us was none of the Sublata though somewhere it be as well as the rest And the field of my defence is so much the larger if it be considered that one of the three Res sacrae is capable of Subdivision But enough of this it being no well-becoming Theme to dispute upon I said there was eadem ratio Loci temporis not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but eadem ratio Loci Temporis sacri to wit for the Sanctification i. e. holy and discriminative usance due unto them both and the formal reason in respect whereof it is due For the reason why a thing is to be Sanctified or Sanctè habendum is because it is Sanctum or Sacrum Now whatsoever is appropriate unto God and his Service is such whether the determination thereof be by God's own immediate Ordination or mans Devotion it is all one in this respect so the Appropriation or Dedication thereof be supposed lawful and agreeable to the Divine will For this Sanctification we speak of depends not either upon the difference of the cause or manner whereby the thing is consecrated nor upon the diversity of Natural and Artificial being but upon the Formalis ratio of the Object because it is Holy or Sacred therefore to be sanctified with holy usance For to Sanctifie in Scripture is not only to make holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to do unto a thing as becometh its holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moreover I believe the Sanctification of Place to be intended in the Fourth Commandment as well as that of Time and that not only from the Rule observed in the interpretation of the rest of the Commandments by one of the kind named to understand all the rest ejusdem generis but especially the Lord himself hath conjoyned them as pairs Levit. 19. 30. Keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary And why not when they are so near a-kin being both Circumstances of Action why may I not then say Quae Deus conjunxit nemo separet And it may be if it be well looked into the Sanctification of the Lord's-day might be urged with far more advantage upon the ground I intimate than upon that other which is so much controverted But it is partialitie that undoes all It seems by this Objection I have now answered you supposed the Argument of my Book to be The Reverence of holy Places which is only The Antiquity of them You ask me if I believe indeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was Ignatius his word I say I do till I hear some sufficient reason why I should not For that of my not being able to give an instance of the like either in his time or within 100 years after seems to me to have no force of concluding at all When I affirmed in my Altare That the name of Table could not be shewed given to that whereon the Eucharist was celebrated in any Ecclesiastical Writer confessed to be genuine before 200 years after Christ I inferred not therefrom that therefore the name Table was never used all that time nor if I had would you have believed me And yet to tell you the truth when I wrote that I had some persuasion or suspicion that that Name could not be shewed in any Writer for 3 hundred years after Christ but durst not affirm so much as I thought because I was not sure of Origen But when a Friend of mine soon after wondred how I durst avouch in publick a thing so incredible as this to him seemed to be I discovered that I had affirmed somewhat less than I believed and desired him to make trial whether he could find it in 300 years or not wherein when he had spent some time he could not He alledged indeed Cyprian de Coena Domini but I told him that was confessed of all sides to be none of his c. And now see the luck of it The week before I received yours a Friend shewed me the New Articles of the New Bishop of Norwich his Diocesan wherein besides some other unwonted things which some body will startle at the Bishop avouches upon the credit of his reading That the name Table in that sense is never to be found in any Ecclesiastical Writer of the first 300 years save only once in an occasional passage of Dionysius Areop agita Now Sir what think you of this Yet you see I can shew the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oftner than once in those first 300 years Yea if you would grant me that the Author of that Hierarchical Treatise whosoever he were lived but within the compass of 200 years after Christ I could give you an instance both of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the time by you limited For this Dionysius in his Mysterium Synaxeos describes the Deacons standing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in his Theory of the same mentions the sending of the Euergumeni at the time of the Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However it be it follows not that because I can shew it but once within that 200 years therefore I should believe it was used never Besides methinks I observe some unreasonableness used in this kind viz. Notwithstanding such paucitie of Monuments remaining unto us of those first Ages upon every unconcluding suspicion to discredit those we have and then when we have done to require proof that such things were in those times which we without proof deny when those who alone could give testimony are disenabled and sometimes for no other reason but because they give such testimony Is this dealing reasonable As for the taking down of S. Gregorie's Church I answer In the Law some things Sacred were unalienable even quoad Individuum as for example such as were consecrated by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Levit. 27. 28 29. Others were unalienable as touching the kind only and therefore if need were the Individuum might be changed so it were for the better and with the Lord's advantage which the Law provides should be by adding a fifth part thereunto See the rest of the Chapter quoted But what is this to the deciding of the lawfulness or truth of what is in question to alledge that which men do Is not all the world full of Contradictions I verily believe that even those who are zealous for the Sanctification of the Lord's-day do in their practice if not in their Theory too overthrow the Principles whereupon it stands I think I have no more to make answer to and I confess I have done this not without some tediousness For you must pardon me if judging as a Stander-by I am not persuaded you are by nature so prone and pliable as you think to the way which you say I take Yes I now find one thing more S. Gregorie's Church you say is going down at least is to be built elsewhere but we never yet heard the like of the Lord's-day◠No but I have namely that
