Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A51302
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An explanation of the grand mystery of godliness, or, A true and faithfull representation of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the onely begotten Son of God and sovereign over men and angels by H. More ...
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More, Henry, 1614-1687.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing M2658; ESTC R17162
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688,133
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604
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gross Parachronism For it is plain this Spouse is to be married to Christ after the destruction of the City by fire as it appears both by the order of these Visions and by chap. 19. v. 2 3. But the burning of Rome by Totilas was after Constantine's time The beginning of the Millennium Grotius affixes to an Edict of Constantine's which Eusebius speaks of and wherein there is mention made of the Ligation of Satan This makes a pretty shew as also his interpreting the reign of the Martyrs with Christ of that honour they had done them at their Monuments But it is to be considered in how short a time that honour was turned into Idolatrous reproach as also how the thousand years according to his account are expired above three hundred years agoe from whence commences the Devil's being let loose Which we cannot term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little time in respect of the Millennium it being no less then a third part and it is no good sense if it be not understood in respect of it But which is still worse while he interprets the Devil's being let loose of the invasion of the Ottoman Family upon Christendome he reminds us of the great victories the Saracens had who were as very Devils as the Turks and yet had vexed the Christian world much before the year 800. So that according to this account the Devil was let loose in the midst of the Millennium and has been loose almost a Millennium already which therefore in respect of the Millennium cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon this false Hypothesis hangs the conceit of the Turks besieging Constantinople to be the begirting of the holy City by the numerous armies of Gog and Magog For the Greeks themselves styled Constantinople New Sion as Grotius has noted But it is plain the Exposition is a mere hallucination because the holy and beloved City in the Prophecie is not taken God interposing by fire from Heaven and sweeping all away by that finall judgement But the Turks have taken this Sion and have peaceably possessed it these two hundred years I shall conclude with the new Ierusalem the Lambs Bride adorned for her husband which Grotius interprets of the Catholick Church made now more splendid with outward ornaments by the care and cost of Princes Which in my apprehension is no good sense Marriage rather signifying the bringing in some people to Christ that were not united to him before or at least the appearing of a people that was before hid then the external adorning of them that were already the known and professed people of Christ. Besides that the times that Grotius points at are the most unlike that new Ierusalem which is the Church recovered to her Apostolical Symmetry again and to be measured by the golden reed of the Angel and which runs all upon Twelves to shew that it is purely Apostolick and has no other foundation nor structure then Christ and his Apostles For the whole solid Content thereof Length Breadth and Height is twelve thousand furlongs the breadth of the wall also and the height thereof is measured by Twelve So that there is nothing in this new Ierusalem but what is pure and Apostolical which is not so in the garishly-adorned Church that Grotius looks at Besides that it is said there was no Temple there whenas every Church is a Temple under the Roman Hierarchie 10. I might have examined his Expositions of the Vials also with other passages wherein I could have discovered the like errours and mistakes But what I have instanced in already is sufficient to shew upon what unnatural distorted nay I may say impossible applications they are cast that would attempt the interpreting of the Apocalypse without the guide of Synchronisms taken from the innate Characters of the Visions themselves but by the benefit of that Guide how easie and natural sense is made of every Vision and how perfectly answerable to History and Events as is manifest in the Expositions of Mr. Mede Whom I have not preferred thus before Grotius out of any ill will or disrespect to that Miracle of his Age for Learning and Ingenuity but merely out of love to the Truth as I am verily perswaded Grotius has framed his Interpretations but withall which is a further commendation of him out of a very deep sense of the advantages of Peace and out of a Spirit of Sweetness Candor and Humanity for which I do believe him singular and eminent And verily if I were not conscious to my self that the very same spirit did in some measure act me in this discovery of his mistakes that did him in committing of them I mean the sense of Peace and Common good of the Church I had rather be in his Errors accompanied with Humanity and Kindness of Spirit then be in a Truth that must needs be attended with Salvageness Ferocity and Fury But as the Truth I stand for is above Grotius's mistakes so I hope the good of my design will not appear inferiour to his after you have considered the Benefit of Mr. Mede's interpretations of the Apocalypse as well as the Truth thereof CHAP. XVII 1. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not implie That most of the matters in the Apocalypse appertain to the Destruction of Jerusalem and to Rome Heathen 2. The important Usefulness of this Book for the evincing of a Particular Providence the Existence of Angels and the ratification of the highest points in Christianity 3. How excellent an Engine it is against the extravagancy and fury of Fanatick Enthusiasts 4. How the Mouths of the Iews and Atheists are stopped thereby 5. That it is a Mirrour to behold the nature of the Apostasie of the Roman Church in 6. And also for the Reformed Churches to examine themselves by whether they be quite emerged out of this Apostasie with the Author's scruple that makes him suspect they are not 7. What of Will-worship and Idolatry seems still to cleave to us 8. Further Information offered to us from the Vision of the slain Witnesses 9. The dangerous mistakes and purposes of some heated Meditatours upon the Fifth Monarchy 10. The most Usefull consideration of the approach of the Millennium and how the Time may be retarded if not forfeited by their faithlesness and hypocrisie who are most concerned to hasten on those good daies 1. AND truly the Benefit of the Apocalypse so interpreted as Mr. Mede has expounded it is invaluable For the Visions are so perfectly patly applicable to acknowledged History this way that he goes that he that will not believe the Prophecies fulfilled in those things he produces cannot believe the fulfilling of any Prophecies at all whenas on the other side if the Applications were no more weighty nor clearer and fitter then they are Grotius's way this Book of Prophecies would be utterly Useless it being in the power of no man that is not extremely credulous to be satisfied with
