there to be understood being wounded to death in one of his Heads in that fight and healed so that all wondred after him I would demand of Grotius which of these Emperours was wounded to death in a fight with Michael and was then revived again to the wonder of the world Again there are but seven Kings in the Thirteenth Chapter how come there to be eight in the Seventeenth Thirdly The eight Kings in the Seventeenth Chapter are all Idolatrous according to him but the Inscription of Idolatry is onely upon seven Heads in the Thirteenth which implies the Beast had no more then so Of which things there can be no sense unless according to such an Explication as I have already exhibited Furthermore If the Beast in the Seventeenth Chapter be the Roman Pagan Idolatry how comes it to continue but fourty two months in Grotius his sense for that is the continuance of the Seven-headed Beast in the Thirteenth Himself also acknowledges the Ten Horns of one Beast not to be the same with the Ten Horns of the other I omit to note that Dominatio Romana which he says is the Babylonish Whore in the Seventeenth Chapter is not the same with Magia in the other Chapter whenas notwithstanding I think it clear enough that the Whore of Babylon and the Two-horned Beast are the Types of one and the same thing But this I confess may well seem too Magisterial to make my own Exposition though never so true a Rule for others Wherefore I shall wholly release Grotius from any such unequal terms and examine his Interpretations of these two Chapters of the Apocalyps upon free and common Principles such as all men do appeal to 3. And that first in a more general way searching into the solidity of two main Grounds which he supposes The one That S. John begins the reckoning of the seven Heads of the Beast from Claudius the other That this Vision of the Whore of Babylon and the Beast that was and is not was wrote by S. John in Vespasian 's time Which Grounds are so necessary for his Interpretation that without them it is not onely incongruous but impossible forasmuch as Five are said to be fallen and one to be c. which therefore this Interpretation necessarily requires and implies to be Vespasian and that he then was when this Vision was either seen or wrote Wherefore his Reasons for these Grounds deserve a more diligent Examination For the first of which he alledges these two First That Claudius was the first persecuting Emperour I mean that persecuted the Christians Which yet is contrary to the whole stream of Antiquity who fix the first Persecution upon Nero omitting that expulsion of the Jews from Rome as a thing either inconsiderable or as not properly appertaining to the Christians as such but as they were Jews But so far as I see Caius the Predecessor of Claudius afflicted both Jew and Christian more by his enormous Extravagancies then ever Claudius did concerning which Grotius himself has wrote in his Notes upon 2 Thess. 2. Moeror metúsque maximus Judaeorum Christianorum plenum habuit effectum So that the Epoche might have begun at Caligula as well as Claudius according to this rate which shews the Exposition to be but arbitrarious Besides if the Epoche begin at Claudius because a Persecutor why did not the account break off where Persecution ceased For Galba Otho Vitellius Titus and Vespasian are none of them infamous for any persecution The other reason why this Epoche is fix'd on Claudius is because S. John himself was banished into Patmos in Claudius his time and therefore S. John accounts from the time of his Banishment as Ezekiel from the Epoche of his Captivity But this is a very weak Allegation For Ezekiel did not compute the time from his particular Captivity but from the Captivity of Jeconiah as you may see again and again in Gaspar Sanctius upon Ezekiel Besides that it is one thing for a man to compute what happened to himself as Ezekiel did from the time of his private Captivity and another to reckon the succession of Kings or Emperours from so private an Epoche And then which is still worse it is not at all probable that S. John was banished into Patmos in the reign of Claudius not onely because he suffered not as a Jew but as he was a witness of Jesus but also because he has not set down that Epoche which had been very necessary and but ill omitted if there were any such great stress lay upon it as to assure us of the truth of the main Visions of the Apocalyps Adde to this that S. John was not at Rome and therefore unconcerned in this Edict of Claudius and if he had been there or where-ever else he was there is no mention made of any confinement to places in these Expulsions And we see that Act. 18. Aquila and Priscilla that were expelled from Rome abode securely enough in Corinth to whom S. Paul joyned himself and wrought on his Trade with them And lastly it is against the whole current of Antiquity Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Eusebius Hieronymus Nicephorus Victorinus Primasius Andreas and Aretas and against the universal suffrage of both Papists and Protestants who with one voice declare that S. John's Exile into Patmos was under Domitian But I need not insist on these things so much for the present sith the confutation of his second Ground will make this vanish also 4. Which second Ground is That the Vision of the Whore and the Beast was wrote by S. John in Vespasian 's time But unless it was seen then it will not serve the turn forasmuch as it is not the voice of S. John but of the Angel that says Five are fallen and one is and therefore the Vision as well as the writing thereof must be in Vespasian's time And also in the Island Patmos because once and for all at the beginning of this Book of Visions he saith they happened to him in the Isle of Patmos and never gives any other intimation throughout the whole Book whence it is incredible but that they all befell him in that Retirement Which things I note to meet with Grotius his supposition in his De Antichristo That though S. John was banished into Patmos under Claudius yet he was out of the Island in Vespasian's time From whence I would infer that the Vision of the Whore and the Beast was not seen by John in Vespasian's time Which is the utter destruction of Grotius his Exposition as I noted before 5. And this alone of his own concession were enough to put an end to this Debate but it being a matter of such great consequence I shall insist a little larger upon it and no less then demonstrate the utter insufficiency and weakness of this Ground of Grotius Wherefore sticking close to the Catholick suffrage of Antiquity and of all Writers as well Protestants as Papists let us again consider what
