a more divine way namely by the power of the Word and Spirit as we see it hath done My Kingdom saith our Saviour is not of this world that is not from this world or to be set up by worldly means as other kingdoms are For if my Kingdom saith he were of or from this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered unto the Iews but now my Kingdom is not from hence Iohn 18. 36. Armies and Swords are not fit means to conquer the Souls of men and therefore Christ was to perform his conquests by a more divine and invisible way And as he conquered them so he governs and keeps them in their allegiance to him not by Garrisons and Armed Troops but by the power of the same Word and Spirit Lastly as he governs his subjects so he fights against his enemies not as the Kings of the earth do but by a divine and heavenly working by divine and heavenly ministers by the ministery of Angels who are all at his command For the Enemies of his Church and Kingdom are chiefly Spiritual namely those Spiritual powers those rulers of darkness the Devil and all his troops of Fiends which cannot be dealt withal nor resisted after a corporal manner but by Spiritual means and Spiritual ministers And though the Arms of flesh and bloud are also lift up against the Kingdom of Christ yet is it always by the instigation and under the conduct of those invisible Fiends As for the men employed in such service they are but the horses in the Devil's battels the Devil and his Angels are the riders and therefore to be repelled by a power and forces suitable unto them In a word the whole world by sin was become the kingdom of the Devil Christ came to recover it from him and to erect the Kingdom of God in place thereof Such a kingdom therefore as the one was such must the other be else it should not match it as by the tenor of â—â—e first Gospel it was to do which saith The seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head I must add one thing more for the understanding of this Kingdom namely That this Kingdom of Christ which I have hitherto described hath a Two-fold state The one Militant consisting in a perpetual warfare and manifold sufferings which is the present state begun at his First coming when he ascended up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God The Second state is a Triumphant state which shall be at his Second appearing in glory in the clouds of heaven at what time he shall put down all authority power and rule and subdue all his enemies under his feet even death it self as S. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 15. 24. and in that great Assizes of the quick and dead shall render everlasting vengeance to his enemies and those who believed not his Gospel and give rewards of glory to his servants who have kept their faith and allegiance to him And that once done and so his Conquest finished he shall surrender up his Kingdom into the hands of his Father that being subject to him who put all things under his feet God may be all in all as S. Paul tells us In both which estates how fitly this Kingdom is called the Kingdom of Heaven or of God appears in three respects 1. Because the King thereof hath his seat and throne in heaven where he sits at the right hand of God 2. Because the beginning thereof is from heaven and not from earth or by earthly means 3. and lastly Because it is governed and administred by the power of heaven and not by earthly power Is not such a Kingdom rightly and truly called The Kingdom of heaven Thus much I thought good to speak for the explication of this speech The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven because this term is so frequent in the Gospel and not always or perhaps not rightly understood Henceforth let him that readeth understand NOW I come to the Second point namely What was the Time designed and prefixed for the coming and beginning of this Kingdom which our Saviour saith here was fulfilled The time saith he is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand The Time of this Kingdom was by the Prophet Daniel two ways foretold first generally and at large secondly more precisely and punctually The general time designed was That it should begin under and during the Fourth Kingdom or Roman Monarchy which at length it should utterly ruin and destroy For Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babel had a Vision of an Image of four differing metals The head of Gold the arms and breast of silver the belly and thighs of Brass the legs and feet of Iron but the feet mingled with clay While he beheld this Image and surveyed it from head to foot he saw a Stone hewen out of the mountain without hands which Stone smote the Image not upon the head or breast or belly but upon the Iron and Clayie feet whereby the Image and all his other metals being mingled with the Iron vanished away and became as chaff before the wind Then the Stone which smote the Image upon the feet became a great mountain and filled the whole