so apodictical and that there is nothing material to be alledged against them and that the numbers of daies and moneths there mentioned are of necessity to be interpreted years and that according to this Hypothesis there can be no other sense of the Woman in the wilderness of Babylon the great city of the two-horned Beast and the ten-horned Beast c. then what Mr. Mede hath given it is manifest that the Church of Christ would be lapsed into a degenerate condition for 1260 years and as evident that there will be a recovery out of this Lapse by reason that there has been yet no room for the promised Millennium persecution dogging the Church till Constantine's time after which the 1260 daies were to succeed and therefore the Millennium is yet to come As appears further in that it is Synchronall to the Seventh trumpet and that the Resurrection of the Witnesses is after their lying dead either all the 1260 daies or at least the last three daies and an half in that the Marriage of the Lamb commences from the burning of Babylon and the company of Palm-bearers from their victory over the persecuting Beast These things are so plain that they are not worth insisting upon And it is a great priviledge of this Synchronical architecture of Mr. Mede that it is not built upon any Hypothesis but the innate Characters of the Apocalyptical Visions themselves whenas Grotius his way depends so on the Chronologie of the writing of the Apocalypse that unless Iohn received these Revelations in Claudius his time which yet is against the common current of all both ancient and modern writers the fabrick of his Expositions falls to the ground To which you may add that he has no guide nor clue at all in this prophetick Labyrinth no not so much as that obvious but fallible one the order of the Prophecies as they lie but is forced sometimes to goe back as he fancieth himself able to apply his Historical materials So that he has indeed no guide at all from the Apocalypse it self whenas Mr. Mede is directed and limited by the demonstrative law of those innate Synchronisms he has gathered Of whose truth this may be one general After-ratification that the things that are found to be Synchronal have also a natural connexion and complication one with another as he that but casts his eye upon his Scheme of Synchronisms and considers the natures of things will easily deprehend CHAP. XVI 1. Of the Four Beasts about the throne of Majesty described before the Prophecie of the Seals 2. Of the Six first seals according to Grotius 3. Of the Six first seals according to Mr. Mede 4. Of the inward Court and the fight of Michael with the Dragon according to Grotius and Mr. Mede 5. Of the Visions of the seven Trumpets 6. The near cognation and colligation of those seven Synchronals that are contemporary to the Six first Trumpets 7. The mistakes and defects in Grotius his interpretations of those Synchronals 8. Of the number of the Beast 9. Of the Synchronals contemporary to the last Trumpet 10. The necessity of the guidance of such Synchronisms as are taken from the Visions themselves inferred from Grotius his errours and mistakes who had the want of them The Author's apologie for preferring Mr. Mede's way before Grotius's with an intimation of his own design in intermedling with these matters 1. BUT for further conviction of the Excellency of Mr. Mede's way above that of Grotius's I shall compare some of their main Interpretations For to meddle with all would be too tedious and voluminous but to give a specimen in some very commodious if not necessary First therefore In the first six Seals I may add also in the first six Trumpets Grotius fixes the Scene of all these Visions in Iudaea and ends them with the sacking of the City Of which in general it is to be noted That his Applications are too small and petty usually for these Prophecies and that the Prophecies themselves if they had no other meaning might very well have been spared whatever is needfull in them to the Church having before more plainly been predicted by the mouth of our blessed Saviour and therefore not likely to fill so great a part of the Apocalypse by their more obscure prefigurations But we will descend also to their particular weaknesses and inconcinnities and first of the Seals with the Session of Majesty prefixed before them Where Grotius makes the Four beasts the Lion Calfs Man and Eagle to be Peter Iames Matthew and Paul Which besides that in general it is a figment at pleasure without ground the applications I think are not so congruous For why should Peter who out of fear denied his Master be a Lion more then Paul whose heat assuredly was rather greater then the others and why Paul an Eagle rather then a Calf who certainly laboured like an Oxe in the Ministery and compares himself to one that treadeth out the corn 1 Cor. 9.9 And though he took long journies yet he did not flie in the Air nor goe faster by land or water then other travellers did And why should Matthew be a Man more then all the rest and rather then Iames the brother of Iesus who was peculiarly styled the Son of Man Wherefore Mr. Mede's account seems far more solid as having an acknowledged ground the order of the Camp of Israel which was distributed into Four parts each part being under a Standard or Ensigne those that lay on the East of a Lion on the West of an Oxe on the South of a Man and on the North of an Eagle So that this glorious Session of the Divine Majesty is set out by the order of the Israelitish Camp where in the midst was the Tabernacle as the Throne of God and about it the Tribes of Israel so disposed as I have intimated Which is infinitely a more solid account then that of Grotius as you shall more distinctly understand in the opening the four first Seals whose applications are admirably fit to each Beast in Mr. Mede's way but very frigid and faint in Grotius's For he thinks it reason enough of the Lion that is Peter his calling to see the Rider of the white Horse because Peter was the first that preached the Gospel and therefore he speaks first here Whenas it does not appear he spake first of those that spake the unknown tongues so fast Acts 2. who questionless preached the Gospel in them 2. That this Rider of the white Horse is Christ they both agree in but why the first beast should be the Praeco before this sight Mr. Mede's reasons are far more satisfactory as you shall hear anon The Praeco of the Rider of the red Horse he makes Matthew because it is written Matth. 24.7 Nation shall rise against nation and Kingdome against kingdome But this is not Matthew's prophecie but our Saviour's The Vision he fansieth fulfilled in the war betwixt