and how unfit to pretend to become an Object in any sense of Religious worship How far short must it fall of the inward representation in the Vertuous Mind whenas that in the Mind does so hugely exceed the largest and fairest prospect the Eye can take of this visible Universe Wherefore whatever is interposed betwixt God and us by way of Object in our worshipping him is not an help but an hinderance to the perfection of that Worship 9. And if we may compare small things with great as the Analogie does in some sort hold the Character of the Vertuous life of any Saint is a better and more usefull Image of the Saint and will conciliate a greater love and honour of him then the seeing of his Picture or Statue For no figure posture nor colours can decypher or set out Sincerity For every artificial Feature look it never so well and devoutly is but the livelier picture of Hypocrisie because it is not what it would seem to be Not to repeat my former allegation that it is not credible that any of the afflicted primitive Christians spent their time so Idlely as to sit to have their Pictures drawn much less the blessed Virgin or holy Apostles of Christ. Which mistake makes Religious worship done to their Images ridiculous as well as Idolatrous For it is a sign that none of these Images are true in that they all pretend to be so as if all the Saints of God had been great admirers of their own earthly shadows when there is no likelihood that any of them were So entirely and universally contemptible and reproveable is Image-worship in Christianity But to return 10. So far therefore as touching the Deity is this Imagery in Churches from erecting a mans mind to the remembrance of God and a due and worthy sense and knowledge of him that it sinks it lower and fixes it upon mean and trivial objects nay indeed out of inadvertence and an heavy proneness to sensible matters depresses it plunges and immerges it into gross Idolatries and as touching the Saints instead of warming it into an affectionate admiration of their vertues makes it fall into such sins as were most zealously avoided and abominated by them 11. To all which you may lastly adde That this plea is still more weakened in the case of Christians there being sufficient Props and Engines nay Screws and Pulleys if you will to raise mens Love and Devotion in that palpable and sensible Commemoration of the Death of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the world God is Love and he that abideth in love abideth in God and God in him What better sense apprehension or representation of God can there therefore be then that of an infinite Love And what better means to raise us to any proportionable pitch of the sense of this Love then the celebration of the Passion of Christ who poured out his own most precious bloud for the redemption of the world Besides the coming to an appointed place of publick worship at solemn times the approaching and continuing there with reverence the putting up plain and easily-intelligible prayers to God the hearing of the Scriptures with easy and plain Expositions of them certainly such duties and performances as these will bear men up more firmly by far into a sense of the Deity then the viewing any Imagery whatsoever And if you adde the singing of Hymns or Psalms whether with the Organ or without provided it be done well and tunably it will excite the Devotion of the people much more powerfully and with a more determinate sense and greater edification then the Dumb shews of Pictures and Images which can speak nothing when abused to Idolatry but the folly and unfaithfulness of their Setters up Also domestick reading to people or teaching them to reade will make the presence needless of these silent Masters What want is there therefore of either Images or Idolatry for either improving our Knowledge or exciting our Devotion or for the preventing our relapse into an utter oblivion of God and the sense of Divine things CHAP. XV. 1. That the general End of this impious and useless Idolatry and Image-worship is the Profit of the Priest 2. Several artifices of making these Images gainfull to them 3. The gainfulness of Transsubstantiation the cause of the admitting it to the making up the full Stature of Antichristianism 4. What a wonderfull and powerfull intercessour the Priest seems upon this pretension 5. Various ways of the improving this gainfull persuasion 6. The unspeakable honour that seems to accrue to the Priest from this stupendious miracle 7. That it seems to give him a just claim to exemption from Civil jurisdiction and saves him the labour of endeavouring after Truth and Sanctity 8. That their Pretences for Idolatry though they be weak yet their Self-ends therein are palpable 1. WHerefore their Pretences for Idolatry and Image-worship being but mere Sophistry let us consider what Self-endedness may keep up such unworthy practices And truly the plot cannot lie so deep but every one may easily see it that is not wilfully blind For there may be driven the same trade that was in Jeremie's time by the Idolatrous Priests of the ancient Babylon such as he notes in his Epistle * Vers. 2â—… As for the things that are sacrificed unto Idols their Priests sell and misspend in like manner their wives lay up part thereof in salt And not far after * Vers. 33 The Priests also take of their garments and cloath their wives and children In brief therefore The End of Image-worship may be the enriching of the Priest and all the abovesaid pretences and excuses forged and framed merely to keep up that gain For unless there were some such Mystery of Profit underneath it were a wonder that the Christian Priesthood should retain any such custom that is so palpably contradictory to the Word of God and so expresly and particularly against the Second Commandment and so great an offense to sober and consciencious Christians and lastly so huge a rock of scandal to both Jew and Turk 2. It is therefore not hard to imagine how they having erected the Statue of this or that Saint of the Virgin Mary S. James S. Peter or the like handsomely adorning them and setting them out in a competent liveliness of personal shape that they may teach the people who are too prone to these Spiritual fornications especially being animated and emboldened by the counsel or example of their lenocinant Leaders not only to open their mouths to them in prayer but their hands also in various offerings having imbued their rude minds with a superstitious fear of the Saints displeasure if they approach empty-fisted and it may be by some artifices make the Images to seem to frown or smile upon them according to the scantness or largeness of their gifts or at least provoke the offerers emulations by hanging up in view what has been given to the Image