earth This Vision Daniel expounded of four Gentile Kingdoms which should succeed one another in order with great extent of dominion The first compared to Gold was the Babylonian which then reigned The second resembled to Silver should be the Empire of the Medes and Persians which subdued that of Babylon The third figured by the Brazen belly and thighs was the Greek which subdued the Persian The Iron legs the fourth and last was the Roman which subdued the Greek and so became possessed of the riches and glory of all the former three During this last Kingdom was the Stone hewn out of the mountain and smote the Iron feet This Stone saith Daniel was the Kingdom of the God of heaven which should be set up before the days of these four Gentile kingdoms should expire namely under the last of them In the days of these Kingdoms saith he that is while these times of the Gentiles dominions yet lasted the God of heaven shall set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor lest unto another people as each of the other were but shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms namely in the last in which the other three were incorporated as it were and it self shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest saith he unto the King that the Stone was cut out of the mountain without hands that is without any earthly means and that it break in pieces the iron and the Brass the Silver and Gold mingled with it Now the Roman Empire during which this Prophecy was to be accomplished was in our Saviour's tâ—me come to the height and highest pitch and so next door to a declination and downfall But this
EPISTLE XXVII Dr. Ames his Letter to Mr. Mede touching Lawenus his Censure of his Clavis Apocalyptica Good Mr. Mede I Shewed your Clavis to one much given unto those Studies and desired his censure which having at length received I send herewith unto you desiring from you to receive what you think fit to be opposed You shall perceive his full meaning out of the printed Treatise adjoyned He seemeth to me to carry all to the Iews upon no other grounds than communion of Phrases Thus with hearty salutations to you and Mr. Chappel I rest Franeker Oct. 11. Your loving Friend W. Ames EPISTLE XXVIII A Second Letter from Dr. Ames touching Mr. Mede's Defence SIR YOur Answer to Lawenus I have received that you be no longer in suspence and like so well that I shall long to see more of your Notions in that kind yet methinks that Millenary state spoken of may well be understood of the Church raised from a dead condition and so continued for that space We have here no News but of Silva-Ducis streightly and hopefully besieged by our Army the Enemy as it seemeth not being in case to bring an Army into the field Thus with salutations to your self Mr. Chappel c. I rest Franeker May 27. Your loving Friend W. Ames EPISTLE XXIX Mr. Mede his Third Letter to Archbishop Usher excusing his unwillingness to accept the Provostship of Trinity Colledge in Ireland containing also an account of Lawenus his Animadversions upon his Clavis and his Answer together with his Explication of Ezek. 4. 6 c. Right Reverend and my most Honoured Lord I Make no question but your Colledge is far better provided of a Provost than it would have been of me who never could perswade my self I was fit to be the Head and Governour of the only Seminary of a Kingdom And therefore though my name were the Second time brought upon the Stage yet was it without consent or privity of mine Indeed a Proposition was made unto me upon Mr. Bedle's preâ—erment and before the news thereof was sent to him whether I would accept the place in case I were again chosen thereto Unto which because I answered not by a direct and categorical denial but only alledged divers reasons both from mine own unfitness in divers respects and other circumstances which might and did deter me therefrom leaving them who made the motion to infer the conclusion it pleased some to whom I am yet beholden for their affection so to interpret it as if in modesty only I had by such a kind of answer concealed my willingness which as soon as I understood and that some Sir Nathaniel Rich by name endeavoured upon the motion of some others to procure me to be named by his Majesty I presently took him off and that so effectually as he stirred no more though perhaps I was not a little blamed by some of my friends for so doing But enough of this For my Clavis I am afraid that Reverend Archbishop your Lordship nameth values it far more than it deserveth though it may be something I have by God's goodness discovered toward the better understanding of that Book which if I have the praise be to God alone to whom it is only due But I cannot imagine what those Additions thereto should be which your Lordship saith you received out of the North of Ireland I sent a Copy or two to Franeker to Doctor Ames he sends one of them to Daniel Lawenus an ancient Student in those parts in that Prophecy