had made so happy a progress through all kind of Academical studies that it was manifest to all that that Title was not as with too many it is any false Inscription He was justly so styled and was universally esteem'd as one who did well understand all those Arts which make up the accomplishment of a Scholar He was an acute Logician an accurate Philosopher a skilful Mathematician an excellent Anatomist being usually sent for when they had any Anatomy in Caius Colledge a great Philologer a master of many Languages and a good proficient in the studies of History and Chronology of which we shall give a more particular account in the following part of this short History We mention these things not only to shew his indefatigable Diligence but also to declare how great Perfections may be attain'd by an assiduous Industry and withal to manifest the unreasonableness of that complaint Ars longa Vita brevis by which many think themselves sufficiently excus'd who as Seneca says spend most of their life aut nihil aut aliud aut malè agendo 9. His first shewing himself abroad was by an Address he made to that Great Patron and Example of Learning Dr. Andrews then L. Bishop of Ely afterward of Winchester in a Latin Tract De Sanctitate Relativa c. A piece of that commendable Learning that had it been published when it was first written would have discovered the Author's pregnant Parts and rais'd his just Estimation in the world And though himself in his latter time was pleas'd to censure it as savouring too much of his infancy in Divinity and first thoughts and affectation of style they were his very words to an intimate friend of his solliciting him to publish it and that upon this score as likewise because he had in his elder days and upon mature deliberation published in another Treatise of his besides what he had delivered in publick in his Concio ad Clerum the Summe and substance of it with farther emprovements of that Notion he would not permit the forementioned Tract to see the light yet this early Specimen of his Theological studies gain'd the approbation of so great a Iudgment as his was to whom it was presented insomuch that shortly after he having need of the King's favour concerning his Election to a Fellowship that worthy Bishop stood his firm friend and not only maintain'd his Right then but afterward desired him for his Houshold-Chaplain Which place notwithstanding he civilly refused as valuing the liberty of his Studies above any hopes of Preferment and esteeming that freedom which he enjoy'd in his Cell as he us'd chearfully to term it as the Haven of all his wishes 10. And indeed these thoughts had possess'd him betimes For when he was a School-boy he was sent to by his Uncle Mr. Richard Mede a Merchant who being at that time without children offer'd to adopt him for his Son if he would live with him He accepted not the profer but shew'd betimes that no worldly allurement was sufficient to entice him from his studies And here it may not be amiss to observe a parallel memorial in the Life of his honoured friend Dr. Iackson As they both were eminent for their Sweetness of disposition and carriage their piercing Wit and profound Iudgment their unweariedly industrious pursuit after such Notions as were out of the vulgar rode of Studies particularly their Genius prompted them to enquire into the more Abstruse and Mysterious parts of H. Scripture so they agree'd in this also that they were in their youth tried with the like Temptations for agreeably to what was observed of Mr. Mede was Dr. Iackson sollicited by his friends at Newcastle to a Merchant's life as being likely to be a more Gainful course than a Bookish life in a Colledge-retirement Had they listen'd to such charming suggestions what gainers soever they might have been by the bargain to be sure the World had lost those Treasures of Wisdom and Learning which by the publishing of their Learned Labours it has been happily enrich'd with But both of them surely not without a secret guidance and assistance from Heaven resisted even in those their younger days any attempt to allure them from a Studious life and chose rather the humble way to wrap up themselves in a Gown as the pious and elegant both Poet and Orator Mr. G. Herbert did phrase it and practis'd accordingly The All-wise God intended them for better employments and other kind of Traffick than their Friends designed Through his blessing they traded prosperously in the best Commodities for according to that Arabick Proverb Ditissimae sunt divitiae Intellectûs and which is a rare way of growing rich they emproved their Stock by their free communicating to others both of them being worthily honoured for their very communicative disposition In short to Mr. Mede as likewise to Dr. Iackson the Merchandise of Wisdom was better than the Merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold He chose the more solitary way of Knowledge rather than the so-much-beaten and frequented way of Wealth and made as much haft in his Study to become a more than ordinary knowing and learned man as others abroad in the World do to be rich even to abundance 11. Wherefore Divine Providence being favourable to his design that he might have a fair opportunity to perfect his own Accomplishments and be the better enabled to promote the good of others and eminently approve himself the Servant of CHRIST he was chosen Fellow of that Colledge upon which the Name of CHRIST is called to whose Service he had seriously devoted his best studies and endeavours The Fellowship into which he was elected was that of K. Edward's foundation and therein he was Successor to Mr. Hugh Broughton and Mr. Dillingham both of them famous for Hebrew learning the first abroad the other at home being one of those appointed by Royal Authority to translate the Bible This place was supernumerary to the Institution of the Foundress the Lady Margaret a Society of Divines she intended it and by a Master and twelve Fellows alluded to Christ and his Colledge of Apostles Which Conceit as some thought was intentionally spoil'd by the addition of that supernumerary Fellowship but however gave occasion of an ill-placed jest against Mr. Mede at his Election one opposite to his admission venting this piece of wit without either civility or judgment We are twelve of the Foundation and there said he pointing to Mr. Mede sits the odd Fellow Which Conceit could have no true sense as touching the quality and character of Mr. Mede unless by odd had been meant singular and that for Piety and Learning which Eminencies could not make him less eligible according to Statute 12. Being thus chosen Fellow of the Colledge he was not long after made Reader of the Greek Lecture of Sir Walter Mildmay's foundation and held it all his life-time which rendred that Tongue
