many Waters that insinuates that this Description respects also his Body Mysticall which are a multitude 7. I know thy works and charity and service and faith The true Church then in Thyatira being in Oppression and Affliction stood close to one another and encouraged and comforted one another and supported one another as well as they could and endeavoured after an Exemplarity of Godlinesse and due proficiency in the Power of Religion as being Candidates for that Deliverance which they by Faith saw was not far off And thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first That is I see the works of thy Patience in suffering Imprisonment Tortures and Death and particularly in giving up your selves as an Oblation of Incense to the Fire and faggot in such numbers for the testimony of my Truth Which being toward the latter end of this Intervall it is fitly said and the last to be more then the first This is according to what is found in History 8. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess c. viz. the Papal Hierarchy that pretends to be infallible and under colour of this brings in Idolatry which is spiritual Fornication and detains men in the Communion of their idolatrous Mass which the Spirit of God here parallels to the eating of things sacrificed unto Idols The Prophetesse Jezebel here therefore answers to the false Prophet after mentioned in the Revelations and this exprobration to the Church in Thyatira of permitting Jezebel thus to practice her deceits to that voice of the Angel Come out of her my people lest ye be partakers of her sins and of her plagues It is a kind of solicitation of the Princes and people in Christendome such as discerned the Frauds and Idolatries of the Roman Church to make a Defection from her and suffer her Trumperies no longer For the time of that Defection now drew near and things were ripe for it and it was in the power of them that disliked the condition of Affairs to amend it and therefore he saith Because thou sufferest that Woman Jezebel For it is no fault in us to suffer those things which it is not in our power to help or redresse 9. This Jezebel is very expressive of the Roman Hierarchy if we recurr to the story of the book of the Kings not onely for her painting of her self which is notorious in the Roman Church and especially in this Intervall and such as the Homilies of our Church in England take especial notice of comparing all those rich and gorgeous Adornings of the Church of Rome to the painting of the wrinkled face of an Harlot but also for her Whoredomes and Witchcraft as it is noted 1 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the whoredomes of thy Mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many Which is exactly parallel to the Description of the Whore of Babylon who is said to be the mother of Fornications and Abominations of the earth described also by that Cup of Sorcery in her hand whereby she intoxicates the Kings of the Earth and makes them drunk with the Wine of her Fornication And whereas she is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Jezebel also in her History is famous for murthering the Prophets of God 10. And those grosse Wickednesses committed by Ahab who did very abominably in following Idols and in persecuting the Servants of the true God who is said to have sold himself to work Wickednesse are imputed to this subtil murtherous Whore and Witch as the Text plainly declares But there was none like unto Ahab who did sell himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord whom Jezebel his wife stirred up That is to say the Roman Hierarchy according as both the Vision of the Whore of Babylon and of the two-horned Beast do plainly signifie was the Authour Contriver and Instigatour unto all those murtherous and idolatrous practices that the Secular Magistrate has been guilty of during their Force and Tyranny over the true Servants of Christ. The Beast with two Horns exercised all this Power before the Beast with ten Horns or rather made use of the Secular Power to effect all their devillish Designs against the Children of God as Jezebel wrote Letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal The Church got the stamp of the Imperial Authority upon all the wicked Dogmata of their Religion and Idolatrous practices which they contrived for their own carnal advantages and then if any Naboth would not part with the Inheritance of his Fathers the possession of an holy righteous and rational Conscience nor profess nor act against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those native Truths and Notions which God of his infinite mercy and faithfulnesse has implanted in the minds of all men that have not done violence to that innate Light the Candle of the Lord searching all the parts of the belly he was through the murtherous contrivances of this Strumpet Jezebel falsely accused as a Blasphemer of God and the King as an enemy to both the Catholick Faith and secular Magistrate and so was sentenced to death And death came by these wicked Accusations in this Intervall as in the former Intervall wherein Antipas was slain by openly fighting in the Field Thus apposite is the Allusion to the History of Jezebel for the setting out the state of this Intervall of the Church under the Tyranny of the Church of Rome 11. Nor is it all harsh thus to interpret a Vineyard to so spiritual a sense as to make it something within us whenas both Philo and other ancient Interpreters have interpreted Paradise to that sense or the Garden of Eden And others also cannot but acknowledge that that Law of Moses Deut. 22. 9. Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with divers seeds has also a Moral or Mysticall meaning and is a Precept of Simplicity or Sincerity of heart Wherefore the Vineyard of Naboth may very well signifie the Humane Will and Understanding that is sown onely or planted with such Notions or notices of things as are from God whether they be those innate Idea's of the Soul or what is communicated farther by the Spirit of God in the Holy Writings of inspired men or are more immediately inspired into us by the abode of that Spirit in us All these Plants are of our Heavenly Father 's own planting and no other seed is to be sown among them repugnant thereunto And this Vineyard is the Inheritance of all true Christians descending upon them from the Apostles times to this very day But the Roman Empire being perverted by the doctrines of the whore or two-horned Beast or by the eorruptions also of their own nature had a mind to invade this ancient right as Ahab had to get into his possession Naboth's
