and foul Lust and bloudy Wrath and Zeal for those Idols of Fornication as it fares in enraged Gallants in the behalf of their Mistresses must rule and over-run all The crasseness I say of these Superstitions leaves the mind unmortified and unilluminated but raises a zeal for them both ignorant bloudy and barbarous Which methinks is a sad condition for any Soul to be found in 4. But that this bestial Rage accompanies the love of Idols to omit several Examples in Scripture is a Truth largely writ and testified by the bloud of those innumerable companies of the primitive Martyrs who with so much reproach and so many kinds of tortures were put to death for despising or opposing the ancient Pagan Idolatry as is confessed by all And Idolatry whether Pagan or Christian will naturally dispose them that are really devoted to it to the like cruel fury and madness And though the cruelty of Bear or Wolf seems more the mischief of them that suffer by them then the evil of those beasts themselves yet for that Circe that metamorphoses men into these salvage shapes few or none do doubt but that she injures their humane bodies What a mischievous Circe then is Idolatry that transforms the Mind into such beastly salvageness 5. And as for Uncleanness that it is so close an attendant upon the worship of Idols is also a Truth very often intimated in holy Scriptures as in the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle expresly affirms that Ch. 1. 26 27. because the Heathen changed the truth of God into a lye and worshipped and served the Creature more then the Creatour or rather besides the Creatour for this cause God gave them up to vile affections the women changing the natural use into that which is against nature and the men likewise leaving the natural use of the women and burning in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompence of their errour that was meet Also in the first Book of the Kings upon the mentioning of the building of Ch. 14. 24. high places and Images presently is subjoined That there were also Sodomites in the Land c. The places are so many and so obvious where even unnatural uncleannesses are link'd together with Idolatry that it would be needless as well as tedious to recite them And therefore it is a very suspicable thing that where Idolatry seizeth most on the Church of Christ all manner of uncleanness will there be most rife also 6. But methinks I am too favourable in my charge against Idolatry while I seem to restrain the Mischief of it only to Uncleanness and Cruelty For the Authour of the Book of Wisdom does not stint the effects thereof to these but enlarges them also to Dissimulation Theft Unfaithfulness Tumults Perjury and what not * Ch. 14. 16 27. For the worshipping of Idols saith he not to be named is the beginning cause and end of all evil And S. Paul in the above-named Epistle makes it the fountain of all manner of vices and wickednesses which he doth not rashly but very rationally conclude For even as they did not like to retain God in their Rom. 1. 28 29. knowledge so God saith he gave them over to a reprobate mind to doe those things that are not meet Being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murther debate deceit malignity whisperers back-biters haters of God despightfull proud boasters men of evil machinations disobedient to parents devoid of judgement covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful So great a deluge of wickedness breaks in upon men by their being addicted to Idolatry For Apostatizing from God by this hainous sin God also forsakes them as the Apostle intimates And besides The sottishness of Idolatrous worship that calls out the Affections to such gross and unfitting objects does naturally lay the sense of better things asleep and extinguish the true life of Religion which is the renewing the Mind into the Image or similitude of God and Christ which consists in an holy and peaceable love and in a pure chast and unpolluted spirit unspotted of the vain desires of this present world Whence the introduction of Idolatry into the Church of Christ must needs be the overflowing it with all manner of vice and wickedness But that consideration belongs rather to the next point The Mischief that redounds to the Church from Idolatry to which I shall immediately pass after I have but briefly intimated one Mischief more which falls upon the Idolater himself and of which I think he will be most sensible and it is only this That he shall have his portion in the Lake that burneth with Rev. 21 〈◊〉 fire and brimstone which is the second Death that is to say that eternal Death and destruction that will assuredly attend all such enemies of God 7. The Mischief that accrues to the Church from Idolatry I have partly hinted already namely that it is the most likely way to debauch her with all other manner of vices and does ipso facto transform her who should approve herself the pure Spouse of Christ into the abhorred condition of an Harlot To which you may adde those great agonies and aggrievances of spirit that the true members of Christ are cast into by beholding such abominable practices besides their personal unsafety and danger of barbarous persecutions and those hard trialls and disquieting solicitudes that naturally will attempt them as they are men consisting of mortal flesh and liable