no more difference between a Table and an Altar than between another Cup and a Chalice An Altar is not every Table or a Table for a common Feast but an Holy Table and an Holy Table is an Altar The difference is not as many suppose either in the matter as of wood or stone for an Altar may be of wood as both the golden Altar and that of Burnt-offering were in the Tabernacle namely of Shittim-wood and a Table may be of stone nor in the posture or manner of standing whether in the middle or against a wall for the Altar of Burnt-offering stood in the midst of the Priests court and the Altar of Incense up against the veil But this is the true difference that a Table is a common Name and an Altar is an Holy Table This Holy Altar saith Gregory Nyssene Sermone de Baptismo Christi whereat we stand is by nature a common stone nothing differing from other slates but being consecrated to the service of God and having received the benediction it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Holy Table an Altar inviolable See he makes one to be the Exegesis of the other For in times past when men perhaps were as wise as we are now it was thought fit and decent that things set apart unto God and sacred should be distinguished not only in use but in name also from things common Forwhat is a Temple or Church but an House yet distinguished in name from other Houses What is a Sacrifice but a Feast yet distinguished in name from other Feasts So what is an Altar but a Table yet distinguished in name from other Tables Well let all this be granted may someman say that there is no greater difference between these two names than as you affirm yet ought the Language of the Church to be conformed to the Style of the New Testament But where in the New Testament should those Ancients find any Text whereon to ground the application of this name to the Holy Table I answer There I am prone to believe whence they derived the Oblation of the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist and that Rite of Reconciliation at their entrance thereunto where the Deacon was wont to proclaim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nè quis contra aliquem or in some other words to like effect and then every one to salute his brother in token of Reconciliation and Peace and that was from that Ordinance of our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount viz. If thou bringest thy GIFT unto the ALTAR and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy GIFT before the ALTAR and go first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy GIFT Which Scripture they took to be an Evangelical constitution wherein our Saviour implied by way of Anticipation that he would leave some Rite to his Church in stead and after the manner of the Sacrifices of the Law which should begin with an Oblation as they did and that to require this proper and peculiar qualification in the Offerer To be at peace and without enmity with his Brother Insomuch as Irenaeus seems to place that Purity of the Evangelical oblation prophesied of by Malachi even in this requisite Vide l. 4. c. 34. Hence also they may seem to have learned to call the Bread and Wine in respect of this Oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy GIFTS from the word our Saviour here useth For that they derived from this Text that Rite of Peace and Reconciliation before the Offertory appears expresly out of Constit. Apost l. 2. c. 57. Iren. lib. 4. 34. Edit Fevard Tertull. De Oratione c. 10. Eusebius De vita Constantini lib. 4. c. 41. Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. Myst. 5. Why then may I not believe as well that they might derive from the same Text the Offertory it self and the application of the name Altar to the Holy Table seeing all three in the Text depend one upon another and that there is not in the New Testament any other passage of Scripture whereon so ancient and universal a practice of the Church as was in all these three particulars could expresly be grounded And besides that the Primitive practice of the Catholick Church is a good Rule to interpret Scripture by there may be good Reasons found from the circumstances of the Text and Sermon it self to perswade it to be an Evangelical Constitution 1. Because there was no such thing commanded in the Law to such as came to offer Sacrifice not any such Deuterosis to be found amongst the Traditions of the Elders Now it is altogether improbable our Saviour would then annex a new Rite to the Legal sacrifices when he was so soon after to abolish them by his sacrifice upon the Cross yea if the Harmonists of the Gospel are not deceived within less than two years after for they place this Sermon between his second and third Passeover Ergo he intended it for an Ordinance of the Kingdom of God as the Scripture speaks that is for the Church of his Gospel 2. Because the Sermon whereof this was part is that famous Sermon of our Saviour upon the Mount which he read as a Lecture to his Disciples to instruct them in the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God a little before he sent them out to preach and so in all likelihood contained the Summe of that they were to preach which no doubt was Doctrine Evangelical In all other parts of the Sermon we find it so wherefore