at Thessalonica and proving out of the Scriptures that Messiah or Christ was to suffer and to rise again from the dead and that Iesus was that Christ it is said that some of them which heard believed and that there associated themselves to them a great multitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the worshipping Greeks Of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is elsewhere mention in the Acts of the Apostles more than once but what they were our Commentators do not so fully inform us nor can it be understood without some delibation of Iewish Antiquity The explication whereof will give some light not to this passage only but to the whole Story of the Primitive Conversion of the Gentiles to the Faith recorded in that Book We must know therefore that of those Gentiles which embraced the worship of the God of Israel commonly term'd Proselytes there were two sorts One of such as were circumcised and took upon them the observation of the whole Law of Moses These were accounted as Iews to wit facti non nati made not born so bound to the like observances with them conversed with as freely as if they had been so born neither might the one eat drink or keep company with a Gentile more than the other lest they became unclean They worshipped in the same Court of the Temple where the Israelites did whither others might not come They were partakers with them in all things both divine and humane In a word they differed nothing from Iews but only that they were of Gentile race This kind the Iewish Doctors call◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of Righteousness or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of the Covenant namely because they took upon them the sign thereof Circumcision In the New Testament they are called simply Proselytes without addition Of which Order was Vriah the Hittite Achior in the Book of Iudith Herod the Idumaean Onkelos the Chaldee Paraphrast and many others both before and in our Saviour's time But besides these there was a second kind of Gentiles admitted likewise to the worship of the true God the God of Israel and the hope of the life to come which were not circumcised nor conformed themselves to the Mosaical rites and ordinances but were only tied to the observation of those Precepts which the Hebrew Doctors call The Precepts of the sons of Noah namely such as all the sons of Noah were bound to observe These Precepts are in number Seven recorded in the Talmud Maimonides and others under these following titles First the precept of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to renounce Idols and all Idolatrous worship Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blood-shed to wit to commit no Murther Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detectio nuditatum not to be desiled with Fornication Incest or other unlawful conjunction Fifthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rapine against Theft and robbery Sixthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning administration of Iustice The seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Membrum de vivo so they call the Precept of not eating the flesh with the bloud in it given to Noah when he came out of the Ark as Maimonides expresly expounds it and adds besides Whosoever shall take upon him the observation of the Seven precepts of the sons of Noah he is to be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the pious men of the nations of the world and shall have a portion in the world to come Note that he saith one of the pious men of the nations of the world or of the pious Gentiles for this kind were still esteemed Gentiles and so called because of their uncircumcision in respect whereof though no Idolaters they were according to the Law unclean and such as no Iew might converse with wherefore they came not to worship into the Sacred Courts of the Temple whither the Iews and circumcised Proselytes came but only into the outmost Court called Atrium Gentium immundorum the Court of the Gentiles and of the unclean which in the second Temple surrounded the second or great Court whereinto the Israelites came being divided there-from by a low wall of stone made battlement-wise not above three Cubits high called saith Iosephus from whom I have it in the Hebrew Dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lorica close by which stood certain little pillars whereon was written in Greek and Latin letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In atrium sanctum transâ—re alienigenam non debere That no alien or stranger might go into the inner or holy Court. And this I make no question is that which S. Paul Ephes. 2. 14. alludeth unto when he saith that Christ had broken down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the partition-wall namely that Lorica which separated the Court of the Gentiles from that of the Circumcision and so laying both Courts into one hath made the Iews and Gentiles Intercommoners whereby those that were sometime far off were now made nigh and as near as the other unto the Throne of God But in Solomon's Temple this Court of the Gentiles seems not to have been but in the second Temple only the Gentiles formerly worshipping without at the door and not coming within the Septs of the Temple at all This second kind of Proselites the Talmudists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of the Gate or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselyte-inhabitants namely because they were under the same condition with those Gentile-strangers which lived as Inquilini in the Land of Israel For all Gentiles dwelling within the Gates of Israel whether they were as servants taken in war or otherwise were bound to renounce their false Gods and to worship the God of Israel but not to be circumcised unless they would nor farther bound to keep the Law of Moses than was contained in those Precepts of the sons of Noah These are those mentioned as often elsewhere in the Law so in the fourth Commandment by the name of the Stranger within thy gates whereby it might seem probable that the observation of the sabbath-Sabbath-day so far as concerneth one day in seven was included in some one or other of those Precepts of the sons of Noah namely in that of worshipping for their God the Creator of Heaven and earth and no other whereof this consecration of a seventh day after six days labour was a badge or livery according to that The Sabbath is a sign between me and you that I Iehovah am your God because in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day See Exod. 31. 16 17. Ezek. 20. 20. But this obiter and by the way From the example of these Inquilini all other Gentiles wheresoever living admitted to the worship of the God of Israel upon the same termes were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Custom of all Religions of all Nations of all Vassals the Lord Iehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth ordained to his people this Observation of the Sabbath-day for a Sign and Cognisance that he should be their God and no other It is for a sign saith he between me and you that I Iehovah am your God And besides in the place I quoted before the 31. of Exod. 16 17. are these words The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested As if he had said It is a Sign that the Creator of heaven and earth is your God But for the more distinct understanding of this signification we must know that the Sabbath includes two respects of time First the quotum one day of seven or the Seventh day after six days labour Secondly the designation or pitching that Seventh upon the day we call Saturday In both the Sabbatical observation was a sign and profession that Iehovah and no other was the God of Israel the first according to his attribute of Creatour the second of Deliverer of Israel out of AEgypt For by sanctifying the Seventh day after they had laboured six they professed themselves vassals and worshippers of that only God who created the Heaven and the Earth and having spent six days in that great work rested the Seventh day and therefore commanded them to observe this sutable distribution of their time as a baâ—ge and livery that their Religious service was appropriate to him alone And this is that which the Fourth Commandment in the reason given from the Creation intendeth and no more but this But seeing they might profess this acknowledgment as well by any other six dayes working and a seventh's resting as by those they pitched upon there being still what six dayes soever they had laboured and what seventh soever they had rested the same conformity with their Creator let us see the reason why they pitched upon tâ—ose six dayes wherein they laboured for labouring dayes rather than any other and why they chose that Seventh day namely Saturday to hallow and rest in rather than any other And this was that they might profess themselves servants of Iehovah their God in a relation and respect peculiar and proper to themselves to wit that they were the servants of that God which redeemed Israel out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and upon the morning-watch of that very day which they kept for their Sabbath he overwhelmed Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red Sea and saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians This I gather from the repetition of the Decalogue Deut. 5. where that reason from the world's Creation in the Decalogue given at Horeb being left out Moses inserts this other of the Redemption of Israel out of Egypt in stead thereof namely as the reason why those six dayes rather than any other six for work and that Seventh day rather than any other seventh for rest were pitched upon as Israel observed them Remember saith he V. 15. thou wert a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day Namely not for the quotum of one day of seven â—or of that another reason was given the example of God in the Creation but for the designation of the day But whether this day were in order the seventh from the Creation or not the Scripture is silent for where it is called in the Commandment the seventh day that is in respect of the six dayes of labour and not otherwise and therefore whensoever it is so called those six dayes of labour are mentioned with it The seventh day therefore is the seventh after the six dayes of labour nor can any more be inferred from it the example of the Creation is brought for the quotum one day of seven as I have shewed and not for the designation of any certain day for that seventh Nevertheless it might fall out so by disposition of Divine Providence that the Iews designed Seventh day was both the seventh in order from the Creation and also the day of their deliverance out of Egypt But the Scripture no where tells us it was so howsoever most men take it for granted and therefore it may as well be not so Certain I am the Iews kept not that day for a Sabbath till the raining of Manna For that which should have been their Sabbath the week before had they then kept the day which afterward they kept was the fifteenth day of the second moneth and which day we read in the 16 of Exod. that they marched a wearisom march and came at night into the wilderness of Sin where they murmured for their poor entertainment and wished they had died in Egypt that night the Lord sent them Quailes the next morning it rained Manna which was the sixteenth day and so six dayes together the seventh which was the twenty second day it rained none and that day they were commanded to keep for their Sabbath Now if the twenty second day of the moneth were the Sabbath the fifteenth should have been if that day had been kept before but the Text tells us expresly they marcht that day and which is strange the day of the moneth is never named unless it be once for any station but this where the Sabbath was ordained otherwise it could not have been known that that day was ordained for a day of rest which before was none And why might not their day of holy rest be altered as well as the beginning of the year was for a memorial of their coming out of Egypt I can see no reason why it might nor not find any testimony to assure me it was not And thus much of the Iews Sabbath How and wherein it was a Sign whereby they professed themselves the servants of Iehovah and no other God Now I come to the Second thing I propounded to shew How far and in what manner the like observation binds us Christians I say therefore that the Christian as well as the Iew after six dayes spent in his own works is to sanctifie the seventh that he may profess himself thereby a servant of God the Creator of Heaven and Earth as well as the Iew. For the quotum therefore the Iew and Christian agree but in designation of the day they differ For the Christian chuseth for his Holy Day that which with the Iews was the First day of the week and calls it Dominicam the Lord 's Day that he might thereby profess himself a servant of that God who on the morning of that day vanquished Satan the Spiritual Pharaoh and
11. 29. when he expresseth the prophanation of the Holy Supper in coming to it and using it as a common banquet by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not differencing the Lord's body that is not sanctifying it or using it as became so holy a thing HITHERTO I have considered the words of my Text apart but now let us put them again together and see How the Name of God ought to be Sanctified in the manner now specified both in it self and in the things which it is called upon as in the beginning I distinguished For the better understanding of which we are to take notice of a twofold Holiness one Original Absolute and Essential in God the other Derived or Relative in the things which are His properly according to the use of the Latin called Sacra Sacred things Both these have their several and distinct Sanctifications belonging unto them For whatsoever is Holy ought to be sanctified according to the condition and proportion of the Holiness it hath To speak of them distinctly The first Original or Absolute Holiness is nothing else but the incommunicable Eminency of the Divine Majesty exalted above all and divided from all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eminencies whatsoever For that which a man takes to be and makes account of as his God whether it be such indeed or by him fancyed only he ascribes unto it â—in so doing a condition of Eminency above and distinct from all other Eminencies whatsoever that is of Holiness Hence it comes that we find the Lord the God of Israel and the only true God in Scripture so often styled Sanctus Israelis the Holy One of Israel that is Israel's most Eminent and Incommunicable One or which is all one His God as namely Psal. 89. 18. The Lord is our defence the HOLY ONE of Israel is our King Esay 17. 7. At that day shall a man look unto his Maker and his eyes shall have respect to the HOLY ONE of Israel Habak 1. 12. Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God mine HOLY ONE Agreeably whereunto the Lord is said also now and then to swear by his HOLINESS that is by Himself as in the Psalm before alledged v. 35. Once have I sworn by my HOLINESS that I will not lie unto David c. Amos 4. 2. The Lord God hath sworn by his HOLINESS that lo the dayes shall come upon you that he will take you away with hooks c. According to this sense I suppose also that of Amos 8. 7. isâ— to be understood The Lord hath sworn by the Excellency of Iacob that is Iacob's most Eminent and Incommunicable One or by Iacob's HOLY ONE Surely I will never forget any of their works c. For indeed the Gods of the Nations were not properly and truly Holy because but partially and respectively only forasmuch as the Divine eminency which they were supposed to have was even in the opinion of those who worshipped them common to others with them and so not discriminated from nor exalted above all But the God of Israel was simply and absolutely such both in himself and to them-ward who worshipped him as who might acknowledge no other and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by way of distinction from all other Gods called Sanctus Israelis The Holy One of Israel that is that sole absolute and only incommunicable One or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Author of the Book of Wisdome calls him chap. 14. 21. That God exalted above all and divided from all without pareil there being no other such besides him There is none holy as the Lord saith Hannah for there is none besides thee Lxx. none Holy besides thee neither is there any Rock like our God Wherefore it is to be observed that although the Scripture every where vouchsafes the Gentiles Daemons the name of Gods yet it never I think calls them Holy Ones as indeed they were not Thus you see that as Holiness in general imports a state of eminency and separation so this of God as I have described it disagrees not from that general notion when I affirm it to consist in a state of peerless or incommunicable Majesty for that which is such includes both the one and the other But would you understand it yet better Apply it then to his Attributes whereby he is known unto us and know that The Lord is Holy is as much as to say He is a Majesty of peerless Power of peerless Wisdom of peerless Goodness and so of the rest Such a one is our God and such is his Holiness Now then to Sanctifie this peerless Name or Majesty of his must be by doing unto him according to that which his Holiness challengeth in respect of the double importance thereof namely to serve and glorifie him because of his Eminency and to do it with a singular separate and incommunicated worship because he is Holy Not to do the former is Irreligion and Atheism as not to acknowledg God to be the Chief and Soveraign Eminency not to observe the second is Idolatry For as the Lord our God is a singular and peerless Majesty distinguished from and exalted above all things and eminencies else whatsoever so must his Worship be singular incommunicable and proper to him alone Otherwise saith Ioshnah to the people Ye cannot serve the Lord. Why For saith he He is an Holy God He is a jealous God that can endure no corrival He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins Iâ— ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods c. Whence in Scripture those who communicate the Worship given unto him with any besides him or together with him by way of Object that is whether immediately or but mediately are deemed to deny his incomparable Sanctity and therefore said to prophane his Holy Name See Ezek. 20. 39. and chap. 43. 7 8. Levit. 18. 21. In a word All that whole immediate Duty and Service which we ow unto God whether inward or outward contained under the name of Divine Worship when either we confess praise pray unto call upon or swear by his Name yea all the Worship both of men and Angels is nothing else but to acknowledg in thought word and work this peerless preeminence of his Power of his Wisdom of his Goodness and other Attributes that is His Holiness by ascribing and giving unto him that which we give and ascribe to none besides him that is to sanctifie his most Holy Name This is that the Holy Ghost would teach us when describing how the Seraphims worship and glorifie God Esay 6. 3. he brings them in crying one unto another Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory that is Sanctifying him From whence is derived that which we repeat every day in the Hymne To thee all Angels cry aloud the heavens and all the powers therein To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God
these words ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any hath a Devil or is mad let him not be made a Clergy-man nor let him be admitted to pray with the faithful another of Timotheus sometime Patriarch of Alexandria speaking thus ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any of the faithful be a Daemoniack he ought to partake of the holy Mysteries To reconcile these I say they affirm the former which admits them not to be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is continually and always mad namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lest one so affected should either by some indecent actions and foul miscarriages of his own or by his daemoniacal clamours disturb the people of God and the Church-service but that of Timotheus that admits them to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is mad but by fits and hath his Lucida intervalla And thus I have acquainted you with what I have observed to confirm me in this opinion and make no doubt but there are more passages yet to be found this way than I have met with DISCOURSE VII PROVERBS 21. 16. The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the Congregation of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in coetu Gigantum IT is a question sometimes moved amongst Divines and worth resolving How and by what name the Place and condition of the damned which in the Gospel is called Gehenna was termed or expressed in the Old Testament before the Captivity of Babylon and whilst the first Temple stood For presently after the Return the afore-mentioned name Gehenna began to be frequented as appears both by the second of Esdras the Chaldee Paraphrast and other Iewish writings where that name is often found as also by the Gospel where our Saviour useth it as then vulgarly known amongst the Iews But it is as certain that before the Captivity or second Temple for so the Iews call the time of their state after their return this name was not in use both because it is no where to be found in the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament which were all written within that time and especially because the ground and occasion thereof was not till about that time in being which was the pollution of the valley of the sons of Hinnom or Tophet by King Iosiah and the dreadful execution of divine vengeance in that Place Hence it became to posterity to be a Name of execration and applied to signifie the Place of eternal punishment For this valley of Hinnom Gehinnom or as afterward they pronounced it Gehenna was a valley near Ierusalem in a place whereof called Tophet the Children of Israel committed that abominable Idolatry in making their Children pass through the fire to Moloch that is burnt them to the Devil For an eternal detestation whereof King Iosiah polluted it and made it a place execrable ordaining it to be the place whither dead Carkasses Garbage and other unclean things should be cast out for consuming whereof to prevent annoiance a continual fire was there burning Yea not man only but the Lord himself as it were consecrated this place to be a place of execration by making it the field of his vengeance both before and after For first this was the place where the Angel of the Lord destroied the host of Sennacherib King of Assyria and where one hundred and eighty thousand of their Carkasses were burnt according to that Esay 30. 31. Through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down V. 33. For Tophet this was a place I told you in the valley of Hinnom is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it This was also the place where the Idolatrous Iews were slain and massacred by the Babylonian armies when their City was taken and their Carkasses left for want of room for burial for meat to the fowls of heaven and beasts of the field according to the word of the Lord by the Prophet Ieremy in his seventh and nineteenth Chapters The Children of Iudah have built the high places of Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart Therefore behold the daies come saith the Lord that it shall be no more called Tophet nor the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of slaughter For they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place And the carkasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the field and none shall fray them away Hence as I said this place being so many wayes execrable for what had been done therein especially having been as it were the gate to eternal destruction by so remarkable judgments and vengeance of God there executed for sin it came to be translated to signifie the Place of the damned as the most accursed execrable and abominable place of all places the invisible valley of Hinnom For such was the property of the Iewish Language to give denominations unto things unseen from such analogical and borrowed expressions of things visible By all which it is apparent that this notion of that name took its beginning after the Captivity and was not in use before Still therefore we are left to seek by what other name and under what other notion this place of the damned was expressed before the word Gehenna or Gehinnom came to be used I answer out of my Text it seems to have been called Domus or Coetus Gigantum Vir qui erraverit à via intelligentiae in Coetu Gigantum commorabitur The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the Giants in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Coetu Rephaim which word Rephaim properly signifies Giants and to that sense is alwayes rendred by the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we and the later Interpreters both in this and some other places take it for manes or mortui the Souls of the deceased but the ancient I think deserve the more credit especially it being confessed that the word elsewhere so signifies In Coetu Gigantum therefore that is of those Giants and Rebels against God of whom we read Gen. 6. those mighty men and men of renown of the old World whose wickedness was so great in the earth that it repented and grieved God he had made man and to take vengeance upon whom he brought the general Deluge upon the earth and destroyed both man and beast from the face thereof Vir qui erraverit à via doctrinae intelligentiae The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall go and keep them