to all the evils it exposes them to and finally the actual injuries reproaches imprisonments and multifarious Deaths that would fall upon the sincerest part of the body of Christ for opposing or refusing to partake with others in their Idolatrous Abominations 8. And yet this is not all There is still a very grand Mischief behind and exceeding considerable done to the Church by this fearfull sin of Idolatry and that is The hinderance of her spreading and propagating herself in the world It is part of our Christian Faith as we make profession of it in the Nicene Creed That there is One Catholick and Apostolick Church Which implies that the Church has a right to be Catholick to be universally spred over the face of the Earth and that the true and proper Character of this Catholick Church is to be Apostolical That whatsoever Nation or People or part of any Nation or People profess that Doctrine and Discipline which was delivered by Christ and his Apostles become immediately thereby part of the Catholick Church and those that profess and enjoyn Doctrines and practices that are Anti-Apostolical run the hazzard of losing the true title of Catholick and of making themselves indeed no part of the Church of Christ. And certainly Idolatry is as Anti-Apostolical as contrary to the Apostolick Doctrine as any thing can be Wherefore the introduction thereof into the Church of
consopite in both whence these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Achmetes the question is not concerning the Principle from whence or the manner how these divinatory Impresses come but what they represent or signifie which if it be granted that they prefigure rightly and unforcedly such or such things in Dreams it is manifest that they will doe the same in Visions For I speak of such Impresses as have not the nature of the Effects of Complexion or of any other natural Cause but of a mere Type or Prefiguration Wherefore it will not be impertinent to adjoyn sometimes the suffrage of these Onirocritical Writers to what weight we produce out of Scripture and from Reason for the interpreting of such Symbols or Iconisms as we shall comprise in our Prophetick Alphabet which I shall now exhibit to view 5. Angels There is such frequent mention of the Ministery of Angels in the Apocalyps and the Presidency there so prefixed to every thing that I cannot omit to take notice of this Scheme amongst the rest though peradventure it does not fall so right under the notion of an Icasmus they being rather the Instruments of Divine Providence then the Emblem of it But if we reflect upon their vulgar representation which doubtless took its ground from the Mosaick Cherubims how well they are appointed with wings for the quicker dispatch of those services that are expected of them they are not unsignificative of that Wisdom that is * Wisd. 8. said to be more quick and moving then any motion and to reach from one end to another mightily and sweetly to order all things But that Angels are in these Apocalyptick Visions so constantly and particularly set over every negotiation of Divine Providence is exceeding consonant to the sense of Daniel as in that great change of Nebuchadnezzar's condition which is said to come to pass by the decree of the Watchers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Excubitores or Vigiles by which are understood Angels and also to the sense of the ancient Cabbala that makes the number Seven a Symbol of the Sabbatism of God wherein he rests from his works and calls that number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in relation to this employment of these Excubitores or Vigiles these holy Angels whom God imploys in the administration of his Providence 6. Ascension into Heaven A Kingdom or Polity being so expresly resembled to the World or Universe as we shall see under that Title it is an easie Analogie to parallel the Heavens to the high Places and Dignities of it According to this sense is that of * Chap. 14. 12. Esay How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven c. Aspiraveras ad summam dignitatem so Vatablus And Achmetes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onirocrit c. 161. And in the following Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Achmetes out of the writings of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians All which does expressly declare that Ascending into Heaven signifies the acquisition or increase of Political Dignities and Honours 7. Air. That the Air is taken for the place of the Empire of the Devil appears from Ephes. 