〈◊〉 as * Ch. 9. Esay describes him that is to say the Father of his Church As it is written concerning the Logos or Eternal Word That As many as received him power is given unto them to become the sons of God which are born not of bloud John 1. 12. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God According as our Saviour speaks to Nicodemus That which is born of the flesh is John 3. 6. flesh but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit It is therefore the Spirit of Christ whereby we are begotten into a new creature If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 3. But this Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of God the Father and therefore our new creation or Regeneration is also attributed to him For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works And Ephes. 2 10. S. Peter in his first Epistle Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Ch. 1. v. 3. Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again or regenerated us c. But after in the same chapter he again brings the Eternal Word as a sharer in Vers. 23. this action of Paternity Being born not of corruptible seed but incorruptible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per sermonem viventem Dei in aeternum permanentem though it may be also rendred per sermonem Dei viventis in aeternum permanentis and thus may refer either to God the Father or to the Eternal Logos As I conceive that may also in S. John He that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed that is the Spirit of Truth which is from the Father 1 Ep. 3. 9. and the Son remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Wherefore as Christ is said to be Head of all Principalities and Powers though God the Father be also rightly so styled and Christ is likewise said to be the Head of the Church though no man can deny but that God is so also for he that is an Husband to his Church is also ipso facto the Head of her So Christ in like manner may rightly be termed the Father of his Church although that be the ordinary appellation of the First Hypostasis of the holy Trinity And therefore there being such a real respect of Paternity betwixt Christ and his Church laid in this so remarkable ground of Regeneration by his Spirit into a new Creature I thought it both allowable and usefull to take notice thereof and adde this fifth Title to the rest there being most hainous sins committable against Christ in this respect also 4. That Christ is our King Priest Prophet and our God are Truths so generally acknowledged and so exceeding plain that I need produce no proof either of the things themselves or of the fitness of the Phrase 5. The other general branch of the Positive Scope of the Gospel is The spreading and propagating the exciting and nourishing the Divine Life in the members of Christ to the best of their capacities In which Divine Life is comprized Faith in God and a Belief of a Reward of righteousness in the other World as also those three excellent Evangelical Graces Humility Charity and Purity That these make up the grand Scope of the Gospel I think any one will be sufficiently satisfied by what I have written in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness 6. Now from hence it will follow with evidence and certitude plainly Mathematical That such a Mystery as in effect is a real counterplot and undermining as well of the Privative as Positive Scope of the Gospel of Christ in the above-named particulars that is to say That Mystery that in stead of ridding the world of Idols pollutes the Church with multifarious Idolatry instead of easing of the Church of the burthen of Judaical ceremonies fills it with a number of superfluous Rites either Judaical Pagan or pretendedly Christian That Mystery that makes Christ a King without power and laws a Prophet without prediction or instruction that sets up corrivalls with him in Heaven and on Earth for both his High-Priesthood and Divinity and eludes or prevents the inchoation or growth of the New birth by mischievous devices and practices That Mystery that naturally tends to the superinducing upon the world Atheism and Infidelity by magisterially obtruding upon mens belief the acknowledgement of such things as are not only useless to be believed but impossible to be and lastly That Mystery that is the Mother of Pride the Nurse of Uncleanness the School of barbarous Injustice and bloudy Cruelty This Mystery I say that is so horrid and Diabolical and so Antipodal to both the Person and Spirit of Christ and to all the Christian Graces provided there be but found a colour for these gross enormities as if they tended to the honour of Christ and the good of his Church must needs be that famed Mystery of Iniquity and the very body of Antichristianism with the distinct Limbs and Articulations thereof 7. Whose Image I having exhibited to your sight in this contracted Draught I shall now endeavour more fully and amply to set it before your eyes pursuing the parts I have enumerated in a more particular manner and in such a method as will carry along with it a reflexion upon the universal nature of the Mystery of Iniquity as it is opposite in a general respect to the Mystery of Godliness that is to say As those more comprehensive members of the Mystery of Godliness were A venerable Obscurity A communicable Intelligibleness Demonstrable Truth and desirable Usefulness so I shall trace along as I goe in every one of the above-mentioned Particulars of the Mystery of Iniquity these three general Depravations or Malignities as namely in opposition to the Truth in the Mystery of Godliness gross and palpable Falseness in stead of Usefulness intolerable Mischievousness and in stead of that venerable Obscurity joyned with Intelligibleness the unwholesome and abhorred fogs of a worse then Aegyptian darkness wherein harbours nothing but deceitfull Sophistry and self-seeking Fraud 8. In brief therefore the Falseness the Fraud and the Mischief shall be the points of inquisition upon every particular member of this Mystery of Antichristianism whose Idea when we have fully set out and demonstrated to be such we shall then proceed further to enquire Where it is actually to be found and by virtue of the said Idea to clear our own Church that is guiltless from the unjust suspicions and aspersions of malicious or inconsiderate spirits that either misrepresent or misapprehend things and so pass unrightfull censures upon what is at least allowable if not praise-worthy 9. He that is the Searcher of hearts and the Enlightner of our eyes so purge all our Hearts from partiality and Hypocrisie and so clear our Understandings that what shall be penned down with truth and sinceritie may be
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 1. ABsolution puts me in mind of the pretence of necessity of Confessing once a year at least and that to the Priest of the Parish all a mans sins not onely actually committed but the very purposes desires or propensions to the committing of them Which might rightly be called Carnificina conscientiarum indeed and is as base a piece of servitude and to as ill purpose as if that all the modest Maids and grave Matrons in the Parish should strip themselves stark naked and in that manner humble themselves before their Priest once a year Which would look like a piece of unsupportable Tyranny And yet this extorted Confession upon pain of Damnation not to conceal any thing is not the stripping of a man to his naked body but the stripping him of his body that they may see his naked Heart and so by the force of this Superstition break into those secrets which it is the onely due privilege of God Almighty to be acquainted with who is the onely rightful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and can neither receive any hurt by seeing the most inward motions of his own handy-work nor will knowing whereof we are made doe us any but will judge with equity in all things nor will despise the work of his own hands 2. The pretence for this Confession is the necessity of Absolution by the Priest which if a man through his own neglect have not he must be undoubtedly damned But that any such Absolution is necessary unless upon the case of just Excommunication cannot be made out by either Scripture or Reason For when it is said to Peter to the Church or to the Apostles Whatsoever ye bind in earth shall be bound in heaven or Matth. 18. 18. Whatsoever ye loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven and Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain Joh. 20. 23. they are retained It is impossible the meaning should be Remit or Retain Bind or Loose whether right or wrong I will ratifie all above whatever the Successors of my Apostles shall doe nor shall any remission of sins be ratified without them though they succeed onely in the external profession and partake not of the same Spirit with their Predecessors Wherefore so large and accurate a Commission cannot belong to any but either to the Apostles themselves or to men of a true Apostolical spirit who are entirely of one mind with God and therefore can doe onely what is right It being so rare therefore and so difficult a thing to find such a Confessor it is an argument such an Absolution is not necessary For neither God nor Nature are wanting in necessaries But the Binding by Excommunication and the Loosing answering thereto is of another consideration and concerns the external Oeconomy of the Church 3. But to speak truly That phrase of Binding and Loosing above cited out of Scripture seems not so much to respect Persons as Things For it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever not whomsoever and reflects upon the known phrases of the Jews who called that which was declared unlawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ligatum but that which was allowed as lawful they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solutum And therefore that passage does not respect Absolution from sin but the making of Laws and Institutes for the Church by the Apostles which Christ says he would ratifie in Heaven But that other place Joh. 20. of remitting and retaining mens sins does undoubtedly respect Absolution from sin But mark to what manner of men this power is committed As my Father sent me so send I you now Christ was sent full of grace and of the power of the Holy Ghost and therefore he breathing upon them says Receive the Holy Ghost and did most certainly impart it to them And thereupon is derived upon them that authority Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained 4. Whence Erasmus excellently upon the place Qui ex his posterioribus cristas erigunt Tyrannidem quandam sibi vendicant cur non meminerunt eorum quae mox praecesserunt Toti turgemus mundano Spiritu tamen placemus nobis authoritate commissâ remittendi aut retinendi peccata Tuere authoritatem sed cura ut adsit Spiritus per quem Christus tribuit authoritatem Which implies that where this Spirit is not the Authority is not and that a man cannot rationally be either comforted by the remission or dismay'd by the retaining of sin when it is from such Ghostly Fathers as are devoid of the Spirit of Christ. 5. Moreover Hugo Grotius does soberly and with judgment I conceive interpret this place of Remission of sins by Baptism or Reception again into the Communion of the Church if any be lapsed after Baptism but the Retaining of sins to be Non-admittance of these into the Church who are not yet penitent Believers or the Excommunicating them out of it upon a lapse worthy so great a Censure But what is this to an Anniversary Absolution which must necessitate and squeeze out such an unnecessary and unreasonable Confession St. James saith Confess your sins one to another whose style was ill directed if it had been such an indispensable duty to confess unto the Priest and in such a manner as has been described so frequent so punctual This Anniversary Provolution therefore of a Penitent upon the floor at the feet of a formal Confessor with eyes and hands devoutly lifted up toward him sitting in his majesty is no part of true Christian Discipline but as Erasmus has well intimated a piece of Antichristian Tyranny it being a thing very loathsome and burthensome to be bound to unbosome a mans self to him of whose judgment friendship or fidelity we can have no assurance and very intolerable to be forced to speak of such things as we do not allow our selves to think of and that before such as we may probably â—…spect will conceive some sinful pleasure by the discourse of them 6. The Injunction therefore of such a punctual Confession has no ground at all in either Scripture or Reason For neither did the Apostles nor Christ himself require any such particular and complete enumeration of mens sins nor left in charge with their Successors to doe so And it is sufficient more generally to confess them with a serious profession of detesting and resolution of leaving them wherein if the Penitent will dissemble he may as well dissemble
Church by laying claim to a Judgement of discretion I say he lays claim to no more then is of necessity given him as I have already demonstrated For if there be an appeal to the Reason and Conscience of a private man in the endeavouring to convince him he is ipso facto made Judge and if to be Judge in this sense is to be Superiour he is necessarily Superiour But I see no necessity that his being Judge thus for himself makes him Superiour to his Church Indeed if he judged for his Church he were thereby their Superiour but judging for himself onely he usurps no Superiority over the Church but onely is obedient to him that is Superiour to both that is to Jesus Christ following his plain Injunctions and Precepts whether written in the outward Word or legibly engraven upon the Table of his Heart To follow therefore the plain and inevitable dictates of his own Conscience which as the Tribunal of God is not to exalt a mans self above the Church but to submit a mans self to God and exalt him above all 11. Nor does a man herein equallize himself to his Church in that he does not define for others but for himself and professes himself in the mean time ready to obey the visible Church in such things as are not repugnant to the express Precepts of God and Christ and to those immutable Characters of Truth which he has imprinted upon the Souls of all men and which are there to be found unless gross violence and Interest has obscured or obliterated them 12. Nor in the last place does he make himself wiser then his Church which were also an odious imputation But without immodesty it may be thought that a private man may be more sollicitous of his own important Concerns and more faithfull to his own Eternal Interest then many thousand men put together and that therefore though he may not have so much wit and learning as these yet he may conduct his own affairs more safely then if they were put into their hands especially they that pretend to be guides to Heaven for others seeming to be wholy taken up with the things of this World as if they had forgot their intended journey It is not therefore a boast of Wisedom above the Church but a carefull sollicitude touching such things as the wise men of the World do not usually trouble themselves much about that may embolden some private sincere-hearted Christian to dissent from some Dictates of the Church professing himself in other things as weak and childish as they please remembring that Doxologie of our Blessed Saviour I thank thee O Father Matt. 11. Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 13. Finally This Wisedom which they adhere to is plainly and evidently not the Dictate of their own private spirit which to oppose to the Church were indeed to make a mans self wiser then the Church but the plain and perspicuous Testimonies of the Word of God and the common and indubitable Notions of universal humane Nature writ by the Finger of that Eternal Wisedom which created all things on the spirits of all men that be in their wits and therefore is a plain and legible Copy of that Wisedom So that he that adheres thereto does not prefer his own Wisedom before the Wisedom of the Church but submits himself faithfully to the Wisedom of God to which the Church also ought to submit and not to efface as much as in them lies those imprinted Characters of Truth out of the Souls of men thereby to enslave them to themselves and to the corrupt Interest of their Kingdom of darkness and gross Imposture 14. But I have been more copious then was needfull or intended in confuting this dream of Infallibility We might have made shorter work of it and suddenly evinced the folly of that pretence by actual Errours that have been in the Church of God As surely the Church of the Jews was as really the Church of God as the visible Christian Church and has as magnificent promises as it in Isaiah For what is spoke Chap. 54. rebounds upon the Church of the Jews first as Grotius has observed and there it is said That they shall all be taught of God and that with everlasting kindness God will have mercy upon them And yet this Church was in so gross a mistake that the Governours and Grandees thereof knew not their Messiah when he was come into the world but put him to a most shamefull death But even in those times when there was a more palpable Residence of God's miraculous power with them they erred very hainously as in the worshipping the Golden Calf in the wilderness as also in the ten Tribes worshipping those in Bethel nay apostatizing all to the worshipping of Baalim saving seven Thousand which were so few in respect of the rest that Elijah took himself to be left alone And Ahab consulting the Prophets found by wofull experience that four hundred of them prophesied false and onely Micaiah true And * Ch. 5. 30 31. Jeremie complains of his times A wonderfull and horrible thing saith he is committed in the Land The Prophets prophesy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you doe in the end thereof That is also a smart monition of his * Ch. 7. 4. Trust you not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord c. For all which they doe that call themselves The Temple of the Lord is not right as appears in the same Chapter where they are accused of committing Idolatry openly in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem which could not be had they not fallen into the hands of blind and erroneous Guides which might cause them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths and yet in the mean time take up that presumptuous boast That the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor the Counsel from the Wise nor the Word from the Prophet no not then when they were imagining mischief against the true Prophets of the Lord as you may see Jeremie 18. But * Ch. 3. 6. Micaiah says plainly That the Prophets that are onely for easie times and for good chear Night shall be upon them and they shall have no vision and it shall be dark unto them that they cannot divine That such Seers shall be ashamed and Diviners confounded as having no answer from God And * Ch. 56 10 11. Esay complains that the watch-men of the City are blind that they are ignorant shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for jollity or gain Thus clear is it that the Church of the Jews though it was in such a special manner espoused to God was