prevail with him than his subtile motives were to overcome him and indeed the Event prov'd he was not much deceiv'd Hence we are to observe That the Devil taketh advantage of the vehemency of our Passions to work our overthrow if he once find these to fasten his hold by he then thinks he may lead us whither he lift To have gained our affections is as it were to have gotten a party within which is a dangerous advantage to further the invasion of an enemy especially when most of our Passions are our Favorites which we can deny nothing they ask and if they be once bribed will work us wholly to the dispose of our Arch-enemy That we may not therefore afford the Devil this advantage and as it were reach him a rope to hang us withal it behoves us so to govern and temper our Passions and Affections that they transport us not into the Devil's jurisdiction which that we may the better do it will not be unfit to set down some Rules for performance thereof First therefore It is best to resist our Passions at the beginning and to use the same policy which Pharaoh did with the Israelites that they might not over-run his Country in killing all their Infants as soon as they were born While the sore is green Chirurgeons seldom despair but festered once they hardly cure it So it is with the Passions of our Mind when they are first growing they are soon curbed but being a little entertained they will hardly be subdued The second means is To inure our selves to cross our Passions when there is no danger and to bridle our selves sometimes from ordinary and lawful desires that we may do it with more ease when we are in danger For how can he hope to be able to master his Passions when dangerous temptations assault him who never used them to it in the time of his security We know that men who would fit themselves for the Wars will practice in the time of Peace when there is no enemy near and will toil and labour when they might be at rest will lie hard when they may command a soft bed will watch when they might sleep and all to make them able to endure the like when they shall have need The like must we do that we may get an habit to cross and subdue our Passions when we shall have need The third means is To fly occasions which may incense the Passions whereunto we are inclined Occasiones faciunt latrones saith the Proverb Occasion makes him a thief which else might have been an honest man Wherefore he that commits himself to Sea in a boisterous tempest is worthy to suffer Shipwrack and he that willingly puts himself in the company of infected persons may blame himself if he fall into their diseases Lastly but chiefly When thy Passions are most vehement then seek for succour from Heaven Fly under the wings of Christ as the Chickens under the Hen when the Kite seeks to devour them Beat at the gates of mercy and crave grace to overcome thy misery He is thy Father and will not give thee a Serpent if thou ask him Fish Humble thy self before him open thy sores and wounds unto him and the good Samaritan will pour in both wine and oyl and thy Passions shall melt and fall away as clouds are dispelled and consumed by the Sun DISCOURSE XLI GENESIS 3. 14. And the Lord God said unto the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life THESE words contain in them the Serpent's Doom and Destiny pronounced upon him by the great Lord of Heaven and Earth They contain in them two parts First The Reason of this Sentence in the words Because thou hast done this Secondly The Sentence it self in the words following Thou art cursed above all cattel c. The Reason of this Heavy doom is Because thou hast done this What This namely Because he had beguiled the Man and Woman which God had made and caused them to transgress his great Commandment He therefore that is the cause and occasion of anothers sin is as hateful to God as the doer and is liable to as great or rather a greater punishment than he For the Serpent here for causing hath this doom as well as the Man and Woman for doing Nay which is to be observed his doom is the first read unto him as if he were the Arch-offender and not to the Man or Woman till he was done with What should this mean but that his fault being the mover was more grievous in the eyes of God than theirs which is the reason also why the Woman comes in the next place to have her Sentence because she had been a sin-maker and was guilty not only of her own personal sin but of her husband 's also whence the Man who had sinn'd only himself and not caused others to sin had his judgment last of all I might also confirm the same from the quality of their several judgments in that the Serpent alone is doom'd to be accursed and no such word spoken either of the Man or the Woman But I shall not need to tarry here to prove How horrible and fearful a thing it is to be the Author of another's sin We know they are the words of our Saviour Matt. 18. 6 7. Wo unto the world because of scandals and wo unto the man by whom a scandal cometh it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea And S. Paul 1 Cor. 8. 13. would eat no meat as long as the world lasteth rather than make his brother to offend Would they would consider this who are not content alone to sin themselves but play the Devil in corrupting others It seems they long to be double damn'd I would also they would think of this who make no conscience at all by extremities and vexations and other grievances to drive a man to Perjury and other grievous sins and yet think themselves free when they should know that he that is the Author of another's sin makes another's guilt his own and shall share in the punishment every whit as deep as he But this shall suffice to have observed in the first part The Reason of the Serpent's doom Now I come to the second The doom it self wherein the words as you see have all relation to the Serpent For the Lord said unto the Serpent Thou art cursed c. Thou shalt go upon thy breast c. But because this Serpent was more than a brute Serpent the Devil himself being the chief Agent in this his Instrument it is a thing much controverted Vpon which of these this curse is here pronounced 1. Some would have it spoken only of the brute Serpent because here is a comparison made
place to my self for an house of Sacrifice 2 Chron. 7. 12 plainly implying That to be an house of Sacrifice was to be an house of Prayer Add to these that in 1 Mac. 12. 11. where the Iews in their Epistle to the Lacedaemonians speak on this manner We at all times say they without ceasing both in our Feasts and other convenient days do remember you in the Sacrifices which we offer and in our prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in our prayers at our Sacrifices Certainly it may be gathered hence that Prayers were annexed to their Sacrifices and that Sacrifice was a Rite of Prayer The like we shall find in the first of Baruch where we read that those who were carried Captive with Iechonias made a Collection of Money and sent it to Ierusalem saying Behold we have sent you money to buy you Burnt-offerings and Sin-offerings and Incense and prepare ye the Meat-offering and offer upon the Altar of the Lord our God And pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and for the life of Balthasar his son that their dayes on earth may be as the days of heaven just to that of my Text that they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons Hence appears the reason why Iosephus when the Scripture mentions no more but that Noah offered a Sacrifice when he came out of the Ark attributes unto him a Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Noah fearing lest God having adjudged men to a general destruction should every year thus drown the earth offered Sacrifices unto God beseeching him that hereafter all things may continue in that good order and primitive state c. I could be as plentiful in Profane Testimonies to this point as I have been in Sacred and could alledge the Testimonies of Homer where we have Examples of Sacrifices with the forms of Prayer of Herodotus and others But what need we the Testimonies of the Gentiles save to know that in this point the Iews and they agreed It is enough to have proved it out of Scripture that this was the use and nature of Sacrifice wherein I have been so much the longer because though the thing be of it self most apparent and evident yet it is very little taken notice of But you will enquire now What profit hath this Discourse or what use is there of this thing being known I answer Yes it will help our conceit very much to understand in what sense and for what respect the ancient Church called the Eucharist or Lord's Supper a Sacrifice and how harmless that notion was namely They took this Sacrament to have been ordained by our Blessed Saviour to succeed those bloudy Sacrifices of the Law and to be a Medium deprecandi Deum a mean of Supplication and address to God in the New Testament as they were in the Old by representing the Body and Bloud of Christ unto his Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his appointment Forasmuch as they saw them both to be Rites of a like kind as consisting of Meats and Drinks both Epulae foederales Federal Feasts those of the Old Covenant this of the New 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Cup is the New Testament both Rites of atonement or for Impetration of Remission of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my Bloud which is shed for many for remission of sins Besides the Eucharist was by the time of its institution as it were substituted in place of the Passeover which was a Sacrifice of that kind called Pacifica All these things considered how obvious was it for them to think that it was in the Institution intended for the same End and Use the other were namely for a Commemoration whereby to have access and find favour with God when we address our selves unto him in the New Testament And that this was no new device of later ages but derived from the first times may appear out of Cyril or his Successour Iohn of Ierusalem Author of the 5. Catech Mystag In the last whereof relating and expounding the meaning of that which was said or done at the celebration of the holy Eucharist according to the use of his time which was the Fourth Seculum current amongst other things he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. See this passage quoted in the foregoing Discourse Chap. 6. pag. 366. Yea that it was the use in the days of Constantine thus adhibere Eucharistiam ad preces to use the Eucharist as a Rite of impetration in their prayers appears out of Eusebius in his De vita Constantini lib. 4. c. 45. where speaking of a great Synod of Bishops assembled at Ierusalem by the Emperor's Command to celebrate the dedication of a Church erected over the place of our Saviour's Sepulchre and telling how the Bishops there met employ'd themselves during that Solemnity Some saith he by Panegyrick Orations set forth the Emperor's felicity others were employed in preaching and expounding the Mysteries of Holy Scripture another part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did propitiate God and sought his favour by unbloudy Sacrifices offering unto God humble Prayers for the publick peace for the Church of God for the King the Author of so much good and for his children beloved of God namely as the Iews in their Sacrifices prayed for the life of the King and his Sons according to my Text. But for the more full understanding the notion and practice of this Age take also a passage of S. Austin it is in his 22. Book De Civitate Dei concerning one Hesperius c. See this passage quoted in the foregoing Discourse Chap. 5. pag. 363. But some will suspect perhaps that this Custome began in the days of Constantine No it did not It was in use in the days of Cyprian 60. years before as appears in his 16. Epistle ad Mosen Maximum Nos quidem vestri memores quando in Sacrificiis precem cum pluribus facimus c. See this passage quoted in the foregoing Discourse Chap. 5. pag. 362. Let us ascend a little higher yet unto the days of Tertullian within 200 years after Christ. He in his Book De Oratione makes express mention of Orationes Sacrificiorum Prayers that accompanied the celebration of the Christian Sacrifice such namely as S. Cyprian Bishop of the same City whereof Tertullian was Presbyter to wit of Carthage even now spake of And in his Book ad Scapulam Sacrificamus saith he purâ prece We sacrifice with pure prayer But you will say This is against me rather because he saith purâ prece implying their was nothing else No it is not For by purâ prece he means not nudâ solitariâ prece bare and naked prayer but prayer not defiled with shedding of bloud and smoke of Incense according to the
the next verse But the first Fathers took it otherwise and besides it proves it not For the question is not whether the time be long or short in respect of God but whether it be long or short in respect of us otherwise not only a thousand but an 100 thousand years are in the eyes of God no more than one day is to us and so it would not seem long to God if the Day of Iudgment should be deferred till then 3. Let the judicious consider it whether this passage so prone to be taken in the exposition I have given yea and alledged to that purpose were not some part of a motive to the zelotical Anti-chiliasts whereof Eusebius whom we trust was none of the least to be so willing and ready to question the authority of this Epistle as they did also at the same time of the Apocalypse The pretence against this Epistle was because it wanted the testimony of allegation by the first Fathers But Dies Domini sicut mille anni quoted both by Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus is not out of the ninetieth Psalm as they took for granted for there are no such words but out of this Epistle of Peter who applies it to the Day of Iudgment which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Lord. Consider it Verse 9. And though this Day be long deferred yet is not the Lord slack concerning his promise as some men account slackness as if he had alter'd his purpose or meant never to perform it but the cause of this delay is his long-suffering towards us a S. Peter speaks and writes in this Epistle to his brethren the Iews as appears by the first verse of this chapter of the seed of Israel not willing that any should perish at that day but that our whole Nation should come unto repentance b Therefore the same S. Peter in his first publick Sermon to his Nation in the Temple after the sending of the Holy Ghost Acts 3. 19 c. exhorts them to repent and be converted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the washing away of their sins That so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those times of refreshing and restitution of all things which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets might come which till then were to be suspended Object But God could have hastened the Iews conversion if it had pleased him Resp. But it stood not with the oeconomy of his Iustice when the Iews had rejected Christ their expiation to grant them this grace until they should have fulfilled a time of penance for all the sins of their Nation even from the first time they were a people until the last destruction of Ierusalem For since they would none of their pardon and attonement by Christ with respect unto whose coming God had so long spared them for all their expiation by Sacrifice looked unto him God would not bate them an ace of the judgment they had merited but would visit all the former sins of their Nation upon them from the golden Calf until their crucifying and final rejecting of their Messiah which if that Day should surprise them in their unbelief must inevitably perish with the rest of the enemies of Christ. Verse 10. But as for the manner of the coming of this great Day of the Lord it shall be suddenly and unawares as a thief in the night in which the a What these Heavens are and why I render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the host of them and how this Conflagration is to be understood I will shew when I have done my Paraphrase Heavens with a crackling noise of fire shall pass away and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a What these Heavens are and why I render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the host of them and how this Conflagration is to be understood I will shew when I have done my Paraphrase or host of them shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works therein shall be burned Verse 11 12. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness to make our selves fire-proof and such as may abide the day of refining As namely becometh those who by faith look for and hasten the coming of the Day of the Lord wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the host of them melt with fervent heat For our life and conversation ought to be sutable to our faith and we are so to walk as if that were always present which by faith we look for Verse 13. But this Conflagration ended whatsoever those Scoffers say who question the promise of Christ's second coming we look according to his promise Isa. 65. 17 66. 22 for a New heaven and a New earth that is a new and refined state of the World wherein righteousness shall dwell according as the same Prophet saith chap. 60. 20 21. The Lord shall be thine everlasting light and the days of thy mourning shall be ended Thy people also shall be all righteous they shall inherit the land or earth for ever Verse 14 15 16. Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things at his coming be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless and account the long-suffering of God in the delay thereof to be for salvation Even as our beloved Paul also one of the Apostles of our Lord who confirmeth these words of the holy Prophets according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you enforcing the like exhortation unto holiness of life from this our faith and expectation of the Lord Iesus his appearing to judgment which we now make unto you namely Heb. 12. 14 28 29. As also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things viz. Rom. 2. 4 5 6 7. ‑ 1 Cor. 1. 7 8. 3. 13. ‑ 2 Cor. 5. 9 10 11. initio 7. 1. ‑ Phil. 1. 10. 2. 15 16. also 3. 20 c. ‑ Coloss. 3. 4 5. ‑ 1 Thess. 2. 12. 3. 13. denique 5. 23. ‑ 2 Thess. 1. 8 c. 1 Tim. 6. 14 15. ‑ Tit. 2. 12 13. Verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst which things concerning the Second coming of Christ are somethings hard to be conceived which those which are unlearned and not well setled in the Faith like unto these Scoffers stumble at as they do at other Scriptures taking occasion thereby to stagger and doubt of the truth of God so perverting the Scriptures from their right end by making them the means of their own destruction which were given by God as a means whereby they might believe and be saved How this Conflagration of the World whereof S. PETER speaks and especially of the Heavens is to be understood FOR resolution of this Question I must premise some things to make the way thereto the more easie 1. That in the old Hebrew language wherein the
as big or many times bigger than the globe of the earth where shall there be room for them If such a Scheme then be supposed in S. Peter's description the explication may be after this manner Mundus or the World to omit other particular acceptions is according to the Scripture's use either Mundus continens or Mundus contentus give me leave to use these terms for distinction sake By Mundus continens I mean the Compages and frame of the Physical heaven and earth wherein the rest of the creatures are contained by Mundus contentus the state or body of the inhabitants and Kingdoms of the earth Now to whatsoever the notion of Mundus is appliable there is also supposed to be an Heaven and Earth as being the names and parts whereby the Scriptures express the World The Heaven then of this Political world is the Sovereignty or Sovereign part thereof whose Host and Stars are the powers ruling that world In the highest place Gods and Idols next Kings Princes Peers Counsellours Magistrates and other such Lights shining in that Firmament And at such a meaning and no other it being an Oriental notion may aim for ought I can see that supposed fastuous style of Sapores King of Persia to Constantius the Emperour Rex Regum Sapores frater Solis Lunae partiçeps i.e. socius Siderum Constantio fratri salutem But to go on The Earth is the Peasantry or vulgus hominum together with the terrestrial creatures serving the use of man Of such a Heaven and Earth as this is the Lord speaks in the Prophecie of Haggai Ch. 2. v. 6 7. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth both the sea and the dry land And I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come And again v. 21 22. I will shake the heavens and the earth And I will overthrow the Throne of Kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdoms of the Heathen c. Of such a Heaven and Earth speaks Ieremy Chap. 4. 23. I beheld the earth and it was without form and void 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the heavens and they had no light viz. as if the World were turn'd into the old Chaos again Gen. I. See the rest which follows Of such Heavens and an Earth speaks the Lord in Isaiah ch 51. 15 16. namely of the Heavens and Earth of the World or State of Israel I am saith he the Lord thy God who divided the sea to wit the Red sea when the waters thereof roared the Lord of Hosts is his name And put my Words i.e. my Law in thy mouth and covered thee in the shadow of my hand i.e. protected thee in thy march to Canaan c. that I might plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth i.e. make thee a State and build thee into a Political World and say unto Sion Thou art my people Of such a kind of Heaven speaks the same Prophet ch 34. 2 4 5. The indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his fury upon all their Armies c. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the Vine and as a falling fig from 〈◊〉 sig-tree For my sword shall be bathed in Heaven behold it shall come down upon â—â—maea c. See the rest and know that this destruction of Edom is prophesied of in no less Hyperbolical a strain by Obadiah and Ieremy c. 49. from v. 7 to 22. Ezek. 35. tot 25. 12. which I note lest any man wondring at the Hyperbole of this of Esay should think it appliable only to the Day of Iudgment And that such Schemes as these were usual to the Nations of the Orient may appear not only by the Chymical Philosophy derived thence which makes Heaven and Earth and Stars in every thing but from the testimony of Moses Maimonides who More Nebechim par 2. c. 29. affirms that the Arabians in his time in their vulgar speech when they would express that a man was fallen into some great calamity or adversity used to say Coelum ejus super terram ejus cecidit No question these Schemes were as familiar to them as our Poets strains and expressions are to us though of another genius ours are borrowed from fables stories persons places theirs were from the frame of the World the Sun Moon Stars and Elements c. If such a notion of Coelum and Terra may have place in this place of Peter and why may he not uttering a Prophecy borrow a Prophetical strain it may easily appear what Heaven and Earth the Fire at Christ's second coming shall burn up and consume viz. the Heaven and Earth of the contained world such as those which the former judgment by water overwhelmed and destroyed the world of wicked States and men high ones and low ones Princes and Peasants man and beast according to that twice-repeated passage Isa. 2. 11 17. which the ancient Iews interpreted of the Day of Iudgment The loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day And the Idols these are part of the host of the Heaven we speak of he shall utterly abolish And of such Heavens and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as these it mattereth not though we understand an absolute destruction namely of so much as shall be burned as was in the Deluge of Noah and so likewise of the Earth and works thereof But whereas by the universal Deluge though only the Mundus contentus perished yet nevertheless the Mundus continens was therewith corrupted and depraved in the destruction by Fire it shall be otherwise for the world of wicked ones being destroyed the Heaven and Earth w ch contained them shall be purged and refined for the righteous todwell therein This Exposition I put but in the second place because where the proper sense of the letter may be kept I prefer it before any other To conclude If any there yet be whom neither of the former Expositions can satisfie but will needs have the fire and burning here spoken of to be that whereby the World is to be utterly annihilated I could answer That the Day of Iudgment is a thousand years and this Fire though it be to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that day yet shall it not be in the beginning but end thereof The beginning being but a destruction of the enemies of Christ and the Kingdom of Satan and then a restauration the end a destruction of the whole creature it self by utter annihilation and then S. Peter's words ver 13. to be construed after this manner That howsoever the Heavens and the Earth shall at length be dissolved by fire nevertheless before that shall be we look for a New heaven and a
