Generation-work, or, A brief and seasonable word offered to the view and consideration of the saints and people of God in this generation, relating to the work of the present age, or generation we live in wherein is shewed, I. What generation-work is, and how it differs from other works, II. That saints in the several generations they have lived in, have had the proper and peculiar works of their generations, III. That it is a thing of very great concernment for a saint to attend to and be industrious in, the work of his generation, IV. Wherein doth the work of the present generation lye, V. How each one in particular may find out that part or parcel of it, that is properly his work in his generation, VI. How generation-work may be so carried on, as that God may be served in the generation / by John Tillinghast ...

THESIS XXXIX.

That the Heads of either number, (which yet both end at one and the same point) are so stated, as that the greater begins with the beginning of the Persian Monarchy, and so with the Head of the Vision it self, run∣ning down quite through it; the lesser not till near a 1000 years after, about the midst of the Vision, a little before the coming forth of the Beast; is no less than the most glorious result of the wonderful wisdom of the All-wise disposer of all things, who for divers reasons hath thought good so to order it.

1 That hereby the Mysteries of these two Prophecies, yea, all Daniels Prophecies, might be the greater; for observe, there being not above three years betwixt either Vision, Daniel having the first of these two, in the third of Belshazzar, chap. 8.1. which year was the last of the

Babylonian Monarchy; his second, in the third of Cyrus, chap. 10.1. the third year of the Persian, had both been to be begun from the time of the Visions, then would the number of dayes in either, have been equal to about three dayes, which little time too, the Text hath clear∣ly determined to pass betwixt Vision and Vision; and if so, this one thing alone would have been so great a Stan∣dard of light into both these Prophecies; yea, all the Pro∣phecies of Daniel (his 70 weeks excepted) all the rest having dependance on these, as could no way stand with the design of the Holy Ghost, which was to have the Book sealed up, until the time of the end; for, hence it would have been obvious, and evident to every eye,

1 That either Prophecy were the same, and had one and the same beginning, and ending.

2 That the thing spoken of the little horn, chap. 8. and of the vile person, chap. 11. were not to be applied to the time of Antiochus rage, (which very opinion hath been a cloud upon the Prophecies of Daniel for a long time) for as Mr. Parker, in his Daniels Prophecies expounded, pag. 37. hath well proved, the 2300 days are no way ap∣pliable to the time of Antiochus persecutions.

3 That all Daniels Visions, and Prophecies, viz. That of the great Image, chap. 2. That of the four Beasts, and the little Horn, chap. 7. together with these, chap. 8, and chap. 10, 11, 12. do terminate at one and the same point; and this point to be no other but the end of the 2300, the 1335 days; for if these two be the same, and terminate at one point, then by a parallel of reason, the other two also, viz. that of the great Image, and that of the four Beasts, for either of those conclude with work of a like na∣ture, and glory of a like kind with these. And if so, then is that other clouding opinion which darkens all Daniels Prophecies at this day, viz. That the little Horn, chap. 7. is to be understood either of the whole Norman Race

here in England from William the Conqueror, the first of that Race, as some conceive; or of the late King Charles onely, the last of that Race, as others, shaken off; for that Race hath been extirpated root and branch these five years already, whereas to the end of the 2300 days, the 1335, it is near 50 years yet to come; and therefore we must of necessity (unless we deny, that which from the scope of each Prophecy is so clear, as that it is undeniable, viz, that Daniels Prophecies have but one and the same end) conclude, that either the little Horn, Chap. 7. is no such thing, as many now adays suppose; or affirm, that the final destruction of this little Horn is come upon him upwards of fifty years, before the determined time. Now this one beam of light followed being such, as that it dis∣covers most of those by-wayes that men have gone in, and thereby darkned the truth of Daniel, it could not, I say, stand with Gods design of sealing this Book, to make Re∣velation of so great and clear light, as would have come in, had the heads of each number been placed with the time of each Vision.

2 Reason. Because hereby the latter Prophecy which is the clearer, and intended by the Lord as a farther, and more particular light into those things, that in the general had been revealed before; should have been as dark as the other, in regard of making up any ac∣count of time, had the same began (as the other) from the time of the Vision, for what is it that makes the 2300 days to be so hard to compute, but this, the ground we go upon to make up a right supputation of the years from the be∣ginning of the Persian Monarchy until Christ, is more dark, perplexed, and uncertain; and therefore to find the vein of truth here, is a thing more hard; but now the 1335 dayes being begun (as before) with Julian, the very beginning it self is below all the most difficult knots, and therefore the computation made thence more easie.

Hence many have found the vein of truth, that runs from the Head of the 1335; but the vein of truth that runs from the Head of the 2300, I may truly and modestly say, hath not yet been found. And indeed, therefore God left that more clear, this more dark, because the way of God, is to give his people first a little light, afterwards more; and also, because that in the revelation of this light, that, after discovery might appear to be the greater light, which before discovery, was the thing most dark, and ob∣scure.

3 Reason. The Head of the 1335 is placed as it is, because God in laying down that, had a special design at another thing, viz. To set up a light, to shew us thereby the rising Beast, (as I observed before) and therefore it was most necessary it should not be counted from the time of the Vision, for then it could no way have served such an end; but rather should be fixed as it is. Which fixation is such, and so wonderful, that deny it, and no other fixation can be, which will, first make the 1290 days end with the 1260. And secondly, the 1335, with the 2300; both which must be for our fore-going reasons, and by vertue of this fixation both are exactly performed, as in part we have seen already, and shall fully streightway; And the number it self also, hath as famous a Head for it self, as any one number in Scripture. What admirable wisdom therefore is there in appointing, and disposing these heads as they are, viz. That the 2300 days should begin where it doth, and the 1335 where it doth?

And indeed, were not the placing of the Head of the 1335 designed in the wonderful wisdom of God, to be a Torch to give light to the time of the rise of the Beast, we should have no Scripture ground, but the bare report of History (which leaves it so dubious as to many years, that we cannot, were we left to it alone, know certainly which

to chuse) to build upon for the time of the Beasts rise, and so consequently of his ruin, though yet this is the great thing, and (as it were) the very hinge of all the principal Apo∣calyptical Visions.