Alcazar also upon the place Idem est dici Animas petere vindictam ac dici earum sanguinem illam petere To which sense also speaks Tychonius as you may see in Ribera All which will make good this second kind of Zoopoeia which attributes free and living Actions to free Agents which in respect of them notwithstanding are no free Actions but necessary Consequences that result from something that these persons have suffered or do suffer Which is a Prophetick Scheme worthy the taking notice of CHAP. IV. 1. Israelismus what it is 2. That the reason of the frequent use thereof is the Sacramentalness of the Jewish Church in reference to the Christian as appears in their Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. In the brasen Serpent Manna strucken Rock and fiery Law 4. In the High-priest's Robes in his entring alone once a year into the most Holy and in the Jews worshipping towards the Mercy-seat 5. In their bondage in Aegypt and in their escape through the Red Sea 6. What is properly a Prophetick Ellipsis 7. What the meaning of the Apocalyptick Book being written within and without 8. The difference of a Prophetick Ellipsis illustrated by example 9. Homonymia what it is and in what it differs from an Henopoeia of the second kind 10. What Metalepsis with the proof and examples thereof 11. Antichronismus what it is together with the rise thereof 12. That the three days and an half of the unburied Witnesses put for three times and an half is apparently resolvible into this Figure 13. What Icasmus is and that the frequency of the Figure does not so obscure Prophecies but that they are as intelligible as ordinary Heraldry 1. ISraelismus is a Prophetick Scheme exceeding frequent especially in the Apocalyps which is a speaking of the affairs of the Christian Church under the names and with allusion to such places or persons or things as did of old concern the Israelites and people of the Jews and that in a mystical or spiritual meaning * Rev. 11. 8. Which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt From whence is also insinuated that the Plagues on this Mystical Aegypt and the burning of this Spiritual Sodom must be understood mystically and spiritually 2. The frequency of this Scheme is not to be wondered at if we consider that the People of Israel were one great and entire mysterious Type or Sacrament of the Church of God such as it should be under Christ According as S. Paul has written * 1 Cor. 10. That all things befell them in figures but are recorded for our sakes upon whom the ends of the world are come And truly it is a marvellous and enravishing spectacle to consider how at once the Church of Christ is represented by the people of Israel in the Wilderness and how their whole Camp was but one living and moving Sacramental Image of Christ and his Body in the most concerning Points of our Religion For what was that Tabernacle and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence God spake but an Emblem of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his tabernacling in our flesh For the Pythagoreans called this Body of ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as * 2 Ep. ch 〈◊〉 13. S. Peter also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 While I am in this tabernacle saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And S. John speaking of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Word was made flesh and placed his tabernacle amongst us even as he did in the Wilderness dwell with his people there in a Tabernacle while they dwelt in Booths And therefore I do wonder that the Jews should scruple more the doing Divine Worship toward the most holy Body of the Messias then toward the Dabir or Mercy-seat or toward the Tabernacle of God But that onely by the bye 3. The Tabernacle therefore of God amongst the Jews living in Tabernacles is a Type or Sacrament of the Incarnation of Christ The brasen Serpent erected in their Camp such a Type of Christ's hanging on the Cross and the use of it to them so exquisitely analogical to that we Christians make of looking upon Christ's Crucifixion when we are stung with the sense of either the guilt or poison of Sin that it would even astonish one with amazement to consider what an unexpressible vigour and life of representation does result from this ancient Figure or Shadow that ever moved along with the Camp of Israel in the Wilderness for the healing them when they were bit with fiery flying Serpents as the crucify'd Jesus does us when we find our selves wounded with Sin The Manna also of which the children of Israel ate in the Wilderness was it not a Type of eating that true Bread that came down from Heaven even the Body of Christ which is the daily food of the Faithful And the Rock that was struck out of which came water was it not an apparent Emblem of the Bloud of Christ out of whose side came Bloud and Water The giving of the Law also with flashings of Fire was it not plainly a forerunner of the Law of Christ which was divulged by his Apostles upon whom fiery Tongues descended and is indeed that Law of the Spirit which as Esdras does interpret is like unto fire by which the wicked are to be consumed as that Vision seems to import 2 Esdr. 13. 38. 