come, fhall fuffer; but he that overcometh,fhall be rewarded; and God is very merciful, otherwife few of Mankind would remain.

Ch. 8. God has made this VVorld for many, but the V Vorld to come, for few; many are created, but few faved; fo of the Duft of the Earth, are many Earthen Veffels; but little Duft, that Gold cometh of.

Efdras prays for the Jews and himself, and confeffeth, that there is no Man amongst the Faithful, but he hath done amifs; be merciful to them that have not the Confidence of good VVorks; have mercy on thy Inheritance, for thou art merciful to thy Creatures.

The Angel answered, Unto you is Paradise opened; the Tree of Life is planted, the Time to come is prepared, Plenteousness is made ready, a City is built, and Reft is allowed; yea, perfect Goodness and VVildom: the Root of Evil is fealed up from you, VVeakness and the Moth is hid from you, and Corruption is fled into Hell, to be forgotten; Sor rows are paft, and in the End are Treasures of Immortality ('Tis a perfect Description of the Paradife in the Millennium, the Tree of Life, Plenteoufnefs, a City built very glorious; the Root of Evil fealed up, is the Devil bound; the Moth and VVeakness, is Death, to which Immortality fucceeds.) These are the Rewards of the Righteous; but the VVicked, who defpife God, and his Laws, fhall fuffer Thirft and Pain.

CHAP,

CHAP. VIII. IX. and X.

The Vifion of the Woman turned into a City.

Ch. 8. V. 8. Esdras acknowledges that God had fhew'd him

great Wonders which he would do in the laft Days; but at what time, he had not fhew'd him.

Ch. 9. The Angel anfwers, When thou feeft part of the Signs paft, which I have told thee before, (that is, the Signs of the Deftruction of the Babylonian Empire) that is the time when God will begin to visit the Earth, (that is, to fend the Captivity back to Judea,) and then there will be Earthquakes, and Uproars of People, (the Perfian Conquefts in Chaldea and Afia:) Of thefe God fpake by his Prophets before Efdras's Days, by Isaiah, ch. 13. and Jeremiah, whole 70 Years of Captivity Efdras is commanded to meafure, and number how many are paft, or to come. The Times of the Moft High have plain Beginnings in Wonders and powerful Works (fuch as are thofe Signs mention'd by Ifaiah, ch. 13.) and Endings in Effects and Signs; and every one that is fav'd, fhall efcape by his Works, and by Faith, whereby ye have believ'd, and fhall be preferv'd from the laid Perils; and they fhall fee my Salvation in my Land (7dea,) and within my Borders: But they that have despis'd God's Ways of delivering them, fhall dwell in Torments; and they that have loathed God's Laws while they have Liberty, the fame muft know it after Death by Pain: there are more of them that perifh, than of them that are faved. (This fhews, that few of the Jews will return from their Captivity.) Let the Multitude perifh, which was born in vain; but let the Clufter of Grapes, and God's Plant of many People be fav'd, by returning from their Captivity.

Then Efdras went into the Field Ardah, and there he ac knowledges, that God had given the Jews his Law, but they disobey'd it; but that will always continue in force, though they diiobey'd it. Afterwards he faw a Woman weeping for the Lofs of her only Son, and he reprov'd her for not lamenting the Mileries of the Jews, rather than her private Loifes.

Ch. 16. But the Woman's Countenance chang'd and fhined, and the vanish'd, and there appear'd a City built : Then the Angel told him the meaning of that Vifion; the Woman mourning is the City Sion; the 30 Years in which fhe was barren, are the 30 Vears before the Offerings in the Temple; (the Arabick Copy has 3000 Years inftead of 30; but the 30 Years may reprefent the State of the Jews before the Temple was built) but Solomon built the Temple, and offered Offerings, and then the barren VVoman bare a Son; fhe nourifh'd him with Labour; that is, his dwelling at Jerusalem: His dying in his Marriage Chamber, was the Deftruction of Jerufalem: And becaule Efdras mourned for that City, God hath fhew'd him the Brightness of her Glory, and Comeliness of her Beauty. Fear not, go into the City which appeared, and fee the Beauty and Greatnefs of the Building.

By this Building Efdras knew that Jerufalem would be rebuilt a beautiful and great City. This was in Babylon 558; but Daniel's Vifion of the VVeeks was in the firft Year of Darius the Mede, 539 before Chrift. Then he was King of the Chaldeans after Babylon was taken, 539; and this is a Type of Ezekiel's City, which will be hereafter built in the Beginning of the Millennium. And Efdras, in his Defcription of that Paradise, Ch. 9. v. 52. fays, a City is builded. A VVoman reprefents a City, because her Citizens are her Children. And this may be the Bride that fhould appear before Chrift's Birth, who at the time of Efdras's Prophecy was withdrawn from the Earth. 2 Efdr. Ch. 7. v. 26. Sion was deftroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Ann. ante Ch. 588. There are Two Cities mentioned in the Prophecies; the firft is built after the Jews Return from Babylon; the fecond is defcribed by Ezekiel to be built by the Jews at their Return from their prefent Captivity: And this is a Type of New Ferufalem, which will defcend from Heaven, into the New Heaven and New Earth.

Note, Solomon built the Temple 1000 Years before Chrift, and then Dedicated it: The 30 Years before reach near the Birth of Solomon: And fince Jerufalem was taken by David in the 7th Year of his Reign, the Number of 300 Years is abfurd, and difagreeable to the Time of a barren VVoman: Therefore the true Reading is 30 Years; which may relate to the time before the Building of the Temple, as well as to the time of the VVoman's Barrennels.

CHAP. XI. XII, and XIII. The Vision of the Roman Empire, under the Symbol of an Eagle, with its Wings and Feathers on the right Side, representing the Conftantinopolitan Empire; and that made the one Head of the Eagle: After which arofe the Saracen, and Turkish Head laft.

1

Ch. 11. Esdras faw in a Dream (in the Field Ardah, things

that are to come on the Earth in the laft Days, Ch. 10, v. 59.) and there came up from the Sea, an Eagle, which had Twelve feathered VVings, and Three Heads. (The VVeftern Parts of the Earth, are called the Sea, where the Fourth Monarchy began:) And the Angel interprets the Eagle, to be the Kingdom, which was feen in the Vifion of his Brother Daniel; and will be feared, more than all that was before it, Ch. 12. v. 11. But it was not expounded to him, therefore the Angel now declares it. The Eagle spread her VVings over the Earth, (this is the Kingdom that was to rise upon the Earth, after Efdras's and Daniel's Time; but he fays nothing of its firft Ages, till the Emperors.) The Twelve VVings, are the Twelve Kings, who muft Reign one after the other: The Second fhall Reign longer than any of the other, (Auguftus Reigned 44 Years.) This Eagle flew with her Feathers, and Reigned upon Earth, all things were fubject unto her; and the arofe, and spoke to her Feathers, faying, VVatch not all at once, fleep every one in his Place, and watch by Courfe; and let the Head be preferved till laft. A Voice went out of her Body, not out of her Head. This the Angel interprets thus; After the Time of that Kingdom, there fhall arife great ftrivings; and it fhall ftand in Peril of falling; nevertheless, it shall not then fall, but fhall be reftored again to its Beginning.