Daniel's Vision of Four Beasts omits the first which was to be while the Fourth Beast yet lived and designs the last only when that ruffling Horn's time being finished and the Beast destroyed The Ancient of daies gives the Son of man a Kingdom wherein all nations tongues and people should serve and obey him Dan. 7. 13. The Reason Nebuchadnezzar a Gentile was a Type of the Gentiles who were to have their part in both estates of Christ's Kingdom wherefore both are shewn him Daniel a Iew was a Type of the Iews whoâ—e nation should have no share in the first but only in the last and therefore the last is only shewn him This Vniversal Kingdom of the Son of man revealed in the clouds of heaven which Daniel here saw and which the Angel expounds to be the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High is the same with that voiced in the Apocalyps upon the sound of the seventh Trumpet All the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Compare them Whence it will follow That those finishing times of the Fourth Beast called A Time Times and half a Time during which that wicked Horn should domineer and ruffle it among his ten Kings are the self-same Time which the Angel in S. Iohn forewarn thâ— should be no longer as soon as the seventh Angel began to sound Chap. 10. 6. The self-same Times whose finishing the same Angel swears unto Daniel in the same form and gesture he doth to S. Iohn should be the period of those wondrous afflictions of the Church and of the scattering of the power of the holy people Dan. 12. 7. And consequently those very Times of the Gentiles whereof our Saviour speaks Luke 21. 24. that the treading down of Ierusalem and dispersion of the Iews should last until the Times of the Gentiles were finished even the same Times whereof Tobit harped Chap. ult That notwithstanding Iudah should again after a while return and build a second Temple yet should not the Vniversal restitution be nor Israel return from all places of their Captivity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly the same Times with S. Iohn's Apocalyptical Times of the renewed Beast's blasphemous reign and profanation of the Temple and City of God forty two months or 1260 days Forasmuch as the same Kingdom of our Lord Christ is the immediate and common consequent to them all Compare them When Daniel's times are done the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven to receive the Empire of all the Kingdoms of the world Dan. 7. 14. When S. Lukes times of the Gentiles are finished then shall be Signs in the Sun and Moon the Son of man comes also in the clouds of heaven ver 27. the redemption of Israel ver 28. and the Kingdom of God is at hand ver 31. When S. Iohn's Apocalyptical Beasts forty two months reign with the Witnesses 1260 days mourning determine the Ark of the Covenant is seen in heaven and all the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ Apocal. 11. 15. ad finem An APPENDIX The First coming of Christ was to be while the Fourth Kingdom was yet in being his Second when it should end The hewing of the Stone out of the mountain which is the rearing of the Kingdom of Christ was before it smote the Image upon the feet and upon the destruction thereof became so great a Mountain as filled the whole earth Therefore the hewing out of this Stone was while this Image was yet in being Daniel himself interprets the Stone to be the Kingdom of Christ not Christ himself and saies that the God of heaven should set it up in the days of those Kings or Kingdoms that is adhuc currente horum Regum periodo vel diebus Tetrarchiae hujus nondum expletis whilest the daies of those Kingdoms of the Gentiles yet lasted or before they expired namely whilst the last of those Kingdoms was still current and in being He that shall here expound in the daies to mean after the days shall give me leave not to believe him unless also he can perswade me that the Stone which smote the Image was hewed out of the mountain after the Image was dashed in pieces and vanished The Iews in our Saviour's time expected the Messiah's coming before the times of the Fourth Kingdom expired For they looked it should be destroyed by him after he was come and then the Kingdom restored to Israel According to that of Dan. 7. when the Beast should be slain and his body destroyed the Kingdom should be given to the people of the Saints of the most High Only they thought not the distance between the first coming of Christ and his destruction of the Fourth Beast to be so long Whence was that question of the Apostles to our Saviour at his Ascension Wilt thou now restore the Kingdom to Israel But I am gone much further than ever I intended and therefore will here make an end I make question whether you can read my scribling If you can I hope you will excuse my hast And so I commend you to the divine protection and am Your loving Friend Ioseph Mede Christ's Colledge Iuly 22. EPISTLE IX Mr. Hayn's Third Letter to Mr. Mede about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation SIR I Confess that conference by writing multiplies words by giving more scope to deliberation and may justly make you backward to Collations in this kind But the disquisition and finding of truth countervails all than which I seek nothing more by this my pains To that part of your answer received Iuly 22. I have inclosed a Reply and expect the rest of your Answer formerly intended when you should return to Cambridge And now to this present Reply as your occasions will permit Such Writings as I have seen of yours testifie to me both your plentiful reading and diligent observation of matters most remarkable therein as also I am perswaded in this Argument Yet cannot all that yet you have said drive me from my hold I reverence the Learned on both sides and will ever give them all duerespect and will not be found to stand single in any opinion But the persons of men shall not sway me against the native light of the Sacred Text which I know makes for me If Alsted and some others have lest their Masters in some of these points I think we shall find others as Glassius of equal judgment to Alsted to run this way But 't is to be considered herein not so much Qui dicunt pro auâ— contra as Quid dicunt And therefore I will not put into the scales mens Authority but their Reasons And hope that after your perusal of this present Reply you will be more inclinable to a different judgment from some of your former Tenets And thus leaving you to the protection and direction of the God of Truth I rest Your very loving Friend Tho. Hayne
their enemies p. 372 Chap. 35. 6 7. The Rechabites said We will drink no wine for Ionadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us saying Ye shall drink no wine nor shall ye build an house but dwell in teats c. p. 127 LAMENTATIONS Chap. 2. 1. The Lord hath cast down the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger p. 393 EZEKIEL Chap. 4. 6. Lie again on thy right side and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Iudah forty dayes p. 784 Chap. 20. 20. Hasâ—ow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God p. 55 Chap. 27. 3. Tyrus a Merchant of people for many Islands p. 273 Chap. 38. 17. Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the Prophets of Israel c. p. 796 Chap. 43. 7. my holy Name shall the house of Israel 〈◊〉 more desile by the Carkâ—ses of their Kings p. 14 DANIEL Chap. 2. from vers 32. to vers 44. p. 104 Vers. 44 45. In the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor left to another people but it shall break in pieces and consume at these Kingdoms and it self shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest that a Stone was cut out of a mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the iron the brass c. p. 744 754 755 Chap 4. 26. after that thou shalt have known that the heavens bear rule p. 102 Chap. 7. 3. And four Beasts came up from the Sea p. 454 Vers. 9. I behold till the Thrones were pitched down p. 762 Verse 10. the Iudgment was set p. 532. 762 Verse 11. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the Horn spake I beheld till the Beast was slain and his body destroy'd and given to the burning flame Ibid. Verse 12. As concerning the rest of the Beasts they had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time p. 780. 781 Verse 22. and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High p. 532 Vers. 24. And the ten Horns are ten Kings and another shall rise behind them and he shall be diverse from the first and shall depress three Kings p. 778 779 Vers. 25. And he shall think to change Times and Laws p. 737 Ch. 5. 4. behold an He-goat came from the West p. 473 c. Verse 23. And in the latter end of the Kingdom of Graecia a King of a fierce countenance shall stand up p. 654 Chap. 9. 24. Seventy weeks are allotted for thy people and for thy holy City to finish transgression and make an end of sins c. p. 697 Verse 25. Also know and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Ierusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be Sevens of weeks c. p. 699 Verse 26. And after 62 weeks shall Messiah be cut off and they none of his c. p. 704 Verse 27. Nevertheless he shall confirm a covenant with many one week c. p. 706 Chap. 10 2. I Daniel was mourning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 599 Verse 13. Michael one of the chief Princes came to help me p. 42 Chap. 11. V. 36 37 38 39. p. 667 670 671 Verse 41 42 43. p. 674 Verse 44 45. p. 816 Chap. 12. 11 12. And from the time that the daily Sacrifice shall be taken away shall be 1290 days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days p. 717 IOEL Verse 30. Pillars of smoke p. 28 AMOS Chap. 4. 2. The Lord hath sworn by his Holiness p. 8 Chap. 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Iacob ibid. MICAH Chap. 5. 5. And he shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land c. p. 796 ZACHARY Chap. 3. 9. For behold the stone that I have laid before Ioshua p. 833 marg Chap. 4. 2 3. I looked and behold a Candlestick with seven Lamps and two Olive-trees by it p. 833 Verse 6. Not by might nor by force but by my Spirit p. 41 833 Verse 10. These Seven are the Eyes of the ' Lord which run to and fro through the whole Earth p. 40 Verse 14. These are the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord of the whole Earth p. 41 Chap. 8. 19. The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the tenth p. 890 MALACHI Chap. 1. 6 7. Ye say Wherein have we polluted thy Name In that ye say The Table of the Lord is contemptible And if ye offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee p. 357 Verse 11. In every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure Offering p. 355 TOBIT Chap. 14. Verse 3. to Verse 8. p. 〈…〉 I MACCABEES Chap. 14. 5. An entrance to the Isles of the Sea p. 273 II MACCABEES Chap. 4. 38. he took away Andronicus his purple p. 911 S. MATTHEW Chap. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets I am not come to dissolve but to fulfil p. 12 Verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so to do he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven ibid. Chap. 6. 1. Take heed that ye do not your Alms before men p. 80 Verse 9. Thus therefore pray ye p. 1 Hallowed be thy Name p. 4 Verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread p. 125 Verse 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth p. 352 Chap. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven c. p. 213 Chap. 8. 12. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness p. 86 Verse 29. Art thou come hither to torment us before the time p. 25 Chap. 10. 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward p. 84 Chap. 11. 28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls p. 150 Chap. 12. 42. The Queen of the South shall rise up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with this generation p. 24 Chap. 17. 11. Elias truly shall first come and restore all things p. 98 Chap. 19. 21. If thou wilt be perfect go sell that thou hast and give it to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven p. 126 Verse 28. in the regeneration p. 85 Chap. 20. 16. So the last shall be first and the first last for many be called but few chosen p. 86 Chap.
Experience which shews us that the Evil spirits are not yet bound with eternal chains having so much liberty of gadding about supplies in the Text vinciendos as if there were an Ellipsis reading it thus Iudicio magni illius Diei vinculis aeternis vinciendos reservâsse He hath reserved them to be bound in eternal chains at the Iudgment of the great Day In that of S. Peter if I understand him he takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for Dativus instrumenti with chains of darkness but as Dativus acquisitionis for chains of darkness and construes it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were He delivered them for chains of darkness namely supposing a trajection of the words But for my part I take both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Iude to be neither of them Dativus Instrumenti but both Acquisitionis or Finis and governed the one of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in the Hebrew the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serves both for the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for the Dative Case whose propriety the style of the Greek Testament every where imitates and why not in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not with chains Nay among the Greek Grammarians we find observed that the Dative Case is sometimes put for the Accusative with the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in this example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more in the sacred Greek which so frequently imitates the Hebrew Construction Next for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once used and so not bound by any use or example to the signification which we here give it to wit casting down to hell I would therefore render it ad poenas tartareas damnavit he hath adjudged them to hellish torments to wit thus Angelos qui peccaverunt cum ad tartari supplicium damnasset catenis caliginis servandos tradidit ad Diem Iudicii Having adjudged the Angels that sinned to hell-torments he delivered them to be kept or reserved in the Aiery region as in a prison for chains of darkness at the Day of Iudgment For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudgment here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of Iudgment as S. Iude hath it So also Matth. 12. 42. The Queen of the South shall rise in Iudgment with this Generation that is in or at the Day of Iudgment Or if I would render it not casting down to hell but casting down to hell-ward so the meaning in both places will be That the wicked Angels were cast down from Heaven to this lower Orb there to be reserved for chains of darkness at the Day of Iudgment Which sense the ninth verse of this Chapter of S. Peter plainly intimates by way of reddition Novit Dominus pios in tentatione cripere The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly in temptation as he did Noah and Lot Injustos verò in diem Iudicii cruciandos servare But to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Iudgment to be punished as he doth the wicked Angels Moreover verse 17. where the same hellish darkness is spoken of it is said to be reserved for the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom that hideous darkness is reserved for ever whence it is probable that S. Peter in the foregoing passage of Angels referred also those chains of darkness to reserving and not to delivering that is not that the evil Angels were now already delivered to chains of darkness but reserved for them at the Day of Iudgment AND thus much for clearing of the words of these two parallel Texts Now what hath been anciently the current opinion about this point And first for the Iews it is apparent to have been a Tradition of theirs That all the space between the Earth and the Firmament is full of Troops of Evil spirits and their Chieftains having their residence in the Air which I make no doubt but S. Paul had respect to when he calls Satan the Prince of the power of the Air. Drusius quotes two Authors one the Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another one of the Commentators upon Pirke Aboth who speak in this manner Debet homo scire intelligere à terra usque ad firmamentum omnia plena esse turmis praefectis c. A man is to know and understand that all from Earth to the Firmament is full and no place is empty of Troops of Spirits together with their Chieftains and such as are Praepositi all which have their residence and fly up and down in the Air some of them incite to peace others to war some to goodness and life others to wickedness and death By Praepositi I suppose he means such among the Spirits as are set as Wardens over several charges for the managing of the affairs of mankind subject to their power This was the Opinion of the Iews which they seem to have learned by Tradition from their ancient Prophets for in the Old Testament we find no such thing written and yet we see S. Paul seems to approve it Now for the Doctors of the Christian Church S. Hierome upon the sixth of the Ephesians tells us that their Opinion was the same ' T is the opinion of all the Doctors â—aith he that the Devils have their Mansions and residence in the space between the heaven and the earth And that the Fathers of the first 300 or 400 years nor did nor could hold the evil Angels to have been cast into Hell upon their sin is evident by a singular Tenet of theirs For Iustin Martyr one of the most ancient hath this saying That Satan before the coming of Christ never durst blaspheme God and that saith he because till then he knew not he should be damned The same is approved by Irenaeus lib. 5. cap. 26. Praeclarè saith he dixit Iustinus quòd ante Domini adventum Satanas nunquam ausus est blasphemare Deum quippe nondum sciens suam damnationem Post adventum autem Domini ex sermonibus Christi Apostolorum ejus discens mâ—nifestè quoniam ignis aeternus ei praeparatus sit per hujusmodi homines blasphemat eum Deum qui judicium importat It was a worthy saying of Iustin That Satan before the coming of our Lord never durst blaspheme God as not till then knowing he should be damned But after the coming of our Lord he clearly understanding by the Discourses of Christ and his Apostles that everlasting fire was prepared for him by these men Irenaeus means those Hereticks who blasphemed the God of the Law
redeemed us from our Spiritual thraldom by raising Iesus Christ our Lord from the dead begetting us in stead of an earthly Canaan to an inheritance incorruptible in the Heavens In a word the Christian by the day he hallows professes himself a Christian that is as S. Paul speaks To believe on him that raised up Iesus from the dead So that the Iew and Christian both though they fall not upon the same day yet make their designation of their day upon the like ground the Iews the memorial-day of their deliverance from the temporal Egypt and temporal Pharaoh the Christians the memorial-day of their deliverance from the spiritual Egypt and spiritual Pharaoh But might not will you say the Christian as well have observed the Iewish for his seventh day as the day he doth I answer No he might not For in so doing he should seem not to acknowledge his Redemption to be already performed but still expected For the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministery of Moses was intended for a Type and pledge of the Spiritual deliverance which was to come by Christ their Canaan also to which they marched being a Type of that Heavenly inheritance which the redeemed by Christ do look for Since therefore the Shadow is now made void by the coming of the Substance the Relation is changed and God is no longer to be worshipped and believed in as a God fore-shewing and assuring by Types but as a God who hath performed the Substance of what he promised And this is that which S. Paul means Colossians 2. 16 17. when he saith Let no man judge you henceforth in respect of a Feast-day New-moon or Sabbath-dayes Which were a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. DISCOURSE XVI 1 COR. 11. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head I HAVE chosen this of the woman rather than that of the man going before it for the Theme of my Discourse First Because I conceive the Fault at the reformation whereof the Apostle here aimeth in the Church of Corinth was the womens only not the mens That which the Apostle speaks of a man praying or prophesying being by way of supposition and for illustration of the unseemliness of that guise which the women used Secondly Because the condition of the Sex in the words read makes something for the better understanding of that which is spoken of both as we shall see presently The Discourse I intend to make upon the Text shall consist of these two parts First of an Enquiry What is here meant by Prophesying a thing attributed to women and therefore undoubtedly some such thing as they were capable of Secondly What was this Fault for matter and manner of the women of the Church of Corinth which the Apostle here reproveth To begin with the First and which I am like to dwell longest upon Some take Prophesying here in the stricter sense to be foretelling of things to come as that which in those Primitive times both men and women did by the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon them according to that of the Prophet Ioel applied by S. Peter to the sending of the Holy Ghost at the first promulgation of the Gospel I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions And that such Prophetesses as these were those four Daughters of Philip the Evangelist whereof we read Acts 21. 9. Others take Prophesying here in a more large notion namely for the gift of interpreting and opening Divine mysteries contained in Holy Scripture for the instruction and edification of the Hearers especially as it was then inspired and suggested in extraordinary manner by the Holy Spirit as Prophecy was given of old according to that of S. Peter Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So because many in the beginning of the Gospel were guided by a like instinct in the interpretation and application of Scripture they were said to Prophesie Thus the Apostle useth it in the fourteenth Chapter of this Epistle where he discourses of spiritual Gifts and before all prefers that of Prophecy because he that Prophesieth saith he speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort But neither of these kinds of Prophecy sutes with the person in my Text which is a woman For it is certain the Apostle speaks here of Prophesying in the Church or Congregation but in the Church a woman might not speak no not so much as ask a question for her better instruction much less teach and instruct others and those men This the Apostle teacheth us in this very Epistle Chapter the fourteenth even there where he discourseth so largely of those kinds of Prophecy Let your women saith he keep silence in the Churches For it is not permitted unto them to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to be subject And if they will learn let them ask their husbands at home Again in 1 Tim. 2. 11 12. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence Note here that to speak in a Church-Assembly by way of teaching or instructing others is an act of superiority which therefore a woman might not do because her sex was to be in subjection and so to appear before God in garb and posture which consisted therewith that is she might not speak to instruct men in the Church but to God she might To avoid this difficulty some would have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text to be taken passively namely for to hear or be present at Prophecy which is an acception without example either in Scripture or any where else It is true the Congregation is said to pray when the Priest only speaks but that they should be said to preach who are present only at the hearing of a Sermon is a Trope without example For the reason is not alike In prayer the Priest is the mouth of the Congregation and does what he does in their names and they assent to it by saying Amen But he that preaches or prophesies is not the mouth of the Church to speak ought in their names that so they might be said to speak too but he is the mouth of God speaking to them It is not likely therefore that those who only hear another speaking or prophesying to them should be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prophesy no more as I said than that all they should be said to preach who were at the hearing of a Sermon What shall we do then Is there any other acception of the word Prophesying left us which may sit our turn Yes there is a Fourth acception which if it can be made good will
