Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A63849
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A letter written to a friend in Wilts upon occasion of a late ridiculous pamphlet, wherein was inserted a pretended prophecie of Thomas Becket's, &c.
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Tully, T. (Thomas), 1620-1676.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing T3246; ESTC R219444
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6,253
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20
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its time I am not censuring the modest or ingenuous conjectures of men in these cases but in our converse with the Bible I wish the humour were not so common of beginning at the wrong end and so conning the Revelation before Genesis rolling the Prophetical Scriptures with delight under our tongues but either spitting out or hastily swallowing unchew'd the plain and practical dictates of the Holy Ghost Nor is our modesty here a slur upon the darker Oracles of God as if they were delivered in vain He hath shewed thee O man says the Prophet what is good he has writ thy duty with a Sun-beam and if in some more speculative concerns the cloud dwells upon the Sacred Tabernacle yet even there also the glory of the Lord appears I bless God for Saint Johns Apocalypse as well as for the more lightsome Scriptures and I hope receive benefit by its darkest pieces though I cannot apprehend with one of our Country-men that in this or the other passage such or such an English great Lord by Name is design'd The number 666 which of late has made so much noise in the world and is by many lookt upon as fatal to this present year I meet with in that Sacred Book but whether it must needs be applied to the course of time if so whether to our computation of the year I have neither the skill nor confidence to assert However I cannot but applaud the very ingenious Labours of sundry late Writers upon that Prophetical number especially those of Mr. Potter and of a nameless Author in a small Book of his Printed ann 662. Intituled Christ and Antichrist or 666 multiplyed by 2½ who has trod a different path from all others I know off in his new Algebra of two years and ½ in both which though I dare not say there is demonstration enough in either to satisfie the judgment yet certainly there is curiosity enough to entertain a Learned Fancy with delight But Sir neither the Prophecie which gave occasion to this Letter nor any of the like nature must think to come in competition with those that own no other but the Father of Lights for theirs For the pretended Author of the former or any Prophecie of his I have but little to say Our Chronicle has given us such an account of him as that excepting his zeal for his Holiness I can find no traces of extraordinarie Sanctitie as might entitle him to the gift of Prophecie and upon what other account he should be capacitated for it I know not But Sir we have a more sure Word of Prophecie unto which we shall do well if we take heed without regard to idle Dreams or studied Delusions or humane pretended Revelations whatsoever This every where acquaints us that if we Repent iniquitie shall not be our ruine but if we shall still do wickedly the just God can Plague us yet seaven times more for our Abominations ' til we know that the Most High Ruleth in the Kingdomes of Men and that he will not be mocked or brav'd by Worms of the Earth And had we store of such examples as Your Self Sir who think it no solecism to be Great and Good then why might not Davids Motto be Englands too Quem Timebo Of whom shall I be afraid But as Plinie minds me Et hoc amantis est parce laudare I shall release your modestie and discharge your trouble from this Paper with one word which I dare say you will own for the Child not of my Tongue but of my Heart namely that I am by a Thousand Obligations but by none more then those of your Exemplarie Worth and Virtue Dear and Worthy Sir Your ever most Affectionate Servant T. T.