4. And for the Divinity of Christ is it not plainly emblematized upon the Robes of Aaron which do so exquisitely resemble the Universe and therefore can be the cloathing of none but God And lastly his Onely-Mediatourship and Apotheosis after death for it would be endless to insist upon all were they not also lively represented the one by the High-priest's entring alone into the most Holy to intercede for the people the other by the Tabernacle and Mercy-seat toward which the Jews were to worship as is plain from that in the Apocalyps For to this in the Christian dispensation succeeds the Humane Nature of Christ he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mercy-seat and his Body the Temple towards which we are to direct our eyes accordingly as it is written I saw no Temple there but God Almighty and the Lamb is the Temple thereof And such a Temple as Revel 21. certainly may be worshipped towards with as little suspicion of Idolatry as ever the Temple or Mercy-seat was amongst the Jews 5. Wherefore the people of the Jews being so illustrious and copious a Sacrament of all things appertaining to the Christian Church it is no wonder that those Visions that concern the State thereof are so full of Allusions to what befell that people Amongst which Accidents their Bondage in Aegypt is of famous note and therefore often alluded to in the Apocalyps and their passing through the Red Sea where that Tyrant Pharaoh was overthrown so lively a Symbol of the Churche's getting from under that servile yoke of the Romish Hierarchy
the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burthensome 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching only to the freeing us from the Guilt of sin not the Punishment 4. The multifarious drudgery and slavery this Doctrine and that Figment of Purgatory casts men into 5. A confutation of the said Doctrine and Figment 6. That it is impossible that the sincerely-minded in this life should find either Hell or Purgatory in the other 7. That there is no ground for this Antichristian Purgatory in either Scripture or Fathers 8. The gross Fraud and grand Mischief of this Fiction 9. The conclusion of the description of this second Limb of Antichristianism 1. AND now in the last place of all to make up the full weight of this Antichristian yoke and burthen suppose there were added the fear of a more then Pagan Purgatory as I said that is to say Suppose the Church should determine That no Souls unless such as are absolutely pure and perfect in this life of which rank there are either really none or if there were they would not be so immodest as easily to account themselves so should upon their departure out of this Body goe into any easefull or blessed condition but into a state little different from the torments of Hell saving that they are not perpetual but may be for many and many years unless some care be taken to relieve them and rescue them who are in this sad and dismal place which I suppose they would set out with all extremity of horrour to the rude people telling them of many sad and ghastly Apparitions who with wan countenances and mournfull tones have made known their extreme distress in this Infernal house of Correction and have implored their assistance in praying and paying for them as much as they could that they might find ease 2. Nor would they forbear the exaggerating this unsupportable calamity by all imaginable Mythologie as namely That the Souls of men were seen in a Vision by some holy man of God or other to be tortured in wonderfull manners some standing up to the knees others to the navell othersome to the arme-holes others to the very chin in a stream of fire and brimstone that others are run through with rods of Iron and roasted against the fire like Geese upon a spit the foul infernal Fiends in the mean time some blowing up the coals with their black mouths or to save their own breath with a large pair of brazen bellows others lading up the grease that fries out of these roasted Souls and pouring it upon them again scalding hot that others are scourged with whips of red-hot wires others fried in frying-pans others racked and turned round upon a wheel full of hot burning hooks that others had their bowells torn out with the fiery crooked stings of huge overgrown Toads and Serpents and lastly that others are put into vessels of hot scalding metalls These dismal chambers of Death re-echoing in the mean time from their hollow roof the mournfull howlings and hideous shriekings of these tormented Ghosts These or such like terrible fancies of things did they but imbue the minds of the people withall the belief of them certainly could not but screw the whole-rack of this burthensome Superstition which I have been all this time describing to the highest pitch that the wit of man can invent nor could the flames of this Purgatory fail to prove that very Fire in which these slaves and vassals of the Mystical Pharaoh and his hard Task-masters I mean that Apostate High-priest with the rest of his adulterate Hierarchy which I am delineating should droyl and sweat in for the finishing their imposed tales of brick to build these sons of pride their Pyramids and Palaces 3. Wherefore being stript and spoiled of all these comfortable succours that the true Faith in Christ Jesus does afford men and being made to believe that the Passion and Satisfaction of Christ takes away onely the Guilt of Mortal sins not the eternal Punishment but yet which is a great favour that by the power of the Keys this eternal Punishment is turned into temporary which every one is bound to undergoe and satisfie either in this life or that which is to come and that either in his own person or by some other that is He is bound to doe or suffer such things himself or others for him as the Church shall appoint or accept for satisfaction which also is to be understood of venial sins and lastly that the spots and filth of sin inhering in our Nature must wholy be purged out by Satisfactions