The like significancy is also acknowledged in the Onirocriticks Artemidor lib. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like he saith also c. 41. which have some similitude with that in Daniel But to come nearer to the point concerning Hail Achmetes out of the Indian Persian and Aegyptian Onirocritical Solutions c. 191. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet more particularly of Hail and more to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one dream that Hail falls on a place he may expect a through and sudden incursion of the enemie And further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he dream that the Hail hurt the stemms or stalks of the Corn accordingly as they are broken in the same proportion will the slaughter of men be upon the place 3. Harvest That cutting down Corn is significative of the death of men appears by that Apparition of twelve men seeming to mow the Corn-fields with sithes in Merchia upon which a pestilence followed But that mortality that is by war is still more fitly expressed thereby Achmetes out of the Indian Onirocriticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a King dream he sees harvest reaped in his own Countrey he will suddenly hear of the slaughter of his people This similitude is also used in Scripture Jer. 15. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor it is time to thrash her yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come But Harvest sometimes has a more auspicious sense as in that of our Saviour John 4. 35. Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together 4. Head That the Head of a Beast in these Prophetick Figures signifies that Person or those Persons in whom the Supreme Power resides is as infallibly to be concluded as the fourth Proportional in Arithmetick three Numbers being given For we have three terms of the Analogie here also viz. a Kingdom and the Sovereignty thereof and a Beast which is the Prophetick figure of a Kingdom Wherefore we cannot miss to say As a Kingdom is to the Sovereign Power thereof so is this Prophetick or figurative Beast to the Head thereof and alternately As the Kingdom to the Beast so the Sovereign Power of the Kingdom to the Head of the Beast Whence we see plainly that the Head of a Beast answers to the Supreme Power and that whether the Supreme Power be in one single Person or in many For as the Power abstractedly is not considered so neither the Persons abstracted from their Power but both in concreto make up this Head Politick And therefore if the Supreme be not but in many those many are the Head and not the less one Head for consisting of many persons no more then the Body is less one Body for consisting of many persons Nay if a man should follow the Symmetry of his Phancy rather then his Reason a Head of many persons to a Body of a vast multitude of persons would look more elegantly and proportionably then one single person As if a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together a head of one bullet put to it would not look so conformably as an head of many bullets such as the whole body consisted of 5. Heaven and Earth By Heaven and Earth is understood the Universe as Grotius has rightly noted upon Genesis and abundantly proved upon 2 Pet. 3. 13. But that by Heaven and Earth the Prophets sometime understand a Political Universe that is a Kingdom or Polity there needs no further proof thereof then what is found in Esay ch 51. 15. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hoasts is my Name And I have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth and say unto Sion Thou art my people that is to say to make them that were but scattered persons and slaves in Aegypt before a Kingdom or Polity to be governed by their own Laws and Magistrates Again chap. 65. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy Upon which Text Forerius Decrevi enim novum Orbem condere by which he means the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth that is his Church According to which sense also he interprets For as the new Heavens and the new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me so shall your Esay 66. 22. seed and your name remain Quam diu duraret novus Orbis i. e. Regnum Dei Ecclesiae c. And Grotius also though he look a-scue and is very shie himself best knows the reason at these places that have been mentioned yet he cannot abstain from interpreting the new Heaven and the new Earth Apocal. 21. of the state of the Church upon Earth And Dr. Hammond upon 2 Pet. 3. doth expresly acknowledge the new Heaven and the new Earth there mentioned to have a Political sense Which notion was worth the clearing because this general Analogie will make us the better understand what the parts of the Universe figuratively signify as to be called up into Heaven or cast down to the Earth and the like 6. Horn. Horn also signifies the Supreme Power of a Body Politick which is resembled to a Beast it being the highest part of the Beast and the Defender of his body It is the interpretation of the Angel in Daniel The great Horn is the first King And the ten Horns are interpreted ten Kings by the Angel in the Apocalyps For they were the height and summity of their respective Kingdoms though in some sort subordinate to the seventh Head of the Beast 7. Horse There is no express interpretation of that Animal in Scripture But a generous Horse with his Rider does naturally emblematize Rule and Command Which may seem also hinted to us from that of Psalm 45. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Prosper and ride which the Seventy turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper and reign But an Horse signifies also any success or fortune of him that rides on him So Achmetes out of the Indian Interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If one dreams that he rides on Pharas which is a generous Steed which goes orderly and obediently he shall obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour and renown proportionable to the Beast he rides on And so after he descants on the largeness thickness and length of the tail declaring that his power and train shall be answerable but if bob-tailed or thin of hair it signifies defect of power The halting of
therein For we traffick not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles against the Sacred Title of Truth nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures and to hold them in darkness against the Sacred Title of Light nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels nor offend against his Paternity by making his Children a company of stocks and stones and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them and forcing them to believe as the Church believes right or wrong with Scripture or against it and are so farre from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdome And for absolving Princes from their Oaths what Church unless that of Rome ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power 4. The next Antichristian Opposition and which occurrs in the next Chapter is that against the Divine Life in general Such as Idolatry and all manner of Superstition dumb Shows speaking in an unknown Tongue substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies every-where and so acknowledgedly that I will not give my self the trouble of Citation Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter then any indifferent man can possibly judge For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendome that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters For for my own part though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishopricks of this Nation yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burthen as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down every-where the value of the Revenue and we reade in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the work-man is worthy of his hire And concerning the Office and Dignity itself it cannot sink into my minde that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shie of the Apocalyps or so fearful of it that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making for fear it should bite them that is to say unless it be unfolded or rather folded up in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalyps if rightly and solidly understood A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince King James of blessed memory had discovered betimes and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome And truly I finde nothing in the Apocalyps though the style seems Mysterious and Aenigmatical but what is very rational and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned A tast whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City wherein bloudy and inhumane Zeal as also vain and imposturous Superstition is so plainly perstringed The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murtherers the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sorcerers Exorcists or Enchanters and lying Legendists and in fearful intimidated spirits that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls who deals bonâ fide with Man-kinde to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burthen of Superstition note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity to Equity to Truth and Reason 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it which are more then one or two either there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign over Clergy as well as Laiety in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him For why should any Clergy-men expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian Which is as unjust as it were ridiculous to phansy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him goe lower then the Priest that baptized him For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power but rightly employs it Could any of the Pagan Emperours think you have been brought over to the Christian Faith if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so farre as it became the Church of Christ or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdome of Heaven a trick of the Priests to make themselves Lords of the Earth No certainly a Prince once become Christian that is a Believer and Professour of the Apostolick Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion is a Person so Sacred that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy then any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews the Kings or High-Priests of Israel And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable and it ought to be so no
perused without prejudice may be discerned with facility and be acknowledged by them that are inwardly convinced without any slights or tergiversations to the glory of God's name the peace of his Church and the advancement of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Amen CHAP. V. 1. Instances of several specious pieces of Idolatry introducible into Christian Religion 2. The overmuch streightening or widening the Notion of Idolatry taxed 3. The usefulness of giving a true Notion thereof 4 5. That it is not restrained to the worshipping of Idols properly so called 6. That any thing worshipped that is not God becomes ipso facto an Idol and of the Seventy's rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. That they likewise render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they do also Baalim and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which further argues that more general sense of Idol 8. That an Idol and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Non-Deus is all one in the estimate of God 1. LET us begin then with the delineation of the first member of this hideous Mystery opposite to the first branch of the Scope of the Gospel of Christ which was The ridding of the world of the impure worship of Idolatry I say therefore if in stead of those manifold Idolatrous worships in Paganism there were introduced upon pretence of the greater honour to God and Christ and the better instruction of the people the Religious worship of the Cross as also the Image of God the Father Son or Holy Ghost the devotional invocation of the blessed Virgin or any other Saints or Angels the worshipping of their Pictures or Images and the doing Divine honours accordingly as it was practised toward the Roman Emperours to a mere man upon account of his being the Vicar General of Christ and Oecumenical Head of his Church upon Earth and lastly the adoration of the consecrated Bread in the Eucharist upon the imagination that it is transsubstantiated into the very body of Christ I say where these things are brought into the Church as true Doctrine and laudable Practice they will not fail to make up one Limb of Antichristianism and that a principal one too For the Doctrine is not true nor the Practice allowable but gross and palpable Idolatry one of the most abhorred sins the Scripture takes notice of as you shall easily understand after I have with all possible caution searcht out the true Notion and definitive nature thereof 2. This term Idolatry though nothing is more frequent in the mouths and writings of men yet there is nothing of so unsettled and fugitive a signification For some to excuse or palliate their grosly-disallowable Rites and Practices in Christian Religion have restrained the sense of the word to such narrow limits that according to their nice distinctions and restrictions the foulest Paganism will scarce be found guilty of Idolatry Others whether out of a fright and abhorrency of so detestable a crime or out of an over-factious disgust and detestation of the contrary party have so stretched the signification of the word beyond the natural meaning thereof that not only harmless but even laudable circumstances of Divine worship appointed by Authority will not fail to be stigmatized by them with that odious and reproachful name whose zeal and passionate unskilfulness in amoving this grand errour out of the Church has had an answerable ill success in that they have not so much wrought a cure as changed the disease and bartered away one great evil for several others of something a lower form such as Scandal rash and unjust Censure and Superstition which are very evil and undesirable distempers in the Church of Christ and the necessary Authours and Fomenters of unnecessary Schisms And indeed if I had said only that they had changed Idolatry into Superstition it had been enough and all it including the rest For Superstition being properly a Fear of displeasing God in such things as neither do oblige him nor offend him arising out of an opinion of the good or evil of those things that are indifferent Those that either out of ignorance or some worse principle ingender in the minds of men a superstitious aversation from such harmless and allowable actions must needs make them obnoxious to Scandal and tempt them to rash and unjust Censures 3. Wherefore as well to excuse the innocent as to discover the guilty I shall endeavour exactly to set out the bounds of this great sin of Idolatry that thereby we may know when it is committed and when not when it may be called by that so hatefull name and when again it is Injustice and Uncharitableness so to term this or that action of Religious worship 4. That the name or guilt of Idolatry is not to be restrained to the worship of an Idol only is plain out of ordinary consent of Speech when we discourse of Idolatrous Nations that worship the Sun Moon and Stars not considering whether they make any Images to them or no. For these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these conspicuous and sensible Deities as Origen contr Cels. lib. 〈◊〉 they are termed by the Greeks may easily be conceived to have allured the rude people to adore them before they had either art or leisure to build Temples and erect Statues to them From whence that Caveat is given by God to his own people in Deuteronomie Take ye therefore Ch. 4 v. 15 19. good heed unto your selves for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire lest you corrupt your selves and make you a graven Image c. And lest you lift up your eyes to Heaven and when you see the Sun and the Moon and the Stars even all the hoast of Heaven should be driven to worship them and serve them So strongly enticing have they been to mankind to bestow Religious worship on them These were the first Objects that gain'd the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being in perpetual Motion as Philo has observed which appellation was afterwards derived upon all other Deities whatsoever And Maimonides also lays the first foundation of Idolatry in these 5. But Nations sufficiently civilized as namely the Persians made Herodot lib. 1. c. 131. shift to be Idolaters without carved Images or Idols For they sacrificed on the tops of Mountains to the visible Heaven under the name of Jupiter as also to the Sun Moon and Earth to the Fire Water and Winds all sensible Objects but worshipped without any sensible figure or representation And yet I think no man learned or Idiot will stick to style this Nation Idolatrous As neither the ancient Romans who worshipped their many Gods without the use of any Idol or Image for near two hundred years together as both Varro and Plutarch affirm 6. Wherefore Idolatry is