and that even then when he does not cease to be and which is another great miracle without making the Bread seem to any of our Senses any thing altered from what it was before What honour or privilege may not they claim to themselves that assure the people that they are the ordinary workers of so stupendious so incomprehensible and so impossible a Prodigie 7. Verily they that have derived upon them so boundless and miraculous a power which exceeds nay is repugnant and contrary to the strongest Laws of Physicks Logick and Metaphysicks can it seem any more then a modest claim in them to challenge an exemption from all Politick Laws also unless of their own making For how holy how sacred a person must he seem to the world who so easily and so frequently can work so astonishing a miracle And therefore how uncomely a thing would it be that the Secular powers should pretend any Dominion over one that is endued with so divine a power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is as if they would take upon them to give laws to God himself as Aristotle speaks of his Polit. lib 3. Heroically vertuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is fit that such an one should be as a God amongst men that is to say such an one that is so eminently and superlatively vertuous as he there describes What then must he be accounted that is thought to have a power which is a more sensible Object of the peoples admiration either equal or superiour to God himself who as ordinarily wise men conclude cannot doe any thing that implies a contradiction to be done Wherefore if the degenerated Christian Priesthood could persuade the people that they had the power of doing so huge and incomprehensible a miracle that tends so infinitely to the advancement of their esteem it could be no wonder that they were zealous maintainers of the Imposture it conciliating to them with such as believe it so mighty credit and respect and saving them the labour of that harder way of winning it to wit by unblemished Sanctity and Exemplarity of life and by a true and sound knowledge in the Mysteries of the Religion they profess 8. Wherefore though the Pretences and Excuses for the Invocation of Saints the worshipping of Images and the adoring of the Host be slight and triviall yet we see the Self-ends of these Idolatrous practices may be very substantial and palpable but both put together make up that Antichristian Fraud and assuredly it is an eminent one that is discoverable in this first and chief Limb of Antichristianism which is the Introduction of Idolatry into the Church of Christ. CHAP. XVI 1. That Idolatry is the highest and most peculiar injury that can be committed against God 2. That giving Religious honour to Saints or Angels is really a reproaching them and blaspheming them 3. The exceeding great Mischief done to the Soul of man by Idolatry 4. That Idolatry turns men into bloudy Wolves and Bears 5. And is the Mother and Nurse of the foulest impurities 6. That it is the source of all manner of wickedness and eternal death to the Idolater 7. The great Mischiefs it doth to the Church of Christ. 8. How the Church is lessened by Idolatry at home 9. And the spreading thereof hindred abroad 10. And consequently the whole World injured thereby 1. WE will now briefly consider the Mischief of this horrid enormity which reaches either to God as much as any mischief can reach him to the Saints to the Idolaters themselves to the Church or to the rest of the World The sin of Idolatry is the most properly injurious to God of any sin it so peculiarly touching the right of his Honour or Worship which Honour he will not give to any other nor suffer to be taken from him And indeed it is highly reasonable it should be reserved entire to himself no other Tribute being competible to him but this For God who is that Infinite Fulness of Perfection can want nothing but we having all received of his fulness and possessing nothing but therefrom it is according to the sense of that Eternal Law of Reason and ingenuous Gratitude as well as according to the express injunction of the sacred precepts of Scripture that there should be proper Homages of Divine honour peculiarly due to so Infinite a Benefactour which to alienate or prophane by applying to any creature ought to be reputed the most accursed and execrable Sacrilege that can be committed This robbing therefore of God of his honour of which he every where professes himself so jealous and so wrathfull a revenger is the highest affront or injury that can be committed against that glorious Majesty of Heaven Which point is so confessedly true that it is needless any further to pursue it 2. The next seems more Paradoxical That by the excess of honouring and worshipping of the Saints we should injure them and abuse them or by giving them over-much respect become guilty of disrespecting them And yet it is in very truth so if examined to the bottom For the zealous and carefull yielding of that honour which is done to them implies our belief or opinion of their acceptance but for them to accept of that honour or worship that is due to God as all Religious and Divine worship is is to be Rebells and Traitours to the Divine Majesty usurping or at least accepting of his Rights and Prerogatives and in stead of being Saints and faithfull Subjects of Christ and his Heavenly Kingdom to be transformed into Titans and Giants or Children of Lucifer that would ascend the throne of God and divide his Empire amongst themselves Wherefore whosoever pretend that the Saints accept of such Homages or services to them do in effect proclaim to all the world that they are proud and vain-glorious nay that they are Traitours and Rebells against God and thus instead of honouring them do really injure them reproach them and blaspheme them 3. The Mischief that is done to the Idolaters themselves is very great and obvious to observe Image-worship and Saint-worship debasing the Mind and making it superstitious and pusillanimous begetting in it a crass or gross conceit of things making the spirits course and carnal and leaning towards Corporeal matters so that the exteriority and palpability of the exercise of their affections in this sort toward Divine things inclines them with a greater proneness and readiness to be transposed upon other visible objects and to fall quickly from caressing and embracing cold Statues and Images and such like sensible and palpable entertainments of their Devotions to the courting of warm flesh and to the polluting themselves with such sins of uncleanness as the ancient Pagan Idolaters were signally guilty of For indeed all such Ludicrous and Superficial Religion must needs leave the body of sin entire and untouched and the inward Mind dead and starved so that the full raines will be given to every impetuosity of the Flesh