and penalties which if it be not fully done in this life it must be perfected by the expiation of Fire in the other I say if the people should be deluded by such Antichristian Doctrine as this and have the sweet and easy yoke of Christ taken off from their neck which consists onely in sincerity to the best of our power to live according to the plain and indispensable Law of Christ and wherein we fail to be assured that both the Guilt and external Penalty is taken away through the intercession of him who is our Advocate with the Father and a perpetual propitiation for our sins but instead of this easy and ingenuous service should be fettered and held fast in that Aegyptian bondage we have described into what a world of slavery and drudgery would mistaken mortalls be haled 4. How would they be forced to bestir themselves by these hard Task-masters what trotting from Church to Church from Shrine to Shrine what howling and muttering before this Saint's Image and that Saint's Image what knocking of breasts and kissing of pavements what fastings and watchings not for correction but satisfaction what long stretching Pilgrimages from Country to Country and from one end of the Earth to the other what prayers and oblations to make the Image or at least the Priest to smile what kissing of unsavoury Reliques what Vows of Coelibate and Abstinence from meats what Flagellations and Excoriations of the Body what Nundinations of Pardons and Indulgences what awe and servility to the Priest what strict observation of Fasts and Festivalls what vexatious Scrupulosities about needless opinions what abject postures and rufull looks in forced Confessions what covering themselves with Religious habits what imprisoning and confining to Nunneries and Cloisters to Solitudes and Hermitages what creeping of dying men into Monks Cowls and rowling in beds of Ashes what besprinkling with Holy-water what Anointing and besmearing with enchanted Oyls what hastening to enroll themselves in this or that holy Fraternity to share in their merits what shaving and paring away of Childrens portions for hired Masses and Prayers to sing the dying mans Soul out of this imaginary Purgatory In fine what endless circuits of drudgery and labour of body and mind does this Aegyptian Tyrant put his slaves unto under the lash of this torturing conceit That the Death of Christ
needless and diametrically opposite to the meaning and design of the Death and Passion and complete Satisfaction made by our Blessed Saviour himself 9. This doctrine seems abominable enough of it self but if we consider upon what grounds and with what circumstances it may be foisted into the Church by that Antichristian power we are a-describing it will be yet infinitely more hatefull and execrable Judas betrayed Christ for a piece of mony into the hands of them that crucified him for which his memory is accursed to all posterity And yet Christ was betrayed but to that which he was willing to undergoe namely He willingly underwent the wrath of God that he might shelter us from it which was the very end of his Agonie and Passion Now suppose this false Church we are depainting should for a piece of mony betray the very End and Design of Christ's Passion and quite frustrate and evacuate it were not Christ worse betrayed here then by Judas himself For Judas betrayed him but to what he had a mind to that he might be an Oblation to God for the remission of sins to all Believers But this Antichristian Church frustrating him of the End of his Suffering more barbarous then Judas betray the Saviour of the World to an unwilling death and disappoint him of that prize for which alone he parted with his dearest bloud and are more truely the Murtherers of this Just one then the very Jews that Crucified him robbing him of that which was the life in his death and prized by him above his own life that is to say His being a sufficient Sacrifice and Atonement for the sins of the whole World Which holy and weighty Article of the Christian Faith that Church which barters away for gain to scare the people into the belief of a necessity of buying Pardons and Indulgences of hiring Priests to sing their Souls out of Purgatory of redeeming themselves by summes of mony from cruel imposed Penances must needs in this point Antichristianize in the highest and most hainous manner against the Sacerdotal Office of Christ that can be imagined 10. This is the wicked Fraud they commit and the Mischief is not unproportionable For by the persuading of men that they are justified by their own Merits and must satisfie for themselves for all their sins and offences either in this life or that which is to come or both nay indeed in both unless they die so perfect as no modest man will ever imagine himself they put the minds of the serious upon an intolerable rack of sollicitude about the torments of Purgatory which they affrightfully set out to be of the same nature though not of the same continuance with those of Hell or swell the minds of the vain-spirited with unwholesome tumours of Pride upon conceit of such merit as never was nor ever can be in any man living that is a mere man and lastly deface the peculiar glory of Christ and his Religion in which there does really breath nothing but sweetness and pity and tender compassion our Head and Sovereign the Lord Jesus sustaining those great torments both of minde and body on the Cross to set his People free that they might serve him in a way of Love and Ingenuity contrary to that bloudy and cruel vassalage in which Satan aforetimes had enslaved the world Wherefore this false Church by the