and foul Lust and bloudy Wrath and Zeal for those Idols of Fornication as it fares in enraged Gallants in the behalf of their Mistresses must rule and over-run all The crasseness I say of these Superstitions leaves the mind unmortified and unilluminated but raises a zeal for them both ignorant bloudy and barbarous Which methinks is a sad condition for any Soul to be found in 4. But that this bestial Rage accompanies the love of Idols to omit several Examples in Scripture is a Truth largely writ and testified by the bloud of those innumerable companies of the primitive Martyrs who with so much reproach and so many kinds of tortures were put to death for despising or opposing the ancient Pagan Idolatry as is confessed by all And Idolatry whether Pagan or Christian will naturally dispose them that are really devoted to it to the like cruel fury and madness And though the cruelty of Bear or Wolf seems more the mischief of them that suffer by them then the evil of those beasts themselves yet for that Circe that metamorphoses men into these salvage shapes few or none do doubt but that she injures their humane bodies What a mischievous Circe then is Idolatry that transforms the Mind into such beastly salvageness 5. And as for Uncleanness that it is so close an attendant upon the worship of Idols is also a Truth very often intimated in holy Scriptures as in the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle expresly affirms that Ch. 1. 26 27. because the Heathen changed the truth of God into a lye and worshipped and served the Creature more then the Creatour or rather besides the Creatour for this cause God gave them up to vile affections the women changing the natural use into that which is against nature and the men likewise leaving the natural use of the women and burning in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompence of their errour that was meet Also in the first Book of the Kings upon the mentioning of the building of Ch. 14. 24. high places and Images presently is subjoined That there were also Sodomites in the Land c. The places are so many and so obvious where even unnatural uncleannesses are link'd together with Idolatry that it would be needless as well as tedious to recite them And therefore it is a very suspicable thing that where Idolatry seizeth most on the Church of Christ all manner of uncleanness will there be most rife also 6. But methinks I am too favourable in my charge against Idolatry while I seem to restrain the Mischief of it only to Uncleanness and Cruelty For the Authour of the Book of Wisdom does not stint the effects thereof to these but enlarges them also to Dissimulation Theft Unfaithfulness Tumults Perjury and what not * Ch. 14. 16 27. For the worshipping of Idols saith he not to be named is the beginning cause and end of all evil And S. Paul in the above-named Epistle makes it the fountain of all manner of vices and wickednesses which he doth not rashly but very rationally conclude For even as they did not like to retain God in their Rom. 1. 28 29. knowledge so God saith he gave them over to a reprobate mind to doe those things that are not meet Being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murther debate deceit malignity whisperers back-biters haters of God despightfull proud boasters men of evil machinations disobedient to parents devoid of judgement covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful So great a deluge of wickedness breaks in upon men by their being addicted to Idolatry For Apostatizing from God by this hainous sin God also forsakes them as the Apostle intimates And besides The sottishness of Idolatrous worship that calls out the Affections to such gross and unfitting objects does naturally lay the sense of better things asleep and extinguish the true life of Religion which is the renewing the Mind into the Image or similitude of God and Christ which consists in an holy and peaceable love and in a pure chast and unpolluted spirit unspotted of the vain desires of this present world Whence the introduction of Idolatry into the Church of Christ must needs be the overflowing it with all manner of vice and wickedness But that consideration belongs rather to the next point The Mischief that redounds to the Church from Idolatry to which I shall immediately pass after I have but briefly intimated one Mischief more which falls upon the Idolater himself and of which I think he will be most sensible and it is only this That he shall have his portion in the Lake that burneth with Rev. 21 〈◊〉 fire and brimstone which is the second Death that is to say that eternal Death and destruction that will assuredly attend all such enemies of God 7. The Mischief that accrues to the Church from Idolatry I have partly hinted already namely that it is the most likely way to debauch her with all other manner of vices and does ipso facto transform her who should approve herself the pure Spouse of Christ into the abhorred condition of an Harlot To which you may adde those great agonies and aggrievances of spirit that the true members of Christ are cast into by beholding such abominable practices besides their personal unsafety and danger of barbarous persecutions and those hard trialls and disquieting solicitudes that naturally will attempt them as they are men consisting of mortal flesh and liable to all the evils it exposes them to and finally the actual injuries reproaches imprisonments and multifarious Deaths that would fall upon the sincerest part of the body of Christ for opposing or refusing to partake with others in their Idolatrous Abominations 8. And yet this is not all There is still a very grand Mischief behind and exceeding considerable done to the Church by this fearfull sin of Idolatry and that is The hinderance of her spreading and propagating herself in the world It is part of our Christian Faith as we make profession of it in the Nicene Creed That there is One Catholick and Apostolick Church Which implies that the Church has a right to be Catholick to be universally spred over the face of the Earth and that the true and proper Character of this Catholick Church is to be Apostolical That whatsoever Nation or People or part of any Nation or People profess that Doctrine and Discipline which was delivered by Christ and his Apostles become immediately thereby part of the Catholick Church and those that profess and enjoyn Doctrines and practices that are Anti-Apostolical run the hazzard of losing the true title of Catholick and of making themselves indeed no part of the Church of Christ. And certainly Idolatry is as Anti-Apostolical as contrary to the Apostolick Doctrine as any thing can be Wherefore the introduction thereof into the Church of
Christ is the rescinding so many Souls from the body of the Church as are persuaded to entertain it Whence it is manifest that Idolatry is as it were a Gangrene in the body of Christ and eats so much away from it as it seizes upon 9. But this is not the sole Mischief of this kind done to the Church by Idolatry viz. The streightning the extent thereof by the divulsion of those that were her true members but as considerable as this is The prevention or hinderance from making them members that otherwise might be persuaded thereto For it is very visible that letting in of Idolatry into the Church of Christ will for ever while it there continues exclude both Jew and Turk out of it who are deservedly so great abhorrers of Idolatry To say nothing of the Idolatrous Heathens themselves to whom it would be ridiculous to preach as the Apostles did to turn from dumb Idols to serve the living God whenas they might easily see aforehand that it would be but the turning from their wonted Idols to the serving of new ones It is a fearfull thing therefore to profess the Church Catholick and yet by introduction of Idolatry to streighten it at home and hinder the propagation of it abroad by such horrible Scandals 10. Which is not only a Mischief to the Church herself in curbing her growth and eclipsing her glory but a sad disaster to the whole World which is the the last evil issuing therefrom it being to them the most certain pledge of everlasting happiness to become members of the Catholick Church of Christ of which there is little hope in either Jew Turk or Heathen that are consciencious while this stumbling-block is in their way and that they cannot profess Christianity without the allowance and practice of Idolatry Which in my apprehension ought to be reputed a very sad calamity upon Earth Thus we have seen a competent Description of the First main Limb of Antichristianism namely Idolatry brought into the Church of Christ under pretence of honour to him and the Saints with a discovery of the Falseness and Unwarrantableness of that Doctrine and Practice and the gross Fraud and grand Mischiefs that accompany it 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 Limb 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 hazzard 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 1. THE next Limb of Antichristianism is The burthening and entangling mens minds with Scrupulosities in either unnecessary or hurtfull Observances and Opinions laying an equal or greater yoke on Believers by reason of the Multitude of these Rites and Superstitious conceits then Judaism it self did upon the people of the Jews and thereby frustrating that End of Christ's coming which was To put a period to such burthen some and unprofitable Ordinances and to conciliate to himself a Church that should worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Which Burthensomness as I have already intimated may arise merely from the multitude of these Ceremonies though the things may seem slight considered singly and in themselves as Feathers that are singly light may by their number grow heavier then a masse of Lead And what a man may sometime doe out of Idleness or wantonness to wit stoop to take up a straw or to divide clay or dirt into Squares or Oblongs yet to be kept close to this task how little different is it from that vile Aegyptian bondage of being condemned to the perpetual making of bricks or gathering of stubble 2. Besides that every toy to which there is once a Religious obligation girds hard with those that are serious and consciencious And such followers Christ expects and therefore neither he nor his Apostles would burthen them with any thing but what was necessary But we are exhorted rather to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ has Gal. 5. 1. made us free and not to suffer our selves to be brought under the bondage of any servile and unprofitable burthens of Superstition And our Saviour Christ rebuking the Pharisees tells them plainly that they worshipped God in vain while they taught for Doctrines the commandments Mark 7. of men Forasmuch as laying aside the Commandments of God they held the Traditions of men as the washing of pots and cups and brazen vessels and the like Wherefore if our Saviour Christ was so tender in the behalf of his Disciples that he would not have them superstitiously ensnared no not in so commendable and easy an observance as the washing of the hands ever before they did eat certainly it is utterly against his mind to have his followers intangled and enthralled in an innumerable multitude of less usefull Ceremonies Which be their natures what they will yet if by their numerosity they equallize the burthen of the Judaical Rites this general estimate is sufficient to discover it to be no inconsiderable Limb of Antichristianism in what Church soever such an enormity shall appear 3. Which I speak not as if I found it beyond my skill to pourtray this Limb of Antichristianism more articulately with stronger sinews and more full and solid muscles Such a draught therefore of Ritual Ordinances and Dogmatical Observances I will now draw as I dare appeal to any indifferent judge whether it will not prove an eminent part of that Mystery that opposes and defeats the purposed Ends of the coming of Christ into the world which assuredly were to free his followers from Sin and Superstitious slavery 4. And truly observing how tender and carefull our Saviour is in keeping off the least taint of Superstition from his Disciples about washings and eatings of meat and how expresly he affirms to them in that excellent parable That nothing that enters into a man defiles the man it will be Mark 7. easy thence to infer that much less any thing that hangs upon him or is about him can Sanctifie or make him holy Whence in the first place though I do not lay the greatest stress on it If we should suppose the Christian Priests to heap to themselves several sorts of Consecrated Garments for greater Ornament and Sanctimonie insomuch that every Priest's
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