Sardis it may prove very significative of the condition of Reformed Christendome within that Intervall beginning from the rising of the Witnesses and ending in the last Viall in part of it I mean After which the Intervall of Phyladelphia comes in and takes up also the second and third Thunder Some special qualities therefore of the Church of Sardis are to be read in this Stone Sarda and some to her praise others to her diminution The virtue of this Stone is that carried about one it makes a man chearfull and couragious and drives away Witchcraft and Enchantment and expells poison rightly administred which adumbrate some peculiar Privileges in this Sardian Church Their chearfull security in justification by faith in Christ's bloud and their being rid of the poisonous idolatrous doctrines and bewitching Enchantments of the Cup of the Whore Here 's nothing of Jezebel in this Church nor any mention of the eating of things offered to Idols nor in the two following Epistles which is no small ratification of the truth of these Successions Both they and she are well and sound touching these points 2. But this Stone Sarda which is also called Carnalina and in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odem as representing humane flesh and bloud so lively seems also to insinuate something to the Derogation of the Sardian Church as if they were flesh and not spirit which is the special Dispensation of the Church of Philadelphia And whereas Christ's Conquest over Edom is by letting out or squeezing out the corrupt bloud of old Adam this Odem or Carnalina is said to be of that virtue as to stanch bloud and stop it from running out and therefore seems to be significative of whatever Doctrines in the Sardian Church that hinder the due and requisite Mortification of the old man as loth to weaken him too much and let too much of his bloud and life run out 3. The meaning therefore is that though the Sardian Church be well rid of the foul Idolatries and grosse Trumperies of the Papal Church yet her state as yet is but carnal most-what It is not the Dispensation of the spirit of life but the main stir is about external Opinion Ceremony they seem to know Christ onely according to the flesh not according to the power of his Spirit whereby he is able to subdue all things under him Whereas Christ after he had said that his flesh was meat indeed and his bloud was drink indeed clearly explains himself in declaring expresly that the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life yet a great part of this Sardian Church I mean the Lutherans rack their own Wits and disturb the rest of Reformed Christendome to maintain that odd Paradox of Consubstantiation that so men may eat and drink that grosse Flesh and Bloud of Christ that was crucify'd upon the Crosse in the Celebration of their Eucharists What can be more Carnaline-like then this Besides that there are over-many that do as grosly and carnally erre touching the nature of the Resurrection-Body they phansying it as terrestrially modify'd though it be called a celestial or spiritual Body in the Scriptures as that Body is that we put into the Grave or is capable of the imbraces of the Nuptial Bed To say nothing of other such like grosse carnal Conceits that this Sardian Church has not yet expunged out of her mind But as mischievous a mark as any of her Carnality is her Dissension and Schismaticalnesse even to mutuall Persecution as also the unnatural and unchristian Wars of one part of Reformed Christendome against the other These things rankly savour of the Flesh and are infinitely contrary to the due Dispensation of the Spirit which when it shall appear will bring in the Church of Philadelphia the Church of unfeigned Love and Charity wherein according to the prediction of the Prophets there shall not be the noise of this unchristian War any more These Touches may suffice to shew why the Spirit of God has denoted this Succession of his Church by the Title of the Church in Sardis 4. These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God The number Seven signifies Universality sometimes whence the Pythagoreans call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense therefore is that hath in readinesse to bestow all the spiritual or Divine Graces to make the man of God perfect to every good word and work And the seven Stars That is to say that holds the seven Stars in his right hand so it is in the Description before his speech to the Ephesine Church which is repeated here for encouragement Christ hereby declaring his Power and promising his Assistence to the renewing of Christendome through the Reformation as well as he did to the forming of it at first and rooting out Paganism in the first beginning of the Church which is the Ephesine Intervall I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead I discern plainly thy state and condition Thou hast indeed a semblance of life because thou hast a great deal of Heat and Zeal and dost with an externall fervour doe many performances that may raise a fame of thee of being more then ordinarily religious And many hot disputes there may be for this or that Ceremony for this or that Opinion and against them much and very vehement discourse about Faith and Justification and the like Which Heat and activity bears a semblance of Life in thee But assure thy self unlesse thou hast that Faith that worketh by Love all this stir is but the noise of tinkling Brasse or of sounding Cymbals And being thus alive thou art notwithstanding in my sight little better then dead And although thou dost thus imitate warm flesh and bloud yet thou art but a cold Sardius Stone to my touch and discernment As she that liveth wantonly is dead while she liveth though she thinks she is then most of all alive so it is with him that devoid of Christian Love and Charity is enlivened with an hot bitter ignorant and preposterous Zeal This is not the life of God but of mere Nature and Carnality 5. Be watchfull and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die Take heed that want of Love and Life hazard not Faith too and Remissnesse in Manners bring not in Atheism and Infidelity over all For I have not found thy works perfect before me Those things that have Life in them goe on to Perfection Wherefore if they stop before and make no progresse it is a sign there is some deadly distemper at the very heart or root and such a Plant must wither and die Thy Works are neither perfect nor dost thou easily admit of such Doctrines as lead most effectually to Perfection Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent That is to say You that are my true Apostolick Church remember what ye have