Fiction of Purgatory and the bloudy and cruel Penances imposed on the flock of Christ by merciless Flagellations and excoriations of the flesh more like the Priests of the Devil that old Tyrant then like the Ministers of the Gospel of the Son of God would make Christendom of one hue again with ancient Paganism and sell the children of Israel into a second Aegyptian bondage to be afflicted and oppressed under those hard Task-masters which state of things how grossely Antichristian it is I have already abundantly noted 11. But yet there is a further opposing of Christ's Sacerdotal Office and that very considerable as he intercedes and meditates for us with God Concerning which the Scripture is very express as in the former case That Christ was offered but once so in this That our Mediatour is but one For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the Man 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time Where not onely the doctrine is asserted That there is but one Mediatour but the reason subjoyned Who gave himself a ransome for all Which being peculiar to him alone there can be no Mediatour betwixt God and Man but he And the merits of his Passion and all the perfections of his life are of so infinite virtue as being the declared Son of God that to joyn the Merits of any Saints or Angels with his in this behalf would be a reproachfull and blasphemous derogation to the Supereminency of his condition Wherefore the Right of Mediatourship upon point of Merit being Christ's alone it must of necessity be an act of Antichristianism and an injury against Christ's person to joyn any other with him in that Office as if he himself were not sufficient but were so weak and unable for that Function that he wanted coadjutors 12. As for those Allegations That God will spare a City for fifty righteous in it and that he would protect Jerusalem for his servant David's sake because he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and that he will be mercifull to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments No reasonings from these Scriptures will reach the matter in hand For these are all about Temporal concernments and the Fate of the righteous would be involved in that of the wicked in the first instance As for that of David he is acknowledged a Type of Christ but the Sun being up the Night is fled away Nor do I see that any thing can be inferred out of that of Exodus but that the posterity of the just if they continue so shall be continued These therefore are but pretences and can never reach the case that I would decypher which is this That we should put up our Prayers to this or that Saint intreating them that they would intercede for us as if they had the same privilege that Christ has who is God as well as Man and therefore is every where ready to hear us 13. Wherefore this is to rob Christ of his honour and privilege to presume that the Saints have a kind of Omnipresence or Omnisciency which is onely proper to him As also in a solemn Religious way at the Altar and in the Temple of such or such a Saint to pray to God in the Merits of these Saints to grant this or that petition were it not to proclaim openly that there is a deficiency in the Merits of Christ our great Mediatour when we thus seek refuge in the names and merits of others How Antichristian then would it be
if they should prefer some Saint suppose the Virgin Mary before Christ himself in their addresses to her beseeching her that she would command her Son in the virtue of that duty he owes to his Mother if they should give unto her the Title of the Queen of Heaven the Mother of Mercies their Life their Hope the Light of the Church their Advocate and Mediatress nay should turn all the Psalms of David into Petitions or Praises to her onely putting Domina instead of Dominus Lady instead of Lord I say what an Antichristian Figment would this be to make the humble Virgin to justle thus with the Son of God for the Sovereignty of Heaven and the Mediatourship general of the whole World Not to mention the making of whole swarms of other Mediatours upon the account also of their own Merit For if it be not upon account of their own Merits and sufferings though they could not merit nor suffer any more then would serve for themselves why should they make them Mediatours But if their Merits adde any thing to the Merits and Sufferings of Christ how was he a perfect High-Priest or his Merits perfect Wherefore it is manifest that to make other Meritorious Mediatours besides Christ is an Antichristian reproach and calumnie against the Perfection and Excellency of Christ's Mediatourship 14. But the wicked Fraud of this Invention may be the multiplying of Offerings to those new and appropriate Intercessours who being well bribed will plead the cause of their Clients very zealously in the Court of Heaven or at least this Antichristian Priesthood may make them believe so who has sold away the onely Mediatourship of Christ as well as the virtue of his precious Death and Passion for a piece of mony not considering the grievous Mischiefs that may come upon the Church by multiplying of Patrons and Mediatours For how easily are the heedless people lulled asleep in security by thinking they have such a sure friend of this or that Saint which they have peculiarly chosen to themselves for their Patron whom they honour with certain superstitious Ceremonies and think they so oblige him thereby that live they as they list they will notwithstanding get safely to heaven though let in at some back-door by such a special friend there who will be ready to receive them Whenas