for us That he might purchase to himself a glorious Church not having Ephes. 5. 27. spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without â—…mish Which being the very End of Christ's coming into the world of the suffering all those hardships during his pilgrimage here on Earth and of submitting himself to the shamefull and unexpressibly-painfull Death of the Cross for any to oppose supplant or any ways to defeat this so serious and earnest design of his by any countenanced method or constitution of things would certainly be Antichristian in the highest measure Let us now therefore consider distinctly and articulately the most material ways of opposing or supplanting this design laying before us in view such depraved Laws Constitutions or Practices in a Church as tend to the extinguishing the Divine Life in general or are more particularly directed against the Root or Branches thereof namely either against Faith that is to say the belief of the Summe of Christianity or else against those inestimable Graces of Humility Purity and Charity 2. For the depainting of this Opposition against the Divine Life in general I need not put my pencil into any new colours Those multifarious ways of Idolatry and Superstition which I have noted in the first Book I. ch 12 17 18 c. and second Limb of Antichristianism and which carrie mens minds out to external exercises that profit nothing but elude the right intention of Zeal and Devotion which should better our spirits and make us more inwardly and vitally holy and righteous these do certainly of their own accord lay asleep or suffocate the Life of God in the Soul and like false food either poison or starve it Those Oppositions also that were against the Offices of Christ the vilifying his Law the removing it from the eyes of the people or the reading of it and their publick Service in an unknown Tongue the interpreting his serious Commands for slight Advices left to our pleasure to follow or forbear false Glosses put upon the Oracles of God by pretended infallible Interpreters the defeating that mighty Engine of Obedience to Christ which is the affectionate Meditation upon his Death and Passion his direfull Sufferings for us by diverting of our Thoughts and distracting them by several insignificant Objects pety Advocates and Patrons that run away with our Devotions and rob Christ of his honour and our Souls of the chief means of their Sanctification and Salvation These with several other particulars I might instance in are plain Antichristian Assaults and Oppugnations of the Divine Life in general and tend to the sweeping of all away before them 3. To which you may adde those ungodly surmises That it is sufficient to number over our Devotions without defixing our Mind upon what we say and that a more hovering and general attention will serve the turn our particular Thoughts wandring to what else we please That the Sacraments confer Grace ex opere operato it being the very difference betwixt the Sacraments of the old Covenant and the new that the former confer Grace ratione operis operantis the latter ratione operis operati and That any inward good Motion is not requisite in him that receives the Sacraments What can more relaxate those earnest breathings and hearty aspirings of our Souls towards a real renovation of our natures into true holiness and righteousness then such corrupt conceits as these 4. The feeding also the people with dumb shows instead of searching their Consciences and exciting their zeal by intelligible Exhortations or Forms of Devotion that will re-minde them of their duty and imprint upon them the sense of such holy things as they stand in want of and inflame their desire after them this also would be a defrauding of the Divine Life of that food which it should be increased and nourished by As also would be that conceit generally of all Acts of Religion that the duty of the Act is done if the Act be but externally done be the Principle what it will though it neither proceed from nor reach to that fountain of life which ought to be ebullient in every Regenerate Christian and without which no man can reasonably esteem himself regenerate Certainly such Opinions Customes and Usages as these must needs wear out true and living Holiness out of the World 5. And yet we may conceive a further Antichristian poison that will wonderfully damp and benumme men in all their endeavours after true Sanctity and that is easy Absolution and slight Penance after formal Confession For Confession which is so rigorously extorted by this Antichristian Church I am now describing being accompanied with a conceit that upon their Absolution and performance of imposed Penances they are then right and straight and in as secure a condition as if they had never sinned the just chastisements of their offended Consciences being slaked by the soft and false interposal of the Priest's pretended Authority to absolve where God has bound as certainly every one is bound over to that eternal doom at the last day let the Priest pretend the power of loosing him here as much as he will and he shall answer for what he has done in the flesh which no Absolution nor Penance can clear him from unless he really forsake his wicked ways and become a sincere Convert to God I say from this constitution of things touching Absolution and Penance it must needs follow that the raines will be let loose on the necks of all men they being given to understand what a slight thing it is to sin against God when they can have their reconcilement upon such easy terms Whenas it would be a greater awe upon mens spirits to let them be condemned or acquitted by their own Consciences being so well assisted by the Word of God and the Light of Reason and Nature to lay the Law against them and never to leave urging them till they have emerged into a competent sincerity of heart Which when they have arrived to Christ within them and his Word without them will absolve them and give them peace of mind and if need be they may also receive Absolution from some sober and faithfull Priest whose honesty and exemplarity of life has fitted him for so serious a function as I have intimated above where I had slipt aforehand into this Argument 6. But the most outrageous Antichristian effort against the Divine Life would be the persuasion that upon the paying of certain tolerable summes of mony and doing some slight superstitious performances or other they shall obtain by virtue of the supreme Ecclesiastick Authority plenary Indulgences and Pardons for vast numbers of years and the certainty of freeing of themselves or their friends from Purgatory As for example suppose that some Churches or if you will many may have purchased from the Ecclesiastick Sovereignty a perpetuity of plenary Indulgence so that he that prays before such an Altar in this Church
after to satisfie the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life 11. Nor will this mischief stop here I mean in the neglect of Holy and Divine Meditation and of either usefull or generous Enquiries after Truth but every one being exalted in the conceit and apprehension of his own place and dignity especially he whose Superiority is so vast as to pretend to be the Universal Bishop of Christendom and higher then all the Kings of the Earth they will be driven on so far with that furious spirit of Ambition that they will not onely neglect but oppose every thing that is sacred and holy if it stand in competition with any devised method of getting in Riches to the Church that they may Lord it and carry it out bravely every man in his respective Office and Dignity Wherefore the genuine Simplicity of Christian Religion shall be corrupted and adulterated and Laws and Articles devised by this Infallible Priesthood that are point-blank against the Laws of Christ and the immutable Rules of sound Reason The ears of all men will be filled with deceitfull Figments and gainfull Lies such as we have already produced many Instances of the Merits of Christ's Passion vilified and maimed Truth and Justice banished persecuted and oppressed the Old and New Testament made but a dumb and dead letter that has no sense nor information in it but all Dictates must be immediate from the Church that is resolved to dictate nothing that is against her worldly advantage that is to say The two Witnesses must be slain and their carcasses lie breathless in the streets otherwise those that dwell on the Earth not those that Apoc. 〈◊〉 are redeemed from the Earth and have their conversation in Heaven will not be able to rejoyce in such a measure and to send gifts to one another that is mutually support and promote one anothers Interest and merrily share the World amongst themselves 12. It is plain therefore that such a Luciferian Polity as this would of its own nature clash with the Kingdom of Christ and totally defeat that Grand design of the Gospel which is the Renewing of the World in true Righteousness and Holiness For thus even those which should be the Salt of the Earth will of all men become the most unsavoury every mans judgment being bribed by either the present possession or earnest expectation of such vast and extravagant Preferments of which there being so many degrees the minds of the ambitious will find no rest till they come to the highest that is possible and therefore will be necessarily entangled and taken up with worldly projects even as long as they live and that with great vehemence and sollicitude the Objects seeming so great and making so glaring a show in their phancies And Ambition and Pomp in all ranks rendring them indigent of Money no inferiour Candidate can attempt the corrupting of the Superiour Authority without success and every one betime will get as much of Church-preferment as he can to be able to buy more Wherefore by Law or Dispensation men shall be inabled to hold not onely many Benefices but Bishopricks besides other Dignities in the Church by which means no Shepherd will be able to attend his own flock but instead of feeding them with wholesome Doctrine will help the Devil to infuse the worst poison that can be conveyed into mens minds namely That the whole business of Religion is but a device to enrich the Priest Thus necessarily and unavoidably by their absence and silence will they preach and inculcate Atheism and Infidelity into their scandalized Clergie For if the Salt it self become thus unsavoury what better can become of that which it is to season Will not Leudness and Irreligion overflow all 13. To be short All mens minds upon the reckoning being inflamed with Pride and Ambition and no mans Ambition being to be served without mony the Temple of God will as in times past be filled with buyers and sellers and the Church become a very Mart or Fair the Ecclesiastick Polity a City of Merchan dises and every particular Church a Merchant's Ship or Vessel of Traffick amidst the populosity of the World which the Prophetick style resembles to many waters But I will harp no longer on this string I have already made a Description full enough of such a Constitution or Frame of the Church as would in an universal manner oppose or disappoint the planting or growth of the Divine Life whereby it does sufficiently shew it self to be extremely Antichristian CHAP. VIII 1. That such a Frame of things as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith is highly Antichristian 2. That A trade of Worldliness in the Spiritual Guides is one part of this Frame 3. And a Self-ended policy in all the Doctrines and Practices of this Church another 4. Thirdly The profession of uncertainty and obscurity in the Christian Faith 5. Fourthly The necessity of being in a Church where there is no Interruption by misordination 6. Fifthly The bearing men down that Dissent in any thing takes away certainty in all things 7 12. Sixthly Lying Miracles 13 16. Seventhly A rabble of incredible Reliques 17. Eighthly Transsubstantiation 18. How naturally it super-induces Atheism 19. What a bundle of Impossibilities it is 20. That the pretended Infallibility of the Church is infinitely too light to weigh against it 21. Nor can it be made credible by the countenance of feigned Miracles 22. Several Characters of them that are excluded the Holy City comprized in this present Limb of Antichristianism 1. WE will now proceed to those main parts of the Divine Life the Root and the Branches Where it is obvious to take notice that what deads the Root whereby the whole Tree must necessarily wither cannot but be Antichristian to the highest pitch Wherefore if I describe such a management of Affairs in the Church as naturally tends to the extinguishing of Faith which is the necessary Root of the other Divine Graces no man will doubt but that I have delineated a very considerable Limb of Antichristianism 2. Of which the first point is what we last of all touched upon Such a Frame of Government and such sublimities of Dignities as would lapse the Church and immerse it into the World and thereby make them that should be the Salt of the Earth an unsavoury masse and of a secular dead insipid spirit relishing nothing of the Kingdom of God but wholy taken up with the Profits and Promotions of this present life For they would thereby look so like Unbelievers themselves that they would stagger the faith of all those under them and make them think that there was nothing to be expected after this life because their Leaders and Guides lived so exactly according to that Principle That there is nothing to be expected hereafter 3. Secondly The Exquisiteness of their Order and Policy in managing the affairs of their Ecclesiastick Empire if it did surpass all
Sacerdotum praeparatur exercitus Which is a sign that in Gregory's judgment Antichrist was not to be born of the Tribe of Dan but of the Tribe of Levi whom we will further suppose to lay about him for the obtaining of this Levitical Sovereignty and for the advancement of his Episcopal Chair successively in some such manner as follows 3. First he will pretend that it is unfit that the visible Catholick Church being One should not be united under One visible Head Which reasoning yet though it make a pretty show at first sight being closely lookt into will vanish into smoke For this is but a quaint concinnity urged in the behalf of an impossibility For the erecting such an Office for one man which no one man in the world is able to perform implies that to be possible which is indeed impossible Whence it is plain that the Head will be too little for the Body which therefore will be a piece of mischievous Asymmetry or Inconcinnity also No one Mortal can be a competent Head for that Church which has a right to be Catholick and to over-spread the face of the whole Earth There can be no such Head but Christ who is not mere Man but God invested in Humane nature and therefore is present with every part of his Church and every member thereof at what distances soever But to set some one Bishop over the whole Church were to suppose that great Bishop of our Souls absent from it who has promised he will be with her to the end of the World and you may be sure not an idle Spectatour but a carefull Feeder and Governour of their Souls who do really believe in him and unfeignedly obey him 4. Nor does the Church Catholick on Earth lose her Unity hereby for she is under One common Head of the whole Church as well Triumphant as Militant which to come nearer to the Objection is a Visible Head of his Church to those that can approach his Court in that glorious Metropolis in Heaven where undoubtedly he is to be seen sitting on his Sapphire Throne in great Majesty and Glory and where his true Subjects in a small space of time may either see him themselves or at least converse with them that have frequent recourse unto him and wait in his presence And no man I think will say that any large Empire has an Invisible Head because the Emperour himself has placed his Palace in the chiefest Province of his Empire and never comes within the view of some parts of his Dominion and multitudes of men never see him as never having the opportunity of visiting those parts where the Emperour's Court is Whereas Jesus Christ the Head of his Church was seen here on Earth for a good space as also visibly to travel hence into the higher Regions of his Kingdom and in due time will visibly return hither again to take account of the Administratours of his Affairs in these lower Provinces Wherefore Christ is a more visible Head in his large Empire then any Emperour in his So evident is it that there wants no One Visible Head of the Church besides Christ himself 5. But yet notwithstanding all this this ambitious Patriarch I describe will bear the world in hand that it is very fit there should be One visible Head of the Church Universal which should succeed Christ or rather some one whom he would pretend to be Prince of the Apostles and that his Seat is that Apostolical Seat and that there is a necessity for Unity in the Church and for slaking all controversies there should be some one such though the Plea to any indifferent man cannot but seem very weak and frivolous For â—…as I have already intimated the Church will be sufficiently One by being under that One Head Christ Jesus and under One Law which is the Word of God which has been already proved sufficiently plain in all things necessary to Life and Salvation But for other things whether Ceremonies or Conceits they do not at all break the Unity of Christ's Kingdom but it will be truly and conspicuously his so long as it professes the Faith of his Apostles let them otherwise use what difference of Rites they will or differ as much as they can in unnecessary Opinions provided always that none of these Rites or Opinions be really and plainly against the Apostolical Doctrines which are the universal and irreversible Law of Christ's Empire upon Earth For thus the Church-Catholick being in this sort variegated in Externals will yet be visibly the Spouse of Christ though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though cloathed with a Vestment of various flower-work and colours 6. But for this high-flown Patriarch to pretend that his Seat is this Infallible and All-decisive Apostolical Seat is a Plea that can have nothing solid at the bottom For if there had been any such Prelation of some one of the Apostles over the rest it were of that great Moment if ending of Controversies in all succeeding Ages be of that Moment that it would have been recorded in the Scripture and would have ended or prevented all disceptations amongst the Apostles themselves or any others concerning them But quite contrary S. Paul declares that he is in nothing inferiour to the chiefest Apostles which plainly implies an Equality 2 Cor. 12. amongst them all Besides if it were so that some one Apostle had an Authority or Headship over the rest and had once his Residence in such a particular See it does not follow that he that succeeds him in that See should succeed him in that Headship or at all in his Apostleship but onely in his Bishoprick Nor is it credible that if this Prime and Oecumenical Apostle had designed his immediate Successour to the same latitude of Jurisdiction that the claim should not be made and acknowledged by the Universal Church in those more innocent and morigerous times Of so little weight are such pretences as these 7. But if such pretty Sophisms will not serve the turn since Ambition has inflamed the Patriarch's spirits he will leave no stone unmoved to accomplish his desire and what Sophistry cannot doe must be effected though by the coursest methods of either Worldly or Infernal policy That they may therefore obtain this absolute Ecclesiastick Sovereignty the Successours in this pretended prime Apostolical See we will suppose to stick at nothing But that they will forge or counterfeit Canons of Authentick Councils and make them speak for the Supremacy of their Patriarchate that they will countenance abet or allow Treasons and Murthers though upon Emperours and Emperesses Kings and Queens and their whole Posterity by some intrusted Instrument of State whose ambition instigated him thus bloudily to assassinate his Liege Sovereign that he might succeed him in his Kingdom or Empire Whereupon notwithstanding by parasitical fawning conniving or allowing nay by congratulating the success of so beastly an enterprize these eager Candidates for the Ecclesiastick Empire will not stick to
