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A42415
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Theorems evincing, that the subject of the fourth and fifth chapters of the Revelation, is the Church of England, B.L.E. With answers to objections. Humbly offered to the serious consideration of all enemies of the Church of England, dissenters and separatists. By Wal. Garrett, rector of Everly in Wiltshire: sometime fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge.
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Garrett, Walter.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing G271C; ESTC R218820
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7,586
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9
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THEOREMS Evincing That the Subject of the Fourth and Fifth Chapters of the REVELATION is the Church of ENGLAND B. L. E. With ANSWERS to OBJECTIONS Humbly offered to the Serious Consideration of All ENEMIES of the Church of England DISSENTERS and SEPARATISTS By Wal. Garrett Rector of Everly in Wiltshire Sometime Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge Who hath Believed our Report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord Revealed Esai liii 1. The Harvest is Plenteous but the Labourers are Few Mat. ix 37. I Have Already by God's Assistance Giv'n-forth an Exposition of Every Particular in the Fourth and Fifth Chapters of the Revelation and now come to Evince the CERTAINTY of it by laying down such Theorems or Propositions of Unquestionable Verity as will serve at Once both to Establish my own Exposition and to Refell All Others Whatsoever I. The Church Describ'd in Rev. iv and v. was not in Being when St. John Receiv'd the Vision For the Vision is Expresly Entitl'd by the Spirit Himself Chap. iv 1. Things that must be HERE AFTER II. The Throne in those Chapters therefore is not the Throne of God in the Highest Heav'n nor the Sitter on the Throne God Almighty Himself in Person for These were not Things to Come but have been the SAME from All Eternity but the Sitter on the Throne is God Ruling in and by some Earthly Potentate and his Throne is a Throne on EARTH And Consequently The Church in which this Throne is Set and over which the Sitter on it does Preside is a Church on Earth III. Whereas they are said Not to Rest Day and Night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Which Was and Is and is to Come It cannot hence be Concluded That they should Never take any Rest in Sleep nor that Always when Awake they should be saying Holy Holy Holy c. but that they should Say it Every Day and Every Night or Every Morning and Every Ev'ning and That Often at Every Time and very Observably or to Some Such Sense as That is As when S. Paul enjoyns Every Christian to Pray without Ceasing 1 Thess v. 17. So Eph. vi 8. Act. xx 31. Rom. i. 9. 1 Thess i. 3. For it is a very Common Phrase and Can Mean no other but Constantly at certain Returns of Time or some Such Thing IV. Neither ought it hence to be Inferr'd That this Church was to make use of No Other Words in her Addresses but Holy H H L G A c. But only That she was to Use a Constant FORM of Prayer and Praise in which One of the most Remarkable Things should be her Glorifying the Blessed Trinity Only For that this Church is here set forth as Using a FORM is Undeniable And therefore No Church that does not use a Form of Glorifying the Blessed Trinity Nay that does not use it Much and very Observably can be the Church here Describ'd For How Odly would it look to pretend to Give an Idea of a Church that is a Profest Enemy of Forms or that hardly Ever Mentions the Trinity Distinctly in their Prayers by telling us That they Rest not Day and Night Saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which Was and Is and is to come As on the Other side it is the Very Characteristic of Our Church's Service Insomuch that I cannot Forbear to say That to him that is in Search after the Church here Prefigur'd That One Circumstance is Sufficient to Fore-stall his Judgment for the Church of England V. There is No Necessity That they should use Those Very Words neither It is Enough if the Words be LIKE them For Identity is not Requir'd in Visions but Likeness Only Thus a City in Prophecy is call'd a Woman a Tyrant a Beast c. Because of their Near Resemblance as to those Things the Prophecy Respects in them as the Parturiency of the One and the Savageness of the Other It is therefore for the Fulfilling of the Prophecy we are