then should we not so esteem it even in this also 3. Because it is brought in and that in the first place as an exemplification of that righteousness wherein the Citizens of the Kingdom of Christ were to outgo the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees I say unto you saith our Saviour except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Then follows this Text shewing how far we are to outstrip the Scribes and Pharisees in our obedience to the Precept Thou shalt not kill 4. This passage should be Evangelical forasmuch as it seems together with the rest that follow it to be a part of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Complementum Legis whereof our Saviour spake a little before saying Think not that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets that is to abolish or abrogate the observation of them in my Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to accomplish supply or perfect them For this to be the meaning of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole discourse following it seemeth to evince wherein namely our Saviour puts in practice and makes good de facto in several particulars what he formerly said he came to do SECTION III. BUT there is one thing yet behind by no means to be forgotten in this Argument That what I have hitherto spoken of
Discourses the First is added in this Edition all but the Second of them were made by him in his younger days and all of them but the Last are elaborate and argue his great reading and study The Last which is plainer than the rest was added because the latter part thereof especially is a fit Supplement to Discourse 39. and withal because the whole is a pregnant proof of his freedom from Vaingloriousness and Affectation a Disease to which Young men are most subject and that he knew as to discourse learnedly before capable Hearers and to prepare strong meat for those of full age so likewise to become weak to those that were weak in imitation of the Great Apostle of the Gentiles and when he was to speak before a Country-Auditory to express himself in a very plain and familiar way Which ability and readiness of condescending to the meanest capacity was a Vertue and Perfection in him worthy of praise and imitation rather than an unseemly debasement and lessening of himself The Great S. Augustine was pleas'd to humble himself to a yet lower condescension he would speak sometimes broken and barbarous Latine before some sort of Hearers so it were better understood by them as Ossum for Os c. upon the mentioning of which instance he adds Melius est ut nos reprehendant Grammatici quam ut non intelligant populi In general His Style is every where grave and proper and fitly expressive of his sense an argument that he was Master of his Notions and did fully comprehend them Nor is it easie to find many Writers that in treating upon Prophetical and Obscure Scriptures of any other Abstruse arguments have either illustrated them with that clearness that easie and punctual accommodation of them to their proper Events or represented their Notions so handsomely and advantageously as he hath done To be short In his Discourses and Sermons there is nothing that is light humorous and trifling no little pieces of Wit or slight Phancy no high-flown nor affected Modes of expression no needless Quotations of the meaner and less-significant Sentences out of Authors with which some such especially who are less acquainted with the inward sense and relish of Better things endeavour to make their Discourses look very fine and as they think wondrous learned hoping thereby to gratifie some weak and Childish minds and by them to be had in admiration whose Applause yet is in the esteem of Wise men a Disparagement No His great care was to make his Discourses rather substantial and solid sit to entertain such as are of a more Manly and serious spirit than gawdy and quaint and pleasing only to those that are but Children and not grown to be Men in Understanding as being well assured that to men of judgment as Petronius hath well observ'd Nihil esset magnificum quod pueris placeret His Generous Soul could not stoop so low as to humor these such a Pedantick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Affectation being in his account a certain sign of a Poorness and Narrowness of spirit a Littleness of Mind when it can thus vacare rebus tam exiguis his interesse ut suis. In a word what is related in the Life of Padre Paolo that Oracle of Venice the famous Author of the History of the Council of Trent and for his scarcely-parallel'd Accomplishments both Intellectual and Moral the Glory and Wonder of that Age Il miracolo di questo secolo as the learned and excellent Vincentius Pinellus of Padua did love to style him may with equal truth be said of Mr. Mede and his Writings viz. That here was an happy conjunction of those Excellencies which rarely meet in one and the same Subject Scienza humilita prudenza e mansuetudine ritir atezza officiosita seriosita e dolcezza brevita e chiarezza soavita e sodezza Knowledge and Humility Prudence and Meekness Retiredness and Officiousness Seriousness and Pleasantness Brevity and Clearness Sweetness and Solidity I might add a word concerning some other Tracts of his and particularly such as