2. And you who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the Air the spirit that now worketh in the children of Unbelief that is to say in Infidels such as have not submitted themselves to the Kingdom of God but serve Idols and walk after the lusts of their own mind Upon which place Drusius out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sciendum à terra usque ad Expansum omnia plena esse turmis ac praefectis According to which opinion of the Hebrew Rabbins the Apostle again speaks Chap. 6. For we wrastle not against flesh and bloud but against Principalities against the Rulers of the darkness of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those that hold fast the Rule of this lower world this dark caliginous Air 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against wicked Spirits or Devils in these Aereal places For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is but to the same sense that Expansum is in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the space from the clouds downward as it is limited Gen. 1. Else how could these wicked Spirits be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as both Peter and Jude declare of them But enough of this and the rather because where Air occurs in the Prophetick Visions in this sense we have spoke of it is rather an ordinary Metonymie then an Icasmus 8. Balance That a Balance should signifie Justice is obvious to any one to conceive it being a main Instrument of commutative Justice and a fit Emblem of exactly weighing out and sharing all things or rather dispensing all things accurately Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks chap. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I omit to transcribe how he refers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scales to the Ears of the Judge and the Weights in these Scales to the matter pleaded on both sides for him to ponder with an indifferent hearing And again in the same Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and more particularly he descants upon the condition of the Scales and Beam but here is enough already to shew how confessed an Emblem a Balance is of Justice And he insinuates the same of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Measures 9. Beast What a plain resemblance there is betwixt a Body Politick and a living Creature S. Paul copiously declares 1 Cor. 12. And it is a thing easie to conceive that as in a Creature that has life there are distinctly-framed parts so ordered one in reference to another that they are all to be moved for the good of the whole by that power that resides in the Brain in virtue of the spirits pervading throughout so in a Polity that there are several Orders and Ranks of men held together by one common Law which is as the life and spirit of the Body Politick and to be moved and directed for the common good by the command and appointment of the Sovereign Power which is the Head of this Kingdom or Polity Wherefore it is no wonder that Men or Nations thus framed into a Body Politick which is called a Kingdom be represented in Daniel under the resemblance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Creatures but such as are rightly translated by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ferae wild Beasts they being such that appear in those Visions Of which Grotius upon Dan. 7. where there is mention of the four great Beasts ascending out of the Sea Ideo Bestiae saith he quia Idololatrica erant Imperia ut notat hîc Jacchiades
And lastly if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did contain in it just 666 as it does most certainly 860 it would follow indeed that this would be no lett but that Trajan might be that former Beast in the Vision according to Grotius his Exposition But we are withall to remember that he had before made Domitian to be that Beast and Claudius so that a Triumvirate of Beasts is but One Beast And not onely these three Varieties but it must be Idolatry in the Abstract besides which is grosly against our second Rule of rightly interpreting of Prophecies Thus infinitely forced and distorted nay groundless contradictious and inconsistent is Grotius his Exposition of these two Chapters of the Apocalyps all along 15. The consideration whereof has even cast me into an astonishment that a Person of those admirable Parts and Learning and as I have been always prone to think of great ingenuity should ever please himself in any such performance as this and I am more puzzled to find out the cause of this strange Misadventure ofhis then of any Phaenomenon of nature that ever sollicited my thoughts For to think he was in good earnest in this Exposition and sincerely delivered his judgment his known skill and sharpness of sight in other things will not permit Nor will that Ingenuity and Integrity I presumed always to be in him suffer me to suspect he would willingly and wittingly in favour of a party forge false glosses and adulterate the true meaning of the Oracles of God there being in my apprehension nothing more abominable then for a man whom God has blest with Parts and Learning and an honest Reputation amongst men to make use of all these against him that gave them and for the serving of an Interest to doe so great a disservice to the Kingdom of Christ as to hide the most concerning Truths thereof by blinding the eyes of men by the interposing of the Idolized lustre of his own Name betwixt those Truths and them 16. But I will not be too inquisitive into what I cannot fathom That which is more useful for us to consider is this That Grotius a man of those excellent Parts and Learning and so throughly read in History and having also so great a zeal and resolution to make good sense of these Visions in the behalf of the Church of Rome and for that end taken to himself the liberty even against the whole stream of Antiquity to chop into such Times as he thought made most for his turn yet for all this having made so pitiful and impossible a piece of work of it though certainly in his own judgment considerably better then any thing the Church of Rome had invented for