whose Apparatus to a bigger volume of many years study was printed the same year desiring his censure of it He finding it not to sute with his Notions wrote presently Stricturae in Clavem Apocalypticam not knowing my name but calling me Synchronista and sometimes seemed to be very angry in his confutation of me though he agreed with me in the mainest Paradox of all He sends it to Doctor Ames as I suppose not intending me But the Doctor dispatcheth it to me together with his printed Book for my better understanding his meaning desires to receive again from me what I thought fit to oppose by way of defence Thus unwittingly I made my self work yet such as in the doing I at length found some benefit by having my torpid thoughts revived and quickned and the second time more able to wield any notions than they were at the beginning But I should admire if your Lordship had seen a Copy of this For besides that I sent into Friseland I conceive not how any other should get abroad having as I thought kept mine own Copy private in my study That touching the years of Israel and Iudah I know not what it should be unless that the 40. years of Iudah's sin for which the Prophet lay so many days upon his right side were the years of Manasses Idolatry to which the Scripture particularly ascribes their captivity 2 Kings 24. 3. ch 23. 26. Ier. 15. 4. Which I thought had been a novelty and cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but since I find it to be the opinion of R. Kimchi whom I suppose also the first author thereof Salianus adds Hieronymus not Iosephus de Prado Funccius but I never looked them It was but a conjecture which had it been new I conceived would not have been altogether unacceptable to your Lordship whom yet far be it from me to teach or inform but only to be better instructed or confirmed by your Lordship's profounder judgment Presently after my Clavis was printed I drew at the intreaty of some friends Specimina Interpretationum Apocalypticarum ad amussim Clavis Apocalypticae which finding beyond my expectation or merit to be accepted I have since gone more largely through some part thereof as The Description of the Theatrum Apocalypticum chap. 4. The 6 Seals and 7 Trumpets unto the 11. Chapter The rest is yet but Specimina as it was in the beginning the last Chapter whereof I once sent your Lordship namely de Millennio But could I have gotten an orthographical Scribe I would have sent your Lordship all ere this both Specimina and the larger Expositions upon the first half But I had no such of mine own and those who have are not so kind as to lend them for any hire And for my self I should never get through that which is mine own without everlasting mending blurring and pausing at every sentence to alter it I am exceedingly sorry for the death of Buxtorf and Amama especially the latter as being but now in store and one that had a natural genius to inlighten the Text of Scripture and to find the notion of the Sacred language If Ireland will not spend the remainder of my Pamphlets if your Lordship have opportunity to send them I shall willingly entertain them again their fellows being all gone Thus with my most humble Service remembred to your gracious Lordship desiring the God of Heaven to bless and preserve your Grace I
Ante or Sub-fundamentals though the most of them not proper to Christianity but common to it with Iudaism For the Church of the Gospel is built or graffed upon the Iewish the common Foundation remaining the same in both But as for the third sort of Fundamentals or Super-fundamentals which he makes such as are by immediate or necessary consequence deducible from the Fundamentum Salutis I make some question whether all such are necessaria cognitu creditu ad Salutem simply First because the necessity of such consequence may not be apprehended by all who hold the Fundamentum Secondly because I am not yet perswaded that to deny or be ignorant of a Truth which is merely Speculative such as some of these Consequences may be is damnable but only of such Truths the knowledge and acknowledgment whereof hath necessary connexion with some practical requisite unto Salvation I mean whereon depends necessarily the acquiring of some Act necessary or the avoiding some Act repugnant to Salvation So that still it seems to me the readiest and easiest way for resolution in this matter is To enquire and examine what those Acts are wherein consists our Spiritual life or that Union and Fellowship which we have with the Father and his Son our Mediator Iesus Christ. That which is necessarium cognitu creditu unto these is Fundamental ad Salutem i.e. cujus agnitioni Salus tanquam Fundamento innititur That which is not so is not Fundamental ad Salutem For example He that comes unto God saith S. Paul must believe that God is So likewise He that comes unto Christ or unto the Father by him as every one must do that will be saved must believe that Christ is and that he is constituted the Mediator between God and us He that comes unto and relies upon Christ for remission of sin must believe that Christ suffered and was offered a Sacrifice for the sins of men and thereby purchased that power to confer remission unto all that should repent and believe in his Name He that bids a true farewel to sin and savingly buckles to the works of a new life must believe there is a life to come and a Day wherein God by the Man he hath ordained shall judge both the quick and dead and give unto every one according to his works according to that of S. Paul Acts 24. 