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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25568	An answer to several remarks upon Dr. Henry More, his expositions of the Apocalypse and Daniel, as also upon his Apology written by S.E. Mennonite, and published in English by the answerer ; whereunto are annexed two small pieces, Arithmetica apocalyptica, and Appendicula apocalyptica ...	S. E., Mennonite.; More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1684 (1684)	Wing A3379; ESTC R10256	245,076	439

even those that are poured on the Sun into the Air or on the River Euphrates they all touch the concern of the Beast that rose out of the Earth as you may see by the Exposition of the Vision And the first Vial poured on the Earth in this sense reacheth them immediately it inflicting so noysome and grievous a sore on those that are the marked slaves of the two-horned Beast especially their Interest being so much concerned in the fall of Babylon and the Rising of the Witnesses Wherefore that Cup of Intoxication and Dementation through Envy Malice Rage and Fury as it is said ch 11. v. 18. upon the Rising of the Witnesses and Doxology of the Elders And the Nations were angry which answers to the effect of the effusion of this first Vial the noysome sore on the marked slaves of the Beast that Cup I say is really the pouring forth of this first Vial which is a grievous plague indeed Impedit ira animum And Quos Iupiter vult perdere eosdem dementat prius So that by the Remarker's leave these are no sorry conceits nor the Expositor's private opinion but the opinion of worthy Interpreters before him b But the Remarker's is a groundless conceit to apply that which belongs to the times preceding the Rising of the Witnesses to the Vials which come after their Rising as is most plain to them that do not wilfully wink against the Truth Wherefore the War of the Hussites c. is such a business as the Albigensian War and if justifiable to be referred to the War betwixt the Beast and the Saints ch 13. v. 7. c Nor has the Remarker any evasion out of this evidence of truth but by an unworthy vilifying of the Protestant Reformation which undoubtedly was the Rising of the Witnesses and most certainly was a very illustrious Atchievement of Providence and quite wiped away that foul face of things which Custome and Law had established before and is described in the Idea of Antichristianism and therefore it is most wretched Ingratitude to undervalue so great a Bounty of the Divine Majesty towards his servants like the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses and Aaron by whose conduct they were delivered from the bondage and Tyranny of Pharaoh Nor was the Pope's Supremacy onely rejected and some gross corruptions here in the Church of England suppose reformed but all gross corruptions nor were there any left that can be a just cause of Separation from our Church But the cavil now forsooth must be because they retain still Political Government for Popish leaven in matters of Religion which is reformed to the pattern of the Times that were symmetral is plainly outed from our Church and continue in the same worldly state and station the terms for Political Government as if all Political Laws and Orders though they were made and managed for the support of the Kingdom of God and the purity of his Worship were worldly How freakish is this But how outragious to make the Reformed Churches merely for this cause to continue Members of the Beast This is such a wild Imagination that it is more becoming those Dreamers St. Iude describes that despise dominion and speak evil of dignities than any sober Christian d And lastly as I remember I noted before the Spirit of life entring into the Witnesses has not a Spiritual sense but Political And the Genius of Prophetick Iconisms and of the Apocalyptick Prophecies is rather to adumbrate the External and visible state of the Church than the Internal There is onely one thing remaining in this Remark at the beginning that I may seem to have slipt over viz. That the effect of the first Vial namely that rankorous sore does not seem to be imputed to the effusion of the Vial but to the Rising of the Witnesses But I answer that it is sufficient that this sore rages in the time of the Vial-Angel For here are seven distinct Times allotted to the seven Vial-Angels as there are seven distinct times allotted to the seven Trumpet-Angels and what happens in the said allotted times is attributed to the Angel to whom the time is alloted whether the Angel contribute any thing to it or no. Nor does any one imagine that the Locusts and Euphratean Horse-men were blown out of the fifth and sixth Angels Trumpets but that those things happened under the times allotted to them And the Rider of the red Horse under the second Seal he is said to take peace from the Earth merely because in his time there were such killing and slaying one another And it is something Idiotical to think otherwise of these things But supposing there must be some real activity in this first Vial-Angel for the inflicting this angry Aegyptian boil there is not the least absurdity in allowing it viz. That as an evil spirit from the Lord haunted Saul when his Melancholy fits came upon him so this first Vial-Angel may commissionate some spirits upon the envy and the anger the Bestians had conceived against the Risen Witnesses to actuate them with more than ordinary rage and madness against them and so infatuate their counsel by this distemper This I hope will take away all scruple touching this first Vial. Vers. 3. The second Vial is made to synchronize and in substance to be the same with the first the first being supposed to be the envious raging at the Reformation by the enemies of it and the second the Reformation it self in rejecting the Pope's Autority c. Ans. This second Remark is a mere calumny For the first Vial does not synchronize with the second because the first viz. that exulcerated Rage of the marked slaves of the Beast began presently upon the Rising of the Witnesses while the Reformation was but fresh young and tender and not so thoroughly established but was capable of quick Reciprocations of affairs as it happened here for example in England Queen Mary so suddenly succeeding King Edward But after this there was a more full settlement and firm establishment of the state of the Risen Witnesses so that through many Provinces Principalities and Kingdoms which are so many Seas the Pontifician party was hopeless and helpless those Seas becoming by the effusion of the second Vial as the bloud of a dead man For they were all dead to the Emissary fisher-men of the pretended successour of St. Peter nor a live Fish to be taken for their game The perfect Revulsion of these great Parts of the Pontifician Iurisdiction from those that his power still did actuate and enliven and the hindering them from reuniting for a due time till they were turned into the congealed bloud as it were of a dead man this was the effusion of the second Vial and plainly distinct from the first and such as to which the first might well contribute For the marked slaves of the Beast being dementated with wrath would necessarily doe such things as would excite the other party to use all possible care and