her self before it is plain partly from hence I mean from Grotius his own judgment who has by this new Invention antiquated and condemned all their precedent Expositions and partly from our observation of the multifarious Incongruities and Impossibilities of his that there is no Interpretation extant against the main sense of the Protestants that is not superlatively weak and frivolous nay incredible and impossible CHAP. V. 1. The first Consectary from our Joint-Exposition with a Demonstration of the truth thereof 2. The great Usefulness of the second Consectary for the peace and security of the Church 3. The settled Notion of Long and Short 4. A Demonstration of the truth of this Consectary 5. The third fourth fifth and sixth Consectaries together with their Proofs 6. The Demonstration of the seventh Consectary with an intimation of the special usefulness thereof for the Peace of Christendom 7. The eighth Consectary with the Proof thereof 8. The ninth Consectary with a copious Demonstration of the truth thereof 9. The truth of the tenth Consectary clearing the Protestants from Schism plainly demonstrated 10. The eleventh Consectary with its Proof 11. The Proof and notable Usefulness of the twelfth Consectary 12. Hoâ—… clearly and plainly that part of Antichristianism which consists in Idolatry is prefigured and foretold in these Visions we have explained in our Joint-Exposition 1. WHerefore having cleared the coast of all Opposers and made sure of the right sense of these two Chapters of the Revelation there being nothing strained nor forced in our Exposition of them but all according to the acknowledged Laws of Prophetick Interpretation in those four Rules I have laid down and the usuall meaning of the Symbols noted in my Prophetick Alphabet let us now take notice of some few but weighty Consectaries partly contained in but necessarily flowing from the continued and perpetual Firmness of our Joint-Exposition of the said Chapters As first Consect I. That the Fourty two months by which the Continuance of the Seven-headed Beast with ten Horns after the healing of his wounded Head is prefigured are not months of Days but 1260 Years This does necessarily follow from our Joint-Exposition wherein we have clearly demonstrated That the Beast whose deadly wound was healed and the Beast that was and is not and yet is are one and the same Beast absolutely and adequately and therefore must of necessity have one and the same duration But the Duration of the Beast that was and is not and yet is cannot be 42 months literally understood wherefore they must signify Symbolically and be interpreted of months of years as there are weeks of years in Daniel Now that the duration of 42 months cannot be literally understood of the Beast that was and is not and yet is is plain from hence in that it is said of the Seventh King that he should * Apocal. 17. 10. stay but a short space Which must be a peculiar Property of him and distinct both from the immediately preceding and immediately succeeding King Which implies that both they should stay longer then he And yet that short-lived King did continue about an hundred years at least as may appear by History and will be farther demonstrated in the following Consectary Whence the Beast that was and is not must needs continue above three years and an See Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 2. half nay above an hundred years Which fourty two months having no fitness to typify it is manifest that by these months are meant 1260 years Which was the thing to be demonstrated Consect II. That the Church was free from Idolatry and Antichristianism till about four hundred years after Christ. 2. This is a main Truth and a mighty Bulwark against the rampant fury of many Fanatical Sects that would reform even to utter Confusion Deformity and Destruction under pretence of calling any thing Idolatrous and Antichristian that does not stand with their own phancy But this Consectary is a Protection to the greatest and most considerable Truths of Christianity there being a Subscription as it were by the Finger of God to the general sense of the Church concerning such things as were then universally held or concluded in Councils that they were neither Idolatrous nor Antichristian 3. Now the
and upon the left side thereof And then ver 14. These are the two Anointed ones that stood by the Lord of the whole Earth Which Interpreters universally understand of Zerobabel and Jesua Ver. V. And if any one will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed It is an Allusion to the story of Moses and Elias their bringing down fire upon their Opposers But here it is to be understood more Mystically of the Fire of the Spirit or of the Law of God proceeding out of their mouths whereby they convince the world Jer. 23. Is not my word like as fire saith the Lord and like an hammer that breaks a rock in pieces Ver. 19 Like that of the man out of the Sea 2 Esdras 13. whose voice whensoever it went out of his mouth all they burnt that heard it And again in Ver. 4. the same Chapter And lo as he saw the violence of the multitude that Ver. 9 c. came he neither lift up his hand nor held sword nor any instrument of war But onely I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire and out of his lips a flaming breath and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests And they were all mixt together the blast of fire the flaming breath and the great tempest and fell with violence on the great multitude which was prepared to fight and burnt them up every one so that of a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived but onely dust and smell of smoke Which is afterwards interpreted ver 38. And he shall destroy them without labour by the Law which is like unto Fire By this we may know what is meant by If any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed And it was the word of the Lord to Zerobabel who is alluded to in these Witnesses Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts So plain is it that the weapons Zechar. 