our Saviour Christ has told them afore-hand that unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God and that those whose lives are unreclaimed he will not own but command them to depart as workers of Iniquity How easily are they hereby drawn off from that faith and reliance they ought to have on God and Christ expecting even Sanctification and Redemption from that which cannot save How basely is their mind depressed to low thoughts which ought to be lifted up to God alone How subject to be immersed into the coursest and grossest degrees of Idolatry whilest they without any stop conceit That the Temple the Altar the Priest with all his holy Vestments the Festival and all the holy Offerings are dedicated and designed to the honour of that Saint whom they make their Patron and Advocate 15. And lastly How will that excellent and most powerfull instrument of our Sanctification and Renovation of our Minds into the lovely Image of the Lord Christ I mean the Cross and Passion of our onely Mediatour and the Meditation thereon whereby our Souls might effectually be engaged to follow his steps in all things and serve him out of an unfeigned love how will this excellent Instrument I say be made useless and ineffectual by this diverting the minds of men to some other self-chosen Patron or by distracting them amidst the variety of so many Mediatours which are wholly insignificant as to any service or furtherance of real Sanctity that that due love and loyalty which is owing onely to Christ and which were the very saving life of our Souls and the purification of our hearts and requisite preparation for an eternal commerce with him in his Heavenly Kingdom would be hugely diminished and made languid or else quite lost which is a dammage and Mischief plainly incomputable and irreparable I say The derivation of our devotion and affection from Christ into so many by-streams and upon such Objects from which there is infinitely less obligation and urgency upon us to become good and holy is no less then the hazzard or forfeiture of our eternal Salvation It is plain therefore that the opposing and supplanting the Ends and Usefulness of the Sacerdotal Office of Christ in such sort as I have declared would be a very considerable part of that Idea of Antichristianism which I endeavour to describe CHAP. VI. 1. The opposing of Christ in his Three noted Offices how hainously Antichristian 2. An enumeration of other Titles of Christ. Opposition against him as he is the Truth 3. As he is the Light 4. As he is the Life 5 6. Opposition to his Divinity by equallizing Saints and Angels to him 7. Yea by preferring what is but a Creature before him 8 9 10. Opposition against his Paternal Title by injuries and cruelties to his children 11. Opposition to him as he is Prince of Peace 12. By needless Definitions in points of Opinion 13. By taking away the obligation of Oaths 14. By making war with the Saints 1. THus have we delineated unto you the nature of this Antichristian Opposition in these Three generally-noted Offices of Christ which even alone considered one would think enough to make up a complete Antichrist that is to say so to corrupt any Ecclesiastick power as truely and fully to denominate it Antichristian But yet this Antichristianism may be further displayed by more particular Oppositions to other Titles of Christ. We will not be curious to name all nor so tedious as to insist long upon any which we shall further name they being reducible some way or other most of them to some one of those Three Offices we have already insisted on 2. The most notable of these Titles are these The Truth The Light and The Life in the New Testament and in Esay The mighty God Chap. 9. The everlasting Father and The Prince of Peace This is the style these are the Sacred Titles of Christ And therefore any Power pretending to succeed him and to have right and authority to rule for him here on Earth so far forth as they contradict and oppose these Titles of Christ in their management of things so far forth they do discover themselves Antichristian As now if this pretended Power should traffick much in lying Legends and Figments in false Miracles and cunningly-devised Fables which the Apostle protests against to lead about the people with fraud and guilefulness to engraft such opinions in their Minds as would most of all widen their purses in such manner as I have had already occasion more particularly to describe and also to darken all with a multitude of Ceremonies which are but
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apocal. 12. that great red Dragon with seven Heads is so called from his Sanguinolency But that his Seventh head 's growing out of this red body signifies that this Beast will be cruel also under the Seventh Head and that this Cruelty it self is part of the Image of the Beast this every one has not noted 5. Resurrection That the Resurrection of the dead has a Political sense as well as a Theological or Physical may appear plainly from Ezekiel 37. 