15 16. I have hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust For this cause do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men According to these examples you may examine more The difference between Mr. Streso's way and mine is this He measures his Fundamentals by their relation to one Fundamentum I measure all by the relation they have to Eternal life in regard of those Acts and Dispositions whereby we are capable thereof Take this Similitude In a Creature indued with animal life are many Members or Organs whereof though none can be wanting hurt or wounded without some deformity defect or detriment of the whole yet all are not essential unto the Life of the Body but such only from whence those Faculties and Functions flow whereon Life necessarily depends such as are Respiratio Nutritio Gustus Tactus Pulsus Somnus and the like Therefore the Organs whereon these depend can neither be wanting nor notoriously hurt or wounded but the Body presently dieth Without Legs Arms Tongue Eyes Ears Nose a man may live though a most pitiful ugly and loathsome spectacle and more fit for the Spittle than the publick society of men But without Head Heart Lungs Stomach and the like he cannot namely because these Members and the sound and good temper of them in some degree are necessary to those Faculties and Functions which are requisite unto Life Apply this and improve it by your Meditation Vale. Yours Ios. Mede February 27. EPISTLE LXXXV Mr. Mede's Letter to Mr. Hartlib touching the Acta Lipsiaca as also touching a Confession of Faith and the way of determining Fundamentals that it should be short easie and evident Worthy Sir I Have received the Acta Lipsiaca but if I could have given you notice in time I would have saved you that labour and borrowed of Dr. W. for he had promised to lend me his When I had read it over Lord me thought what little differences are these to break communion for viz. for one or two Speculative Subtilties for some Logical or Metaphysical Notion So I believe much of these disputes when the wisest and moderatest of both sides have expounded themselves is I will not say mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For your Extracts I read them presently and laid them by and to confess the truth some business following presently took me so much up that I had almost forgot I had them till your admonition put me now in mind of them That George Francis his way Degradibus necessitatis dogmatum Christianorum quibus Fidei Spei Charitatis officia reguntur methinks by the Title should come somewhat near that fansie 'T is true that he says Some men have such an unhappiness of Logick that by an affected following their methods and Technological artifices they make things more obscure and intricate which in the true use of Logick should be made more easie and perspicuous I have not yet attentively read Mr. Dury's Consultation which I will do and then send it back For mens minds here are so remote from thoughts of this nature that it is to little purpose to communicate it to many The way to determine Fundamental Articles must be made very short easie and evident or it will breed as many Controversies as are about the Points themselves in question I can gather that by what I sometimes meet with It is not fit that a Confession which concerns all that will be saved to know and remember should be any long or tedious Discourse The Ten Commandments given by God are an Epitome faciendorum The Lord's Prayer is Summa or Epitome petendorum According to which Pattern the Confession we seek for should be but Summa credendorum Thus with my prayers and best affection I rest Christ's Coll. Iuly 24. Your assured Friend Ios. Mede EPISTLE LXXXVI Mr. Mede's Letter to Mr. Hartlib touching the defining of Fundamental Articles Mr. Hartlib I Have received yours It seems strange to me that men should hold that those who erre in Fundamentals cannot be saved and yet maintain it scarce possible to set down the Ratio of a Fundamental Article or any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby to know them What though Fundamentum Fundamentalia be Metaphorical terms yet may they soon be turned into proper ones namely Articuli cognitu creditu necessarii ad Salutem Here is no Metaphor Whether therefore may there any Ratio or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be given to discern these I believe not that Canon