some part That it is not an Absolute Inconditionate Promise to the Whole is plain in that the parties of Christendom differ so much in matters of Belief as they do But if it be to some part where is the nomination of that part in these Promises whereby their Right of Interpreting may appear to the world There is no Particular Church specified there neither Greek nor Roman neither Muscovian nor Armenian nor that of Prester John nor any other Church else Whence it is plain that no Particular Church can have any claim or right to any such privilege 6. Again suppose some Particular Church had a Promise how does it appear that the Promise is Inconditionate to this Particular Church and that it is not upon supposal that they will seriously and sincerely apply their mind to find out the Truth and purifie their Souls from all those worldly and sensual impediments thereto For this spirit of Infallibility cannot lodge in a body that is subject unto sin For Purity of heart and life is the very Light and Crystalline Organ the very Eye of the Soul and to think of a privilege of Infallibility without Holiness is like the imagining of a promise to see without Light or Eyes Wherefore it is such an Hypocritical conceit that a man cannot well tell whether it be more to be lamented or laughed at for a Church to pretend that God has an irresistible design of making them Infallible to every Punctilio of Controversie and yet not of making them Holy and Good But it is a sign they contemn or abhor Goodness as being contrary to their corrupt natures but desire the privilege of Infallibility as being agreeable to their natural pride and the boast thereof an instrument to bring about all their deceitful devices And therefore we might adde to this That it is questionable whether the Promise be to any Church visible but to such as the Apostles were chosen sanctified and faithful Regenerate men for none but these are truly the Church of Christ and if he make his Promise good onely to such as are his true Church it is sufficient 7. Moreover be this Promise Conditionate or Inconditionate we cannot but be sure that this Infallibility is not Universal as to all Objects whatsoever And therefore to meddle with such things as are not necessary to Salvation nor really edifying were to go beyond their Warrant or Commission and thereby to forfeit or at least to have no benefit of the promised Assistence 8. But let us particularly examine the Texts of Scripture themselves The first whereof infers no more then this That the Church of Christ shall never cease to be that Death shall never be able to prevail against her neither to extirpate her in this world or hinder her of a glorious Immortality in the world to come For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death or Abolition or The state of the dead But this may be true of the Church though it were not Infallible So weak is this first Allegation 9. As for the second it were well for the Alledgers if it were onely weak for it is strong against themselves and makes much for our Hypothesis who conceive this Infallibility to be Conditional For reade the whole Context entire and it runs thus If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will ask the Father c. which implies there is a Condition That they must love Christ and keep his Commandments if they expect that Spirit which will abide with them for ever that is as long as they lived for so the word ordinarily signifies in Scripture And it is further added that it is such a Spirit as the World cannot receive Which therefore does strongly imply that it resides not in those who are worldly and carnally-minded Which Conditionality of the Promise is also infinuated in the third place alledged When the Spirit of Truth is come he will Lead you or guide you into all Truth that is he will lead you as a Man not hale you or drag you as a Stone or a brute Beast which is not a free Agent So that we see plainly that this Infallibility is Conditional where-ever it is And though I doubt not but the Condition being performed the Promise will be made good to all men as far as it is necessary to their Salvation yet these places are not the best that may be produced to that purpose the Promise being not General here but directed to certain particular men in such circumstances as it is evident that it is meant to them in particular and does not infer any succession For the men that he speaks to there he decyphers to be such as he was present with and should be put in mind by the Paraclet what he had said to them when present such Joh. 14. 16 17. as were sorrowful upon the occasion of his departure with other like circumscribing circumstances that cannot belong to any succession of men but were proper to the Apostles to whom he then spake 10. As indeed Infallibility it self seems a Promise most proper to them they being to lay the Foundations of the Church and to build the House of God which they having done in terms plain enough as to all things necessary to Salvation the Promise of Infallibility needs reach no further the Church for ever hereafter being safe provided she keep but close to what is plainly delivered by the first Founders of her nothing else need be obtruded upon Believers by way of Infallible imposition 11. And as for that fourth citation where the Church seems to be called The Pillar and Ground of Truth If we admit of Cameron and Capellus 1 Tim. 3. 15. their ingenious conjecture upon the place viz. That The Pillar and Ground of Truth is to be disjoyned from the precedent words by a Colon at least and understand also what follows without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness to be onely a Parenthetical Elogium of the Mystery of the Gospel into which the Apostle was transported upon consideration of those weighty Points thereof which he was a-delivering God manifest in the Flesh c. so that The Pillar and Ground of Truth may be 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Preface to the grand Points of the Christian Truth which that Parenthesis being seposed do immediately follow according as it was usual with the Jews to prefix before such Fundamentalls of knowledge the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fundamentum Columna Sapientia this passage will be wholly disâ—…bled from making any shew of proof for what it was alledged 12. But if you will adjoyn this Title to the Church it was the Ephesian Church where Timothy resided which has vanished long agoe And what other Church then unless every Particular Church can urge this place for Infallibility which experience of contradicting one another does openly confute Besides that the style it self of Ground and Pillar may not