received from me my self or my Apostles stand fast to the infallible Word which will impartially instruct and excite you to all the due measures of Godlinesse And believe not the rotten and corrupt Glosses ofdeceitful men that would sew Pillows under mens Arm-holes and frame Opinions and Precepts to favour the Lusts of the flesh To dote upon men is a piece of Carnality but to dote on them for their carnal Opinions and fleshfavouring Documents is Sardian or Carnaline of a double Dye Repent therefore for the Kingdome of God is at hand and he that has the seven Spirits of God stands ready to assist and succour with his Divine Graces all that sincerely endeavour after Righteousnesse So that the fault lies at your own doors If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I come upon thee If thou wilt not return to true Sobriety and Sincerity of Manners I shall bring some signal mischief upon thee before thou beest aware I shall suddenly come in Judgment against thee when thou least dreamest thereof God of his infinite mercy avert the ill Omen and change our hearts that we may amend our lives and he may be reconciled to us 6. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments Notwithstanding the Dispensation of the Sardian Church be so generally carnal in the very hew of that Carnaline-stone that looks so like mere flesh and bloud yet there are some few that have not defiled their garments with that colour but are as it were the Primitiae of the Dispensation of the Spirit whose inward Man is renewed day by day into the Image of my self and are made partakers of the Divine Nature and are the Children of Light And they shall walk with me in white These shall not onely enjoy glorious Converses with me and I communicate my spiritual Graces abundantly to them but they shall be very successfull and prosperous in their Affairs For to be cloathed in white signifies so in the Onirocriticks accordingly as you may see in Achmetes For they are worthy For I doe to every one according to his work 7. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment He that overcometh all the Lusts of this terrestrial Body to him will I communicate the Celestial or Divine This is a more Theologicall sense But the Political is most proper the Epiphonema concluding the whole Epistle Wherefore to be clothed in white Raiment it being here the promise to him that overcomes signifies and that rather then in the fore-going Verse Successe and Prosperity in external affairs and exemption from Grief and Affliction as the Onirocriticks do expresly interpret it See Achmetes And I will not blot his name out of the book of Life The more proper and Politicall sense may be that when the Church by overcoming has emerged into the Philadelphian condition it shall never change at least as to the externall frame but keep up to the end and God will avowedly acknowledge it to be his even to the last even then when it is passed into the Laodicean state and the state of Persecution shall never overwhelm it any more So the Book of life may signifie here as the Crown of life before in the Epistle to the Church of Smyrna But I will confess his name before my Father and before his Angels That is to say I will acknowledge his nature to have become in a manner Divine and Angelical and therefore to be a meet Associate for their companies in my Heavenly Kingdome for ever This may be a Moral or Theologicall sense But the Politicall is chiefly aimed at as is intimated by the placing of the Epiphonema last of all The confessing therefore of the Names of these few in Sardis that are right as they should be and as many as make up to the measure of their Sanctity which therefore are the seed of the Philadelphian Church Christ his confessing of their Names before his Father and before his holy Angels is the mentioning of their Names as of a People more peculiarly his and extraordinarily dear unto him that by thus owning them in such an endearing manner before God and his holy Angels they may be in a more special manner recommended to the favour and Protection of God and to the faithfull and watchfull Ministry of his holy Angels which will be the efficient causes of their being cloathed in white and of their Name never being blotted out of the Book of Life that is to say of the Permanency of their outward Prosperity and security from Misery and Oppression that thus Innocency and outward Felicity may goe hand in hand in the blessed Millennium which is in a manner the same with the Philadelphian Intervall of the Church These few Names in Sardis will amount to this at last For Salvation is to spring out of Sardis not out of Babylon Nor is it any wonder that the Ministry of the holy Angels will be so extraordinarily exercised about a Church which will then have become so Angelicall as is more fully noted in the Divine Dialogues 8. These are the rousing Motives which Christ useth to excite the carnal Church of Sardis to more hearty endeavours after the Dispensation of the Spirit that they may bring on the beginning of those most happy Times the conduct of which Affair is represented by that illustrious Heros on his white Horse Chap. 19. where his Armies follow him on white Horses clothed in fine Linnen white and clean Which appertains to the last end of the Intervall of this Church of Sardis a great part of whom by this time it 's likely may have turned their Carnaline-colour into pure white and be ready to march with him there to that spiritual Warfare as some are said here to walk with him in white and that with marvellous success and prosperity as their white Cloathing does intimate He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Reformed Christendome especially she is so much concerned therein For she as I said at first is this Sardian Church the beginning of whose Intervall being adorned with more true Holinesse and sincerity of Zeal the better deserved the Title of the Rising of the Witnesses And though they be here much reproved for their Faults yet they are acknowledged to be one of the Seven Churches in Asia Chap. 1. 11. that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Fundamento and are the true and Apostolical Church still and justly witnesse against the Idolatries and grosse Antichristian practices of the Church of Rome such I mean as with them have become a Law and thereby are properly Antichristian This I thought fit to adde to stop the preposterous pronenesse of some toward the Roman Church from the Consideration that all things are not so perfect in the Reformed Churches as might be desired For though they be