9. Then said he unto me Prophesy unto the wind prophesy son of man and say to the wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army That this is to be understood in a Political sense concerning the restoring of the people of Israel to their own Land out of thraldome and captivity is plain from the very mouth of God himself in the following verses Then he said unto me Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Therefore prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel Whence it is plain that to be cut off to be slain and to rise from the dead has as I said a Political sense as well as a Natural or Theological and that Resurrection is a Recuperation of such rights and liberties as have been taken away and a deliverance from persecution affliction and bondage Achmetes cap. 5. according to the Indian doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And cap. 6. according to the doctrine of the Persian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And lastly according to the Aegyptians c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of all which put together is That the dreaming of men rising from the dead signifies the execution of Justice and deliverance from war bondage and affliction 6. Rivers A River has a double consideration The first in respect of its Original and its recourse thither which is hinted Ecclesiast 1. 7. All the Rivers run into the Sea yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again According to which consideration supposing the Sea a Type of the Extent of the Jurisdiction or Empire of any Potentate as it indeed is Rivers will signifie any Emissary Powers from thence whether Armies or Provincial Magistrates or what Agents abroad soever that are under this chief Power and so act in reference to it These may according to exact Analogie be called Rivers because both themselves and their affairs have recourse to the main Sea the amplitude of that Jurisdiction to which they belong Achmetes c. 178. according to the mind of the Indians Persians and Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which is That any great King is resembled by the Sea I suppose he means his Kingdom and as all Rivers run into the Sea so the wealth of the world to him And again to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That new Rivers running into the Sea signify new Revenues accruing to the King or Kingdom from people afar off suppose made Provinces by his power 7. The other consideration of Rivers is their limpidness and irrigation but in this respect they have either a Spiritual sense or more Mundane The former appears from what our Saviour hath said John 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow Rivers of water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believed in him should receive The fruit of which Spirit as it is communicable to the generality of the Church is Righteousness Peace and Joy according to that Onirocritical solution of Astrampsychus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this Water our Saviour Christ John 4. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life Like that in Esay 58. And thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not But Waters are also meant of worldly affluency Jerem. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil and for the young of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all Achmetes c. 176. according to the Aegyptian Solutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rivers that water the soil are interpreted of mans livelihood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one sees a River that uses to water the country dried up it portends death sorrow and affliction 8. Saints The first style of Saintship belongs to the Israelites who were a separate people set apart from other Nations and made holy to the Lord by adhering to that Law he gave them not contaminating themselves with the Idolatrous Institutes of the Gentiles Deuteron 33. 2. The Lord came from Sinai and rose from Seir unto them he shined from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints that is to say saith Vatablus cum populo Israel quorum fuerunt quidem multa millia licèt nâ—…n singuli Sancti tamen sancta fuerunt millia quòd Deus illos sanctificâsset in populum suum illos sibi segregâsset And further in the following verse Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hand Which is plainly spoke of the Israelites according to that sense in Exodus ch 19. v. 5 6. where they are called a peculiar treasure above all people and also a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation And this they are said to be if they obey his voice and keep his Covenant Whence it is easy to conceive that those Christians succeed into this Title that are purely Evangelical and do not contaminate themselves by any Idolatrous Practices against the Command and Covenant of God they are Saints in this peculiar and separate sense in that they do not mingle with the Rites of the Gentiles but keep themselves to the Commands of that one Master Christ. If they doe this sincerely and constantly and truly there is little doubt of their sincerity that did not stick to lay down their lives for the truth though they be not so wise and plausible according to the mode of the world nor devoid of all blemishes of humane infirmity yet undoubtedly they are those Saints of which there is so frequent mention in the Apocalyps and are the true Israel of God under whatsoever hardship or low condition of fortune they