contrary to those himself has established 9. As were also the nulling at any time what-ever binds according to the Universally-known Laws of God and Nature For these are the Laws of Christ as he is the Eternal Logos And therefore where any are bound by solemn Oath in publick Contracts or Covenants lawfully taken or are legitimately married and have committed no offence that might void the bonds of Wedlock to pretend to have a power to dispense with or to null these Contracts and Oaths or to legitimate such Marriages as are contrary to the Laws of God and Nature This also would certainly be a manifest affronting the Sovereignty of Christ and the Power thus practising would discover it self plainly Antichristian 10. And lastly to fill up the measure of this abhorred Limb of Antichrist which we are depainting If this pretended Infallible Power should commit cruel slaughters and massacres upon the true Subjects of Christ such as are innocent and guiltless of any wrong against any man according to the Law of God and Nature but are as I said really the true subjects of Christ were not this practice palpably Antichristian Which sentence against them would be very hard if it should run but thus Let them be put to death without mercy though they be the true Subjects of Christ Jesus How Devillishly Antichristian then must that Act be that condemns them to death for that very thing that makes them the true Subjects of Jesus Christ that is to say because they faithfully adhere to the indispensable Laws of their Lord and Master And in what a state of manifest Hostility against Christ's true and faithful Subjects must this Power be that so professes and practises that if they could find out any of them and that if it lay in their power to destroy them they would root them from off the face of the earth or attempt to subdue them by all imaginable penalties and cruelties by imprisonments tortures fire and faggot and what not And all this which makes the crime infinitely more execrable under a pretence of doing service to Christ Jesus whose dearest and sincerest Members they thus barbarously persecute and destroy This one Limb alone of Antichristianism I mean this vafrous and bloudy Treason against the holy Majesty of Christ and his true and living Members has such a weight of wickedness with it that it is even enough of it self to make almost an entire Antichrist CHAP. IV. 1. Sundry particular Oppositions against the Prophetick Office of Christ which may be the Characters of that grand Pseudo-prophet that was to come into the world 2. That the Spirit of Prophecy is not to be monopolized by any one person but is free 3. An Excerpt out of Caelius Secundus Curio to that purpose 4. The silencing the Dictates of those common Notions implanted in humane Souls the highest affront to the Prophetick Office of Christ that can be 5. Several Absurdities propounded as Instances of that Tyranny over the immutable Principles of humane Understanding with the detection of that eminent False-prophet thereby 6. That it is infinitely more likely that this pretended Prophet should be fallible then the fore-going Absurdities true 7. That the slaying of the Prophets 8. Together with the above-mentioned Oppositions against the Prophetical Office of Christ make up a conspicuous Limb of Antichristianism 1. BUT we will further consider this Antichristian Opposition in respect to Christ's Prophetical Office Where we shall dispatch very briefly several of those practices against the Kingly Office of Christ equally reflecting upon his Prophetical As first The pretending the holy Oracles of God are so obscure that the people can make nothing of them and then upon that pretence violently with-holding them from them upon pain of death not to meddle with them against the mind of the Church This would make Christ a Prophet without Predictions or Instructions as I have noted above which therefore would be a grand injury to him as he is that great Prophet of God sent into the world The prohibiting also the Reading of such Expositions of Scriptures as are writ by plain and sincere followers of Christ who have interpreted with skill and faithfulness the more useful places of Holy Writ This also would be an Antichristian resistence of him in his Prophetick Office but that the utter stifling of the Spirit of Prophecy in his true Members if they could persuade them that there is already an Infallible Prophet and Interpreter whose sole meaning is the true sense of the Scripture and that Scripture it self is nothing without it and that none has either Authority or Capacity to interpret but he What an egregious Pseudo-prophet then think you would this be who takes upon him to speak nothing but Oracles and Infallible truth while he speaks and defines and acts such things as I have hitherto described Multifarious Idolatries Insupportable Superstitions and most impudent Annulments of the plain and express Laws and Doctrines of Christ Who therefore ever can if this great Pseudo-prophet do not prove the famed Antichrist indeed that monopolizes the Right of Prophesying to himself alone that he may the better deceive the whole world and will be Infallible that is to say unfailingly inspired that this extravagant boast may the more palpably discover him to be that eminent False-prophet that Christendom has so long expected and feared 2. Such a pretended Monopoly of the power of Prophesying as this is diametrically opposite to that liberty of the Spirit of Prophecy which is the Gift of Christ the Eternal Wisedom of God which is excluded no where but out of a wicked and polluted heart out of every Soul that is subject unto sin otherwise that Spirit is so described in the Book of Wisedom that it is not in the power of any Potentate to confine it to himself For it is a lover of that which is good quick which cannot be letted or Chap. 7. v. 22 c. hindred ready to doe good kind to man stedfast sure having all power overseeing all things and going through all understanding pure and subtil Spirits For Wisedom is more moving then any motion she passeth and goes through all things by reason of her pureness For she is the breath of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty therefore can no defiled thing touch her For she is the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his goodness And being but one she can doe all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new and in all Ages entring into holy Souls she makes them friends of God and Prophets What one man therefore or company of men can pretend that the Gift of Prophesying is entailed on them onely unless they were the onely pure and undefiled Or rather what ground or assurance have they that themselves can prophesy aright they living in sin in luxury and in all