evil eye and rapacious hands than what is given to any other use or service whatsoever yea though it were to the service of Vanity Luxury or any other Lust he could not but heartily with that some of the Protestant Churches would seriously lay it to heart and approve themselves more and more Reformed in the cleansing and purifying themselves from any the least stain of Sacriledge from which yet so tempting is this Sin with the seeming advantages it presents they that call themselves Catholicks are not free neither yea even he that is peculiarly styl'd Rex Catholicus is wont to be accursed and excommunicated at Rome on Maundy-Thursday for detaining part of S. Peter's Patrimony as they are pleas'd to call it And it is as well known how much he abhorr'd any kind of Sacrilegious profanation of what is Relatively holy whether Times Places or Things Sacred as Bona Ecclesiastica the Sacred Revenues and the like and that in more than a few Discourses he hath largely asserted the Distinction between Things Sacred and Common and that therefore what is Sacred and consequently is become God's by a peculiar right should be used appropriately and with a different respect from things Common such an appropriation and discriminative usance of Holy things being a just testimony and expression of the respect and honour due unto Almighty God whose Name is called upon them The like Zeal he had particularly for Gods House his Worship and Service therein that all things might be done there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently for the honour of God and to edification for the benefit of our Neighbour Which two Rules of the Apostle excellently score out the way and exactly contain even in external and indifferent things what course is to be taken as the Religious and Prudent Mr. G. Herbert hath stated the case who hath also in his Poem The British Church elegantly and fully express'd the very same Sentiments that our Author had touching the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gods House the keeping the mean between Superstition and Slovenliness between the painted looks lascivious gaudiness of the Church upon the Hills and the careless neglected dress of some Churches in the Valley Both our Author and this Good man were after Davids heart the man after Gods heart who thus breath'd forth his affection Domine dilexi decorem Domûs tuae and thought it unworthy that the Ark of God should dwell within curtains when as he himself dwelt in an house of Cedar nor was he of so ungenerous a disposition in Religion as to serve the Lord his God of that which did cost him nothing So agreeable is it to a Soul that is established with a religious and free spirit as well as it is agreeable to the Light of Nature That God the Best of Beings should be served and honoured with the Best Which was shadowed out of old in the Sacrifices and Drink-offerings In the Peace-offerings wherein God did feast with the people the Fat upon the inwards c. was Gods Mess his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Food All the Fat is the Lords and was therefore to be burnt upon the Altar and offer'd unto the Lord. Nor were the Drink-offerings to be of any sort of Wine but of Shecar the best Wine Num. 28. Nor had our Author herein any ambitious design to please men and thereby to advantage himself in the world as some that less knew him were apt rashly to impute unto him Time-serving for this just right was done to him in print by one better acquainted with him though of a different perswasion That he had many years before the Times did relish those Notions declar'd himself to the same purpose instancing in his Concio ad Clerum which particularly treated De Sanctitate Relativa Veneratione Sacra and to the same effect he had express'd himself in an early Specimen or first Draught of his Thoughts which he presented to the R. R. Bishop Andrews after he was newly made Fellow of Christ's Colledge 44. With his zeal for God's honour and Church decorum we may not unfitly joyn his mindful observance of the Apostle's Precepts Honour the King and Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account and herein he shew'd himself a true Son of peace as we observ'd before and shall now farther add That he had so great a value and so hearty an affection for the Peace of our Ierusalem and in order thereunto for submitting to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to be King as Supream or unto Governours as those that were sent by him that when he received notice of the evil that was then breaking forth out of the North to apply that of Ieremy chap. 1. who elsewhere complains in the same note Behold the noise of the bruit is come and a great commotion out of the North-country upon this intelligence of wars and rumours of wars his righteous and meek Soul was grieved within him and in a Letter of his written to a Friend within less than three months before his death he thus express'd his resentments concluding in a strain almost Prophetical If the Scotish business be no better than you write I pray God both they and others have not cause to curse the time at length when such courses were first resolved upon and that in the event the cause of Religion pretended be not advanced thereby as it is in Germany and no better I am firmly perswaded there will never come good of it God avert his judgments and make them wiser His reverential regard to the establish'd Government and Discipline of the Church was well known to them that knew him and they that knew not his Person may know it from his Writings these testifie of him how great a Lover he was of Unity Peace all good and decent Order and whatsoever might make for the beauty and strength the honour and safety of the Protestant Reformation both here at home and abroad as considering that those Characters of a Carnal and Unspiritual temper Envying and Strife and Divisions and the consequents thereof Confusion and Disorder would at once both weaken and dishonour the Protestant Cause and occasion the Grand Enemy to triumph who seeing much of his work done for him by those who would seem to be most averse from him while they bite and devour one another claps his hands saying Aha Aha Our eye hath seen it So would we have it But our Author thought it his becoming duty to study Obedience for peace and good order's sake and not to expose the Protestant Interest to danger and ruine 'T is true There were not wanting even in his days some who breaking themselves off from the Great Congregation were apt to say Lo here is Christ Behold he is in the secret chambers as if