or justice and that is the so freely nick-naming them by the style of Hereticks and Schismaticks Which yet in their own judgment I suppose not to bear so little weight with it whenas their real estimate is discoverable by their proceedings they deeming an Heretick so odious or contemptible that he is not worthy of the common privileges of mankind and of that protection that the Laws of humane Society do afford men that he shall not have the security of a Promise though confirmed by Oath Faith not being to be kept with Hereticks Not to mention here that they have made the penalties of Heresie capital Which how justly though a man were an Heretick in the matters of Belief provided it were not out of Pride and conceitedness but out of invincible Ignorance I will not here discuss 2. It will be of greater use to consider what is real Heresie or Schism that the sincere and knowing Christian may not be reproached nor the less skilful affrighted with these Bug-bears Those that make so great a cry against the hainousness of these sins their Zeal and Rhetorick would be more usefully placed if they would be so faithful as to give us a right Notion of them otherwise while they pretend to be so industriously desirous of Peace and Unity in the Church they may but give greater occasion of Dissensions and Animosities For to make more things Heresies and Schisms then are is to create more quarrels then there need be I will acknowledge as soon as any that Heresie and Schism are very grievous crimes even of the deepest dye but then it must be truly Heresie or Schism not what-ever the peevishness or interest or prejudice of a domineering party will be pleased to call so under the pretence that they are that One Catholick Church from whose Doctrine be it never so false or corrupt for one to dissent must be Heresie and to separate from their communion be their practices never so Idolatrous Schism No certainly those high sins of Heresie and Schism are not against this or that particular Synagogue be they never so numerous but against that ancient and truly Catholick and Apostolick Church and he that sins against her Unity sins against his Creed which has taught us to say I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church Which words because they may be abused to the making of the Church look less Catholick and One then it is I shall offer an easie resolution of the sense of them 3. I conceive therefore that the Object of our Belief in this Clause of the Creed are these three Propositions First That the Church of God wherein eternal Salvation is to be had is but One that is to say That a man cannot be saved in any Religion as some wantonly conceit but that there is one onely way of Salvation which is revealed to God's true Church under which all must come before they can be saved Secondly That this Church of God is now a Catholick Church not Topical or National as in the Commonwealth of the Jews but a Church that is by right to spread over the face of the whole Earth and is designed so to doe by Providence as is expressed in several passages of the Prophets From the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my name shall be great amongst the Gentiles c. as * Chap. 1. Malachie has fore-told And David in the second Psalm Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thirdly and lastly That this One Catholick Church is neither to be stretched so wide as to be acknowledged there where the Apostolical Doctrine the Faith and Practice delivered and commanded by Christ or his Apostles is oppugned and contradicted and quite contrary Doctrines and Practices brought in nor to be made so narrow as that such companies of men should not be allowed to be part of this Catholick Church amongst whom notwithstanding the Apostolical Doctrines do obtain and Primitive Practices of the Church set on foot by the Apostles or Christ himself are in use That is to say The adequate Character of this One Catholick Church is that it rejects nothing of the Apostolical Doctrines and imitable Usages which were commanded by Christ or by his Apostles to the Church nor teaches or institutes any thing that is point-blank opposite thereto or to the Word of God to which Christ and his Apostles give testimony That therefore is the true Catholick Church in the whole and in every particular company of it which has for its visible Laws and Usages whereby it self becomes also visible the Laws and Usages of Christ and his Apostles and nothing contradictorious thereunto This I hope will be acknowledged by all men the most easie and genuine sense of this Article of the Christian Creed that the words are capable of 4. And hence I think a man may easily discover what that Heresie is that is justly to be deemed so hainous a sin namely That it is A Dissent from the Catholick Church even in those things that are in it Apostolical For by them alone they being entire and uncontradicted in her does she discover her self to be that One and onely Catholick Church of Christ. And this would be an hainous sin indeed against that Authority she has to instruct and imbue the world with this saving truth I say to dissent from any part of this Apostolick Doctrine out of a spirit of contradiction and self-conceitedness would be Heresie in the most loathsom circumstances that can be imagined And the next degree to this would be the dissenting from the Catholick Church in such things as they generally agree in though they be not expressly any part of the Apostolick Doctrine but in the mean time not plainly dissonant to the Word of God nor to the immutable Notions of humane Understanding And the third and last degree is to dissent from the determinations of a mans own particular National Church in the like circumstances with the former These seem to have something an over-near affinity with what we have defined most properly primarily to be Heresie But considering that even Oecumenical Councils themselves may erre and that Scripture in things necessary to Salvation is sufficiently plain and the Affairs and the Genius of particular Nations exceeding different and changeable and General Councils very hardly and slowly to be congregated I must not be over-hasty to call a Dissent here no not from an Oecumenical Doctrine or Usage by so harsh a denomination as Heretical there being no entrenchment made thereby upon the Apostolical Laws and Doctrines But to dissent from or not to subscribe to the determinations of what Church soever that are plainly repugnant to the Doctrines Apostolical were not onely not Heretical but Heroical especially if the Dissent is likely to beattended with any personal inconveniences to the Dissenter 5. And now for Schism there is much-what
the same judgment to be made hereon For it is plain that Schism truly so called is A Separation from the Catholick Church or from any National Church which is part thereof even then when she approves her self to be Catholick that is to say even then when she is Apostolick or though she be Apostolick and offer no Opinions and Usages but such as are conformable to the Usages and Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles To separate from the Church in such circumstances as these I confess were a great and damnable sin But for one to separate from the Church in other things upon an invincible suspicion that the consenting to or doing this or that were sinful and displeasing to God though those Opinions might be true and Practices harmless in themselves this I conceive though it make a man materially a Schismatick yet he is not formally so and he is rather to be pitied then reproached But if he separate from that part of the Church if it can be still a part of the Church that does so which imposes Opinions and Practices plainly repugnant to the Precepts of Christ and his Apostles Separation in this case need not be pitied nor ought to be reproached but highly commended and applauded And that voice will warrant them that calls for such sober Separatists Come out of her my people lest you partake of her Rev. 18. sins and of her plagues For the coming out here would be really the going in to the true Church and the standing still the abiding disjoyn'd therefrom as one speaks very smartly and truly Is Ecclesiae non jungitur qui ab Evangelio separatur 6. Wherefore from this true and determinate apprehension of things it is manifest how outrageously and Antichristianly uncharitable this false Church would be against the true Members of Christ in calling them Hereticks and Schismaticks and Renders and Tearers in pieces of the Unity of the Church whenas in truth they are so far from being Hereticks that they are the faithful Witnesses of Jesus and the onely sincere Members of the Apostolick Body and keep to that one foundation of which Christ is the chief corner-stone and are so far from being Schismaticks in their separation from such a Church as I have described where gross Idolatry and Superstition has overflown all that by separating they have redeemed themselves out of this Babylonish or Aegyptian Captivity and returned to that City that is at unity or one with it self and must never vary I mean that one and onely true Catholick Church as being truly Apostolick For if it be true That he is not joyned to the Church that is separate from the Gospel I think it will be true also that he that is sincerely joyned to the Gospel cannot be separate from the Church And therefore this noise of tearing and rending the Church is but a clamorous Accusation of men that feel their own usurped Power and Interest to shake as if it would break in sunder at this resurrection of the true Apostolick Church and Christ's recovering the Power into his own hands for the raising that promised and long-expected Kingdom of Righteousness upon Earth 7. And yet in the fourth place though this false Church be thus perfectly Antichristian as I have described grossely Idolatrous and wretchedly Superstitious and thus shrilly clamorous and querimonious against the rending of the Unity of the Catholick Church as she will phrase it notwithstanding all this we will suppose her so Hypocritically nice and scrupulous that she will not contaminate herself with joyning in Divine Service with those of the true and Apostolick Church though there be nothing in their Service but what is Apostolical no not so much as joyn in the Lord's Prayer or giving of thanks at meat nor say Amen to the shortest Ejaculation or Doxologie that occasion should put into the mouth of those that appertain to the Apostolick Body nor say Grace themselves for fear these Apostolicks should joyn with them or adde their Amen And yet forsooth this Synagogue of Deceivers is so zealous and industrious for the keeping up of the Unity of the Catholick Church as passes when in the mean time they are so full of rancour and railing against these Hereticks as they call them that they will style them and indeed any Church besides their own the Church of the Devil and pronounce that God is not God if he do not damn them and will forbid their Nurselings to so much as wish a Requiem for their Souls when they are departed this life 8. But this is but an Histrionical swaggering in comparison Their Devillish Fraud in the pursuance of this Unsociableness in any Divine duty betwixt them whom they please to term Hereticks and those of their own Church is conspicuous viz. for fear commerce in religious matters should give them the knowledge of the Truth who are held to this false Church by nothing but by believing of Lies I mean not onely such as were long agoe framed for the advantage of their Church but such misinterpretations and falsehoods as they possess their Nurselings with against those whom they call Hereticks whose Doctrines they falsify and traduce their carriage as they please and by this interdicting converse with them keep them in that vile opinion of them which they have infused by their base Calumnies Besides that by this scrupulosity in communicating with them in any Religious duty they ostentate the great Sanctity of their own Pharisaical Church as I intimated before and ingender an hatred and detestation of all that are opposite which plots and practices in those who talk so much for Peace and Unity in the Church is a double iniquity and the highest breach of Charity that comes not yet to blows But she was certainly the Whore that called so remorslesly for the dividing of the Child not the genuine Mother And that must be an Adulterate Church most assuredly that would have Christians differ wherein they profess themselves all agreed and clove in sunder wherein they would naturally joyn together and that is in the Apostolical Doctrines and Practices CHAP. XV. 1. What Incendiaries to War and Plotters of abhorred Murthers these falsely-pretended Successours of Christ are 2. Their Butcherly Cruelty to the Sheep of Christ's Fold 3. Instances of prodigious Barbarities upon them for their very faithfulness to their Saviour and Redeemer 4. The numerousness of them that thus suffer with some particular kinds of Cruelty 5. More Instances of this Diabolical Barbarity 6. All the Elements made Instruments of the wrath and fury of this Antichristian Power 7. Most beastly and unnatural Examples of this Antichristian Salvageness 1. BUT there are yet behind more palpable discoveries of this Antichristian contrariety to that Divine Vertue of Charity the Royal Law as I have already said of the Kingdom of Christ which is described from the Peace and Security of them that live under it That there shall none destroy in God's holy Mountain In