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
from the proportion of the Outward Court to the Inward that it was Symmetral till about that time Which approvable Ages of the Church were the Pattern of our English Reformation Besides that as I have already intimated the said Reformation is an eminent Speciminal completion of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Witnesses So that the Rectitute thereof is ratified as well from those Visions that prefigure the Recovery of the Church as from those that signify her primaevall Purity Nor can those Perstrictions of the less perfect condition of things which I elsewhere have noted touching the Reformed Churches be rightly conceived to concern our English Church both because it had disappeared in a manner when I penned that Treatise as also because of her special immunity from those Imputations as may appear from my Vindication of her at the end of this present Discourse And as for the whole Protestant Reformation I must freely and ingenuously confess I had something a lesser value for it then it does deserve being born down by the authority of our best Interpreters into a belief that we were not yet past the Sixth Trumpet much less had advanced any thing in the Seventh According to which supposition some things have passed my Pen in the Mystery of Godliness which I here take the opportunity of recalling judging it with Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Etbic Nicom lib. 1. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which duty is more indispensable in Theologie Though here I must confess I do not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mistake being not originally mine but others Which yet I the more easily swallowed down by reason of my Computing the Woman's abode in the Wilderness and the mournfull condition of the Witnesses by Days and not by Semi-Times as the Three days and Half did indigitate By the former of which Computes the Woman could not be come out of the Wilderness nor the Witnesses be rose from the dead till about this time But reckoning by Semi-times the Protestant Reformation will very easily and naturally be a Speciminall Completion of the Prophecy of their Resurrection it plainly happening in the last Half-Day or Semi-Time according to prediction Nor does the Prophecy require any greater accuracy of Compute then so Which I confess is a great ease to my mind in the Apprehension of things For examining the Frame of our Church and finding it such as I have represented it in the two last Chapters of this Book it was so near to what according to my best Judgment I could desire and had hinted at in some passages of my Mystery of Godliness that methought it fared so with me in this matter as it did once with a musing companion of mine and myself in a short Journey we took together when we asked the way to a certain Town we were to go to even then when we had already unawares got into the midst of it The Reddition is very easy and obvious But nothing then puzzled me but my compute by Days as I said instead of Semi-times which hindred me from rightly applying so illustrious an Event to the Prediction But correcting that errour as also a false surmize that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies the full expiration of the time to which it is prefixed the Application of the Prophecy proved very easy to me nor do I at all doubt but that it is a Prediction of the Protestant Reformation in Christendom in general Of which notwithstanding this of the Church of England seems the most noble Specimen and the Resurrection of the Witnesses and their Ascension more high more full more orderly and more answerable to the Vision here then any where else that I know 17. And as if Providence had a more special eye to this Church A peculiar Attestation to the Church of England in the Completion of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Witnesses above the rest of the Reformed Churches and to the Platform of the Reformation thereof then to any other as it indeed seems to me to exceed all the rest in several main Respects as in her moderation in the Cinq-Points her perfect freeness from all manner of superstitious and imposturous Opinions and Usages her declaredness concerning things indifferent and apert profession of them to be such and her Loyal Obsequiousness to the Sovereign Power with others of the like nature which at least joyntly considered make her condition peculiar so she seems to me also to have a more full and peculiar privilege in her being witnessed to from above then any of the rest have For beside her Resurrection in the East Reformation which fell within the last Semi-time and is common to her with the rest she has had of late after she was suppressed and in a manner extinct for so many years together another most glorious and unexpected Resuscitation to life our Zerobabel and Jesuah that is to say that Regal and Episcopal Power of England which were the first Founders and Establishers and are now the present Restorers and Upholders of so well a constituted Church being so happily and providentially restored again to the Nation What is this but another Resurrection from the dead to the slain Witnesses and a second Testimonie from Heaven to the Sacredness and Inviolableness of our English Reformation and that beyond all cavil and exception it falling out not within the last Semi-Time at large as the former did but just at the expiration thereof or if you will of the 1260 Days For taking a fit Epocha for the matter in hand which concerns the purely Christian and Antichristian Periods of the Church and I think there can be none more fit then that year wherein so many were converted to the faith at Antioch insomuch that the Church was then first called Christian which was the fourtieth year from the Nativity of Christ if we adde to these fourty years 360 the time of the Churche's continuing Symmetral and 1260 the time of the mournfull Prophecy of the Witnesses or of their Political Death the very last year of the whole summe is the year 1660 Which therefore must be the last year of the Witnesses sad and calamitous condition And lo to the admiration of the whole world in the very self-same year is the restoring of our English Protestant Regal and Episcopal Power our Moses and Aaron do not onely stand upon their feet but ascend into Heaven in a cloud the whole world looking up and wondring at them Can there be a more fit fulfilling of the Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Witnesses then this or a more ample Testimonie to the Excellency of our English Reformation such as I have decyphered at the end of this Book then this completion of the Prophecy or lastly a more urgent obligation from Divine Providence upon these so miraculouslyrevived Witnesses for the perfecting of Faith and Holiness Whom God seems on purpose after his