looked that that glorious Son of David should have been born of the most rich and potent parentage of that line but behold he was of the poorest and most despised Who would not have thought but Ierusalem the Royal City had been the only fit place for his Birth but he was born at Bethlehem one of the least Cities of Iudah And what in some stately and more convenient Palace there No in a stable and laid in a manger So was David his progenitor the youngest and most despised son of Ishai Samuel thought that brave and goodly Eliab the first-born was the man surely whom God would chuse to make him King But God had set his eye upon him whom the Father so little regarded as he could scarce think of him even the little one which kept the sheep Thus God derides the conceits of men Fools therefore that we are why do we value those things so much which God esteems so little We are wont otherwise to make much account of such things as Kings and Great ones have in esteem and to think but basely of those things which they despise why should not the Example of Almighty God bear the like sway in our judgments to prefer what he prefers and slight what he undervalues Let us therefore considering this set our hearts and affections upon heavenly and spiritual things and say of all the pomp and glory of this world Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity THUS have I spoken of the two first Particulars I propounded the Time when and the Place where our Saviour began the publication of his Gospel I come now to the Third The Summe of what he preached and it was this The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel This was the Summe of what he preached and it contains two parts a Doctrine and an Exhortation The Doctrine is That the Time foretold by the Prophets when the Kingdom of God should begin was come The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand The Exhortation is That therefore they should Repent and believe the Gospel or glad tidings which that Kingdom brings I 'le begin with the Doctrine where I have two things to unfold 1. What this Kingdom of God is 2. What was the Time prefixt for the coming thereof which our Saviour saith was fulfilled when he spake unto them For the first The Kingdom of God is that which otherwise is called The Kingdom of Heaven These two are both one and therefore S. Matthew chap. 4. 17. when he relates this preaching of our Saviour saith that he preached and said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand namely the same that Iohn Baptist his Harbinger preacht before him For the Hebrews express God by Heaven as we may see Dan. 4. 26. where it is said to Nebucchadnezzar that his kingdom should be restored unto him when he should acknowledge that the heavens bear rule that is God the most High who dwells in heaven The prodigal child in the Gospel saith Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee Luke 15. 21. So Matt. 21. 25. The Baptism of Iohn was it from Heaven or from men that is from God or from men This is the reason why the Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven mean one and the same thing Let us therefore now see what is meant by it This Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of Messiah or Christ foretold in the Prophets the Kingdom of that Seed of the woman which should break the Serpent's head of that seed of Abraham wherein all the Nations of the earth should be blessed For so the Hebrew Doctors before and at our Saviour's coming had termed this Kingdom and taught their people to look for it under that name which they had learned out of the Prophecies of Daniel concerning it who in chap. 2. ver 44. describes it in this manner In the days of those Kings or Kingdoms that is while the days of the four Monarchies there spoken of yet lasted the God of heaven shall found or set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor be lest unto another people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever In the 7 ch ver 13 14. he describes it thus I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed From these places the Iews called the Messiah's Kingdom the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven Because in the first place it is said that the God of heaven should set up his Kingdom and in the other places that the Son of man namely Messiah should come in the clouds of Heaven For our Saviour brought not this term of phrase with him but found it at his coming used among the Iews which being fitly given he approved and so taught them the mysterie of his coming in their own language As we may see in so many Parables in the Gospel where our Saviour sets forth the state of his Church and the members of the same continually under the name of The Kingdom of God or The Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is like a field where a sower sowed good seed c. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven c. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant c. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net and such like In all which our Saviour describes the state of his Church in that language the people were used unto as he doth also in other of his Sermons Hence it is that when Iohn Baptist first and our Saviour after him preached The Kingdom of heaven is at hand the Iews wondred not at that term as at a novelty nor ever askt what it meant but understood it of the Kingdom of Messiah which they had been taught to call by that name then and is still found so called among their Rabbies and Doctors until this day though through their unbelief they have no portion therein but look for it still to come The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven then is nothing else but the Church of Christ or the Christian Church which is no Temporal kingdom like the kingdoms of this world which have power over the Body only but a Spiritual kingdom which reigns over the Souls and Spirits of men The Kingdom of God saith our Saviour is within you that is it is a kingdom of the inward man And therefore this kingdom was not to be founded after the manner of the kingdoms of men by great armies and field-battels but was to subdue the nations and conquer the world by
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
Ashteroth the Gods of the Sidonians Rimmon the God of the Aramites Where is now Dagon of the Philistines Milcom of the Ammonites Chemosh of Moab and Tammuz of the Egyptians Even these also whose names we hear so frequent in Scripture are perished with their very names from this earth and from under these heavens And the Nations which once worshipped them worship now the great God Creator of heaven and earth once all of them and yet the most of them truly and savingly in Christ Iesus the Saviour and Redeemer of the world The beginning of this strange and wonderful Change was about the Birth and Incarnation of Christ our Saviour at which time the Gods of the Gentiles grew speechless in their Oracles or if at any time they answered it was to testifie the nearness of that time wherein they were to be cast out and the presence of him who should do the same As it is reported of Augustus who consulting the Oracle of Apollo who should reign after him received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning whereof is this The Hebrew child which rules the blessed Gods bids me leave this house and presently pack to hell From henceforth depart thou with silence from our Altars Whereupon it is said that Augustus reared an Altar in the Capitol with this Inscription ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI The Altar of the First-begotten of God Porphyrie though an enemy of Christians reports three farewel Oracles of Apollo The first whereof is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus O wo is me lament ye Tripods for Apollo is gone he is gone he is gone For the burning light of heaven that Iupiter which was is and shall be O mighty Iupiter he compels me Ah wo is me the bright glory of my Oracles is gone from me And to the Priest which last consulted him his demand being Which was the true Religion he answered in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus Thou unhappiest of the Priests oh that thou wouldst not have asked me being now at my last of the Divine Father and of the dear begotten of that famous King nor of the Spirit which comprehendeth and surroundeth all things For wo is me He it is that will I nill I will expel me from these Temples and full soon shall this dividing seat become a place of desolation And if at any time he were extremely urged by inchantments and exorcisms to break off this uncouth silence he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apollo's voice is not to be recovered it is decayed through length of time and locked up with the keys of never-divining silence but do you as ye were wont such sacrifices as it beseemeth Phoebus to have The ceasing of Oracles in ancient times so frequent made the Heathen wonder what the cause should be for being grown very rare as the coming of Christ drew near and at the time of his being upon the earth the chiefest of all the Oracle of Delphos grown speechless as Strabo living at that time witnesseth before the end of that Age all the Oracles of the world in a manner held their peace Plutarch as ye all know at that time writ a Tract of the decay of Oracles wherein he labours to find the cause of their ceasing and after much search and many disputes he concludes the Reason partly to be from the absence of his Demoniacal spirits who by his Philosophy might either die through length of years or flit from place to place either exiled by others more strong or upon some other dislike and partly from the alteration of the soil where Oracles were seated which might not yield such Exhalations as in former times they had done This is the Summe of the Reasons in that Discourse But as we embrace this Testimony of Plutarch for the use and decay of Oracles so we are better enabled to give a true reason thereof than he was or could be namely As Meteors and smaller lights vanish and appear not when the Sun begins to rise So did these false lights of the Heathen vanish when the Sun of righteousness Christ Iesus arose unto the world As Dagon fell down when the Ark of God was brought into his Temple so when the true Ark of God Christ Iesus came into the world all the Dagons of the Nations fell down The time was come when as our Saviour saith Iohn 12. 31. the Prince of this world was to be cast out The night was past and the day was come and therefore such Bats and Birds of darkness as these were not any longer to play such reaks as in times past they had done Now began that War in heaven between Michael and the red Dragon whereof we read in the Revelation Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels that is Christ our Lord and his undaunted souldiers fought with the Devil and all his Ethnick forces led by the Roman Emperors Which War though it lasted long and cost the bloud and lives of many a thousand valiant Martyrs yet in the days of Constantine the Dragon received so great an overthrow that he never could recover it and though in the days of Iulian he made head again and kept the field a while yet was he soon fain to quit it and leave the victory unto Michael's army Which defeature of his was accompanied with an ominous sign of his utter overthrow his Throne or Temple at Delphos with earthquakes thunder and lightening being utterly ruined For as by the rending of the veil of the Temple was signified the abolishment of Legal worship so by the prodigious destruction of the chiefest Temple the Devil had in all the world was as it were sealed the irrecoverable overthrow of Ethnicisme which in the Event immediately following proved true For though he retained some strength under Valens in the East by still enjoying his wonted sacrifices yet in the days of Theodosius he was utterly and finally vanquished when his last champion Eugenius who threatned to be another Iulian and to restore Ethnicisme again with his whole Army was discomfited by the prayer and prowess of Theodosius about the year of our Lord three hundred and ninety For after this time Ethnicisme was never publickly maintained in the Roman Empire nor any open attempt made for restoring it again whereby it seems the red Dragon was cast down to the earth and that now was perfected the Triumph of Michael's victory when the Gods that made not the heaven and the earth were fully perished as concerning their Empire from the earth and from under
known for Explication either of the words or of what is contained in them and after come to such Observations as will follow and be gathered therefrom For Explication therefore three things are to be enquired of 1. Of what Meat and of what Rock the Apostle speaketh 2. Wherein both the one and the other were Spiritual or Sacramental 3. In what sense those Sacraments are said to be the same with ours For the first The Meat here spoken of most certainly was Manna for it appears in the fifth verse as also in the beginning that he means of the time they were in the Wilderness where the only Food was Manna sent from Heaven The word Manna either signifies a Portion it was their dimensum or daily allowance given by God or Food made ready because God prepared it without any labour or industry of theirs and this is thought to be the truest reason of the name For as for that of S. Ierom who thinks it had the name Man from the question asked upon the first sight thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is it and so they called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chaldee being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew this opinion though the Seventy have translated so yet is found unlikely by some learned in those Languages 1. Because no reason can be given why the Israelites should then speak Chaldee 2. Because in Chaldee the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a question of persons not of things and signifies Quis Who not Quid What being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew which always asketh of persons but never of things But to leave the name and speak something of the nature we must know that this Manna was not that which Dioscorides and Galen so call namely certain fragments of Frankincense nor was it that which the Arabians call Manna though it somewhat resembleth it For they call by this name a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hony-dew falling on some mountains of Syria and it seems they gave this name unto it by allusion unto the Sacred story But this Manna wherewith God fed the Israelites was a miraculous thing the Corn of Heaven and Bread of Angels as David calls it it fell only in the Wilderness of Sinai it rained all times and days of the year saving the Sabbath it was so hard that it might be ground in a Mill beaten in a Mortar or baked in an Oven it melted in the Sun and putrified with one night's keeping lastly it was Food and not Physick not one of all these properties agreeing to the Apothecarie's Manna or Manna of the Arabians Come we now to the Rock whereof the Apostle saith our Fathers drank which speech any man may see is not proper and therefore some say it is a Metonymie Rock for the water which came out of the Rock perhaps it will be more easie to say here is an Ellipsis of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or drink to be supplied out of the words next before and so to be construed thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they drank the drink of that Spiritual Rock Now for the Rock there are two Rocks mentioned in Scripture out of which the Lord gave water unto the Israelites one at Rephidim two years after their coming out of Egypt Exod. 17. another at Kadesh almost thirty eight years after Numb 20. It is doubtful which of these our Apostle meaneth We may safely say he meaneth them both the story of both being so like as the places of both had one name Meribah of the murmuring and contending of the people But if he meaneth only the one I would say it is the former the miracle whereof was presently upon the raining of Manna But here is one word yet needs to be explained for our Apostle adds unto Rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rock following or which followed them which some would have spoken of Christ being the Rock which accompanied the Israelites for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies or the Rock which was to come and follow in after-times others more truly expound it literally of the Rock in the wilderness thinking it reasonable that the Apostle who spake literally of Manna which was truly eaten should also in the same sense speak of the water of that Rock which was as truly drunken And therefore they say the Apostle adds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 following to intimate that when the Rock was smitten a stream gushed therefrom which followed the Israelites many years as they journeyed in the wilderness and therefore our Translation with others for explicationsake adds the word them which is not in the Greek and so the Syriack likewise translates the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Spiritual Rock which went with them But against this some object two things 1. That it is not like the Apostle would affirm any thing as History which is no where mentioned in the Old Testament where it is like so miraculous a thing would not have been concealed 2. That the thing it self is otherwise unlikely even by reasons out of Moses story For they say If it be meant of the first Rock at Rephidim how came they to want water at Kadesh if a river from the first Rock had followed them And if we say it is spoken of the second Rock at Kadesh how comes it to pass that they offered to buy water at a price of the Edomites if water followed them at the heels But unto the first it may be answered That it may be elsewhere shewn in the New Testament something to be alledged for Story which is not expressed in the Old Testament especially when there is â—ome ground whence some such thing may be drawn by good consequence and then I think we ought to believe the Illation of the Holy Ghost And that this thing we now speak of may be inferred from the Story of Moses it will appear thus For seeing it was about two years after their coming out of Egypt when the first Rock was smitten to give them water and that in all their change of Stations for almost thirty eight years after we never find the least mention of any want thereof though they travelled further in a dry and unwatered Wilderness It will follow from hence That either they stored themselves with water for so many years which is impossible or else the water of the Rock ran after them and it may be their journeys were so ordered by the lower grounds that it might naturally do so so long as the miraculous Fountain lasted As for the other Objection How they came again to want water at Kadesh it is casily answered For God might for a new trial of his people make the first Miracle cease when it pleased him and seeing at that Station they had taken a clean contrary way unto the former it may be the position of the Earth hindered it God
What can be more express than this is Primasius is short but no less to the purpose Offerunt quidem saith he Sacerdotes nostri sed ad recordationem mortis ejus in 10. cap. ad Hebraeos Our Priests indeed offer but it is in remembrance of his death S. Augustine calls it Memoriale sacrificium a Sacrifice by way of remembrance in his Book against Faustus In a word The Sacrifice of Christians is nothing but that one Sacrifice of Christ once offered upon the Cross again and again commemorated Which is elegantly exprest by those words of S. Andrew recorded in the History of his Passion written by the Presbyters of Achaia where AEgeas the Proconsul requiring of him to sacrifice to Idols he is said to have answered thus Omnipotenti Deo qui unus verus est ego omni die sacrifico non thuris fumum nec tanrorum mugientium carnes nec hircorum sanguinem sed immaculatum Agnum quotidie in Altari crucis sacrificio cujus carnes postquam omnis populus credentium manducaverit ejus sanguinem biberit Agnus qui sacrificatus est integer perseverat vivus I sacrifice daily to Almighty God but what not the smoke of Frankincense nor the flesh of bellowing Bulls nor the bloud of Goats No but I offer daily the unspotted Lamb of God on the Altar of the Cross whose Flesh and Bloud though all the Faithful eat and drink of yet after all this notwithstanding the Lamb that was sacrificed remains entire and alive still This Riddle though AEgeas the Proconsul were not able to unsold I make no question but you are And here I conclude EZRA VI. X. That they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons THE words of the Decree of King Darius for the building and furnishing of the service of the Temple of God at Ierusalem That saith he which they have need of for the burnt-offerings of the God of heaven both young bullocks rams and lambs wheat salt wine and oyl let it be given them day by day without fail That they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of Heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons I have made choice of this Scripture to shew that Sacrifice was Species Orationis or a Rite of Supplication unto God Such a one namely wherein the Supplicant came not with naked Prayer but presented something unto his God whereby to find favour in his sight The nature and quality of the thing presented was Munus foederale a Federal Gift consisting of meat and drink in the tender whereof as a sinner agnized himself to be his God's vassal and servant so by acceptance of the same he was reconciled and restored to his Covenant by the atonement and forgiveness of his sin Forasmuch as according to the use and custom of Mankind to receive meat and drink from the hand of another was a sign of amity and friendship much more to make another partaker of his Table as the sinner was here of God's by eating of his Oblation hence those who came to make supplication unto the Divine Majesty whom they had offended were wont by this Rite to make way for their sute by removing the obstacle of his offence For what hope of speeding could there be whilest the party to whom we tendred our supplication should be at enmity with us when God might say What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee For the foundation of all Invocation is Remember thy Covenant and of Impetration the Remission of our sin For this cause therefore was Sacrifice used as Medium deprecandi Deum as a Rite of address unto God when we were to make prayer and supplication unto him yea or to bless or give thanks But this is not to my present purpose but the use for Prayer only which to have been thus addressed as I speak appears not only by the words of my Text That they may offer c. and pray c. but sundry other places of Scripture which I mean to rehearse As first by that so often inculcated of Abraham and Isaac that where they pitched down their Tents they built also an Altar and there called upon the Name of the Lord But an Altar was a place for Sacrifice Therefore Sacrifice must be a Rite whereby they called upon the Name of God The same appears by that speech of Saul 1 Sam. 13. 12. when Samuel reproving him for having offered a Burnt-offering I said saith he The Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication unto the Lord I forced my self therefore and offered a Burnt-offering Therefore to offer a Burnt-offering was to make Supplication It is yet more plain out of 1 Sam. 7. 8. The Children of Israel said to Samuel Cease not or be not silent to cry unto the Lord our God for us that he will save us out of the hands of the Philistines And Samuel saith the Text v. 9. took a sucking Lamb and offered it for a Burnt-offering unto the Lord and Samuel cryed unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him It is further proved by that in the 116. Psalm v. 13. I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord For this Cup of Salvation is the Libamen or Drink-offering annexed and poured upon the Sacrifice at what time they used as here you see to call upon the Name of the Lord. 'T is a Synechdoche where the part is put for the whole Also to take is here to offer by that Figure quâ ex Antecedente intelligitur Consequens The same is implied by that of Micah 6. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the most High Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old And by that Antithesis Prov. 15. 8. The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but the Prayer of the upright is his delight For here the words of Sacrifice and Prayer are taken the one for the other it being all one as if it had been said for Prayer of the upright the Sacrifice of the upright or for Sacrifice of the wicked the Prayer of the wicked Hence it follows That Sacrifice was Species Orationis or a Rite of Supplication unto God The like may be inferred out of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple and the Lord's answer to the same For in that dedicatory prayer is no mention at all of Sacrifice to be there offered but only that the Lord would be pleased to hear from heaven the Prayers of such and such as should be made in that Place or towards it Nevertheless when God appeared to Solomon in the night he saith unto him I have heard thy Prayer and have chosen this