one who durst First presume upon a notorious Sin thereby to give Warning to all others As upon Cain the first Murtherer upon Corah and his Complices who first moved a Sedition upon the point of Equality in the Priesthood upon Absolom the first unnatural Rebel c. But now for this Sin of Sacrilege as God began to punish it very early even in Paradise itself ut suprà so hath he continually pursued and hounded this Sin as in Achan in the Old Testament in Annanias and Sapphira in the New that no man may pretend the Antiquateness of the Old Testament c. And in latter Ages besides what the learned Pens of Sr. Henry Spelman and others have published he had collected many rare Instances of his own private Observation which upon prudential Considerations I forbear to recite And now after all this Is it not admirable to consider how strangely the seeming present Profit of this Sin doth infatuate men That though they daily experiment these Truths yet they will not be persuaded either from Venturing on the Sin or from Continuing in it What doth this but betray in Men the same Shortness and Shallowness of Understanding that we see in Rooks and Martins and other silly Fowls which will needs be building every year in those very places where they are sure to be disturb'd and endanger'd themselves and to have their Nests demolished and their Young destroyed or if any chance to escape yet they always lie at the mercy of every Passenger 6. Of his becoming Facetiousness THose his so grave knotty and crabbed studies did not at all render him Sour or Morose but in due Time and Place he knew how to be Pleasant and Facetious To give the Reader a Tast of this for Divertisement By this time perhaps he will but need it having tired himself with reading these dull and flat Narratives 1. The Chamber he kept in was known to be a Ground-chamber just under the Colledge-Library Partly for the benefit of that for the Library was his other Study and Closet and partly for the conveniency of having no Students over him to disturb him by walking c. he continued there very many years His Bed-chamber-window opened into the Street and in the Summer-time when the Evenings were clear and serene he would leave his Window open all night for fresh air This was not long un-observed by the Hooker who once began to draw away his Bed-cloaths whiles he lay awake Nay friend saith he I pray thee stay till I am asleep c. with that the Hooker ran away and he slept securely with his window still open Not long after the same or another of his Tribe came again and then he was asleep But when the Fellow was plucking away the Cloaths he soon awakened and then said Oh friend if thou takest away my Bed-cloaths his wearing-cloaths he had secured well enough I shall take cold c. And so he was rid of his Chapman again and never heard more of him though his windows were still continued un-shut With which pretty Confidence of his he overcame that of the Hookers and made himself very merry with the story among his friends 2. In the Vacations he was wont to be invited into the Country by a Kinsman and a Knight At his first coming thither being then a young Master of Arts he in curiosity stood observing the Falconer feeding his Hawk and in way of complaisance began to praise the Hawk As first What a brave sharp Bill she had Bill said the Falconer it is a Beak Sir By and by What notable Claws she had Claws Sir said he they are Pounces Anon he commended her fine Feathers Feathers Sir they are Plumes After that her goodly Tail Tail Sir it is a Train Mr. Mede not a little abash'd that he should be thus mistaken all along in those Terms of Art and believing the Falconer would expose him for his Ignorance to his fellow-servants he studied this innocent piece of Revenge The Falconer he saw used to wait at Table and therefore taking his time three or four days after when he thought the thing was quite forgotten he sets them all at the Table on reading of Riddles And when they were well in he turning to the Falconer asked him Friend What kind of Bird is that which hath neither Bill nor Claw nor Feathers nor Tail The Falconer was utterly posed and stood mute Why then said Mr. Mede I will tell you It is your Hawk That hath no Bill but a Beak no Claws but Pounces no Feathers but Plumes no Tail but a Train There was I even with him would he say triumphingly 3. Such Fellow-commoners who came to the University only to see it and to be seen in it he call'd The Vniversity-Tulips that made a Gaudy shew for a while c. To these might be added many more whereof some perhaps would tast a little too salt to some but all of them would relish well enough to younger Palats But I must remember the Gravity of the Person I am speaking of and whiles I am upon this pleasant Argument shall endeavour to imitate his Practice which was to make his Facetiousness always usher in something that was Serious To the next then 7. Some of his handsome and serious sayings SO I call them rather than Apophthegms though some of them may possibly lay claim to that Title 1. It was often in his Mouth Over-doing always undoes very applicable many ways 2. To that stale triumphing Demand of the Romanists Where was your Church before Luther he answered with another Question Where was the fine Flour when the Wheat went to the Mill 3. Where there is Siding and Studium partium the prevailing Party always makes the other complain Iust as it is at the great Crowding in the Commencement-House when an extraordinary Praevaricator comes up the Crowdsways sometimes on one side then they that are crushed to the walls cry out Oh Oh and being sensible of the pain they set their feet against the walls and with their backs and all their strength cause the Press to turn as much to the other side and then these cry out as fast oh oh as the other did before and so alternis vicibus 4. To that old Complaint now newly dressed up and followed with such noises and Hubbubs Is it not great pity that men should be silenced and laid aside only for their not Subscribing his answer was So it is great pity that some goodly fair Houses in the vâ—idst of a populous City should take fire and therefore must of necessity be pulled down unless you will sâ—ffer the whole Town to be on a flame and consume to ashes 5. That which followeth cannot properly be called a Saying but rather a Discourse resembling a rich Iewell made up of divers costly Gemms After he had been speaking very Iudiciously and very Piously what great reason we all had to pray earnestly for our Governours in the Church That God