with the Israelites through the Red Sea by Night The Name or Colour also of the Sea may not unlikely be alluded to in this Description Red being not an improper Epithet of Fire There may be also still a more Mystical meaning of this Sea mingled with fire the Spirit with the Bloud of Christ which for brevity sake I pass over and will onely adde a short Paraphrase upon the verse I first cited 3. In the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is ordinarily rendred where also our Lord was crucified which is very good and easie sense if we referre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great City and read which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt Parenthetically but if we referre it to or rather joyn it with Sodom and Aegypt the sense seems more harsh unless we understand an Ellipsis the supply whereof would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt and the City where our Lord was crucified that is the Prophet-murthering Jerusalem which certainly is alluded to be this Ellipsis how it will And the meaning of the Text I conceive to be this That that great Body Politick which pretends to be the Catholick Church though so grosly Apostatized from the Apostolick Doctrine and Practice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius speaks Spiritually or Mystically called Sodom Aegypt and the City where Christ was crucified with just reproach to their contrary Pretences As if the Spirit of God should speak thus Whereas this degenerate Church of Rome by boasting of their Profession of vowed Coelibate and perpetual Virginity would make show of being that true Virgin-Company and the holy and chast Spouse of Christ and of the Lamb I do pronounce them a Nest of unclean Birds as foul as Sodom and as polluted as Gomorra And whereas they would pretend to be the onely Church of my Son Christ who hath declared that if the Son make you free then are you free indeed and to be that Jerusalem that is free and is the Mother of all true Believers I do proclaim to all the World that they are Spiritually or Mystically that very Land of Aegypt and House of Bondage wherein my People are oppressed and tired out with tedious Superstitious and burthensome Observances that serve for nothing but to uphold the Pomp and Pride of that Spiritual Pharaoh and his unmerciful Task-masters a Tyrannical and Idolatrous Clergy And lastly whereas they would make men believe that they are that Holy City which is a Refuge and Protection to the Saints of God and a Shelter from Persecution where all tears shall be wiped from their eies that New Jerusalem that descended from Heaven which they were if they were what they boasted the true visible Church of Christ they are indeed a succession of that old Jerusalem the superstitious and burthensome Scribes and Pharisees who were the Crucifiers of my Son Jesus as these are to this very day of his true Members who himself accordingly as he has told them is persecuted so often as they are persecuted And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect as well the Members of Christ as himself notwithstanding it is the first Aorist For that is a good Note of Grotius his and a true one Aoristi sine designatione tempor is designant quod fieri solet And therefore here is intimated by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the often-Persecution of Christ in his true Members under this power of Antichrist For Crucifixion by a Diorism signifies any kind of Persecution Jerusalem therefore literally is not here understood under the disguise of Sodom and Aegypt which would not be any such mystical or spiritual meaning but a mere Synecdoche such as every School-boy understands but that Great City which is a Polity of men that pretend to be the onely true Catholick Church though so miserably Apostatized from the Faith This City in such a mystical sense as I have declared is called Sodom Aegypt and that Jerusalem that kills the Prophets and crucifies our Lord in persecuting his Members But the thing that we note now especially is their being called Aegypt for keeping the People of God in such Spiritual Slavery and Bondage 4. Which Slavery and Vassallage we may conceive also to be glanced at in the figure of the Whore of Babylon that rides upon the Beast For that this Imperious Clergy of Rome is so called seems not onely for that Babylon looks like the first Precedent of Idolatry in worshipping Belus but for their Tyrannical Pride and holding the people in such a forcible Captivity from under which no man might withdraw himself and make back toward Jerusalem and the true Temple of God but he exposed himself to the Cruelty of this bloudy Whore that sits as a Queen and saies she shall never see sorrow The Beast also being said to be rid by the Whore insinuates a kinde of beastly droyling and slavery the Christian Empire has groaned under for so many Ages Which that it might be more like a Beast an Horse or Mule that has no understanding they endeavoured to keep as ignorant as they could that the People might be the more patiently Priest-rid as the phrase is and carry their Riders with more ease and safety 5. These are the chiefest strictures that do occurre to my minde in the Prophetick Visions that are applicable to this second member of Antichristianism and that onely in this general way That of S. Paul is more particular Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats but so easie to be understood that the naming thereof is sufficient And therefore I shall pass to the next branches of Antichristianism those Oppositions that would run down the Sacred Offices of Christ as he is King Prophet and Priest The grand Injury against the last of which is this The making other Mediatours besides Christ and giving them Religious worship which is predicted in S. Paul and Daniel in those places we have already produced and expounded touching the Daemons or Mauzzim or else the suppressing or slighting the chief use of the Death of Christ which is a comfortable ease of Conscience from all suspicion of God's displeasure or fear of punishment in the other world for want of satisfaction for our misdeeds here so long as we have repented of them sincerely and have amended our lives according to the word of Christ. Which abuse is one grand piece of that Slavery and Bondage that the People of God are held under in this Spiritual Aegypt and therefore is generally prefigured in that Type we have already explamed and also in the Whore of Babylon according to what we have above intimated So that we may pass over this Office of Christ and proceed to his Kingly and Prophetick Office 6. The Opposition to the latter whereof is plainly predicted in the mention of the False-Prophet in the Apocalyps