the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob was not the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. This was the reason why Irenaeus maintained it in his book Contra omnes Haereses and Tertullian against the Marcionites Eusebius who found out one Gaius to father it upon Cerinthus deserves no credit he was a party and one of those which did his best to undermine the authority of the Apocalypse Nor did any know of any such Gaius but from his relation And if there were any such he should seem to be one of the Hereticks called Alogi who denied both S. Iohn's Gospel and Apocalypse as is testified in Epiphanius and their time jumps with the Age which Eusebius assigns to Gaius Yet I deny not but some might maintain very carnal and intolerable conceits about this Regnum of a thousand years as the Mahumetans do about their Paradise But these are not to be imputed unto those Primitive Fathers and Orthodox Christians S. Hierom was a chief Champion to cry down this Opinion and according to his wont a most unequal relator of the Opinion of his Adversaries What credit he deserves in this may appear by some Fragments of those Authors still remaining whom he charged with an Opinion directly contrary to that which they expresly affirmed And yet when he had stated it so as it must needs be Heresie and Blasphemy whosoever should hold it he is found to say he durst not damn it because multi virorum Ecclesiasticorum Martyrum ista dixerunt Comment in Ierem. 19. 10. many Eccleâ—astical persons and Martyrs affirm'd the same In a word I cannot chuse but agree so far with them That these 1000 years are yet to come This I hold with Alstedius But what shall be the modus and condition of that Kingdom that is what it means it may be I have some singular conceit differing from them both I am sure from Alstedius Piscator and others of that opinion But I were better speak nothing thereof than too little and to speak fully would require in a manner the Interpretation of the whole Apocalypse In a word I will reveal thus much viz. That the Seventh Trumpet and the Thousand years contained therein is that Magnus dies Domini and Magnus dies Iudicii or Dies magni Iudicii The Great Day of the Lord The Great Day of Iudgment The Day of the Great Iudgment so much celebrated amongst the Iews in all their Writings and from them taken up by our Saviour and his Apostles Not a Day of a few hours as we commonly suppose but continuatum multorum annorum intervallum a continued space of many Years wherein Christ shall destroy all his Enemies and at length Death it self beginning with Antichrist by his revelation from heaven in flaming fire and ending with the Vniversal Resurrection during which space of time shall be the Kingdom of the Saints in the New Ierusalem This I can affirm with the most That Antichrist shall not be finally destroyed till the Day of Christ's appearing unto Iudgment and yet not fall into that which some charge the Chiliasts with That this Reign should be after the Day of Iudgment For I give a third time in or durante magno Die Iudicii in or during the Great Day of Iudgment I. M. CHAP. XII A Censure by way of Correction returned to a Friend concerning an Exposition of his of the 20. Chapter of the Apocalypse somewhat exorbitant 1. THat the Reign of Christ here described is after the Times of Antichrist if either the Beast or the False-prophet be he is apparent without interpretation both because all those Times the old Dragon Satan was not tied up but at liberty to seduce the Nations and because verse 4. one sort of those who should reign with Christ a thousand years are said to be such as had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image nor had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands which necessarily presupposeth The Beast His Image and Marking to have already been 2. What the Quality of this Reign should be which is so singularly differenced from the Reign of Christ hitherto is neither easie nor safe to determine farther then That it should be the Reign of our Saviour's Victory over his Enemies wherein Satan being bound up from deceiving the Nations any more till the time of his Reign be fulfilled the Church should consequently enjoy a most blissful peace and happy security from the heretical Apostasies and calamitous sufferings of former times But here if any where the known shipwrecks of those who have been too venturous should make us most wary and careful that we admit nothing into our imaginations which may cross or impeach any Catholick Tenet of the Christian Faith as also to beware of gross and carnal conceits of an Epicurean happiness misbeseeming the Spiritual purity of Saints If we conceit any Deliciae let them be Spirituales which S. Austine confesseth to be Opinio tolerabilis se hoc opinatum fuisse aliquando Lib. 20. De Civit. Dei cap. 7. a tolerable Opinion and that he also was sometime of the same judgment 3. The Presence of Christ in this Kingdom shall no doubt be glorious and evident yet I dare not so much as imagine which some Ancients seem to have thought that it should be a Visible Converse upon earth For the Kingdom of Christ ever hath been and shall be Regnum Coelorum A Kingdom whose Throne and Kingly Residence is in Heaven There he was installed when he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. and there as in his proper Temple is continually to appear in the presence of his Father to make intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. with Heb. 9. 24. Yet may we grant he shall appear and be visibly revealed from Heaven especially for the Calling and gathering of his ancient People for whom in the days of old he did so many wonders This S. Iohn in this Book as our Saviour in the Gospel â— seems to intimate by joyning those two Prophetical passages of Daniel and Zachary in one expression Behold he cometh in the clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him The first part which our Saviour expresses more fully by the Sign of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven c. is Daniel's in a Vision of this Kingdom we speak of Behold saith he one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him The other part is out of Zachary prophesying of the Re-calling of the Iews And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced Though these words of Zachary are not in our Saviour's expression but in stead thereof that which immediately
the Devil is loose but for a little season I. M. A PARAPHRASE AND EXPOSITION Of the PROPHECIE OF S t. PETER CONCERNING The Day of Christ's Second Coming DESCRIBED In the Third CHAPTER of his Second EPISTLE AS ALSO How the CONFLAGRATION or Destruction of the WORLD by FIRE whereof S. Peter speaks and especially of the Heavens is to be understood BY IOSEPH MEDE B. D. The Fifth Edition corrected in sundry places and enlarged with some Additional Observations out of the Author 's own Manuscripts A PARAPHRASE and EXPOSITION OF THE PROPHECIE of S. PETER CONCERNING The Day of Christ's Second Coming DESCRIBED In the Third CHAPTER of the Second EPISTLE Verses 1 2. SAint Peter exhorts the believing Iews unto whom he writes to be mindful of the words of the holy Prophets Esay Daniel and Malachi concerning the coming of Christ to Iudgment and the Restauration then promised it being also confirmed by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Verses 3 4. For howsoever it were then believed both by Iews and Christianed Gentiles yet in the last days should come those who walking after their own desires or humors should deny and deride the expectation of any such promise of the Day of Christ saying Where is the promise of his coming Where is the New heaven and New earth you talk of Verse 4. pars altera The reason of this their unbelief being because they imagine there hath never yet since the creation of the World been any example of such a destruction and change ensuing it as this at the coming of Christ should be For since the Fathers fell asleep say they even since Adam died all things have continued as they were from the beginning of the creation Therefore the expectation of any such change of the World and the state of things therein as is supposed is vain and frivolous and never to be fulfilled Verses 5 6. But those who suppose this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there hath never yet any such destruction and change befallen the Creation and thence conclude there is no such nor shall ever be they weigh and consider not the universal Deluge in the time of Noah when the curse laid upon the creature for man's sin first solemnly took place brought as a like destruction so a like change upon the world for the degeneration of the creature as this at the second coming of Christ shall be for the restauration and renovation of the same in the day of the glorious liberty of the children of God For the Heavens were of old and the globe of the Earth consisting partly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of water viz. that of the Great deep and partly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst water to wit the clouds and floud-gates of heaven hanging about it all framed by the word of God By which waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world which then was being overwhelmed with water perished as it is written Gen. 7. 11 c. In the 600. year of Noah's life in the second month the 17. day of the month were all the Fountains of the Great deep broken up and the Floud-gates or Cataracts of heaven were opened and verse 18. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing and every man verse 21. Verse 7. But the Heavens and the Earth that is the World which is now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto a From this proportion which the Iudgment to come by Fire hath unto that which was by Water in the Deluge Irenaeus calls it Diluvium ignis Lib. 5. cap. 29. juxta Edit Fevardentii fire at the Day of Iudgment and perdition of ungodly men according to the prophecy of Daniel c. 7. v. 10 11. who saw a fiery stream issuing and coming forth before the Iudge of the world and the body of the fourth Beast burned therewith And of Esay chap. 66. 15 16. who saith of that day That the Lord shall come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebukes with flames of fire And that by fire and by his sword i. e. by his sword of fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord would plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many b It may be it is of this day the same Prophet Esay also speaks chap. 9. 5. where he saith The battel of the Messiah should not be as the battel of the warriour with confused noise and garments rolled in bloud but with burning and fuel of fire For the old Prophets for the most part speak of the coming of Christ indefinitely and in general without that distinction of First and Second coming which the Gospel out of Daniel hath more clearly taught us And so consequently they spake of the things to be at Christ's coming indefinitely and altogether which we who are now more fully informed by the revelation of the Gospel of a two-fold coming must apply each of them to its proper time those things which befit the state of his First coming unto it and such things as befit the state of his Second coming unto his Second and what befits Both alike may be applied unto Both. So also Mal. 4. 1. That the great and terrible day shall burn as an oven and all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be stubble which at the coming of that day shall be burnt up Verse 8. But whereas I mentioned saith S. Peter the Day of Iudgment lest ye might mistake it for a short day or a day of a few hours I would not beloved have you ignorant that One day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day a Thus I expound these words by way of a preoccupation or premunition because they are the formal words of the Iewish Doctors when they speak of the Day of Iudgment or Day of Christ as S. Peter here doth viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 una dies Dei Sancti Benedicti sunt mille anni And though they use to quote that of the ninetieth Psalm Mille anni in oculis tuis sicut dies hesternus for confirmation thereof yet are not those words formally in the Psalm So that S. Peter in this passage seems rather to have had respect to that common saying of the Iews in this argument than to the words of the Psalm where the words One day with the Lord is as a thousand years are not though the latter part of the sentence A thousand years as one day may allude thither as the * Trad. R. Ketinae in Gemara Sanâ—edrin Midrasch iâ—hillim super Ps. 90. Iews also were wont to bring it for a confirmation of the former 2. These words are commonly taken as an argument why God should not be thought slack in his promise which follows in
but was translated out of Chaldee The passages which this Ramban quoteth thence are chap. 7. v. 5 6 7 and part of the 8. and again v. 17 18 19 20 21. In the last of which quotations because there is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I greedily looked what word in the Chaldee answered here to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which those who have skill know to signifie the Planets 12 Signs or Constellations of Heaven as being the same with the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore here are Stars and Planets which I shall not need prove to be the host of the Ethereal heaven yea and perhaps too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are derived of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ire as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now we know the Scriptures make three heavens 1. The Air or Sublunary heaven 2. The Ethereal or Starry heaven 3. The heaven of Glory or Empyreal heaven Every of these heavens have their host or army The host of the heaven of Glory or the third heaven are the Angels and blessed Spirits The host of the Ethereal heaven are the Stars and Planets The host of the Aereal or Sublunary heaven are either visible as the Clouds of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and other Meteors as also the rest of the creatures mansioning therein as the Fowls of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or invisible viz. the wicked Spirits and Devils whose Prince Satan is called the Prince of the power of the Air Eph. 2. 2. and his host 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rulers of the world that is of the Sublunary world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked spirits in heavenly places namely in the lowest or sublunary heavens Eph. 6. 12. And whether S. Paul Gal. 4. 8 9. and Gol. 2. 8 c. includes not some of those under his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot affirm let the Learned further consider it when namely he speaks to and of Gentiles and not Iews HAVING hitherto prepar'd the way let us now come closer home to S. Peter whose words evidently import that some of these Heavens or all of them shall suffer a Conflagration at the Day of Christ. Not all of them for who ever put the Empyreal heaven in that reckoning And for the Ethereal heaven he that considereth both the supereminent nature and immensity thereof and of those innumerable bodies therein in regard of which the whole Sublunary world is but a point or centre and that it no way can be proved that ever those bodies received any curse for mans sin or contagion by the world's deluge or that any enemies of God dwell in them to pollute them he that considereth this will not easily be induced to believe that the Fire of the day of Iudgment should burn them It remaineth therefore that the Sublunary heavens only with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be the subject of this Conflagration These Heavens saith S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. solventur shall be dissolved and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall melt with fervent heat 'T is a Metaphor taken from the refining of metalls quae igne solvuntur ut purificentur which are melted in order to their purifying and refining So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as Coeli igne adhibito constabuntur This to be the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appears because S. Peter himself interprets solvi to be liquefieri For having in the tenth verse said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. shall be dissolved he in the twelfth verse repeating it says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. shall melt Now melting is for refining and purifying Nor is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 averse from this notion the LXX using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Psalms more than once The words of the Lord are as refined or tried silver LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 12. and so elsewhere But when the Sublunary heaven shall be thus refined even the Ethereal lights of the Stars of the Sun and Moon c. will appear to those on earth much more glorious than now they do as sending their raies through a purer Medium so that all the world to us-ward shall be as it were renewed As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or passing away verse 10. it is an Hebraism signifying any change or going of a thing from the state wherein it was and answers to the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both transire and mutari as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also in Chaldaism doth And Schindler notes that Psal. 102. the Arabick for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutabuntur hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transibunt In the twelfth verse it is expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already shewed is commuted with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They therefore all three of them signifie one and the same thing and I see no reason why we should imagine a greater emphasis in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an utter abolition in the destruction by fire than was before implied in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he spake of the destruction by water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 6. But what shall become of the invisible host which I named as part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Sublunary heaven viz. those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the army of wicked and unclean spirits shall the Fire of the last Iudgment touch these I answer Though the operation of the Fire shall not be upon them to burn them yet shall they also suffer by this fiery judgment being thereby to be exiled and dejected from those high mansions and bestowed in some lower place For so that of Iude seems to imply The Angels saith he which kept not their first estate but left their own or proper habitation he hath reserved to be bound with everlasting chains of darkness at the Iudgment of the great Day Vide Piscat in hunc locum And this seems to me to be the most literal and unforced exposition of this description of S. Peter of the Heaven and Earth's conflagration at the Day of Christ and so to be preferred before any other BUT if a Prophetical strain or Scheme may be here admitted there is another way of explication which yet in the conclusion will come to the same purpose the former did although the way thereto be not the same And certainly our Saviour in the Gospel describing the coming of this Day useth a Prophetical expression The Sun saith he shall be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken For if this be taken literally whither shall the Stars fall from heaven which are either
whereof the Lord had said In this House and in Ierusalem will I put my name for ever even in this House this holy House were Idols and graven Images erected and in both Courts thereof Altars to Baalim the Sun the Moon and the whole host of heaven the like whereof never had been until that time Besides who is able to name the man for almost fifty years together that remained a Faithful servant and True worshipper of the Living God in the midst of this hideous profanation Nor is it easie to be conceived how it was possible all that time to offer any Legal sacrifice without Idolatry when God's own Temple and House was made a den of Idols nay his Altar the only Altar of Israel destroyed to make room for Altars erected to Idols as may be gathered 2 Chron. 33. 15 16. Where was the true Church of Israel now or had the Lord no Church at all Yes certainly he had a Church and a Company which defiled not their garments a Company I say but not visibly distinguished from the rest of their Nation but hidden as it were in the midst of that Apostate body and yet known together with the rest to be Israelites and people of Iehovah but known to God alone and themselves to be true Israelites and faithful servants to Iehovah their God And that such a Company there was and a strong party too though not seen appeared presently upon the death of Manasses and his wicked son when Iosiah began to reign at eight years of age For they then prevailed even in the Court it self and so brought up the King that even while he was yet young in the eighth year of his reign he began to seek after the God of David his father and in the twelfth year to make a publick and powerful Reformation such as the like was never done before him Could all this have been done so soon and by a King so young in years and to carry all before it like a torrent unless there had been a strong party which now having a King for them began quickly to shew themselves and to sway the State though before they were hardly to be seen When therefore our Adversaries ask us where our Church was before Luther we see by this what we have to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XI The Third Particular or The Time of the Apostasie That the Last Times in Scripture signifie either a Continuation of Time or an End of Time That the Last Times simply and in general are the Times of Christianity the Last Times in special and comparatively or the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Times of the Apostasie under Antichrist That the Times are set out to us to be as Marks to inform us when the Things to fall out in them should come to pass and not the Things intended for signs to know the Times by This Observation illustrated from Dan. 8. OF the two first Particulars of the Four whereby the Great Apostasie of Christian Believers is here decyphered I have spoken sufficiently viz. First for the Quality and kind thereof it should be a new Doctrine of Daemons Secondly that for the Persons revolting they should not be All but Some Now I am to speak of the Third The Times when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Latter Times For the easier understanding whereof we must know that speeches of Last Times in Scripture mean sometimes a Continuation or Length of time sometimes an End of time A Continuation of time I mean as when we say that Winter is the Last time or season of the year or old age the Latter time of life neither of them being the very End but a space of time next the end which therefore in respect of some whole System of time whereof it is the Last part is truly termed the Last time thereof Man's life is a Systeme of divers ages the Last space whereof is the Last time of life The Year is a Systeme of four seasons and therefore the Last season thereof Winter may be called the Last time of the year But by an End of time I mean the very expiring of time as the Last day of December is the End or last time of the year the moment when a man dies is the Last time that is the End of his life Now in the New Testament when by mention of Last time is meant an End or Terminus temporis I observe it to be exprest in the Singular number as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last day being four times mentioned in the sixth of Iohn and once in the eleventh is in every one of them meant of the Day of the Resurrection at the End of the world I will raise him up saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last day Iohn 6. 39 40 44 54. And Martha of her brother Lazarus I know saith she he shall rise again in the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Last day Iohn 11. 24. So 1 Pet. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last time is used in the self-same sense being spoken of the incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven and to be revealed saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Last time In all which is meant the End of the world But in 1 Iohn 2. 18. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last hour Little children it is the Last hour where no doubt he meaneth an End of some time but not the End of the world which was then far off but an End of their time to whom he then wrote his Epistle that is an End of the Iewish State and Religion which was then at the very door which Exposition I will make more plain hereafter But when a Continuation or Longer space of time is signified then I find the Plural number to be used as 1 Pet. 1. 20. of the Incarnation of Christ it is said that he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was made manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Last times which times have continued these 1600 years at the least So Heb. 1. 2. God saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these Last days hath spoken unto us by his Son And 2 Tim. 3. 1. This know also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the Last days perillous times shall come Again Acts 2. 17. In the Last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh In the 2 Pet. 3. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Last days shall come scoffers And so in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Latter times some shall revolt from the Faith and give heed to Doctrines of Daemons Whatsoever the validity of this observation be for the rest I make no question but it will be granted That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text means some Continued space of time and not Terminus temporis or the very End of time which therefore presupposed I approach