by their recourse to the Bloud of Christ by which they are justifi'd and freed from that blind bondage they were held in under those hard Task-masters that the Concinnity is marvellous to consider the Type being so clear a Prophecy of what has happened within these last Ages in breaking from that Tyrannicall bondage of the Italian Pharaoh But such Instances as these are infinite 6. The next obscuring Scheme is Ellipsis which is an omission of some word or words which are requisite to determine the sense Examples of Ellipses occurre every-where in the Old Testament in the Psalms Job and other Books But by an Ellipsis here I understand not merely the defect of something to make up the full sense but such an artificial defect as shall make the sense seem compleat without the supplement understood For that seems to be the Genius of these Apocalyptick Visions especially that they are made so as to seem very trim and express very complete and articulate in the very outward Cortex as a Book that has some pleasing Embellishments on the back-side as well as the History of truth within 7. Which I little doubt but may be alluded to in that expression concerning this Volume of Visions that it was * Revel 5. 1. written within and without according to the ancient manner of the Cabbalistick Mysteries Touching which Traditions Parmenides had got that Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is a twofold traditionary Knowledge the one Truth it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Daniel in counterdistinction to his Aenigmatical Visions the other Types or Parables accommodate to the conceit and gust of the Vulgar S. Hierom also Rupertus and several others understand this being written within and on the back-side of a Literal and Mystical sense Grotius pretends the Text is not rightly comma'd but reads it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Written within and sealed on the back-side As if there were any Books written on the back-side and sealed within So unfortunate an Interpreter of the Apocalyps is the great Hugo even in lesser matters But to return to the matter in hand 8. The difference of those two kinds of Ellipses we have described may be seen in these Examples Exod. 3. where Moses asking God his Name he returns this answer I am that I am which is an Elliptical speech and fully supplied is My Name is I am that I am Something like this is that also in the * Chap. 1. 4. Apocalyps Grace to you and peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were more full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But these Ellipses are such that they discover the defect of what is to be supplied But sometimes it is not so as Apocal. 17. 8. The Beast which thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and goe into perdition And a little after When they behold the Beast that was and is not and yet is Which seems a smooth entire sense in the exteriour Cortex of the Prophecy whenas no good sense at all can be made of it unless there be conceived some such Ellipsis as before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to have been thus express had laid this Mystery over-open which ought to be in a greater measure concealed and therefore it was thus carefully lock'd up in this Prophetick Ellipsis Of which Text more fully in its proper place 9. Homonymia is the Diversity of significations in one and the same Symbol whereof one alone is to be understood else it were coincident with an Henopoeia of the second kind Which Homonymia may fall out ex accidenti and is of no greater difficulty then that ordinary Homonymia of words whose sense the consideration of the contexture of things will determine or else it may be intended of set purpose to make up a more gracefull insculpture upon the external Cortex of a Vision As in the Vision of the Witnesses I suspect that the three days and an half that they lie dead in the street do not signify as in the beginning of that Vision three years and an half but three times and an half that is 1260 years Nay that they do signify so I do confess I do more then suspect am indeed well assured in my own judgement of the truth thereof But whether there be any likelihood of their signifying also three years and an half Events will better determine Which if they did there would not be a simple Homonymia in this Symbol of three days and an half but an Henopoeia of the second kind 10. Metalepsis is a Prophetick Scheme whereby an Effect or Event is transferred or communicated to some eminent Person merely or at least mainly because the place and time is coincident with his and there is the same reason of Things This Scheme I must confess is very Poetical but not unelegant nor unusuall Like to this is that of Virgil Candidus auratis aperit cùm cornibus annum Taurus and again Libra dies somnique pares ubi fecerat horas Where Taurus and Libra because they are then in conjunction with the Sun have attributed to them or transferred upon them those Effects which really are the Sun 's onely and not theirs But that there is such a Metalepsis as I have described in the Prophetick style that one example of the Rider of the red Horse in the * Chap. 6. 4. Apocalyps will make good who is armed with a great sword in his hand and is said to take peace from the Earth Whenas nothing else is signified but that in this Emperour's time there would be very furious killing and slaying in the Empire though by no fault of his For it is said they should kill one another as if the Text on purpose did cast in that key for the opening the meaning of the Vision as Mr. Mede has judiciously observed Whose interpretation of the First six Seals is so solid that it is impossible I think taking all things together for any unprejudiced Reader not to be assured of the truth of them Whence it is that I am so well assured of this present Prophetick Figure I have set down 11. Antichronismus is an obscurative Scheme in Prophecy which sets down one measure of time for another as a Week for Seven years as in Daniel a Month for Thirty years a Day for a Year Which Figure seems to be used in the Apocalyptick Visions not onely for concealment sake but for proportion and Decorum that the external Cortex of the Prophecies may not want their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that winning and pleasing Credibility of Story Wherefore these Antichronismi are a necessary Consequence of that Prophetick Henopoeia that contracts vast Empires and other Bodies Politick with their long Successions into the figure or shape of Beasts or single Persons whence that the duration of their lives may not be over-proportionated to their nature it was necessary to declare their
5. c. 17. Molinaeus all these were imitations of the Imperial Power and Dignity So exactly may he be said to exercise all the power of the first Beast before him And is yet still more palpably true in that he takes away all power in Ecclesiastick affairs from the Emperour and will exercise it solely himself not to adde that by virtue of this entire Ecclesiastick Power he has wrested even the Civil Power of the Empire out of the Emperour's hands in a very great measure so awful a thing has been the Pope's thunder of Excommunication And this is sufficient to make good the third Agreement of my first Parallelism 3. Having a golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications Where Grotius upon the word Abominations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he In Viso quidem intelligendo humor foetens in re verò Dii falsi quos Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore the filthiness of her Fornications is the same with the former they all signifying the Idolatry of the Roman Hierarchy And as we have already demonstrated in the foregoing Chapter that this Whore is not understood of Rome Pagan so this Circumstance amongst others agrees very naturally thereto For this Woman with her Cup in her hand implies she is the beginner not of an health but of this damnable Pollution of Idolatry and that whereas the Empire had grown chast and cold to this folly and madness through the power of the pure Gospel of Christ this Woman by this Incentive this Virus amatorium would inflame their spirits again with new lustful motions after Idols and make them goe a-whoring from their God 4. But there is something further observable in this golden Cup wherein the force of its bewitchery may consist For that it is an enchanted Cup or a Philtrum I have abundantly made good under that Title in my Prophetick Alphabet and not onely Mr. Mede but Cornelius à Lapide and Cha. 8. Sect. 2. Alcazar interpret it to that sense The latter of whom besides the filthiness of the Composition as the ashes of Toads and of mens brains hanged at the Gallows addes also Cantiones execranda verba Charms and direful words which must needs therefore be conceived to be Magical and of a miraculous power Analogical to which is that Chap. 13. concerning V. 13. 14. the Two-horned Beast that he doth great wonders even so much that he maketh fire to come down from Heaven and so deceiveth them Par. 1. Agr. 4. that dwell on the Earth by those miracles that he had power to doe in the sight of the Beast that is to say in the sight of the Empire which he seduced into Idolatry by these Miracles and so re-introduced the Image of the slain Beast by this seduction Whence it is plain That the Magick and the Miracles of the Whore and of the Two-horned Beast tended to one end the reviving of Idolatry again in the Empire according to the fourth Agreement of our first Parallelism 5. But one chief Charm that was used over this Magical Cup undoubtedly are those powerful and affrightful words of Excommunication that Menace of committing men to Hell-fire if they did not submit to these Idolatrous Institutes of the Church This Thunder from that Roman Vejovis did not sowre but sweeten this Cup and make it goe off with a great deal of pleasure it looking so like the Cup of salvation to those that drank it when it was so authoritatively and terribly declared that those that refused it should undoubtedly perish This is that main Spell that did invigorate the virtue of this Potion and made the Whore's Paramours lie more close in her bosom when they were terrified with such ineffable danger and misery that should befall them out of it Which pretended power being neither lawful nor natural but above the limits of Nature what can it be justly deemed but Magical or Diabolical And this is that very same power which is plainly and apertly figured out in those words of the 13 Chapter where the Two-horned Beast is said to make fire come down from Heaven which I have already in my Prophetick Alphabet plainly Chap. 6. Sect. 14. proved to be a very significant Iconism of Excommunication 6. And there is nothing more frequent in the mouths of all men then the Pope's Thunderbolt of which they have conceived so miraculous an effect that the people at Paris were made generally to believe that it had so blasted the Hereticks that their very faces were grown black and ugly as Devils their eyes and looks ghastly their breaths noisom and pestilent as Sir Edwin Sandys has recorded in his Europae Speculum Erasmus also runs much upon this Metaphor in his Colloquies and the Popes themselves glory in it And as if the people were not quick enough to understand the similitude without some visible Ceremonie the Pope casts down burning Fire-brands from aloft at a certain solemn Excommunication And lastly Nauclerus uses this phrase of being thus Thunder-struck three or four times within the compass of a page or two And the Popes themselves look upon them whom they have Excommunicated tanquam fulmine afflatos and so speak of them as Paraeus has also observed upon the place So that there is not room left for the least Hesitation whether Excommunication be not alluded to in that miraculous bringing down fire from Heaven 7. But whereas it is said That he deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by reason of those Miracles which he had power to doe I must confess I think other Miracles may also be glanced at of which there is abundance boasted of by the Roman Church themselves by which they would confirm several sorts of Idolatries practised amongst them Which may be attributed as many of them as are true to the great activity and desire of their Priests to promote Idolatry who thereby invite the Devil to play such pranks at their Images or Altars or in their Coemeteries But to return to the Magick-Cup 8. We have considered the contents of it and that supernatural Magick infused into the Liquor thereof But the very Metall of the Cup which is Gold has also its significancy and bears with it a meaning of a more natural Magick that attracts all Quid non mortalia pector a cogis Auri sacra fames Wherefore that great Affluency of Riches Honours and Preferments that are to be had in the Roman Church is no small part of this intoxicating Potion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay indeed has made the Inhabitants of the Earth drunk the fumes of Ambition and Covetousness possessing their Brains especially theirs of the Roman Clergie who are not enriched with these Golden gifts of the Church but upon the condition of assisting and abetting the Idolatry thereof This Cup therefore I conceive may also be an Emblem of
Sensuality Luxury and Affluency and to be drunk therewith to abound with worldly felicity even to an Insensibility of better things and to a besotted security and contentedness with the present enjoyments of this Life This also may be one sense of this intoxicating Cup besides what I have touched upon before Ver. V. And upon her forehead was a Name written Which Interpreters have rightly noted to allude to the custom of some impudent Harlots who had their names written upon their foreheads as appears from that in Seneca Nomen tuum pependit in fronte pretia stupri accepisti manus quae Diis datura erat sacra capturas tulit 2. Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth All which Inscription I conceive is the Name of the Whore For the Scripture often makes long Names even a whole Sentence as I shall have occasion more fully to note anon I say the very word Mystery is part of the Name And the sense of the whole is That the Name of the Whore is Mystical Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots or rather the Mother of Fornications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some Copies which the Vulgar Latin follows and Grotius best approves of and best fits with what follows and of the Abominations of the Earth that they may be both Abstracts And Mystical here signifies the same that Spiritual elsewhere in the Apocalyps Which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt as Chap. 11. v. 8. Cornelius à Lapide has also compared them and it is the Great City there too which is so called Wherefore let any one judge if Mystical or Spiritual Babylon can be understood of Rome Pagan or whether it is likely that the Spirit of God should prefix the term Mystery to an Inscription that hath no more in it then a dry Synecdoche For if Rome Pagan be understood it is no more but putting one Pagan Idolatrous and Persecutive City for another With which certainly so profound and venerable a Preface as Mystery cannot well suit 3. Wherefore it must be understood of a Christian City or Polity Idolatrizing and debauching others with Idolatry And the meaning of the Mystery must be this Even that that Hierarchy which should over-spread the Empire pretend to be the pure and unadulterate Apostolick Church and be generally believed to be so nay to be that City from Heaven the foundations of whose Walls are twelve with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed upon them that City wherein God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his servants where there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor any more pain that is to say no more bloudy Persecutions Pressures nor Tortures of the faithful Servants of Christ as Grotius well interprets it and lastly that City wherein there is no Temple that is to say no Object towards which we bow besides the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb who alone is worshipped with Religious worship I say the Mystery is this That that Occumenical Hierarchy or Body of the Clergie that boast themselves to be this pure and Apostolick City as being of an unerring judgment should indeed be the very City Babylon it self which in stead of being so chast a pattern of Purity of Worship were Sacrificers to the dead and the Adorers or Worshippers of Bel and the Propagators of the worship of the Baalim that is to say of the worship of Daemons or false Gods through the world infecting therewith even the very Jews themselves the peculiar people of God and in stead of being a Protection and Refreshment to the Servants of the true God held them in a long and sad Captivity casting them that would not bow to the Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up into an hot fiery Furnace This is the Mystery and yet a very true one For it is over-manifest of this Pseudo-christian Hierarchy that they have debauched the professed People of God with various kinds of Idolatry and have held them captive a long time under an hard servitude and besides other tortures and persecutions have burned thousands of the faithful servants of Christ with Fire and Fagot Wherefore it is a Mystery indeed that she that so boldly professes her self the City of God and had the luck to be believed so generally to be so should in truth be found to be that bloudy and Idolatrous Babylon 4. And because she boasts her self also to be the Catholick as well as the Apostolick Church she is farther adorned with the Title of Great as well as of Babylon and is at once styled Babylon the Great the vast extent of that City which they that have made the most frugal computation reckon 360 or 380 Stadia in compass Pliny and Herodotus 480 being a fit Symbol of their pretence to Catholickness or Universality And lastly because she will pretend to be the Spouse of the Lamb and be called Our Mother the Church the Spirit of God in reproach to this false Beast has styled her the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth 5. Which style does plainly discover that this City Babylon is not Rome Heathen but a Polity Christian. For Rome Heathen was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius reads it the Mother that is the Author and Dispenser of Idolatry over the face of the Earth for the Nations were Idolatrous of themselves without her and she rather a Learner and Receiver of their Idolatries which she increased as she advanced her Trophees as it may appear by that promissory Charm which Macrobius sets down used by Saturnal lib. 3. cap. 9. the Romans when they had hopes of taking a City calling out thereby the Tutelary Gods of the Place and promising them Temples and Solemnities at Rome Wherefore the Title of Mystery prefixed to the Name of the Whore or rather it being a part of it and which easily answers to that Mystery of Iniquity the Apostle speaks of jointly considered with this part of the 2 Thess. 2. 7. Name The Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth does evidently agree with our Demonstration in the foregoing Chapter that proved it necessary to understand by Babylon not Rome Heathen but a State of the Church degenerating into Heathenism and Idolatry Which lying deeper then that every man can discover it at first sight as being coloured and gilded over with fair pretences of magnifying Christ and his Apostles and the rest of the Saints especially the Virgin Mary the Mother of Christ is rightly called a Mystery In which this Whore and the Two-horned Paral. 1. Agr. 5. Beast do exactly agree For his having Horns like a Lamb is that outward pretext of Succession from Christ and his Apostles and of having a power from them to rule and discipline the Church according to the mind of Christ to his Honour and for his interest which they pretend in every thing But his speaking like a Dragon bespeaks him