of destructions lest the Servants of God might utterly be extinguished in those calamitous ruines and horrible mutations by the Seven Trumpets they are in this manner secured by the Seal of providence and protection 'T is true the Servants of God were in being before this Time but not sealed with this Seal of protection until those calamities fell upon the world from which they were to be protected So Ezek. 9. The faithful Israelites there and then sealed and marked in their foreheads were in Ierusalem before that time of their marking but not sealed and marked but when destruction and as it is there called the slaughter-weapon came upon the Land from which the sealing was to secure them Read the Chapter where in ver 6. the words are Slay utterly old and young but come not near any upon whom is the mark Iust so here Chap. 7. v. 3. Hurt not the earth neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the Servants of God in their foreheads The words which begin the 7. Chap. confirm this order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After these things I saw which manner of Transition I observe never to be used but when that which follows it is in time after that which went before After the Vision of the present state of the Seven Churches the Seals are for the future Chap. 4. v. 1. After the six Seals the 144000 Chap. 7. v. 1. After the 144000 the Turba Palmifera v. 9. After Babylon's riding the Beast Babylon's ruine Chap. 18. v. 1. After Babylon's ruine the Lamb's wedding Chap. 19. v. 1. By this observation may be understood that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 15. v. 5. For there ends the General description of the Seven Vials after whose performance the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony was opened That which follows in the remainder of that Chapter and the next is not a continuance but a return to a Particular description of every Angel's performance which before was named but in general VI. That the powring out of the Seven Vials begins before the seventh Trumpet The Seven Vials appear by the Text to be the seven degrees of the ruine of the Beastâ— therefore they must begin when the Beast begins to fall Now the Beast is to be very far spent yea even desperately gone to ruine before the seventh Angel soundeth see Chap. 11. 7. usque ad 15. For the Witnesses by that time shall finish their Sack-cloth-Testimony and consequently the Beast's potestas agendi expire because his time and that of the Witnesses is the same More particularly Before the Seventh Angel soundeth the slain Witnesses revive and stand upon their feet the party of the Beast is terrified with it presently the Witnesses are exalted on high A great Earthquake shakes the Beast's dominion so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the City perhaps the Deanrie or Decarchie of Rome falleth thereby A slaughter is made and the whole remnant affrighted By this time and not till now the sixth Trumpet expireth and the Seventh Angel soundeth v. 14 and 15. This made me place all the Vials save the last within the time of the sixth Trumpet But the seventh and last Vial I make coincident with the seventh Trâ—mpet as you may see in the Scheme For the finishing Vial must needs belong to the finishing Trumpet As for the rest five of them at least must be poured out before the Beast can be in that desperate case before described For his Kingdom was not full of darkness until the fifth Vial was poured out For the placing of the Vials all within the seventh Trâ—mpet there can be no Argument drawn from the letter of the Text. The only reason which might seem to perswade it is a supposed conveniency of proportion That as the seventh Seal contains seven Trumpets so should the seventh Trumpet contain seven Vials But it should be considered that the Vision of the Vials is a part of the Book-prophecy and not of the Prophecy of the Seals Which two Prophecies are always distinctly carried so that in the Book-prophecy there is no relation expressed to the Seals save only for connexion-sake in the first Vision Chap. 11. which the Holy Ghost for that purpose throws like a Weaver's shuttle quite through the warp of the Seals and therefore in the Scheme I express it throughout in red ink that it might be distinctly discerned But after this knitting and joynting them once by the sixth Trumpet 's finishing and the seventh's sounding there is no relation expressed afterward So likewise in the Prophecy of the Seals that of the Book is but once referred to viz. by the 144000 sealed ones and their consequent in the 7. Chap. and that also of purpose to shew the connexion of that Vision of the Book with the joynt which begins the seven Trumpets If the seventh Trumpet must needs contain Sevens it should be rather the seven Thunders which we read to have roared after the sixth Trumpet was expired Chap. 10. But these were not to be written nor like to be known till they be heard I. M. CHAP. III. Mr. Mede's Defence of his own and Answer to certain Objections of a Friend I. An observable Agreement between the Vials and Trumpets FOR the extending the Physical Analogie observed in the Vials to a sutable exposition in the Trumpets it follows necessarily And for mine own part I had first observed it in the Trumpets and observing the Event in Story to be answerable there I transferred the like unto the Vials afterward For I supposed the Trumpets to import the seven-sold Ruine of the Roman State as the Vials did the Ruine of the Antichristian Beast which arose out of the Imperial dissolution That as the Antichristian Beast is an Image of the Caesarean Empire in the fashion of its power and Regiment so should also the Ruine thereof in the Vials carry a semblance of the Ruine of that other in the Trumpets that it might be a true Image not only of the Empire standing when it stands but of it falling when it was dissolving And this I took to be the true cause of such agreement between the Vials and Trumpets II. Of the Inner Court which Iohn was bid to measure and its Order and Connexion with the other Prophecies and That the Times of the Inner and Outer Courts are not coincident For the fetching of the Prophecy of the Inner Court as high as the Beginning of the Seals my Argument was not Some part of the Book-prophecy beginneth there Ergo this or that doth In this largeness I confess it were Sophistical indeed But I reasoned thus Some part of the Book-prophecy beginneth there Ergo the First doth yet I grant it follows not by Apodictical necessity but it may perswade morally as a probability For why should not the Holy Ghost beginning a new Prophecy be deemed to begin first with that Vision thereof which fetcheth his beginning highest Which will be the more