the rest of the Apostles but the particular Fates and States of that Kingdom were never known till Christ revealed them to S. Iohn in the Apocalyptical Visions The like I say of the Fourth or Roman Kingdom the general revelation whereof could not but be before the opening of the sealed Book in the Apocalyps since it had then been so long a time in the world as it was grown past the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had fulfilled what it was to fulfil upon Daniel's people 4. As for the Persecutions of the Church I deny the argument either of the Seals or Trumpets to be the Roman persecutions of Christ's Kingdom or that any of them have reference to persecutions save the Fifth Seal only or that any thing contained in them was made known to Daniel save the Catastrophe only represented in the last Trumpet which the Angelus tonitruum proclaims there to be Consummatio Mysterii Dei prout annunciavit servis suis Prophetis The finishing of the Mystery of God as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets and therefore cannot be denied to have been both foretold and expected for the general although not for the Manner Time and Order in serie rerum gerundarum till now 5. Howsoever my Tenet here be yet your Assertion That the Romans persecution was revealed to none till Christ revealed it to Iohn cannot stand unless you deny the coming of the man of sin who is a limb of that Kingdom to be any part of the Churche's afflictions For this was revealed unto S. Paul both for the quality and the fall thereof viz. That Christ should destroy it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I make no doubt but S. Paul learned out of the seventh of Daniel where that ruffling Horn also is not destroyed until the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven to receive that Universal Kingdom which shall never suffer persecution 6. But whereas you say that the ruffling Horn of the Fourth Beast is Antiochus Epiphanes I demonstrate the contrary by this one Argument The ruffling Horn reigns until the Ancient of days comes in fiery flames to destroy him and to give judgment unto the Saints of the most High and until the time comes that the Saints possessed the Kingdom viz. until the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven to receive a Kingdom wherein all Nations People and Languages should serve and obey him Daniel 7. verses 9 10 11 13 expounded ver 22 26 c. But Antiochus Epiphanes reigned not until this time for he died 160 years and more before the Birth of Christ and almost 200 years before his Ascension the least of which numbers is a longer space of time than was from the death of Alexander unto Antiochus Ergò Antiochus Epiphanes is not that ruffling Horn. The changing of Times and Laws whereby the power of this Horn is described is an Oriental phrase to express potestatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor are Times here to be taken in so abstract a notion but concretely for status rerum tempora varianâ—ium or Res quibus variatur status temporum as are mutationes Rerumpub regiminis rerum Times for things done in time whereby the Times are altered such as are the alterations of States and Governments According to which notion Dan. 2. 21. it is said of God that he changeth times and seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings and I Chron. 29. 30. that the Acts of David were written in the Books of Samuel Nathan and Gad the Seers with all his reign and his might and the times that went over him and over Israel and over all the Kingdoms of the Countries And whether the Pope if I say he is that Horn took not upon him a power of changing such Times as these I shall not need to tell you And yet take Times in your own Notion and it would make a shift to fit him as well as Antiochus To your Second Position The proof of your Second Position That the Fourth Beast Dan. 7. is not able sufficiently to express the Roman Empire is in the mainest part Petitio principii wherein that is taken for granted which is in question For you take for granted that the Type of the Roman Empire in the Apocalyps borrows his Ten horns from Daniel's fourth Beast as a distinct Beast from it But I say he borrows them not they are his own proper and native horns Daniel's Beast and he being one and the same Beast I grant that the Apocalyptical Beast for the shape of his body is beholding to Daniel's three first Beasts but that he borroweth any from the fourth I deny Nor do Horns more or fewer distinguish the species of a Beast For in the Apocalyps there is a Lamb with seven horns and a Lamb with two horns and yet for kind a Lamb still So Daniel's He-goat had first one horn and afterward four horns and yet the same Goat still c. The correspondence in number of the several Heads of Daniel's four Beasts put together with the seven heads of the Apocalyptical Beast is but casual Neither can it be proved that the Fourth of Daniel's Beasts had but one head as is here to be supposed for the third Beast hath the four heads and the other three but one a piece For the mentioning of the Head which bore the ten horns in the singular number Verse 20. proves no more it had but one head than the mentioning of mouth likewise in the singular number Apoc. 13. ver 2 5 6. proves the Apocalyptical Beast had buâ— one mouth For indeed the Ten horns were all upon one head as well in the Apocalyptical Beast viz. upon the seventh or uppermost head as in Daniel's Beast and the mouth of the Apocalyptical Beast was the mouth also of the seventh head to act the state of which head S. Iohn saw him rise out of the Sea c. And whereas you speak of an insufficient expression of the Roman Empire by Daniel's Fourth Beast you may perceive by that I have said before that it would well enough agree with my Principles to grant it my Tenet being That the Fourth Beast should not be so distinctly with all accoutrements revealed unto Daniel as it was unto S. Iohn because the specification of the several States and Fates thereof was yet sealed and unrevealed And the third Kingdom was not so distinctly revealed to Daniel in the Leopard Chap. 7. as it was two years after to the same Daniel in the great He-goat Chap. 8. c. The dispensation of God in these Revelations is to be measured according to his pleasure and the use of the Church c. But it is now three a clock and I have no more time I had much rather confer of these things by word of mouth wherein perhaps I could give better satisfaction Conference by writing is wont to multiply it self into so much paper as takes away a great deal of my
the Throne of the Ancient of days was set and the Iews had defence till Christ's time from the weak Greeks And now the Romans having an inch given them take an ell and usurp authority over the Iews and with them kill Christ the Messiah But Christ overcame death and had all power in heaven and in earth given him Matth. 28. This his Kingdom we acknowledge in our prayers and the Church celebrates Apocal. 5. by the voice of all such as were made Priests and Kings to reign on the earth even such as were gathered out of all nations tongues and kindreds That which you add about Times put for Things done in time is very true for the signification of the Phrase when it comes alone in divers places But here changing of Times and Laws go together Antiochus Epiphanes his dealings wonderfully agree to this 1 Mac. 1. 42. He would make every one leave his Laws He forbids burnt-offering and sacrifice Vers 45. He commands the Books of the Law to be burnt Vers. 56 57. He slew the Iews for circumcising their children Vers. 60. He puts down their Laws 2 Macc. 4. 10. 6. 1 2. He uses threats and cruelty then flattery to make them forsake the Law 2 Macc. 7. All these stirrs grew from the Greeks attempting to make them leave their Laws 1 Macc. 6. 59. Then Epiphanes his attempt to alter Times is clear in his command to put down the Sabbaths and Feasts and his making them to keep Bacchus Feasts 2 Macc. 6. 7. To the Seventh THESIS The Fourth Beast Dan. 7. and the First Beast Revel 13. are not one and the same They differ much in shape of body and in their acts and in their falls and plagues Besides that in the Apocal. is made as it were of all the four in Daniel and is so described as if it came in stead and was comparable to them all as indeed it was Horns more or less distinguish not a Beast That infirms not what I said By the way only I here observe That the Beast with seven horns was a Lamb indeed that is Christ. The Beast Apocal. 13. with two horns had these two horns like a Lamb's but in truth he might be a Wolf Seeing it is not said that Daniel's Fourth Beast had four heads therein I mistook in my former writing it is to be presumed he had but one as Beasts usually have no more except in Vision for expression of some special matter more heads be attributed to them The Third Beast Dan. 7. had four heads The number of which four heads with the three heads of the other three Beasts◠fits so well with Iohn's Beast besides the resemblance to the Lion Bear Leopard that I believe it cannot be casual especially seeing it is in God's Book Concerning that you say of Mouth put singularly I answer that the Beast Apocal. 13. had seven heads with names of blasphemy This will imply that each had a mouth and that a blasphemous mouth which is more Besides the very nomination of head implies a mouth and seven heads seven mouths And whereas there is mention of a mouth given the Beast Vers. 5. methinks that should intimate the extremity of blasphemy proceeding from the seventh head beyond all the rest Whereas you say the third Kingdom in Daniel was not so distinctly revealed Chap. 7. as afterwards chap. 8. That is true And further I add That in Visions and Prophecies God hath spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and revealed things to come by parts so that several Visions or Prophecies laid together make up the whole In each of Daniel's Visions something is passed over to be supplied by the rest In the second Chapter there is nothing to type Alexander's four chief Chaptains nor is it told what people should be trode on by the Iron legs In Chap. 7. the Exposition of the three former kingdoms is very brief the Exposition of the fourth very large The weakness of Antiochus his Successors is unexpressed In Chap. 8. nine of the horns coming out of Alexander's Captains are passed over and the little Horn fully set out The Kingdom of Christ over all Nations is not spoken of at all These things thus passed over are supplied by the rest So is it in the Revelation The afflicting of God's Church is diversly expressed and the afflicters thereof and the afflicted by them So that no one Vision but the several Visions laid together do give us a perfect and whole delineation of what was to come from that time to the end of the World EPISTLE VIII Mr. Mede's Answer to Mr. Hayn's Second Letter about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation SIR I Received yours at the Commencement wherein I found if I should answer to every part I should have as many Questions to dispute as I sent you Theses The experience of which multiplications in that kind makes me so backward in Collations by writing So that I can with much more patience endure to be contradicted than be drawn to make Reply But all this time the truth is I had no leisure nor yet have and am presently also to go into the Countrey where I shall stay some weeks and have no opportunity to write That I might not therefore in the mean time seem too much too neglect you I have caused a Scholar of yours to write out something I had by me in a Paper long ago written wherein you may further see my Opinion and some part of the grounds thereof When I return and have more leisure I shall answer to what I find Principal in your Replies but not to what is Circumstantial for so the business would grow too tedious for my pen. In the mean time I would desire you to believe that I have read the most that hath or can be said for that Opinion either by the chief Patrons thereof Broughton and Iunius or their followers Polanus Piscator D. Willet and that whilst I was yet free and first began with these kind of studies and yet found nothing that could in the least measure perswade me to be of their mind And I see now that the modern Writers and even some of their Scholars return to the ancient opinion and forsake their Masters in this point This I speak not to boast of my reading in this controversie but to shorten your Discourses which you may send hereafter you shall need but touch and spare the labour of so much enlargement But a word or two to your Reply Whereas you say The ground of the expectation of the coming of Christ when be came was the Fall or expiration of the Fourth Kingdom I utterly deny it The ground was the near expiration of Daniel's 70 weeks concurring with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Fourth Kingdom the Roman during which his Kingdom was to be first revealed and at the end of which consummated Besides I acknowledge no place in this account of Kingdoms for the Greeks after Antiochus Epiphanes
where the Holy Ghost expresly placeth the end of that Kingdom much less will admit Cleopatra to prolong it and and that too after the Romans had subdued Iudaea You mistake my Answer That the Roman or Fourth Kingdom was revealed to Daniel in imagine confusa For I meant it neither absolutely as if it had no distinction in its description nor in comparison with the former Three than which in that place it is more particular and distinct But I meant it was in imagine confusa in respect of those distinct States and times thereof which were revealed unto S. Iohn and not unto Daniel that it was confused in comparison of that which was more particular of the same subject As is Daniel's description of the second and third Beast in the seventh Chapter compared with that more particular description of the same in the eighth and eleventh Chapters Whereas you say The Iews since Christ brought in this opinion of the Roman to be the Fourth Kingdom that so they might the better maintain their expectation of Messiah yet to come because that Kingdom was yet in being I say it was affirmed by whosoever first affirmed it without all ground authority or probability the contrary also being easie to be proved viz. That the Iews were of this opinion before our Saviour came as appears in Ionathan Ben Vziel the Chaldee Paraphrast and by the fourth Book of Esdras which whatsoever the authority thereof be is sufficient to prove this being written by a Iew for it is saith Picus the first of their seventy Books of Cabbalâ— and before our Saviour's coming as appears by many passages of Messiah expected and yet to appear within four hundred years after that supposed time of Esdras Certainly he that wrote it meant no hurt to Christians as will easily appear to him that that reads it and finds the Name Iesus and so often mention of the Son of God Which I note in case you should rather think it written after Christ. If it were it was certainly by a Christian. The ancient mention thereof is by Clemens Alexandrinus Anno 200. though I know some body affirms the first mention thereof is by S. Ambrose two hundred years after sed fallitur Yet I take not the Book to be Canonical Scripture As for the Christian Doctors it is well known that both Iustin Martyr within 30 years of S. Iohn's death and Irenaeus were of this opinion and knew no other amongst Christians and yet they both lived and conversed with the Apostles immediate Disciples and the latter of them brought up at Polycarpus's feet who was S. Iohn's Disciple and could relate to Irenaeus as himself saith what S. Iohn was wont to do and speak Therefore Eusebius was not worth the naming as caught with this trap seeing it cannot be proved that ever any Christian before him or after him till after S. Hierome's time held the contrary and then too was soon checked and not heard of again till the last Seculum But as for the opinion you would perswade to it was first broached by Porphyrie an enemy of Christ to the end he might prove the Prophecy of Daniel counterfeit and written about the time of the Maccabes soon after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes and so prophesied nothing but ab eventu as meaning by the Fourth Kingdom the Seleucidae c. not the Roman See S. Hierome upon those Chapters of Daniel 7. 11. and you will admire the Expositions and Evasions of Porphyrie should be the same almost yea in circumstances with those of Iunius c. But S. Hierome in his time knew no Christian that had been of that opinion Let any man shew as much for what you affirm of the Iews as insinuators of this opinion in praejudicium fidei Christianae The Purport of the Four Kingdoms in DANIEL or The A. B. C. of Prophecie THE FOUR KINGDOMS in Daniel are twice revealed First to Nebuchadnezzar in a glorious Image of Four sundry Metals secondly to Daniel himself in a Vision of Four diverse Beasts arising out of the Sea The intent of both is by that succession of Kingdoms to point out the time of the Kingdom of Christ which no other Kingdom should succeed or destroy Nebuchadnezzar's Image Daniel 2. Nebuchadnezzar's Image points out Two States of the Kingdom of Christ. The First to be while those times of the Kingdoms of the Gentiles yet lasted typified by a Stone hewen out of a Mountain without hands the Monarchical Statue yet standing upon his feet The Second not to be until the utter destruction and dissipation of the Image when the Stone having smote it upon the feet should grow into a great Mountain which should fill the whole earth The First may be called for distinction sake Regnum Lapidis the Kingdom of the Stone which is the State of Christ's Kingdom which hitherto hath been The other Regnum Montis the Kingdom of the Mountain that is of the Stone grown into a Mountain c. which is the State of his Kingdom which hereafter shall be The Intervallum between these two from the time the Stone was first hewen out that is the Kingdom of Christ was first advanced until the time it becomes a Mountain that is when the Mystery of God shall be finished is the Subject of the Apocalyptical Visions Note here first That the Stone is expounded by Daniel to be that lasting Kingdom which the God of Heaven should set up Secondly That the Stone was hewen out of the Mountain before it smote the Image upon the feet and consequently before the Image was dissipated and therefore that the Kingdom typified by the Stone while it remained a Stone must needs be within the times of those Monarchies that is before the last of them viz. the Roman should expire Wherefore Daniel interprets Ver. 44. That in the dayes of these Kingdoms not after them but while some of them were yet in being the God of heaven should set up a Kingdom which should never be destroyed nor left as they were to another people but should break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it self should stand for ever And all this he speaks as the Interpretation of the Stone Forasmuch saith he as thou sawest that a Stone was cut out of a Mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the iron the brass the clay the silver and the gold Here make the full point For these words belong not to that which follows as our Bibles by mis-distinguishing seem to refer them but to that which went before of their Interpretation But the Stone 's becoming a Mountain he expounds not but leaves to be gathered by what he had already expounded Daniel's Vision of Four Beasts Dan. 7. The same Kingdoms of the Gentiles are typified here which were in the former of Nebuchadnezzar's Image namely the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman Only Nebuchadnezzar's Image pointed out both States of Christ's Kingdom first Lapidis then Montis But
and the Latin call it Imperium orbis terrarum 13. Daniel himself interpreteth the Stone to be a Kingdom which the God of heaven should set up in the days of those Kingdoms and therefore it cannot be the Kingdom of Christ as God coeternal with his Father but the Kingdom of Christ as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which began not before he was incarnate In the days of these Kingdoms saith he that is whilst some of them were yet in being the God of heaven shall set up a Kingdom which should never be destroyed nor left as the former should to another people but should break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it self should sâ—and for ever Forasmuch saith he as thou sawest a Stone was cut out of a mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the iron the brass the clay the silver and the gold Here make the full point for these words belong not to that which follows as our mis-distinction in the verses seems to refer them but to that which went before of their interpretation See the same reference of Forasmuch in the 40 and 41 verses 14. I will not now dispute of the Prepositionâ—â— though I had enough to say against you but I say that the words In the daies of those Kings are much more likely to be construed by Ellipsis particulae partitivae usual in the Hebrew and Chaldee quâ—si In the daies of some one of those Kings viz. the last of them So Iephtah is said to have been buried in the cities of Gilead that is in some one of them c. There be some other passages not so principal though I dissent from you in them which I omit as I desire to do this whole Disputation That I had reserved to have answered in your former Reply was to that of the Ruffling Horn which by the express words of the Angel was to last until the time came the Saints should possess the Kingdom that is until the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven to take a Kingdom for this is the Angel's exposition of that part of the Vision and therefore it could not be Antiochus Epiphanes Your Answer to this seemed very unsufficient I desire you to weigh it better and I make an end Yours I. M. October 13. EPISTLE IX Mr. Hayn's Fourth Letter to Mr. Mede about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation 1. SCaliger's or Iunius his Opinion prevail not so much as should their Reasons God had told the Iews plainly the year and by types the time of the year when Messias should work their redemption So that it was not enough to know in what age it should be 2. The coming of the Son of man is to his Kingdom on earth on which the Scripture runs abundantly Dan. 2. 7. Apoc. 1. 7. Luke 17. 20. and was to be before that generation passed Matth. 24. 34. And within that space of time he came on Ierusalem as the Floud on the old world There shall be a Second coming of Christ namely to Iudgment And then he shall give up his Kingdom here to the Father Yet shall this Kingdom here and that in Heaven be one and the same consist of the same men or subjects and have the same bent to the honour of God 3. The Greeks Rule after Antiochus Epiphanes was sufficient to express the clayie legs that is enough for me and the clayie legs are part of the Fourth Monarchy The Romans more the Iews friends full many scores of years after Epiphanes his time Their war against God's people is that for which God paints them out as Beasts And though the Romans conquered Macedon long before Christ's coming yet both Iulius Caesar and Antonie let Cleopatra hold her due of what Rule she had and were but sticklers not opposites at first 4. If Christ's Kingdom took place at his first coming the same is one and but one and that everlasting 5. The seven Trumpets seven Vials two Witnesses c. shew a new matter not particulars of the Fourth Kingdom particularized before in Daniel 6. The late Iews God enlighten them shift abundantly and the ancient both before and after their desertion did but groap in darkness 7. Yet both the late and old Iews and Porphyrie too saw some truth who can deny it 8. The Text saith In the days of those Kingdoms say you as if it were in all of them and the Stone confounds all Why should we allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 typi 9. You deny the duration of the Fourth Kingdom to hold proportion with the parts of the Image I affirm it my reason is If the Three former do then the Fourth also 10. I know there is a Second coming of Christ that at the day of Iudgment But the Kingdom once begun is one for it is everlasting If there were two Kingdoms the one must end the other begin Though there be degrees in the progress of Christ's Kingdom in regard of the world's indisposition to submit to it yet de jure all is Christ's at his Ascension 11. The Mystery which now you speak of I acknowledge and bless God for it namely of the calling of the Gentiles The Iews Rejection also is plain in the time of the Gospel yet was a remnant of their Nation saved And what more were the elect out of other Nations â— few to the many 12. Though de facto the Gospel was not preached to all the world then yet see mentem Legislatoris the mind of the Law-giver Go preach to all Nations 13. Christ is the Stone what is said of him in many things is and may be said of them of his Kingdom He bruises with a rod of von Ps. 2. so do his servants Rev. 2. 27. He the Stone and his kingdom and people here do the same thing 14. For â— the Proposition the authority I brought was sound and good That about Iephtah is though I use not to be sudden in this kind ill translated I wish time would have given me leave to have conferred with Books and men about it I pray you think of it Were it not better Gideon was buried by the cities of Gilead namely the men of them all much honouring him joyned in solemnizing his burial 15. Not the ruffling Horn as you call it but the body of the Beast Dan. 7. 11. continued till the Son of man came Now the Body of the Beast hornless may express the same or be correspondent to the clayie legs and thus the answer is home in this particular also Much more I could have said but must here make an end and leave you to God whom I pray to keep us in his truth Octob. 16. 1629. EPISTLE XII Mr. Mede's Answer to Mr. Hayn's Fourth Letter about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation NOW I have obtained a Release that you might not think I shook off this Collation out of Pride or Contempt but to avoid too great a diversion from other