the South as a numerous army of Locusts or that palpable Darkness in Divine matters seize the minds of men or that the First-born in every Family be found dead that is saith Alcazar the Soul of every man obnoxious to eternal Death as if he would not have the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born later then the Body but to be the first born in man or rather because she has the right of Primogeniture the right of Ruling over the Body That all these Plagues of the Mystical Aegypt what-ever they be as certainly they cannot signify well are attributed to the two mournfull Witnesses by a Zoopoeia they being the necessary Consequence of the Witnesses Disgrace Affliction and Deprivation of Power and Office as Darkness Thefts Murthers and Adulteries are of the Absence of the Sun Ver. VII And when they shall have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies no more then when they shall perform their Witnessings And out of the bottomless pit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is either Out of a deep pit in the Earth or Out of the Sea and so may intimate either the Two-horned Beast or the Ten-horned The making war against them by a Diorismus signifies any manner of opposing them and endeavour to suppress them not excluding war and bloud-shed as it happens to them toward the latter end of their Prophecy among the Waldenses and Albigenses and others And as War signifies any Opposition so Death or Killing any changing their condition into worse so that they cease to be what they were before And that this is a Political Death or putting out of Power is plain in that their Resurrection is such See Death and Resurrection in my Prophetick Alphabet So that the sense is this That no sooner shall they begin to perform their office of witnessing to the Truth but they shall be assaulted suppressed and politically killed that is kept out of power Ver. VIII And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City that Spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt where also our Lord was crucified This verse I have expounded already onely you may here take notice how well this Appellation of Aegypt agrees with the mention of the Aegyptian Plagues before alluded to which abode upon the Land because they still kept the People of God in bondage and would not suffer them to serve God according to his own will and precept Ver. IX And they of the People and Kindreds and Tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in the grave This not being buried has a double sense as you may see in the Prophetick Alphabet But I must confess I take the more favourable to be the truer and that their not being buried is a pledge of their Resurrection at last that is after three days and an half which I have in my Mystery of Book 5. Ch. 15. Sect. 4. Godliness shewn to be Three Times and an half or 1260 years the very same with the time of their mournfull Prophecy For they being onely Politically dead it is not at all inconsistent in the verity of the thing signified that they should prophesy in a mournfull condition nay indeed it is necessary to be so And the Spirit of God designing the setting out these two parts of their condition namely their Prophetical Witnessings and their Devestment of all Political Power which the Scripture calls the Death of a people and their Recovery again into a Polity their Resurrection he has partly because it were very incongruous to make them prophesy while they were dead and partly because so long a time as their Prophecy is said to last viz. 1260 years was not so sutable for a dead body to lie unburied in the streets and then to revive so contrived the Cortex of this Vision with such admirable artifice as that these harshnesses are avoided in that Homonymia of Three days and an half and all the parts of the Prophetick Figurations made to keep due proportion and symmetry as well as the inward signification of the things meant and yet without any prejudice to the finding out of the true meaning to him that is sagacious the Three days and an half so easily casting him upon Three times and an half which is the very same time with 1260 days But whether in a secondary Intention these Three days and an half may have some such meaning as Mr. Mede has given them Event will best define For my own part I see very little or no ground in the Text for any such meaning See my Mystery of Godliness and what I have above intimated in this Treatise Ver. X. And they that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwell on the Earth The dwellers upon Earth Ribera in another place out of Andreas interprets Habentes in terra perpetuam cordis habitationem whose minds dwel upon worldly things These must needs rejoyce when the Two Witnesses are slain their free Rebukes out of the Oracles of God being very disquieting and tormenting to these worldly and carnally-minded men See my Mystery of Godliness Book 5. Ch. 17. Sect. 8. Ver. XI And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them that saw them That the Spirit of life from God enâ—…red into them is correspondent to what we have already cited out of Zacharie Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts That this Resurrection of them has a Political meaning you may be farther satisfied in my Prophetick Alphabet from what I have there said upon that Term. Ver. 12. And they heard a voice from Heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to Heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them I had rather render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they heard c. this voice from Heaven raising them from the dead as the voice of Christ did Lazarus By which Heaven is here understood the higher places in the Political Universe unto which the slain Witnesses are called by a voice from thence saying Come up hither Whence it will not be unseasonable to note That those that are the true Witnesses will not come before they be called nor like the ancient Giants invade this Heaven against their wills that reside there but stay till they have a lawfull call to Political Offices and Dignities For it is not true of this Political Heaven but of the Spiritual The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it Matt. 11. 12. by force And that these Witnesses