4. 6. of the Two Witnesses in the time of their mournful Prophecy are onely Spiritual Which is a thing worthy the noting and seriously considering Ver. VI. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the daies of their Prophecy and have power over waters to turn them into bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they please In the days of their Prophecy that is to say of their mournfull Prophecy or in the days of their prophesying in sackcloth as is plainly to be understood out of the third verse It is a manifest Allusion to Elias his hindering it from raining in Ahab's time for three years and six months which is exactly the time of the Prophecy of these Witnesses namely 1260 days But the meaning must needs be more mysticall these days signifying years Wherefore by Rain is meant the distilling of that pure refreshing Doctrine of the Gospel unadulterated by the false Glosses of men which Heavenly drops descend not during the mournfull Prophecy of the Witnesses But this shutting up Heaven thus is ascribed to them not that they positively hinder the descent of this celestial dew but by a Metalepsis such as I have already observed in the Rider of the red Horse to whom power is said to be given to take peace from the Earth and that Apocal. 6. 4. there was given unto him a great sword whenas yet there is no more understood by it then that in his time there would be much killing one another So that the Effect is put upon the Sign when such a thing should be as in that vulgar verse Pallida Luna pluit rubicunda flat alba serenat 2. This is one warrantable sense and yet there is still a better If this shutting up of Heaven be attributed unto these two mournfull Witnesses not by a bare Metalepsis onely but by a Zoopoeia of the second sort such as I have above described wherein though the party to whom the Effects be attributed does not use any activity to produce them yet in some sense he has a causal Influence upon them as the absent Sun may be said to be the cause of Night and of all the Villainies committed under her shelter So the suppression and putting out of place these Witnesses is the cause of the shutting up of Heaven and of the scarcity of the pure Word amongst the people but cannot be attributed to the Witnesses themselves but onely by a Metalepsis or rather a Zoopoeia 3. According to which the turning water into bloud and the smiting the Earth with all plagues as often as they please is attributed to them namely by a Zoopoeia though they have no positive activity therein no more then the Sun in all the Murthers and Adulteries that are committed by his absence in the covert and concealment of the shady Night And therefore whereas it is added as often as they will it is but the height and sublimity of this Scheme and signifies no more then as often as opportunities are offered for such effects upon which the mournfull condition of these Witnesses have a consequentiall Influence though not an active And Will is attributed to them with as much reason and elegancy as the Activity it self and indeed according to necessary Analogie those occasional Consequences answering exactly to the occasional exertions of the Acts of the Will in him that is said properly to act and not by a Zoopoeia The Allusion is to Moses his smiting the Land of Aegypt with those ten Plagues The inflicting of which in a Mystery is ascribed to these two Witnesses while they are in this debased and dejected plight The sense therefore in brief is this That the Roman Empire in which is this Spiritual Aegypt that holds the people of God in bondage whether the Waters thereof be turned into Bloud by intestine warrs and broils or whether it no somely abound with Frogs that is with slimy salacious and venereous persons or be full of lazy and Lousy beggars a sordid and squalid poverty over-running the generality of men by reason of either the Oppression or ill Discipline of them that are in Power or men be infested and disquieted with the importunate Incursions of swarms of Gnats and Flies that is to say with the Numerosity of Superstitious Scrupulosities and vexatious Controversies of Polemical Theologie that sting and bite and disturb the minds and consciences of men to no purpose but for affliction and inquietude or the Beasts which the Platonists call our Bodies be plagued with Murrain that is be charged with foulness and corruption and with the noisom poison of the deadly sins or that the Multitude be unquiet as if enraged with angry Boils and Ulcers or the barbarous Nations from the North invade the Empire like a violent storm of Hail-stones or the Turk and Saracen from