statu optima facturi Proindéque stultum est Quanam vitae ratione usura sunt corpora in Resurrectione quaerere si nec Aer neque Terra neque quicquam caeterorum sit ampliùs futurum Whether do you not think this man to have been a Chiliast But no man desires to be acquainted with Notions that way wherefore then should I go about to cram them I think scarce any of you of my acquaintance knows the tenth part of my adventures that way I can be content to satisfie my self without troubling others unless I see them seriously desirous to be informed But no man I find loves any Speculations but such as he thinks will advance his profitable ends or advantage his Side or Faction Mundus amat decipi But there will be a time one day when God thinks fit Christ's Coll. Nov. 15. I. M. EPISTLE LXIX Mr. Mede's Fourth Letter to Mr. Estwick with part of another Letter the beginning whereof is wanting in answer to several Enquiries 1. FOR my Paradox of the American World I could say that to make it probable and so much as would be too tedious to write For the present I will add this more concerning it That I believe it was not inhabited in Christ's and his Apostles times nor some Ages after it nor are there any vestigia found therein of any elder habitation thereof I believe it to have been first inhabited since the days of Constantine when the Devil saw he could no longer reign here without control and the continual affront of the Gospel and Cross of Christ. Then he sought out another World to plant him a Kingdom in ubi nec Pelopidarum facta neque nomen audiret Upon this ground may be answered many scruples concerning that World as of Noah's Deluge of the Creatures there not found here where Noah's Ark rested of the Apostles preaching the Gospel why it was contained within out World and yet said The sound thereof went into the ends of the Earth c. Some of them you say are converted But the New-Englanders have not yet converted one the Spaniards have but unto Antichrist not to Christ and the Story of their Conversion is such as may make a man justly suspect there hath scarce yet been ever a true Christian of that race Yet I speak in my Conjectura de Gogo Magogo of a General Conversion only not of a Conversion of some few or of some small and scarce considerable part in regard of the Vastness of the whole 2. To your Case of Conscience I answer thus Though the teaching of a School be in some sort reducible to a Sacred Function as it may be managed and intended yet for Titius to leave a Pastoral charge for it when he hath been once dedicated to that Sacred Office I hold an inexcusable Sacrilege unless perhaps in a case of Necessity I would rather therefore advise the continuance of both than to forsake the one for the other 3. For that of the Ark of the Covenant what do you mean There is nothing more indubitate in Scripture than that the Ark was under the wings of the Cherubins in the Sanctum Sanctorum or most Holy place as Exod. 26. 33 34 1 Kings 8. 6 c. and Heb. 9. Or do you mean for I have not the Bishop's Book that it was not there when Hilkiah found the Book of the Law That place of the Chronicles indeed if it be rightly translated should argue it had been taken thence during Manasseh's prophanation of the Temple and that it may be by the true worshippers for what fellowship had the Ark of God with Idols and so not restored again to his place till Iosiah purged the Temple Or what if Manasseh himself had caused it to be taken thence when he dedicated the Temple to his Idols lest it might serve them as it once did Dagon But Tremellius or Iunius turns the place otherwise and yet methinks somewhat forcedly Videsis 4. How often is the Resurrection of the Vnjust mentioned in the Epistles either together with that of the Iust or by it self And where both are mentioned elsewhere it is not said they should be together though they be mentioned together for there is difference between mentioning and being As for the Last Trump it proves nothing until you define what is the First Trump yea what Trump is It is no where said The Resurrection of the dead shall be in a moment but that those who are alive shall be changed in a moment And what though the Resurrection in respect of each Individuum be in a moment Yet would it not follow that all that rise shall rise in one and the same moment To that of the 25 of Matthew you shall have a sufficient answer when you have made progress enough to understand it For out of chap. 24. which you cite I see not any thing toward your purpose For those in ver 39. are not the dead but the living nor is the Resurrection at all mentioned in that Chap. but at the most implied only In the mean time I send you the Copie of an Epistle written once to Mr. Chappel to satisfie a friend of his who had desired him to know my Answer to certain Quaere's and Objections somewhat like those of yours His Letter being directed to Mr. Chappel and not to me I made my Answer accordingly as you see Keep it clean and send me it again when you have done with it and as I see occasion I may perhaps send you some more of the like Argument 5. For reading the Service at the Altar c. was it not enough to give you the Premisses but I must put the Conclusion into your mouth I add now That the Priest or Deacon came down from the Altar to read the Gospel unto the Ambo or other eminent place where he might be seen and heard of the people And in such place were all Lessons of Scripture read whosoever read them and not at the Altar The Altar was the place to speak to God at the Ambo or Pulpit or such like place to speak to the People Besides those Prayers at the Altar whereto the People were to say Amen were read in a high distinct and singing tone which might be heard and understood at great distance of all the people That submiss reading in Churches sine cantu which we use now was not then in use If it had it could never have been heard of half the Congregation in so large Churches and where some stood so far off as the Catechumeni Auditores Penitentes who were to be partakers of the Readings and Sermons and nothing else and yet stood at the remotest distance from the place both of it and Prayer I love not to answer to things in Hypothesi but in Thesi. The world is right on no side Let them look to the hypothesis whom it concerns Quo jure ego qui Thesin tantùm defendo ad