even when I go about any thing especially to write and digest CONCERNING your Quaere of the Clades Testium I cannot see how it can be referred to any other time than to about the end of their 1260 days mourning-prophecy because that which immediately follows their reviving after 3 days and a halflying dead is not appliable to any other time save that only as namely so great an Exaltation as is implied by ascending up to heaven in a cloud such a great Earthquake or commotion as should be at the same hour whereby the Throne of the Beast should be so much shaken and lastly the expiring at the same time of the second Woe or sixth Trumpet These are not appliable to any time save the times of the Beastâ—s declining and period and consequently to the end of the 1260 days of the Witnesses wearing sackcloth and should fall out when they were now putting off their sackcloth and when some of them had done it already For so the word is to be turned When they were now about to finish their prophecy or days of sackcloth c. Besides it suits with the method of Divine Providence God Almighty having ever used to usher in any great Exaltation of his Saints with some desperate Extremity and Calamity immediately foregoing it Whence is that Theological proverb Cùm duplicantur lateres tunc venit Moses When was David in a more desperate distress than when he was instantly to be exalted to the Throne of Iudah namely at the burning of Ziklag what a streight were Moses and the children of Israel brought into a little before Pharaoh and his host were to be drowned in the Red sea The most grievous extreme and dangerous persecution that ever the Church felt was then when Christianity was ready to be exalted unto the Throne of the Empire I mean that of Diocletian Moreover there is a Sin whereof the whole body of the Reformation is notoriously guilty which nevertheless is accountend no Sin and yet such an one as I know not whether God ever passed by without some visible and remarkable judgment This seems to call for a scourge before Antichrist shall go down And that may be as far as I know this feared Clades Testium I will not name it because it is invidious and I am not willing to be drawn to say so much for the probability thereof in this case as perhaps I could But to speak somewhat more particularly of this Clades I know not whether it should immediately precede the pouring out of the fifth Vial or the fourth If we were secure of the present dangers and fears I should incline most to think it should precede the fifth Vial in respect of that fall of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which instantly ensues the Witnesses reviving Secondly The time of three days and a half is the time during which the Witnesses should lie for dead without appearance of life or motion not the time wherein they should be dying or killing for that may be much longer and grow also by degrees as also the natural Body of man sometimes dies so the feet first and so upward The three days and a half are not to be reckoned therefore as seems to me until all should be dead and no motion of life any more appear Thirdly I conceive not this Clades to be such as should extinguish the persons or whole materials as I may so speak of the Reformed Churches but the publick Fabrick of the Reformation for joy whereof the Witnesses were about to finish their time of mourning For that the party of men remaining of that dissolved building of Reformation should be great though they lay as dead may be gathered by the strength they should in so short a time as after three years and a half recover to the no small terror of the Beast which slew them c. It would make somewhat perhaps for understanding the degree of this Clades if we could certainly tell what were that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein the Witnesses should lie for dead and whether those of the nations tongues and people which should hinder the putting of them into graves were friends or foes They may seem to be friends for if they had been once buried there would have been but small hope of so soon a reviving again and standing upon their feet You know what the Pharisees said when they would have our Saviour made sure for rising again the third day By the way because you use in your Letter the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose your copy of my Specimina is misdistinguished For I referred not that word to the Calamity of the Witnesses but to Gentium idest Idololatrarum in Ecclesiae atrio stabulantium So there should be a comma at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FOR your second Quaere of the Provocation of the Iews by the Gentiles Methinks that which was to be unto the Iew as a Provocation to Iealousie is expressed by S. Paul to be that Salvation which was then come unto the Gentiles and not any other thing yet to come as also the same Apostle saith he used to magnifie and inculcate so much his Title of Apostle of the Gentiles to the same end And if the Prosperity of the Christian Religion would have done it by comparing it with their misery there hath been already sufficient in that respect to have moved them to jealousie ere this For my part I incline to think that no such thing will provoke them but that they shall be called by Vision and Voice from Heaven as S. Paul was and that that place of Zach. chap. 12. verse 10. They shall see him whom they have pierced and that of Matth. 23. verse 39. Ye shall not see me henceforth till you say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord seems to imply some such matter They will never believe that Christ reigns at the right hand of God until they see him It must be an invincible evidence which must convert them after so many hundred years settled obstinacy But this I speak of the body of the Nation there may be some Praeludia of some particulars converted upon other motives as a forerunner of the great and man Conversion I pray consider seriously that pattern of S. Paul's Conversion so differing from all other mens that ever were and how fitly his condition before it resembles that of the Iews in their bitter obstinacy against Christ and Christians Why did Christ vouchsafe so strange a call to that man above other men was it not a pledge or pattern of something that should be vouchsafed his Nation I know not whether S. Paul's meaning but I am sure his words 1 Tim. 1. verse 16. may be applied to what I mean But all this I write tumultuously and in some other distractions and therefore I would not have you heed it further than to consider of it at your
more quiet meditations Nihil affirmo sed propono I had thought when I began to propound something to your further meditations out of the seventh of Daniel But you see I am grown past a Letter and can scarce any longer make my Characters legible and therefore here with my best respect to your self I end desiring God to enlighten us daily more and more in the knowledge of his Truth and so I remain Yours to be commanded in all the duties of Friendship Ioseph Mede Christ's Colledge Nov. 11. 1629. EPISTLE XV. Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Meddus touching the Day of Iudgment Worthy Sir I Have now found some little time to make some kind of Answer to your Letter of the last week save one You desire me to point out the particulars wherein I differ from that Lutheran But this I cannot do without making a censure of the whole Discourse which would ask me some labour and besides I have not now the Book by me But by the way the Stationer which told me he had six of them was deceived Indeed he had six Books which he thought to be the same but four of them were Discourses of Law by some error sorted together with them You secondly desire me to point out the places of the Old and New Testament appliable to my Tenet of the Day of Iudgment Where I understand not well whether you mean of the Regnum to be then or of the acception of the word Day for a long space of time even of a thousand years But I suppose you mean the former to which therefore I will say something the rather because I know you will communicate it to Doctor Twisse to whom I had intended some such thing in my Letter I sent by you to him but time would not suffer me to write it then having spent both it and my paper in other discourses before I was aware That which I have to say is this The Description of the Great Day of Iudgment Dan. 7. THE Mother-Text of Scripture whence the Church of the Iews grounded the name and expectation of the Great Day of Iudgment with the circumstances thereto belonging and whereunto almost all the descriptions and expressions thereof in the New Testament have reference is that Vision in the seventh of Daniel of a Session of Iudgment when the Fourth Beast came to be destroyed Where this great Assises is represented after the manner of the great Synedrion or Consistory of Israel wherein the Pater Iudicii had his Assessores sitting upon Seats placed Semicircle-wise before him from his right hand to his left I beheld saith Daniel verse 9. till the Thrones or Seats were pitched down namely for the Senators to sit upon not thrown down as we of late have it and the Ancient of days Pater consistorii did sit c. And subaudi I beheld till the Iudgment was set that is the whole Sanhedrim and the books were opened c. Here we see both the form of Iudgment delineated and the name of Iudgment expressed which is afterwards yet twice more repeated First in the amplification of the tyranny of the wicked Horn verse 21 22. which is said continued till the Ancient of days came and IVDGMENT was given to the Saints of the most High i. Potestas judicandi ipsis facta And the third time in the Angel's interpretation verse 26. But the IVDGMENT shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it to the end Where observe also that cases of Dominion of Blasphemy and Apostasie and the like belonged to the jurisdiction of the great Sanhedrim From this description it came that the Iews gave it the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of Iudgment and the Day of the Great Iudgment whence in the Epistle of S. Iude verse 6. it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Iudgment of the Great Day From the same description they learned that the destruction then to be should be by fire because it is said verse 9. His throne was a fiery flame and his wheels burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth before him and verse 11. The Beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame From the same fountain are derived those expressions in the Gospel where this Day is intimated or described The Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels Forasmuch as it is said here Thousand thousands ministred unto him c. and that Daniel saw One like the Son of man coming with the clouds of Heaven and he came to the Ancient of days and they brought him or placed him near him c. Hence S. Paul learned that the Saints should judge the world because it is said that many Thrones were set and verse 22. by way of Exposition that Iudgment was given to the Saints of the most High Hence the same Apostle learned to confute the false fear of the Thessalonians that the day of Christs second coming was then at hand Because that day could not be till the Man of Sin were first come and should have reigned his time appointed Forasmuch as Daniel had foretold it should be so and that his destruction should be at the Son of mans appearing in the clouds whose appearing therefore was not to be till then This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul whom the Lord saith he shall destroy at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his coming Daniel's wicked Horn or Beast acting in the wicked Horn is S. Paul's Man of Sin as the Church from her Infancâ—e interpreted it But to go on While this Iudgment sits and when it had destroyed the Fourth Beast the Son of man which comes in the clouds receives dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve and obey him verse 14. which Kingdom is thrice explained afterwards to be the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High verse 18. These four Beasts saith the Angel are four Kingdoms which shall arise But viz. when they have finished their course the Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom c. Again verse 22. The wicked Horn prevailed until the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom Again verse 27. When the fourth Beast reigning in the wicked Horn was destroyed the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven is given to the people of the Saints of the most High c. These Grounds being laid I argue as followeth The Kingdom of the Son of man and of the Saints of the most High in Daniel begins when the Great Iudgment sits The Kingdom in the Apocalyps wherein the Saints reign with Christ a thousand years is the same with the Kingdom of the Son of man and Saints of the most High in Daniel Ergo It also
discern in S. Malthew the Hebrew Evangelist Chap. 24. v. 30. two such Appearances intimated The one in the words Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven and all the Tribes of the earth shall mourn out of Zach. 12. v. 10 11 12. The other in the words following And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory out of Dan. 7. But here I find a rub which I cannot yet get over For this appearing of the sign of the Son of man in heaven as well as his coming in the clouds with great glory is said to be immediately after the tribulation of those days that is as I am wont to expound it soon after the long tribulation of the Iewish Nation shall be ended But their tribulation shall not end till they be converted Ergo their Conversion must needs precede the sign of the Son of man in heaven there mentioned Here I stick But your Objections I think I could answer thus As first to that of the Iews Conversion to be wrought by the taking away the veil from their hearts 2 Cor. 3. I could answer That that is the Internal cause of their Conversion or if you will the act of the Spirit of God illuminating and converting them as he that takes away the film from the eyes of him that sees not or the hood from him that is hood-winkt does by that act make him see But I speak of the External cause or means of the Iews Conversion such as in the ordinary administration of God is the preaching of the Word but extraordinarily may be by Miracle as was in the Conversion of Paul who nevertheless had the Mosaical veil taken from his heart as well as the rest of his Nation when they are converted shall have But by the way because you mention that place Luk. 7. 47. give me leave to add That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in Scripture not only Quia or quoniam but also the redditive thereto which is Ideo propterea because namely the Hebrew particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers signifies both as appears Psal. 116. v. 10. compared with 2 Cor. 4. 13. ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebraeo à Paulo exponitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Gen. 22. 17. item Eccles. 8. 6. See our English In both which places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is both the causal Quoniam and the redditive thereto Ideo Now the Scripture is wont to extend the Greek words it useth unto the full notion of the Hebrew or Chaldee to which they answer as may be proved by many Examples though in the Greeks use they signified not so This Dialect is called Lingua Hellenistica spoken by the Hellenists or Greekish Iews which lived dispersed under the Greek Empire whose property is to accommodate verba Graeca notioni Orientis But no such ground can be shewn I think for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quando to signifie the redditive tunc To your other Objection How such a Vision could be manifested to the Iews dispersed in several parts of the world I could answer That a Vision or Apparition in Heaven may be seen to the greatest part of the world at the same time as Stars and Comets are how else shall the Appearing of our Saviour in the clouds of Heaven at his coming to Iudgment be seen at once to so many Nations of the world But here is one thing more considerable from the miraculous Conversion of S. Paul upon supposal that that of the Iews may be like it viz. That though many were present with S. Paul at that time yet none saw the apparition of Christ nor heard him speak but Paul alone for whose sake he appeared The rest saw indeed a strange light and heard the voice of Paul replying and answering but they heard not the voice nor saw any that spake unto him which therefore made them astonished Compare Acts 9. 7. where it is said They heard Paul's voice with Acts 22. 9. where it is said They heard not the voice of him that spake unto him And take heed here of some of our English Bibles which have put in a not where it should not be as they have done the like in other places Fie upon such careless Printers But to the matter What if the like be at the Iews Conversion to wit that they alone shall see and hear the voice of Christ but none of the Gentiles amongst whom they dwell though perhaps some strange light for a testimony may at that instant surprise the whole world to the astonishment of the Nations therein Consider that of Matt. 24. 27. and the places of the other Evangelists answering thereto And what if the Iews upon such an apparition may have as S. Paul had an Ananias too or as they expect an Elias to instruct them So you know the ancient Christian Church believed from Mal. 4. 5. Mat. 17. 11. Ecclus. 48. 10. For though the Fathers as well as the Iews might erre concerning the person and circumstances of this Elias yet it follows not presently but the substance of the opinion might be true But I will not discover all my roving Speculations unless I had better ground for them lest perhaps I should make you more than wonder at me Howsoever it be I suppose it is no sin to conceive magnificè and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of so great a work of God towards a people for whom he hath formerly shewed so many wonders especially this being to be the greatest work of mercy and wonder that ever he did for them far beyond the bringing them forth of AEgypt and leading them in the wilderness c. Consider it Besides it may be there is a precedent already extant Sure I am when I had entertained this conceit into my meditation I was led by I know not what providence as I was searching some other matter to find an History of the greatest multitude of Iews that ever I think were converted since the Apostles times to have been convinced by such a miraculous apparition in every respect as I had apprehended The Story if it be true happened about some 570 years after Christ in the daies of Iustinus the Greek Emperor though Bigneus puts it a hundred years before in the kingdom of the Omerites some write Homerites in Arabia Felix where the Iews in those parts being a strong party had challenged to a publick Disputation a Christian City and Kingdom in that Tract upon condition that if they could not convince the Christians by strength of Reason and Scripture they would become Christians if they could they required the Christians should turn Iews The Disputation was performed for three days together sub dio in a full assembly of the King his Peers and people between Gregentius Bishop of Tephra and Herbanus champion for the Iews who were there assembled with him
The third day Herbanus required to end the controversie that if Iesus of Nazareth were indeed living and reigning in Heaven and if those who worshipped him had any power with him that he would upon their prayers manifest himself from Heaven and they would then believe in him Thereupon all the multitude of Iews cried out in derision Ostende nobis Christum tuum Vae quia fiemus Christiani c. The conclusion was that Christ Iesus after a dreadful Thunder and Lightning appeared from Heaven with beams of glory walking upon a purple cloud with a Sword in his hand and a Diadem of inestimable beauty upon his head and over the Assembly uttered a voice Appareo vobis in oculis vestris ego crucifixus à Patribus vestris Which having spoken the cloud took him presently out of their sight The Christians shouted Domine miserere the Iews were all stricken blind and received not their sight till they were all baptized This Story whereof I tell you but the brief hath been long unknown to these Western parts and was brought in our time from the Eastern among divers other Greek Manuscripts and published in Greek and Latin by Nicolaus Gulonius in octavo under the name of Gregentii Archiepiscopi Tephrensis Disputatio cum Herbano Iudaeo The beginning is imperfect In the end is the Story I have related I have seen and used that Book but could not be owner of it But the Latin translation is inserted into the Bibliotheca Patrum of the edition of Colen in the fifth Tome pag. 919. which if you read I could wish you would joyn with it the Story of the Martyrium Omeritarum published by Baronius out of a Vatican Manuscript in his sixth Seculum about the middle It is worthy your reading and supposed to have happened a little before this Conversion of the Iews I speak of which Baronius nevertheless then knew not of as being published after he had written that Tome The Persecution was raised by Dunaan a Iew who had gotten the Kingdom of the Omerites and meant to extinguish the Christian City and Dition of Nargan which was subject as many other small Reguli were to that Kingdom c. If this Story be true it makes much for a probability of such a conjecture for the future If it be counterfeit at least it argues that some many ages ago thought such a mean not unlikely For Poets themselves are wont to feign Verisimilia So howsoever I am not the first that thought of such a matter That which you say of S. Paul's miraculous Conversion that by it he had Apostolical authority immediate and independent as having his Mission from Heaven and not from Men I acknowledge it But that this should be the only end of his so being converted I suppose it is not necessary For it might have pleased God to have converted him by an ordinary mean and yet have given him a Mission for his Apostleship by an immediate and extraordinary way The immediateness of Apostolical Mission depended not upon such a miraculous Conversion though it pleased God at one and the same time by one and the same miraculous manifestation both to convert him to the Faith of Christ and send him to be an Apostle to the Gentiles But it is now time to give over I have been tedious and troublesome I know and perhaps not well busied in spending so many words and paper about a wavering and uncertain Speculation But because in my first Letter I had unawares discovered my fancy I was somewhat solicitous till I had more fully explained my self lest I might seem to believe much upon very little reason or be supposed to be more confident in this conceit than I am But he that seeks for that which is yet to find must be poring as well where it is not as where it is God Almighty the Father of Lights direct us in the search of his Truth and give us grace when we find it to use it to his Glory and our own Salvation To whose protection I commend your self not forgetting my best respect who am Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede Christ's Colledge Decemb. 2. 1629. I shall bid you farewel for this year and write shorter Letters the next that so I may hold out I have made a saltus in my Meditations by these Discourses of the Great Day I am not come to it yet I have much to think of and bring to more perfection which is preceding to it The Witnesses Dragon Beast c. EPISTLE XVIII Mr. Mason's Letter to Mr. Mede touching the Millenaries Good Mr. Mede I Think my self much indebted unto you that you do so freely communicate unto me your learned Writings I wish I had been more conversant in studies of this nature that I might in some sort be able to talk with you in your own language But you have had the happiness to follow these studies with good leisure and much opportunity and I to say nothing of other wants have been hindred both with businesses of my place and weakness of my body that I have scarce had time to think on any thing but what hath been necessary for my present imployment and so it happeneth to me in my studies as to poor men in getting of their living we have nothing but from hand to mouth The consciousness of these wants maketh me to write so seldom and so slightly Else if I had any thing in my thoughts that might be fit for your reading I would be as free in communicating my studies with you as you are in imparting yours unto me especially in this business wherein you have travelled with such success I only now can say that I wish I may see the full finishing of your intended Work and so do others abroad also but yet I had rather stay your leisure till you have concocted all according to your mind than to hasten you forward before the time Dr. Potter hath read your former Papers which you committed to Mr. D. and by occasion thereof hath proceeded to read others of the same Argument which when I understood I desired him to peruse two Writings of Dr. Gerhard of the same Argument both purposely intended against the Millenaries the one is in the second part of his Disputationes Theologicae Disp. 3. de novis Fanaticis the other in the ninth Tome of his Common Places Loc. de Consummatione seculi cap. 7. p. 442 c. Vpon the reading of those Treatises he sent a Letter expressing his mind and judgment concerning them which I received this evening And because I know you desire to hear the opinion of Learned men I have sent down inclosed herein so much of his Letter as concerneth that business Which I did the rather also because I suppose this may give you ocâ—â—sion to answer such grounds as Gerhard hath laid to the contrary Perhaps if you consider him well you may find a tacit Answer to that which you object against S. Hierome for