Various ways of the improving this gainful persuasion 6. The unspeakable honour that seems to accrue to the Priest from this stupendious miracle 7. That it seems to give him a just claim to exemption from Civil jurisdiction and saves him the labour of endeavouring after Truth and Sanctity 8. That their Pretences for Idolatry though they be weak yet their Self-ends therein are palpable 51 CHAP. XVI 1. That Idolatry is the highest and most peculiar injury that can be committed against God 2. That giving Religious honour to Saints or Angels is really a reproaching them and blaspheming them 3. The exceeding great Mischief done to the Soul of man by Idolatry 4. That Idolatry turns men into bloudy Wolves and Bears 5. And is the Mother and Nurse of the foulest impurities 6. That it is the source of all manner of wickedness and eternal death to the Idolater 7. The great Mischiefs it doth to the Church of Christ. 8. How the Church is lessened by Idolatry at home 9. And the spreading thereof hindred abroad 10. And consequently the whole World injured thereby 55 CHAP. XVII 1. That a multitude of slight Observances may amount to an intolerable burthen 2. That no Religious observance can be slight while it has an obligation upon the Conscience 3. Though this general estimate of the burthen of Superstition from obligation of Conscience and multitude of Observances might suffice yet he will adde a more particular Draught of this Limme of Antichristianism 4. Of Anointings and of the Multiplicity of Sacerdotal Ornaments 5. The pretence and Self-endedness in these Ornaments and Anointings 6. The Mischief arising from these kind of Ceremonies to Priest and People 7. A more full description of their publick Service 8. That respect to the Priest is better sought and more certainly found in the Power of Life and Doctrine then in any Histrionical Pomp 9. Which is so unsatisfactory to the serious that it may hazard their departure 10. The Opinion of a miraculous power in Religious Vestments 11. The Falseness and Fraud of this Opinion 12. The ill consequence thereof 59 CHAP. XVIII 1. Of the Enchanting or Exorcizing of Water Oil Salt Wax-candles c. with a general intimation of the Mischief thereof 2. Of the Exorcizing of a Golden Rose and Lamb of Wax 3. That the using of the Name of the true God in these Exorcisms does not hinder but that they may be properly termed Enchantments 4. Other Instances of their being Charmers and Magicians With an Anticipation of an Objection 5. The Falshood Fraud and Mischief of these Exorcisms 6. The derivation or distribution of these Exorcized Elements into several Superstitious uses 7. Of the supposal of the Infant 's being possess'd and of Baptismal Spittle 8. Of Extreme Unction and other Superstitious practices upon the dying man 9. As also upon his Corps laid out 10. The Fraud and Mischief of these practices .. 65 CHAP. XIX 1. The burthen of Spiritual Cognation and excessive Numerosity of Holy-days 2. Perpetual abstinence from Flesh in some Religious Orders The Fraud and Mischief thereof 3. The burthen of vowed Coelibate 4. The more dangerous purposes thereof 5. The ordinary services done by the Monasticks to this Antichristian power we describe 6. That its establishment is much corroborated by the Interest of Monasteries 7. And enriched by being Heir to all professours of Coelibate 8. The great Mischiefs of Coelibate 9. Of Flagellation 10. The ineffectualness thereof Hypocrisie of the Penitent salvage Pride of his Church and the Mischiefs resulting therefrom 11. Of Pilgrimages and Jubilees 12. An enumeration of several other Antichristian Austerities 70 CHAP. XX. 1. The Burthen of afflictive Opinions 2. The distracting puzzles of a Soul intangled with multifarious Superstitions and Conceits 3. The illaqueations of Religious Vows 4. Intanglements arising from a Superstitious trust in certain surmised virtues in the Mass. 5. Vexatious Scrupulosities concerning the Intention of the Priest in administring the Sacraments 75 CHAP. XXI 1. Of the necessity of Anniversary Confession 2. Of Sacerdotal Absolution 3. What is meant by Binding and Loosing and to what manner of persons Remission of sins is committed 4. Erasmus his gloss upon that Text of S. John 5. As also Hugo Grotius his whence Auricular Confession and Absolution prove groundless 6. A voluntary Confession and in general useful in the Church in some circumstances and in order to particular Absolution from the Priest 7. As also a more particular Confession if voluntary 8. The Self-ends of this Church in exacting so punctual a Confession from men 9 10. The slavery and Mischief of such kind of Confessions 11. The infinite vexation to the consciencious and ingenuous from the obtruding upon them incredible and impossible Opinions 78 CHAP. XXII 1. The dreadful Figment of Purgatory 2. That by this affrightful Fable the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burthensome 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching onely 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 Limme of Antichristianism 82 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limms of Antichristianism do oppose 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees 4. Several places of Scripture alledged to prove the Church Infallible 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church or to Part. 6. The second by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute or Conditional 7. A third That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture 9. An Answer to the second and third 10. Infallibility a Promise onely to the first Founders of the Christian Church 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth 12. A farther exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy 13. That if understood of the Universal Church it may be meant onely of it in the Apostles times 14. And that the like may be said of the last Allegation 87 CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolick Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge 3. That the Scripture not pointing to