Times But whether your meaning were not That for God to be robbed of such a Sacrifice was a great Sacrilege I know not And by Mr. B. I heard as from your self the practice of Bishop Andrew's Chappel was that which first cast you upon such a way so as from thence to observe the course and practice of Antiquity But in my poor judgment it is very strange that a matter of such importance as you seem to make it should have so little evidence in God's Word and Antiquity and depend merely upon certain Conjectures That which you style your Conjectura de Gogo Magogo in my poor judgment is more rational by far and yet the matter thereof you know to be very strange but it prevails very much with me That Declaration of the Palsgrave's Churches since I came home I have seen I remembered your Censure of it as a laxe thing Others passe other judgments upon it on my knowledge and those Divines were accounted in those days as grave and learned Divines as most in Christendom Indeed the matter of Bowing at hearing the name of Iesus is nothing pleasing to some in these times But how doth B. A s. reading in Antiquity serve his turn for that Cornelius à Lapide is a Papist and a Iesuit he saith ad nomem Iesu in S. Paul is no more than ad Iesum I know it is the Father's pleasure that as we honour the Father so we should honour the Son and all the world shall never bring me to shew more reverence at the hearing of the name of Iesus then at the hearing of the name Iehovah and when we are as we should be intent upon our religious comportment before God according to the inward adoration in spirit that we should watch when a word comes to perform outward obaisance in my judgment is very strange And I remember how faintly Mr. H. carries himself in this and others in pleading for it most of all urge this that no body is troubled about it but now more than enough must yield or suffer I never had experience of the practice till now and that makes me the bolder to write as I do Yet whatsoever we shall be put unto I am glad that I have such liberty to confer with you thereabouts I am lately grown acquainted with my Lord of Armagh being encouraged to write unto his Grace about the matter of the Sabbath which I willingly apprehended and acquainted him with all my Grounds whereupon I proceeded and he justifies them all I intreated also help in Antiquity about the Notion of a Sabbath given to the Lord's-Day and he profest unto me that he never inclined his mind to observe that in all his reading and added this reason For he never thought to see such times as these to call into question Whether the Moral Law contains Ten or but Nine Commandments And Dr. Reynolds being ask'd what he thought of Beza's judgment concerning the Sabbath made no other answer but this You know the Commandment Thus have I made bold to write freely as to my dear friend I doubt not but whensoever I am put unto it I shall find you the readier to afford me your best satisfaction for certainly I will neglect no means to keep me out of the paw of the Lion as well as I can I commend you to the grace of God and with many thanks for your love and free communication of precious things I take my leave ever resting Newbury March 20. 1636. Yours to love and honour you Will. Twisse EPISTLE LXXI Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's several Expostulations together with his judgment of Mr. Potter's Discourse touching the Number of the Beast 666. Worthy Sir I Have received yours and heartily thank you for the Book you sent me which I find to be no laxe but a nervous close and well-composed Discourse as written by an abler hand than Voetius or any Dutch-man of them all yea I believe the ablest in that argument now living Concerning Mr. Potter's Discourse before I tell you my opinion I find I have some things else to answer and such as press me so hard as I cannot deny them the first place especially one of them which complains much of being mistaken As that I bad you hearing Prayers in our Master's Closet to stand up at Gloria Patri I 'le assure you you were mistaken My words were We stand up or They stand up I know not certainly which intending only to have you take notice of our manners and fashions as I did also the night before when they bowed at the name Iesus in the Creed I confess indeed when I saw you so suddenly to alter your posture I had some suspicion lest you misunderstood me and repented me I had spoken and thought of it sometimes afterward Yet mine was but doubting I would yours had been so too For why would you suppose me to be so uncivil as to speak unto a stranger and my better in degree in such a rude manner or note as you call it Surely in this you were to blame Nay I do not remember that ever I bad any one little or great either to stand up at Gloria Patri or how at the name Iesus or to conform to other the like posture all days of my life however my opinion hath been concerning them The plain truth is I had a desire to have talked with you about these things and to have acquainted you with something I had that way which now I find your mind so averse I shall never do For this end it was that I ever anone put you in mind to observe our postures and now and then at other times in our discourse touch'd upon something of that kind to have given occasion of conference about those matters And the rather I desired it because I had declared my self so far in my Letters unto you formerly as I thought might require more to be added to prevent such scruples as might arise from thence You may remember what hint I gave you in our Gate-house the first night concerning that place in Daniel And he shall think to change Times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand for a time times and half a time I would fain have entred with you upon that Scripture and told you I had some Notion thereabout which some friends of mine had termed Dog and Cummin-seed c. As for my Sermon at S. Marie's if I could have enjoyed you privately sine arbitris which I much but in vain desired in all probability you had been together with some other things better acquainted with some of the Contents thereof And as for preaching for Bowing to Altars if my memory fail me not the word Altar unless in citing a place of Scripture was never mentioned in my whole Discourse Sure I am there was no Bowing spoken of either with respect to it or to the Communion-Table but only of Bowing in general without any