Universal Bishop and has for a long time laid claim to and exercised this power to say nothing of his high insultations over the Caesarean Majesty and his usurping as well his Rights as wearing the Imperial Ensigns I say this Idolatrous Hierarchy growing so big in time in these Western parts of the Empire and their power shrivelling up or melting away so much in the Eastern and not continuing in nor advancing to that gross measure of Antichristianism that is found in the other the Spirit of God has accordingly more strongly stamped the mark of discovery on the Western Hierarchy then on the Eastern and because that See lays claim to an Universal Jurisdiction has made Old Rome I mean the whole Hierarchy whose Head is seated there to be this Great Whore For he saith The Woman which thou sawest is that great City which now reigneth over the Kings of the Earth For it is the present Tense and spoken in S. John's time when there was no Seven-Hilled City that reigned over the Kings of the Earth but Old Rome And therefore of necessity it is she 2. But besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the present Tense and is all one as if one should say quae nunc regnat it is farther observable that if it were not determined to this sense it would rather be a Nugation if a man may speak it with reverence then an Interpretation and would be added to no purpose as being of an uncertain sound and not able to signify any thing but what was said before For in that she is said to whore with the Kings of the Earth and to ride the Beast and to sit upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues this already amounts to as much as the reigning over the Kings of the Earth Wherefore this Adjection must have this peculiar in it that in saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it implies that that City was meant that ruled the world in S. John's time and therefore is the Seven-Hilled Rome But why do I goe about so industriously to prove that which our very Adversaries do not deny as Ribera and Cornelius à Lapide who both acknowledge Old Rome here meant and Alcazar also and Bellarmine upon particular evincement from this verse The words of Bellarmine are Neque enim alia Civitas est quae Joannis tempore imperium habuerit super Reges terrae quà m Roma notissimum est supra septem montes Romam adificatam esse Which two things joyn'd together is a Demonstration that Rome in Italy here is meant and no other City 3. The sense therefore of the Verse may be clearly delivered in this short Paraphrase The Woman which thou sawest riding on the Beast that was and is not and yet is is that great City which now ruleth over the Kings of the Earth that is to say it is Rome whose Inhabitants though flowing successively are accounted one and the same City because included within the same walls or buildings as that is accounted one and the same River that flows betwixt the same banks though the same Water does not continue for a day together This Woman then which S. John saw riding the Empire under the last Head thereof upon the pretence of being the true Catholick and Apostolick Church though indeed become an Apostatized Harlot this Woman I say is that very City that great City that great Roman State or Polity that now rules over the Kings of the Earth saith the Angel to S. John But where or from whence could that be but from Rome the Imperial City Whence it is evident that the Roman Catholick Church as she calls her self which rules the world from the Seven Hills is to be understood as being look'd upon as one and the same Woman this new Roman Hierarchy succeeding and being seated as much in the same City that is as much within the Roman walls as that ancient Polity was Which is as easy to conceive as if one should prophesy of a certain River that it should run bloud three hundred years hence and then should adde that this River is that River that now discharges it self with seven mouths into the Mediterranean For it is evident that this must be understood of the waters of Nilus and yet not of those that flow now but those that shall flow three hundred years hence And as we would say that this very River Nilus that runs now into the Mediterranean is the River that will run tinctured with bloud three hundred years hence though the water is not the same now and then nor of the same Quality so might it be said in S. John's time that that very City meaning the Power or Polity there which then ruled the world would ride the Beast that was and is not and yet is so many Ages after though the Polity be no more the same then the water of Nilus now running is the same with the bloudy water which is foretold shall flow within his banks three hundred years hence So easy and natural is the Expression of the Angel in this last verse and so manifest the determination of the Woman's Seat to Old Rome accordingly as it has come to pass 4. And that the Vision of the Two-horned Beast may keep perfect pace with this of the Whore for the same reasons which I have already here alledged the Seat of the Two-horned Beast is likewise at last restrained to Rome as the onely See of the Universal Head of the Pseudo-prophetick Body Which restriction is discoverable as well by the Numeral Name of the Beast as by numbering that Number comprised in his Name The former Computation is observed by Bishop Dounham to be cavilled against by some as Cabbalistical But he proves it plainly enough out of Irenaeus that this kind of Computation is Traditionary even from S. John himself De Antichrist lib. 6. cap. 4. And though a many Pseudo-Cabbalists have brought the very name of Cabbala into a suspectedness yet I must confess that I think the fame thereof was not raised upon nothing but that there was such an hidden way of delivering the great Arcana of knowledge and that part thereof was the Symbol of Numbers which is frequent in this Book of the Apocalyps as well as continual in the first Chapter of Genesis Not to take notice that that very Expression of Alpha and Omega seems to be Cabbalistical there being frequent mention with them of Aleph lucidum and Aleph tenebrosum concerning which Robert Flud who pleased himself in diving into these depths so far as his bucket would reach Habetis saith he Aleph Meâ—…eorolog Cosmic lib. 4. cap. 3. Cabbalistarum tenebrosum in lucidum conversum omnia creans coelúmque terram informans consequenter habetis Alpha Omega Principium Finem This is answerable to that verse of Orpheus concerning God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Plato calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I doubt not but was the doctrine
this Succession 12. That the little Horn does of necessity appertain to the Roman Kingdom become Ten-horned and Pagane-Christian at once 13. That it is of equal duration with the Whore and Two-horned Beast and at least coincident in time with them and the Beast restored 14. From which Equality and Coincidence he is discovered to be the Whore or Two-horned Beast 15. That the Patriarch of Rome is more especially concerned in this Type 16. The exquisite Applicability of the Characters of this Horn to the said Patriarch 17. The Application of those Characters that more particularly concern his opposing the Regal Office of Christ. 1. THat Prophecy also in Daniel of the little Horn that is said to change times and laws is an express Prediction of that Antichristian Opposition which is against the Regal Office of Christ. For that this little Horn is the same with the Two-horned Beast or the Whore in the Apocalyps I think no man will scruple that considers that this Horn is part of the Roman Kingdom which is decyphered by Ten Horns and that it belongs to that time when the Kingdom is actually Ten-horned which is not in succession but together as the Ten toes of the Statue which answer to these Ten horns do not signify the succession of Ten Kings but Ten Kings ranked in the same time as the Toes of the feet of the Image which have not properly a precedency but rather a co-ordination in Site 2. Now that the Fourth Kingdom which is prefigured by the iron leggs feet and ten toes of the Image and by the Beast with Iron teeth and ten Dan. 2. Horns is not that of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would have it but the Kingdom of the Romans there are these weighty Reasons to convince us First It is the universal sense of all Ecclesiastick Writers That the Fourth Beast is the Roman Empire as both Cornelius à Lapide and Caspar Sanctius both of them Jesuites yet do roundly assort The words of the latter are these Est ergò omnium sententiâ innominata has atque â—…rribilis bellu a Romanum Imperium neque necesse est quonquam nominare cùm nemo non dicat 3. Secondly That it cannot be the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae as Grotius would bear us in hand in which odd conceit of his he forsakes the judgment of the whole Church of Christ to follow Porphyrius his who was a sworn Enemie to the Christian Religion appears from what is said Daniel 7. 23. The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod majus erit omnibus regnis Which shall be greater then all Kingdoms so the vulgar Latine and Vatablus The Seventy also render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it agrees best with what follows and shall devour the whole Earth which must be understood in such a sense as Earth was before and shall tread it down and break it in pieces Which it could not be said to doe unless it were so great a Kingdom as is here intimated Now it is manifest that the Kingdom of the Seleucidae and Lagidae was neither greater more excellent nor a more victorious Kingdom then any of the three preceding namely the Babylonian Persian and that of Alexander the Great from whose Kingdom they would make this of the Seleucidae and Lagidae distinct Wherefore their Kingdom cannot be this Fourth This Inference is so plain to Gaspar Sanctius that he does though but justly yet very severely chastise Porphyrius for this errour which Grotius has so unluckily taken up For he breaks out into these words upon this Text Vide Porphyrii stuporem oscitantiam in cujus mentem venire potuit ut existimaverit regnum eorum qui Alexandro successere omnium esse maximum quódque omnem terram sibi subjecerit conculcaveritque cùm reliquis regnis longè fuerit infirmius ab omnibus concisum aut malè vexatum Nay the very Prophecy it self makes the Kingdom of the Successours of Alexander less then his in power and greatness Dan. 8. 22. where it is said that four Kingdoms shall stand up but not in the power of Alexander Which is they shall be inferiour to him Which questionless is meant of them joyntly it being a needless intimation of them single 4. Thirdly The Kingdom of the Iron leggs and toes and of the Ten-horned Beast with iron teeth are one and the same Kingdom according to Grotius his own acknowledgment which he makes that of the Seleucidae and Lagidae Now it is said that a Stone cut out of a Mountain without hands should break in pieces these leggs and toes Dan. 2. nay the whole Image of iron brass silver and gold and so succeed this Kingdom of the Seleucidae according to his sense of the Vision And Chap. 7. One like the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven comes to receive a Kingdom namely upon the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanes that little Horn amongst the ten in this fourth Kingdom of Grotius his framing of whom it is said at the 21. verse I beheld and the same Horn made warre with the Saints and prevailed against them untill the Ancient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High Which is the same with the Son of man his coming in the clouds of Heaven to receive the Kingdom of the Ancient of days ver 13. And both agree with the Stone cut out without hands to shew it is not the work of man but of the Ancient of days God himself and that this is indeed the very Kingdom of Christ as Interpreters ever have expounded it Which is a perfect contradiction to Grotius his dream That the Fourth Beast with iron teeth and the iron leggs of the Image denote the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae and that Antiochus is this little Horn. For Antiochus Epiphanes was dead almost two hundred years before Christ so much as preached the Doctrine of the Kingdom or had any Disciples to follow him and yet it is said Dan. 2. 44. And in the days of these Kingdoms shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed From which passage I doubt not but that phrase The Kingdom of God as also from that above The Kingdom of Heaven does so often occurre in the Gospel as also that Title which Christ so often gives himself of the Son of man And Grotius himself upon Matthew Ch. 8. 20. acknowledgeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of man mentioned Dan. 7. 13. is to be understood of the Messias Wherefore it is impossible that the Kingdom of the Lagidae and Seleucidae should be the Fourth Kingdom 5. But here Grotius contrary to his judgment when he wrote upon Matthew has found a device which is scarce to be uttered without horrour and astonishment So that I am infinitely amazed that a man otherwise so learned and laudable as he speaks of Porphyrius should be
and back'd with an unexceptionable Life and conversation will be like a sharp-edged sword with the weight of running Quick-silver in the back of it whose stroke will fall with such a sway that it will even chine the enemy at one blow will divide asunder soul and spirit and pierce through the joynts and marrow as the Apostle speaks But this is more then our present Scope intended which was onely to shew that that Antichristian Opposition which is particularly made against the Kingly and Prophetick Office of Christ is prefigured in the Prophets which I hope I have sufficiently done in the Visions of the Two Witnesses of the little Horn with Eyes and in this present Vision of the Rider of the white Horse CHAP. XV. 1. That the rest of the Sacred Titles of Christ are referrible to the Prophecies we have already treated of 2. As likewise all the Oppositions to the Divine life in general saving that of turning the Church into a City of Merchandises 3. Which seems predicted in the Lamentation over the Ruines of Babylon Apoc. 18. Ver. 11. The meaning of the eleventh twelfth and thirteenth verses Ver. 14. Of the fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Ver. 17. Of the seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth Ver. 21. The Exposition continued from the twentieth to the end of the Chapter 1. AS for those other Attributes of Christ's Person as where he is called The everlasting Father and styled God Light Truth The Prince of Peace the Oppositions to them are referrible to those Prophecies we have already treated of The first to those that concern the first members of Antichristianism For there is no greater enemie against the Second Birth or Holy Regeneration then that rabble of Idolatrous and Superstitious practices comprised in the two first members of Antichristianism Those Prophecies also of the Mauzzim or Daemons to be worshipped are Prophecies of the Opposition against Christ's Divinity and the Darkness of Aegypt of that against the Light of the Gospel The False-Prophet and makers of Lies against the Truth and the warring against the Saints a contradiction to the Prince of Peace These hints may suffice for those remaining Attributes of Christ's Person We shall now proceed to the Predictions of the Antichristian Oppositions to the Divine Life 2. And the first were such as opposed the Divine Life in general Which are indeed all those Oppositions hitherto gross Idolatry burthensome Superstition the Oppositions against Christ as King Priest and Prophet To which those particular Oppositions against the Divine Life in general which I noted are also referrible and therefore treated of already There is onely one thing behind which is the turning of the Church of God into a Mart or Fair by those religious Nundinations and Collations of Ecclesiastick Preferments for