Speaking of Sufficient if the Church gives Glory to the Blessed Trinity in Words LIKE These Holy H H L G A Which Was and Is and is to Come Such for Example as are These of Our Church Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it Was in the Beginning Is Now and Ever shall be World without end Where we see the Words As it Was Is now and ever shall be Perfectly to Correspond to Those in the Type Which Was and Is and is to Come And in the Former Clause Father Son and H. Ghost Answer as Directly to Lord God Almighty and Glory to Holiness For God is said to be Glorious in Holiness Exod. xv 11. For as the Usual Notion of Holiness in Scripture is Separation So the Glory of God is that Nothing can be Compar'd to him Esai xl 18. xlvi 5. VI. The Sealed Book is That whose Visions are Distinctly Set-down in the Sixth and Following Chapp This is Plain to Sense VII By Op'ning the SEALS of this Book is Meant Explaining it There is No Other Sense of Op'ning the Seals of Any Book throughout the Scripture For Sealing Always singnifies Concealing the Sense of a Mystery and Op'ning is Explaining it For which see Dan. ix 24. and xii 4. Esai xxix 11. Luk. xxiv 32. Acts xvii 3. And I am very well Assur'd there is No One Place to the Contrary I do not say That Barely to Op'n a Book is to Explain it but to Op'n the SEALS of a Book or to Op'n the Text or Writing of a Book for the Seals are Always upon the Text and Not upon the Cover Paper or Parchment of a Book And if the Book we are speaking of had been Sealed only with Wax Lead or Ir'n c. What Needed All That Ceremony Setforth so Particularly and Pompously in the vth Chapter about the Loosing of its Seals when Every Mechanic could have done it But it is There Affirmed That No one in Heav'n nor in Earth nor Vnder the Earth could do it What Not Break or File or Cut or some way or other Get-off a Seal from a piece of Parchment That 's strange indeed VIII It is not God's Giving his Son the Revelation that is Describ'd in Rev. v. For That was Done Before the Vision was Exhibited to S. John But the Vision of Rev. v. is Manifestly a Part of those things which the Spirit Entitles Things that were to come to pass AFTER Chap. iv 1. IX The Vision therefore of Rev. v. is a Prefiguration of the Circumstances that were to Accompany the Explaining of the Said Book when the Time was Come for it Which is an Indisputable Result from the Two next-foregoing Theorems X. The Precise Time for the Fulfilling of Rev. v. 5. is That wherein the First Notice was to be giv'n of the True Way of Expounding the Book For when upon Loud Proclamation made No One in All the World was Found Able to Do it to the Great Grief of
such as Earnestly Desir'd it Weep not saâ—s one of the Elders Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Juda c. hath Prevail'd to Op'n the Book that is He hath Op'n'd it by Mee For if he meant Only That Christ Could Do it if he Would it is Gratis Dictum And one might as well say of the hitherto-Unintelligible Parts of Ezekiel That Christ hath Prevail'd to Op'n Them too But we are ne'er the Wiser for it Yet The Elder 's Meaning therefore must be This Behold The Lion of the Tribe of Juda c. hath Instructed ME to Op'n the Book and Loose its Seals XI Mr. MEDE is the Pers'n that gave the First Notice of the Book 's Op'ning Anno. 1632. and made a very Considerable Progress in it And is Consequently That Elder Spok'n of Rev. v. 5. For This we have the Testimony of Mons Jurieu Accomp of Scrip. Proph. Part. I. Chap. VIII Joseph Mede in my Opinion is the First that Vnderstood Any thing of the Sealed Book We have also the Concurrent Evidence of All Protestant Interpreters excepting H. Grotius and Dr. Hammond Deserted by All Protestants and Rejected ev'n by Monsieur de Meaux Himself in his Explication of the Apocalyps Pref. pag. 62. that have Joyn'd their Suffrage with him But This Proposition can be No Otherwise Demonstrated than by Aswering Any Man's Objections that Dissents from us which he will find Enow that will be Ready to Engage in But Thus much is Certain That if Mr. Mede be not the First Whoever Is or shall be the First is the Elder There Mentioned I Mean in Rev. v. 5. And Consequently of the Number of the 24 Elders Rev. iv 4. And the Church he is a Member of is That whose Establishment is Predicted Rev. iv XII Before the Reformation No Man Understood the Book This is So Apparent that the Contrary is not I believe so much as Pretended by Any Man whatsoever XIII The Sealed Book therefore whose Op'ning is Prefigur'd Rev. v. Said to be Writt'n