a great man in the Reformation had once a Consultation to have translated the Lord's-day unto Thursday upon pretence to take away Superstition and though that Consultation succeeded not yet he is known to have been no great friend to the hallowing thereof How true this is I know not penes authores fides esto but such a thing I have read I can assure you Thus with my heartiest affection which I never found my self prone to change for mere difference of Opinion I commend you and yours to the Divine blessing and am still Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede Christ's Coll. Iuly 21. 1638. EPISTLE LXVI Mr. Hartlib's Letter to Mr. Mede with an Extract of a Letter concerning Dr. Alting's Censure of Dr. Field's opinion Worthy Sir I Cannot but confess my self much obliged unto you for the Papers which you have been pleased to impart unto me You do well to help us by a fuller unfolding of those excellent Mysteries which divers will take for Paradoxes But I return to your Letter and assure you that I will have a special care to send back your Papers In the mean time I pray accept of these inclosed which concern the work of Pacification Mr. Dury remembers his respects unto you and will be glad to embrace your Letter when-ever it comes He hath not yet read your Book because he can get none for himself the Book becoming now rare every way When you have done with the Papers I pray let me have them again some of them I had not leisure to read over The printed Treatise I got from beyond the Seas the Author of it thus writes unto me Adsui Doctori Altingo Is maximopere optat non praemisissem meo contra Bodsaccum Exercitio istud ex Fieldo excerptum Ratio 1 a Quia falsa sunt quae ille tum de Orientalium hodierna tum de Occidentalium ante Lutherum Religione refert 2 a Quia Lutherani indè capient calumniandi ansam quasi Universalem aliquam Religionum conciliationem moliamur Intellexi simul hâc occasione Genevae imprimis Novum Testamentum linguâ Graecâ qualis nunc est adeò ut non tantùm Originale Graecum sed Versionem Graecam simus habituri quam ad rem 1000 Imperiales Domini Ordines dederunt ut mittantur Exemplaria in Graeciam Inter argumenta cur Fieldi sententiam rejicit est quòd Witebergensis quidam olim ad Graecum Patriarcham miserit Confessionem Augustanam ut approbaret sed illam ut heterodoxam rejecisse Quòd hodiernus Patriarcha alius sit id personale esse facilè apparere ex quibus scriptis ille hauriat Sepultus est hâc hebdomade noster Burgersdicius c. But I would fain know your judgment about this Censure of Field it being a thing of very great consequence Dr. Alting I hear is writing an Ecclesiastical History Thus expecting your Answer I rest for ever Your assured and affectionate Friend Sam. Hartlib London March 13. 1634. EPISTLE LXXVII Mr. Mede's Answer to Mr. Hartlib vindicating Dr. Field's Tenet and shewing in what sense it may be said that the Roman and Greek Church have not erred in Primariis Fundamentalibus Fidei Articulis Mr. Hartlib I Received not your Packet till yesterday at dinner-time I send with this inclosed a Book to Mr. Dury which I was fain to rob a Friend of promising to give him another as good but I send the Book and this my Letter apart that the one may bring news of the other if they should chance not to arrive at your hands together I thank you for Mr. Streso Concerning that of Dr. Field I have hitherto subscribed to it according as I conceived to be his meaning though whether the particulars of his narration be every one of them true I cannot affirm the most I believe are But it is no marvel though such a Tenet make your forein Divines to startle That notion is almost proper to our English to maintain that the Roman Church much more the Greek â—rreth not in Primariis Fundamentalibus Fidei Articulis because explicitely they profess them howsoever by their Assumenta implicitely and by consequent they subvert them This your forein Divines and some too of our own think to be an harsh assertion because they rightly conceive not our meaning whereof you may be more fully informed by Dr. Crakenthorp against Spalato cap. 47. and by Dr. Potter in his Charity mistaken You may remember also that Bishop Davenant in the Discourse you shewed me at London by the name of Fundamental Articles understands the Articles of the Creed of all Christians and no other Take notice likewise that we say the Roman Church and Ours differ not in the Articles we account to be Fundamental not that we differ not and mainly too in those which they account Fundamental Nor do we say but by consequent they ruin too even those Articles we account Fundamental though explicitely they profess them In a word we hold That all the Roman Errors consist in the Assumenta they have added to the Foundation and not in the Foundation it self which they profess notwithstanding Besides that in the main Points of Controversie between them and us the Truths we affirm against them were heretofore freely maintained in their Church as for the substance from time to time and though for the most part the opposite Faction overtopped them yet were not the Tenets of that Faction made the Tenets of their Church till the Council of Trent decreed them and condemned the other This is the sum of the Tenet of ours But what do I write of these things in so tumultuary a manner It is a point that requires a man should have his brains at home What though the Patriarch Ieremy rejected the Augustane Confession for Heterodox when it was sent him It is true that often one Sect of Religion condemns that in another which it self affirms because it understands not its own in anothers terms and after another way Besides though the Patriarch rejected the Confession â—n gross yet it follows not he rejected it for those Points whereof Dr. Field affirms but because it condemned likewise their Assumenta For it is certain that in the Assumentis we differ mainly from them and they from us Now the clock strikes three I must an end So with my best affection I rest Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede Christ's Coll. March 18. 1634. EPISTLE LXXVIII Ioan. Duraei Epistola ad Ios. Medum Cratiam Pacem Clarissime Doctissime Vir HVmanissimis tuis Literis praeclaro illo quod amicitiae mecum initae pignus esse voluisti Scripto cujus priorem ante aliquot annos posteriorem nunc primùm video partem ità animum meum affecisti ut sufficientes neque jam scribere neque posthac habere gratias queam quas quia me referre posse desperâ— ideo debitorem me tibi agnosco Sed ante omnia Candorem tuum exosculor