mere Secular Interest the turning the exercise of Christian Offices into a mere Trade of gain for the Priests of what Dignity soever This is known to be a gross miscarriage in the Church of Rome and is in my mind most lively and graphically prefigured and depainted in that Lamentation upon the Ruine of Babylon Apoc. 18. beginning at the ninth verse 3. Which I shall endeavour briefly to give some light to in my rehearsing the Prophecie 9. And the Kings of the Earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning 10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment saying Alas alas that great City Babylon that mighty City for in one hour is thy judgment come That this City Babylon is not a City of brick and stone but a Polity and particularly the Roman Hierarchy I have evidently proved in my Joint-Exposition And truly it seems improbable to me that the Spirit of God should put the Apostle upon composing so long and copious a Threnodia upon her ruine and desolation if it signifi'd no more then the burning of the City of Rome in a literal sense and so slightly as did Totilas and with so little design or effect Wherefore in that sense which we have already given and do not at all doubt but is true let us hold on briefly to illustrate the Text. In these two first verses comes in the Lamentation of the Kings of the Earth such as committed fornication with her that is to say such as were of her Idolatrous profession but seeing how things went durst not assist her for fear but let her burn till the end Which again shews that Babylon's fall is not at once but by degrees as I have already noted For though her judgment be come in one hour yet the execution of it may take up a considerable time Ver. 11. And the Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buieth her Merchandise any more 12. The merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all Thyine wood and all manner of vessels of Ivory and all manner of vessels of most precious stones and of brass and of iron and of marble 13. And cinnamon and odours and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flower and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and the Souls of men The first sort of Mourners or Lamenters seem to be those of the Secular Power but by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to be understood Ecclesiastick persons that traffick in the Church where all is supposed to pass or be disposed of for Mony or Earthly Interest and therefore in reproch they are called the Merchants of the Earth though otherwise their Titles and Professions point to nothing but to Christ and God and Heaven Divine Holy Sacred or Religious being the external badge of them all The varieties of the Commodities they deal in are so numerous that it were too great a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek a Mystery in them all when it may possibly be nothing else but an Hylasmus or dwelling upon Material Objects in a redundant manner for the adorning of the outward Cortex of the Prophecie But the ground in general of the Lamentation of these Merchants is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Fair is violently broke up or else quite unfrequented that there is no buying and selling of such Commodities in Babylon as was wont sith Babylon her self is unaccessible as lying burning and smoking in the wrath of God no sale of gold silver precious stones pearls fine linen purple silk and scarlet the rich attire of those higher parts of the Whore as you may see in the foregoing Chapter fit for Popes Cardinals and other great Personages of that Babylonish Body and their Officers no Thyine wood for the roof of their Temples or for carved Idols to whom sacrifice is done for I suspect some such allusion in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Incense for burnt-offerings for their adored Images no Images of
S. Paul declare it to them they would ever be drawn to be accessary thereto by breaking off this compliance which was so strong a bank against the inundation of Gnosticism and Persecution of the Church And touching the fifth There is somewhat the like exception that was against Grotius his Exposition that seems to make any thing concealed a Mystery which is a false notion of the word For an open and plain Opposition or Renunciation of Christianity intended but concealed which is the supposed case here is no more a Mystery then hidden Murther and Adultery as I said before 6. And as for the sixth and last It seems somewhat harsh and strained to understand that execution that is done by the Spirit of the mouth of the Lord to appertain to Simon Magus at Rome and that destruction wrought by the brightness of his coming to belong to the Gnosticks involved in the destruction at Jerusalem especially if we consider that there was no Coalition of Simon Magus and the Gnosticks into one Body Politick but that they seemed rather to descend from the Nicolaitans as Baronius intimates and so have no reference one to another Besides that the Text says continuedly Whem the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming Which is nothing else but the bright flame and fiery Spirit issuing out of his mouth according to that description in Esdras and upon one and the same Object which is this Man of Sin the same with the little Horn in Daniel which is after this manner to be destroyed 7. To all which you may adde That if the History of what is here applied be true and that the coming of the Lord be to be understood of the destruction of Jerusalem and not of the last Judgment it is a wonderfull thing that the first Fathers of the Church who had a nearer prospect into those â—…ansactions of the world could not discern the Completion of the Prophecy in Simon Magus and the Gnosticks but that we that stand at the farthest distance from the events should be the quickest-sighted in discerning their Applicability to the Prophecy But I have already intimated enough to shew the improbability that this should be the main meaning of this Prediction of S. Paul But if I could believe that the condition of Simon and the Gnosticks was in some sense here perstringed as I must confess this pious and judicious Interpreter has bid very fair towards the Credibility of it I should look upon them as a preludious Type to the great Antichrist and should think that passage For the Mystery of Iniquity does already work to be understood of them as it may though the rest of the Prophecy be in many things unapplicable to Simon and belong onely to the great Antichrist indeed of whom this Magician may be onely a Type or Figure and truly not an unsignificant one For as he is a Magician so is that great Antichrist an egregious Sorcerer and the Head of a numerous Society of Sorcerers and Enchanters Again As Simon gave the name and first example of that wicked fin of Simonie so these pretended Successours of Peter both they and their Body Ecclesiastick have notoriously imitated that example of Simon in buying and selling Spiritualities Thirdly Part of Simon 's and the Gnosticks Apostasy was Judaizing while they made a show of Christianity And how much Antichrist with his Adherents do Judaize in Ceremonies and in boasting of Works and dead Formalities is conspicuous to all the world Fourthly Simon and the Gnosticks were notorious for filthiness and uncleanness And so has been the great Antichristian Synagogue Head and Members Fifthly Though Simon and the Gnosticks were thus grosly obnoxious in life and conversation yet they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extraordinary pretenders to and boasters of the certainty of their Knowledge in the Divinest matters and great esteemers thereof And is not this the special Character of the Pope and his Church that they pretend to be even infallibly wise and accurately orthodox in knowledge and opinion but are as foully negligent and as scandalonsly conniving at all debaucheries of life Sixthly Simon and the Gnosticks were opposers and persecuters of the true Church So is the Papal Hierarchy with the Instruments thereof Seventhly The Followers of Simon polluted themselves with Idols And so doe the Adherers to the Headship of Rome Eighthly and lastly Simon exalted himself above every thing that is called God and received Divine Honours in his own Person upon Earth Which is also notorious in the Roman Bishop So that while such things as these were acting in the world and by such as made some show of Christianity S. Paul might well say of that great Mystery of Iniquity That it is already on foot that it is in some sense acting already namely in Simon and his Followers as a Type and Prelude to the strange pranks of the great Antichrist and that there wants nothing but the removing of that great Obstacle at Rome the Western Caesareate and then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself that great Antichrist indeed will shew himself of whom Simon is but the Figure See Ch. 18. Ver. 7. This Exposition is something more plausible then that there of Alcazar who understands the Mystery of Iniquity already working of pure Paganism but whether it may be the chiefest of all I leave to the judicious to consider In the mean time I think I have sufficiently cleared the truth of those main Prophecies in Scripture that concern the enormous Haughtiness and Pride of Antichrist which is so apparently opposite to the first branch of the Divine life Humility and Lowliness of Spirit 8. The next is Purity whose Opposite is Uncleanness The Predictions of the Causes that carry to that Vice I have touched already But as for the Vice it self it being so inseparable a Concomitant of Idolatry which is Spiritual Adultery or Fornication I conceive the Spirit of Prophecy for that very reason was the more sparing in particular Prefigurations or Predictions thereof But I do not doubt but that it is concerned in that description of the great City Apocal. 11. And their bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom c. And how unclean a City Sodom was no man can be ignorant of Again those that are excluded out of the Holy City which is so perfectly opposite to this City called Sodom they are called Dogs and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abominable by which as I have above noted out of Grotius are understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusers of themselves with Man-kind Whoremongers also are named in the same Catalogue But of these Texts I have spoke sufficiently in my Idea of Antichristianism In that the Church is said to become a * Apocal. 12. Wilderness it may be also an Intimation of the excess of those Actions of the Animal life that proceed from Cruelty
man upon earth may dispense with one tittle thereof But for authorizing Interpretations Opinions and the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship either this is in a Christian Prince's power and not in the Priest's or else his Kingdome and safe administration thereof is not in his power For all these things according to the Eternal Law of Nature and of Reason are to be in the hand of him that is Supreme Governour and it is a contradiction to his Supremacy if it be not so For he that holds the rains of the Souls of men rules their whole Persons and the strongest rains are those of Religion And therefore if any Power distinct from the Kingly pretend to the right of ordering the affairs of Religion farther then his allowance and liking that Power is really the King and the King himself a precarious Power to be blown about and blown out of his Throne by the false breath of these pretenders to the Headship of the Church as often and as violently as they please Wherefore as the plain and confessed Law of Christ is immutable so what is doubtful and merely Ritual is to have its interpretation change or continuance at the judgement and discretion of every Christian Prince who has most justly and necessarily the power of accommodating such things to the peace composure and prosperity of his Kingdome Nor have the Ecclesiastick Powers any right in an immutable and essential manner to affix to the Christian Religion any thing that is not expresly and declaredly comprised therein according to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures For it is an high wrong to that Religion which is to be Everlasting and Universal to be bound and fettered with either Rites or Opinions that are but Temporary or Topical or that the Errours and Mistakes of dark Antiquity should become as a Law of the Medes and Persians to more serious and clear-sighted Posterity or what was fetched up upon some transitory emergency that all the importunities and necessities of after-Affairs of the Church or any parts thereof should not be able to conjure it down again for the making the Gospel more freely to run and be glorified 7. And therefore most apertly and judiciously has our Church declared in her Homily of Fasting That God's Church ought not neither may it be tied to any order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw the people from God rather then work any edification in them And in the Book of Articles she again plainly asserts That it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places Article 34. one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries Times and mens manners so that nothing be ordain'd against God's Word And lastly in the close of that Article Every Particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Which Affairs of so dispensable and changeable a nature if they could be ordered by a power distinct from and independent of the Supreme Power of any Christian Nation and affecting and relishing a private Interest of their own what wilde commotions and confusions might they cause in a Christian State while they gore and spurre up the Ass to goe that way where he sees the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword to drive him back Wherefore it is most safe and just that in all preter-Essentials to Christian Religion the Supreme Magistrate in every Christian Nation have the allowing or disapproving of them and that no Rites nor Opinions pass into Decrees but by his Authority that the Priesthood may not be able as they ought to be so faithful to their Prince as not to be willing to teach or decree any thing against his Interest whose Subjects they are or against the Safety Peace and Prosperity of the whole State of which they are but part and therefore ought to have no power to doe any thing independently of the Prince who is the Common Father of his whole Countrey and whose Interest is the good and welfare of all Who therefore must needs be the Head of the Church over all Causes and Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil as our Church does plainly acknowledge that vital Influence may indifferently flow from him into all the members of his Dominions But this is a point that might have been more seasonably deferr'd till we came to the Antichristian Opposition to the first branch of the Divine Life which is Humility and which the superlative Pride of the Papal Supremacy does so apparently affront But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself I have already abundantly evinced 8. Now concerning those Oppositions that be made against Faith the Root of the Divine Life our Church is so plainly free from them as any one may perceive that pleases but to recount them that it is enough merely to intimate so much Onely I cannot let go this seasonable opportunity of triumphing in her behalf in that she is so throughly reformed from that notorious though subtle and slim piece of Antichristianism I mean that Self-ended Policy in those Doctrines and Practices which are so many in the Church of Rome and so profitable and yet Our Heavendirected Reformation has perfectly refined us and cleansed us from them all The consideration whereof must needs make our Mother the Church of England look very lovely and amiable to every ingenuous and discerning eye who cannot but bless God for that due judgment and faithfulness which he put into our Royal and Reverend Reformers and must be a great satisfaction to every honest Priest or Minister of our Church that he neither feeds himself nor the people with Lies after the manner of the Roman Priesthood nor puts one morsell of bread into his mouth filched from the Laiety by fraud and imposture and that as he labours in the Gospel so he lives by the Gospel and not by Figments and cunningly-devised Fables 9. Those Oppositions also against that Divine Grace of Humility which are specified in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters that our Church is cleared from them it is more apparent to any one that considers them then that I need give my self the trouble of particularly making it out The Pope's Supremacy is not onely declared against but sworn against as is very just and right And though there be peculiar Habits for Clergy-men yet as I have noted above our Church does professedly declare there is no Holiness in any such things but that they are for decency and distinction And distinction betwixt Laiety and Clergy is as