Reader to understand them and perceive the truth and strength of them which is a pain to the generality of men even to many of them that pretend to be learned the minds of most being lax and desultorious slight and impenetrative and therefore what is most overly easie and superficial is the most generally rellished and applauded when things most true and solid are neglected because they require better parts and more pains by close attentiveness and comprehensiveness of mind to receive them But for the Dutch Annotatours that they should balk Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Seals he that considers the Texture thereof and how it is complicated with the account he gives of the Vision of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders with golden Crowns on their heads which he makes to represent the Bishops of those happy times there prefigured as Dr. More the Monarchs need no longer wonder that the Dutch Divines that live under a state that is neither Monarchical nor Episcopal should not be willing to admit that the best and most glorious times of the Church that are predicted in the Apocalypse should be Episcopal or Monarchical Which two orders are naturally linked together But now how necessarily Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Seals is interwoven with that of the Vision of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders is evident in that the Horsemen that appear upon the opening of the four first Seals come out of those four Quarters that respect the four living Creatures the East the Lion the West the Oxe the South the Man and the North the Eagle and in that order the four Beasts or living Creatures are reckoned From those Quarters I say and in that order do the Riders of the four Horses come Which answer to the Quarters and Ensigns of the Camp of Israel And the fit application of things here to History by Mr. Mede is admirable and enravishing and the Providence of God marvellously illustrated therein and a Reason obvious occurs why there are onely four Horsemen in the opening of the Seals viz. for that there are no more Beasts to point at the quarters they come from than four in the precedent Vision which whole Vision as I said alludes to the Camp of Israel But let the Reader peruse the Interpretation of the fourth and sixth Chapters of the Revelation in Mr. Mede or at least in Dr. More and so judge But now for the autority of judicious Mr. Durham whom the Annotatour chuseth to follow rather than Mr. Mede who yet undoubtedly much better deserves that Encomium than the other party Let Mr. Durham be as judicious as the Annotatour pleases when he is free yet who can well assure us that favour to a Faction and his affection for the Scotch Presbytery for even his speech and style bewray him has not blinded his judgment in this matter Indeed before Mr. Mede had blest the World with his excellent Interpretation of that Vision Apoc. 4. of the Divine Majesty sitting on his Throne and of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders sitting on Thrones round about him and of the opening the first six Seals chap. 6. for Interpreters to have fumbled in these things might be a less sign of want of judgment But for one now when he had so fair a copy before him to interpret chap. 4.4 the four and twenty Elders not so much as of any Officers or Guides but of private professours though they are said to sit on Thrones to be cloathed in white soft raiment such as either belongs to the Priesthood or to Kings houses and to have golden Crowns on their heads which in the Apocalypse often occurs and always signifies Political Sovereignty and Dominion not Spiritual or Moral What is this a sign of but of a clouded judgment much blinded by a disgust against either Monarchy or Episcopacy The proof that he would bring from the Song of the four Beasts and Elders chap. 5.9 10. makes against him For whereas they are there said to reign upon the Earth the four Beasts indeed as well as the four and twenty Elders are equally there concerned in that spiritual reign but if that was the onely reason either all must have Crowns or none must have Crowns otherwise Crowns here must of necessity denote either Christian Monarchs or Christian Bishops It cannot be avoided But in that it is said chap. 4.9 10. And when those Beasts give glory the four and twenty Elders fall down before him and hence there is gathered that the four Beasts are the Ministers of the Gospel What a preposterous business is this to make those that wear Crowns to be private persons and those that have no Crowns to be Rulers and Governours in the Church Besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good sense as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a bad both according to the Prophetick style signifie a body Politick And these four Beasts undoubtedly allude to the four quarters of the Camp of Israel as also may the four and twenty Elders to the twenty four chief Priests or heads of the Families or courses of the Priests and Levites if Bishops be understood thereby But if as the Annotatour and his Guide Mr. Durham would have it from the Text that the Divine Worship is begun by the Beasts that is by some amongst them it implies that the four and twenty crowned Elders are the Monarchs and Sovereigns of Christendom who are not the leading Ministers or Priests in the Divine Worship though devoutly present at the same the Bishops themselves in counterdistinction to the Christian Sovereigns making part of the body of the people and therefore understood to take their place in that multitude of Subjects that make up the four Beasts And in the mean time though these Monarchs be no Bishops yet they being next under Christ in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Heads and Governours they may be look't upon as so many Patriarchs as well as Kings or Patres Patriae that is to say Fathers of their Country This sense of Mr. Mede or the Doctour is easie and clear but that of Mr. Durham unless we will make symbols and words signifie any thing or nothing incredible nay impossible Wherefore Mr. Durham though called judicious by the Annotatour has in this matter forfeited his Title and his Autority therewithall Nor can it be a sufficient excuse nor indeed any for the Annotatour to have deserted Mr. Mede's way of expounding the Seals from the example of Mr. Iames Durham But to give the Annotatour his due he does not support himself onely by these Autorities but adds what he thinks is reason for his interpreting not onely the first six Seals but first six Trumpets also included in the seventh Seal of the affairs of the Church rather than of the Empire Because says he according to Mr. Mede's own interpretation not onely the first Seal but also the fifth and sixth too relate