be expounded by Revel. 13. 5. where it is said of the Beast, power was given unto him, to continue forty and two months: which according to the Computation of Egyptian years (reckoning thirty days to each moveth) make three years and a half, or 1260. days, and that is (e) the time of the witnesses prophesying in Sackcloth, and of the woman's ¹abode in the wilderness. Now lest it should be thought that the treading down of the holy City by the Gentiles (that is, the treading under foot of the true Church, the City of God, by the tyranny of Antichrist and the power of his complices) should never have an end in this world, the Angel gives John to understand that the Church, the house of the living God, shall not lye desolate for ever, but shall be built again, (for the measuring is in reference to building) that the Kingdom of Antichrist shall come to an end, and that after 1260 years, counting days for years, as the Prophets do. It is not my purpose now to search ⟨p. 9⟩when this time of the power of the beast, and of the Churches desolation did begin, and when it ends, and so to find out the time of building this new Temple: only this much I trust I may say, that if we reckon from the time that the power of the Beast did begin, and withal consider the great revolution and turning of things upside down in these our days, certainly the work is upon the wheel: the Lord hath plucked his hand out of his bosom, he hath whet his sword, he hath bent his bow, he hath also prepared the instruments of death, against Antichrist: so saith the Psalmist of all Persecutors,