rise from the dead Resurrectione primâ ii praeerunt viventibus tanquam Iudices You see he puts a difference between those who shall be then living and those who shall rise from the dead The last shall live vitam coelestem Angelicam even on earth without marrying or giving in marriage but not the first He saies indeed the one shall generare but of the other only that praeerunt viventibus tanquam Iudices and presently in the words following describes that Regnum to be the Mille anni coelestis Imperii in quo Iustitia in orbe regnabit But of gormundizing ingluvies gula I find no word unless you think it must needs follow upon the taking away the curse of the creature and the restitution thereof to the perfection it lost through mans sin For Lactantius means no more but that such as then lived should live the life that Adam should have done in Paradise had he not sinned but those that should then rise from the dead should live in a far more Heavenly and Angelical condition even the life of the Blessed Spirits in Heaven But S. Ierom is wont to relate the opinion as if those who rose again should generare and give themselves to feasting and gormundising Besides you say S. Austin intimates that some held some such carnal Beatitude I answer So he intimates that some did not and that himself was once of that opinion and that to hold so was tolerable Quae opinio esset utcunque tolerabilis si aliquae deliciae spiritales in illo Sabbato affuturae Sanctis per Domini i. Christi praesentiam crederentur Nam nos etiam hoc opinati fuimus aliquando De Civit. Dei Lib. 20. c. 7. But where can I shew Cyprian to be a Chiliast You see it is tedious to answer a Question in writing which may be asked in a few words Yet I will say something I say therefore he shews himself plainly a Chiliast to such as know the mystery of that Opinion Lib. de Exhortatione Martyrii In the Preface whereof he speaks thus Desiderâsti Fortunate charissime ut quoniam persecutionum pressurarum pondus incumbit in fine atque consummatione mundi Antichristi tempus infestum appropinquare nunc coepit ad praeparandas coroborandas Fratrum mentes de divinis Scripturis hortamenta componerem quibus milites Christi ad coeleste spiritale certamen animarem paulò pòst Sex millia annorum jam penè complentur Si imperatum invenerit Diabolus militem Christi c. But he that as you see expected the coming of Antichrist should be at the end of the sixth thousand year which he supposed then near at hand yet thought the world should last 7000. viz. a thousand years after the destruction of Antichrist ut patet ex iis quae disserit cap. 11. in these words Quid verò in Maccabaeis septem fratres natalium pariter virtutum sorte consimiles Septenarium numerum perfectae consummationis implentes Sic Septem fratres in Martyrio cohaerentes ut primi in dispositione divina Septem dies annorum Septem millia continentes ut consummatio legitima compleatur c. This to him that knows Chiliasm is plain Chiliasm Look and compare your Austin cap. 7. lib. 20. de Civit. Dei from those words Qui propter haec hujus Libri verba primam Resurrectionem c. Compare also what Câ—prian hath in the end of that Book out of the Gospel Mark 10. 29 30. and Apocalyps 20. and you will acknowledge him to be as he was wont to profess himself Tertulliani Discipulum But I must not follow you too far in this kind of answering 't is tedious I send you some more Papers and so with my love I rest Christ's College Novemb. 16. Yours Ios. Mede EPISTLE LXV Dr. Twisse's Twelfth Letter to Mr. Mede containing Seven Quaere's relating partly to Iewish and Christian Antiquities and partly to some difficult places of Scripture Worthy Sir I Have been a stranger from you too long I come now to renew my acquaintance I presume you are acquainted with Dr. Heylin's Book of the History of the Sabbath Do you know the Author whom he opposeth about the Precepts of Noah for making the Commandment of the Sabbath one of them though he name him not Yet the question is not whether it be one of them but whether not comprehended under one of them But he allegeth Rambam to the contrary out of Ainsworth I have read enough in Cocceius to discredit Rambam and I pray let me know whether Aben Ezra upon Exod. 20. on those words the stranger within thy gates doth not maintain that it was one of them coupling it with that of Nakedness and Shedding of Bloud And though you doubted whether Solomon Iarchi on Gen. 26. 5. did deliver that which he doth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two of them as out of his own opinion yet Dr. Heylin confesseth that Abulensis and Mercerus testifie that the Rabbins upon that place are opinion that Abram kept the Sabbath I pray what think you both of his and Dr. White 's opinion concerning Synagogues that the Iews had none before the Captivity and their Inference thereupon That the Sabbath was nowhere observed save in the Temple by any publick congregation but only in private Dr. Andrews was of another opinion as hath been shewed me in some Notes of his and his ground in my judgment is fair Levit. 23. 3. The Seventh day is a Sabbath of rest an holy Convocation it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings The holy Convocation here mentioned seems to be in reference to all their dwellings whereas the other Feasts and holy Convocations belonging thereto were to be celebrated at Ierusalem But I have not yet consulted any Rabbines about this Then I pray What think you of Dr. Heylin saying That Evening-prayer on the Lord's-day is but a late invention Yet I find it in the Iewish Synagogue and Nocturnae after Vespertinae like as I find the like in one of Austin's Epistles de Tempore and in Cassian it appears that the Sabbath-Solemnity was not ended until the time of their Evening-repast corporal Doth your plough stand still in the Revelation and such like passages of a mysterious nature I hope it doth not Is not that Matth. 25. spoken of the last period of the Day of Iudgment It seems it is for the Resurrection is general both of Sheep and Goats yet to the Sheep it is said Receive the Kingdom Shall they receive a Kingdom when Christ resigns his unto his Father and in Heaven it seems there are none for them to reign over Or is it a Figure of speech representing the glory of that State when God becomes all in all by the greatest glory that we are acquainted with which is the glory of a Kingdom I pray what think you of that in Esa. 66. 23. From Sabbath to Sabbath shall all flesh come to worship
as one Day This is the Day of the great Assises beginning with the Seventh Trumpet Apocal. 11. 15. wherein Christ shall give reward unto his Servants the Prophets and to the Saints and them that fear his Name and shall destroy them that destroy the earth vers 18. The Process of this wonderful Day S. Iohn describes by a twofold Iudgment and a twofold Resurrection and the glorious Reign of the Saints between them The morning Iudgment shall be of Antichrist and all his partakers whom Christ shall destroy at the appearing of his coming 2 Thess. 2. 8. and then shall be the first and particular Resurrection The evening Iudgment shall be upon the remainder of the living enemies of Christ Gog and Magog and conclude with the last and universal Resurrection of the dead and so the last enemy Death being now wholly vanquished he shall surrender his Kingdom into the hands of his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 24 c. Nor ought it to seem strange that the name Day should signifie so long a time as a Thousand years The Iews who first imposed it understood it so And in the end of S. Peter we shall find yet a longer Day even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dies AEternitatis a Day of Eternity 2 Pet. 3. 18. The Prophets have many such long Days when they say In Die illo Vide. The whole time of Christ's first coming is called a Day Ioh. 16. 26. 2 Cor. 6. 2. The whole time of the Iews fourty years abode in the wilderness is called a Day Heb. 3. 8 9. Their first Captivity of seventy years a Day Vide Prophetas Their last and long Captivity a Day as Deut. 32. 35. alibi apud Prophetas And what if in our daily prayer Give us this day our daily bread Day be to be taken for the whole time of our life For in stead of S. Matthew's This day speaking after the Hebrew notion S. Luke hath in the same Petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is every day So S. Paul Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day whilest it is called To Day Doth not Day here include many days Now if the Thousand years of the Reign of Christ be the Day of Iudgment then it will follow that though we may know by the fulfilling of things to be fulfilled whether it be nearer or farther off yet the precise time of the coming thereof cannot be known because it is to come upon the world unawares as a Thief in the night II. Nevertheless it is true that the Primitive Fathers especially those who believed the Chiliad conceived the World should last and the Church therein labour 6000 years and that the Seventh thousand should be the Day of Iudgment and Sabbath in which the Saints should reign with Christ their Lord. So Irenaeus Lib. 5. c. 28. Quotquot diebus hic factus est mundus tot Millenis consummatur Si enim Dies Domini quasi Mille anni in Sex autem diebus consummata sunt quae facta sunt manifestum est quoniam consummatio ipsorum Sextus millesimus annus est Idem eodem Libro cap. 30. Cùm vastaverit Antichristus hic omnia in mundo regnans annis tribus mensibus sex tunc veniet Dominus de coelis in nubibus in gloriae Patris illum quidem obedientes ei in stagnum ignis mittens adducens autenâ— justis Regni tempora hoc est requietionem i. Sabbatum septimam diem sanctificatam restituens Abrahae promissionem haereditatis c. Iustinus Martyr Dialogo cum Tryphone Iudaeo loquens de Mellennio Regni Christi Novimus inquit dictum illud quòd Dies Domini sit sicut mille anni huc pertinere Cyprianus Lib. de Exhortatione Martyrii Primi in dispositione Divina Septem dies annorum Septem millia continent ut consummatio legitima impleatur Lactantius de Divino praemio Lib. 7. c. 14. Quoniam Sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt per secula Sex id est annorum Sex millia manere in hoc statu mundum necesse est Dies enim magnus Dei Mille annorum circulo terminatur Et ut Deus Sex illos dies in tantis rebus fabricandis laboravit ità religio ejus veritas in his Sex millibus annorum laborare necesse est malitiâ praevalente dominaute Et rurius Quoniam perfectis operibus requievit die Septimo eúmque benedixit necesse est ut in fine Sexti millesimi anni malitia omnis aboleatur è terra regnet annos Mille Iustitia sitque tranquillitas requies à laboribus quos mundus jamdiu perpessus est III. The ancient Iews also had a Tradition to the same purpose as appears by these testimonies recorded in the Gemara or Glosse of their Talmud Cod. Sanhedrim cap. Kol Iisrael For there concerning that of Esay chap. 2. Exaltabitur Dominus solus die illo thus speaks the Talmudical Gloss. Dixit Rabbi Ketâ—â—a Sex annorum millibus stat Mundus uno Millenario vastabitur de quo dicitur AT QUE EXALTAEITUR DOMINUS SOLUS DIE ILLO Note By Vastabitur they mean the Vastation of the world by Fire in the Day of Iudgment whereby it shall become New or a New Heaven and New Earth Sequitur Traditio adstipulatur R. Ketinae nempe ista Sicut ex septenis annis Septimus quisque Annus Remissionis est ità septem millibus annorum mundi Septimus Millenarius Millenarius Remissionis erit ut Dominus solus exaltetur in die illo Dicitur enim Psal. 92. Psalmus Canticum de Die Sabbati id est de eo Die qui totus Quies est Note they understand this Psalm of the Great day of Iudgment and the Sabbath mentioned in the Title of the great Sabbath of a Thousand years Dicitur item Psal. 90 Nam mille anni in oculis tuis velut dies hesternus Sequitur Traditio Domûs Eliae Sex mille annos durat mundus Bis mille annis Inanitas bis mille annis Lex denique bis mille annis Dies Christi At verò propter peccata nostra plurima enormia abierunt ex his qui abierunt These last words Petrus Galatinus proves to be added to this Tradition by the later Iews And surely this Elias lived under the second Temple and before the birth of Christ. And though there be no mention here of the Seventh thousand years yet that this R. Elias acknowledged it as well as the rest appears by a former place of the same Gemara Talmudica which is this Traditio Domûs Eliae Iusti quos resuscitabit Deus c. IV. The concinnity of this conceit hath made me I confess sometimes inquisitive whether it could be brought to accord with the received computation of the Age of the World and with our experience of the beginning and continuance of the times of Antichrist now revealed But the
22. 32. I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living p. 801 Chap. 23. 19 the Altar that sanctifies the Gift p. 376 Verse 39. Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. p. 519 Chap. 24. 14. And the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world p. 705 and then shall the End come p. 36 Verse 20. Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the sabbath-Sabbath-day p. 841 Verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of these days shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from heaven p. 615 753 Verse 34. This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled p. 752 Chap. 25. 33 34. And he shall set the Sheep on his right hand but the Goats on the left Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom c. p. 841 Chap. 27. 34. They gave him vineger to drink mingled with gall p. 518 S. MARK Chap. 1. 14. Now after that Iohn was put in prison Iesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God pag. 97 Verse 15. And saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel p. 106 Chap. 11. 17. Is it not written My house shall be called a House of Prayer to all the Nations p. 44 Chap. 15. 23. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrhe p. 518 S. LUKE Chap. 1. 28. Hail thou highly-favoured one p. 181 Verse 72. To shew mercy or kindness to our Fathers p. 801 Chap. 2. 1. that all the World should be taxed p. 705 13 14. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest c. p. 89 Chap. 6. 12. he continued all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 67 Chap. 7. 47. Her sins which are many are forgiven therefore she loved much p. 766 Chap. 16. 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness c. p. 170 Chap. 18. 28. Lo we have left all and followed thee p. 120 Chap. 21. 24. Vntil the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled p. 709 753 Verse 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then shall be Signs c. p. 744 753 Chap. 22. 20. This Cup is the New Covenant in my bloud p. 372 Chap. 24. 45 46. Then opened be their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day p. 49 S. IOHN Chap. 1. 14. And the Wâ—rd was made flesh and tabernacled in us p. 266 Chap. 4. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain p. 263 Verse 22. Ye worship what ye know not we worship what we know p. 49 Verse 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth p. 46. Chap. 7. 37. As the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water p. 62 Chap. 10. 20. He hath a Devil and is mad p. 28 Chap. 12. 28. Then came there a voice from heaven The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundred p. 459 Chap. 17. 17. Sanctifie them unto or fâ—r thy Truth thy Word is Truth p. 14 Verse 19. And for them I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified for thy Truth ibid. Chap. 18. 36. My kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight p. 103 Chap. 21. 22. If I will that he stay till I come p. 708 ACTS Chap. 2. 5. And there were sojourning at Ierusalem Iows devout men out of every Nation under heaven p. 74 Verse 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 364 Verse 45. See Chap. 4. 34 Verse 46. And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the House ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart p. 322 Chap. 3. 19. Repent and be converted c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so the times of refreshing may come p. 612 Chap. 4. 34 35. As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet p. 127 Chap. 5. 3 4. And Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy Ghost and to purloin of the price of the land c. p. 115 Chap. 10. 1 2. There was a certain man in Caefarea called Cornelius a Centurion of the Italian band a devout man and one that feared God c. p. 165 Verse 4. Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God p. 164 Chap. 13. 48. And there believed as many as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to eternal life p. 21 Chap. 14. 15. Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways p. 515 Chap. 15. 16 17. After this I will return and will build again the Tabernacle of David which is fallen c. That the residuc of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my Name is called p. 455 Chap. 16. 13. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river-side where there was taken or where was famed to be a Proseucha and Verse 16. It came to pass as we went to the Proseucha p. 67 Chap. 17. 4 There associated themselves to Paul and Silas of the worshipping Greeks a great multitude p. 19 Verse 18. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods because he preached unto them Iesus and the Resurrection p. 635 Chap. 18. 22. And he sailed from Ephesus and when he had landed at Caesarea having gone up and saluted the Church he went down to Antioch p. 323 Chap. 24. 16. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men p. 871 ROMANS Chap. 1. 23. They changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image c. p. 5 Verse 25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 49 Chap. 8. 20. For the creature was made subject to vanity Because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God p. 230 812 Chap. 9. 1. my Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost p. 118 Chap. 11. 11 15. Through their fall Salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world p. 455
of Sabbaoth Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory And because the pattern of God's holy worship is not to be taken from Earth but from Heaven the same Spirit therefore in the Apocalyps expresseth the Worship of God in the New Testament with the same form of hallowing or holying his Name which the heavenly Host useth For so the four Animalia representing the Catholick Church of Christ in the four quarters of the world are said when they give glory honour and thanks to him that sitteth upon the throne and liveth for ever and ever to do it by singing day and night this Trisagium Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come that is the sum of all that they did was but to agnize his Sanctity or Holiness or which is all one to Sanctifie his holy Name When therefore the same four Animalia are afterwards brought in chanting Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing and again Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever all is to be understood as comprehended within this general Doxologie as being but an exemplification thereof and therefore the Elogies or blazons mentioned therein to be taken according to the style of Holiness in an exclusive sense of such prerogatives as are peculiar to God alone And according to this notion of sanctifying God's Name which I contend for would the Lord have his Name sanctified Esa. 8. 12 13. when he saith Fear ye not their Fear that is the Idolaters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gods for so Fear here signifies to wit the thing feared neither dread ye it but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your Fear and let him be your Dread that is your God Again chap. 29. 23. They shall sanctifie my Name saith he even sanctifie the Holy One of Iacob and shall fear the God of Israel The latter words shew the meaning of the former The like we have in the first Epistle of S. Peter chap. 3. vers 14 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Gentilium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Fear ye not their Fear nor be in dread thereof that is Fear not nor dread ye the Gods of the Gentiles which persecute you But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts that is Fear and worship him with your whole hearts For that this passage howsoever we are wont to expound it ought to be construed in the same sense with that of Esay 8. before alledged and the words to be rendred sutably I take it to be apparent for this reason because they are verbatim taken from thence as he that shall compare the Greek words of S. Peter with the Lxx. in that place of Esay will be forced to confess Besides this evident and express use of the word Sanctifie in the notion of religious and holy worship and fear of the Divine Majesty there is yet another expression sometimes used in Holy Scripture which implieth the self-same thing that namely to worship God with that which we call holy and divine worship is all one with to agnize his holiness or to sanctifie his Name Those speeches I mean wherein we are exhorted to worship the Lord because he is Holy As Psal. 99. 5. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his foot-stool for he is Holy Again in the end of the Psalm Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is Holy The same meaning is yet more emphatically expressed by those that sing the Song of victory over the Beast Apoc. 15. 3 4. Great say they and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Nations Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that I believe is the true reading not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou only art Holy therefore all the Nations shall come and worship before thee that is they shall relinquish their Idols and plurality of Gods and worship thee as God only For this was the Doctrine both of Moses in the Old Testament and of Christ Iesus the Lamb of God in the New That one God only that made the heaven and the earth was to be acknowledged and worshipped and with an incommunicable worship In respect whereof as I take it these Victors are there said to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb that is a gratulatory Song of the worship of one God after that his Ordinances were made manifest For otherwise the Ditty is borrowed from the 86. Psalm the 8 9 and 10. verses where we read Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and dost wondrous works Thou art God alone that is Thou only art Holy Compare Ier. 10. ver 6 7. I have one thing more to adde before I finish this part of my Discourse lest I might leave unsatisfied that which may perhaps seem to some to weaken this my explication of the sanctification of God's Name For the word to sanctifie or be sanctified is sometimes used of God in a more general sense than that I have hitherto specified namely as signifying any way to be glorified or to glorifie as when he saith He will be sanctified in the destruction of his enemies or in the deliverance of his people and that before the Heathen and the like that is he would purchase him glory or be glorified thereby I answer It is true that to be sanctified is in these passages to be glorified but yet alwayes to be glorified as God and not otherwise Namely when God by the works of his Power of his Mercy or Iustice extorts from men the confession of his great and holy Godhead he is then said to sanctifie or make himself to be sanctified amongst them that is to be glorified and honoured by their conviction and acknowledgment of his Power and Godhead For although men may be also said to glorifie or purchase honour unto themselves when by their noble acts they make their abilities and worth known unto the world yet for such respect to be said to be sanctified is peculiar unto him alone whose Glory is his Holiness that is unto God THUS we have learned How the Name or Majesty of God is to be sanctified personally or in it self which is the chiefest thing we pray for and ought so to be in our endeavour namely To worship and glorifie him incommunicably according to his most eminent and unparallel'd Holiness and so ô Lord Hallowed be thy Name But there is another Sanctification or