Within and on the Back-side is a Book in the Form We Now have them and Not in a ROLL as Books were Wont to be Made-up in S. John's time Of which Book the Outside-writing is the Text as it lies before Us in These Days and is Read by Every Child at School as soon as he can Speak But the Sense contained Under That is the Inside-writing which is Found Only in the Skilful Interpreter The Seal is the Mysterious Expression And whereas the Whole Book is indeed but One Continued Mystery All along the Holy Spirit by Dividing it as his Usual Manner is into Sev'n Parts makes as it were Sev'n Mysteries of it which He Calls according to the Use of Scripture in Such Cases Seven Seals This I Observe with respect to the Learned and Ingenious but yet Needless Fancy of those who have tak'n the Pains to Excogitate a Way How a Roll might be Seal'd with Sev'n Seals so that the Op'ning of the First might not at the Same Time Disclose the Vision of the Second As if at the Time when the Vision was to be Explain'd the Fashion for Books was to be in Rolls XIV The Lamb Revived after Slaughter Standing in the midst of the Throne who Came and Took the Book out of the Hand of the Sitter on the Throne Chap. v. 6 7. Cannot be Christ in Pers'n who Comes not to Any Earthly Throne as the Throne we Speak of is but it is Christ in Some Good King who was to be Slain as was his Master and to Rise again in a Figure as Isaac is said to have Done Heb. xi 19. and as our Good King Charles the Martyr Did in his Son of the Same name when he was restor'd as it were to Life again Anno 1660. Such kind a of Resurrection is No Stranger to the Prophets for which see Ezek. xxxvii 11 -14 Rom. xi 15. Now Whoever First was to Op'n the Book his Performance was to be Seconded with such a Resurrection Rev. v. 5.6 Which as it Never Happen'd in the World Before So we may Hope that there will Never be Occasion for Such Another And if there should Not the Book must have been Opâ—n'd Before the Restauration of King Charles The Second XVâ— Also Before the Op'ning of the Book there was to be a Loud Proclamation by a Strong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mighty or Powerful Angel for Any one to come and Op'n the Book that Could Which Before Mr. Mede's Op'ning it was made by King James I. According as I have Shew'd at large in my Exposition of Chap. v. All which things with a Great Many More Conspire to Fix the Honour of Shewing the Way to Op'n It upon Mr. Mede and Consequently That of being the Church Prefigur'd in Rev. iv and v. upon This Church of Ours For indeed to Sum-up All in short upon This Hypothesis not only the Exposition of the said Two Chapters but also of the Three Foregoing ones and of Every Particular in them Runs Strangely Smooth and Natural and Ev'ry way Unexceptionable as I have made Appear by a Thorow-Exposition I have Publish'd of them Which if the Hypothesis had been Wrong would have been As Impossible at least for Me to have done as it has been for All Other Interpreters Men of as Great Learning Wit and Fancy as the World afforded who have Proceeded on a Wrong Hypothesis But instead of That I have Shewn the Sev'n Epistles and the Fourth and Fifth Chapters to be a Prophecy of the Church from the Beginning to the Times We live in by Such a Clear and Solid Explication of Ev'ry Type and Passage in them as may Defie All Opposition and which Cannot Reas'nably be Ascrib'd to Any thing but its TRUTH The Only Objections worth the Mentioning that are come to My Knowledge are These Obj. 1. We have No Nocturnal Service and therefore cannot be said not to Rest Day and Night Saying Holy H H c. Ans 1. We account as from Midnight to Noon Morning So from Noon to Midnight again Night Thus at Any Time After Noon we are Taught to Pray Light'n our Darkness c. and Defend us from All Perils and Dangers of This NIGHT. Ans 2. By Day and Night as by Ev'ning and Morning Gen. i. 5 8 c. in sensu Conjuncto by a Hendiadis may be Meant a Natural Day of 24 Hours Call'd also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. xi 25. And so the Sense will be That Every 24 Hours or Every Day they Fail not Oft'n to Rehearse the said Hymn Obj. 2. Neither is England Large enough nor the Pers'ns I mentioned as Concern'd in the Prophecy of Eminent Regard enough for Grandeur Fame or Piety for the Spirit to Intend in This Admirable Vision Ans Then Ought it to be shown That I have either Misinterpreted or Misappli'd the Words or some Considerable Part of them For if Without Either of These Faults the Words be Granted to be Well Adapted to a