besides his Clavis Apocalyptica refer to the Apocalyps and make the three last Chapters in Book V. But concerning these there is an Advertisement there prefixed And for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Remains upon the Apocalyps this in short may suffice to be intimated That they were only an Additional Supplement to the first Draught of his Synchronisms privately communicated to some Friends and were not written after but before his Clavis Commentationes Apocalypticae which were his Last labours upon that mysterious Book and by these his Last Thoughts upon the Apocalyps should be farther cleared and rectified whatsoever may seem in those former Papers less perfect and satisfying Concerning other Tracts of his there are particular Advertisements inserted where thore was need in their proper places And thus much concerning the Author and his Writings I proceed to the last Head of Advertisements III. Advertisements touching the Methods and Helps whereby the Author arrived at such an eminent degree of skill in the more abstruse parts of Knowledge And because it is and ever was the General sense of all Wise and Vertuous persons in the World That the Divine Presence and Assistence is absolutely necessary and therefore to be implor'd in all weighty undertakings that which deserves first to be numbred amongst those Helps to knowledge is I. His humble and fervent Prayer to Almighty God the Father of lights to guide him into all Truth and to give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good understanding in all things This was S. Iames his advice If any man lack Wisdom let him ask of God and it shall be given him This was that memorable counsel that a venerable unknown person gave to Iustin Martyr in his Solitude after he had pass'd through the several Philosophies then in being the Stoick Peripatetick Pythagorean and Platonick as a preparation to his receiving the best Philosophy that is the Christian That he would study the Writings of the Holy Prophets and for his better success therein saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he should first and above all things pray unto God that the Gates of light might be opened unto him and in the following of this counsel this great Philosopher became an eminent Christian faithful unto death This was Daniel's practice Daniel whose Prophecy is much-what of the like colour and complexion with S. Iohn's Apocalyps he sets himself and engages the Three Children his companions to do the like to desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning that Secret of Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of the Four Kingdoms represented by the Image of Four differing mettals And to mention only one Example more but such a one as is most pertinent on this occasion S. Iohn is said to have wept much that none was found that could open the Apocalyptick Book sealed with
Seven Seals But God heard his Prayers and Tears and upon the Lambs opening the Book he is bid Come and see Thus God made the place of his banishment Patmos an Island in the Archipelago to be to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Valley of Vision another Peniel and Gate of Heaven and for the Oracles of Divine wisdom he there received infinitely more illustrious than Delos a neighbouring Island the middlemost and chief of the Cyclades so much famed for the birth and Oracle of Apollo In this Solitude the holy Angels and Christ Iesus the Sovereign over Men and Angels visited him and blest this Eagle-eyed Apostle with the discoveries of the particular Fates of the Church till the End of the World and Christs Second coming to Iudgement Agreeable to such holy Counsels and these great Examples was Mr. Mede's practice particularly when he entered upon the Apocalyps Accordingly in a Letter of his to Mr. W. his ancient Friend he tells him That it was his daily Desire and Prayer to God that he might not be led away with delusions as some unskilful and unstable souls had been in their attempts upon so abstruse a Book as the Apocalyps and that therefore his Hope was in God that he would not suffer him to fall as they had wretchedly miscarried but be merciful to him a sinner and withal he earnestly desires that others would pray for him as he would not cease to pray for them engaged in the like difficult labours In this humble strain does he express himself in that private Letter which needed not to be printed it treating upon what he hath more fully and clearly discoursed of in other Tracts published in this Edition Besides out of his printed Works upon the Apocalyps the Reader may observe the same For those two humble Addresses of his to God in the beginning of both his Clavis and Commentary upon the Apocalyps Tu qui Throno insides and Christe Dei Sapientia are pregnant proofs how sensible he was of the availableness of continued Prayer for the safe understanding of such Mysteries So far was he from leaning to his own Understanding and glorying in his own Wisdom just as Ioseph the Patriarch speaks of his interpreting Pharaoh's Dream Gen. 41. 16. It is not in me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non ex sapientia mea says the Targum II. His Ingenuous Gratitude and Thankfull acknowledgements for any measure of Light received For Praise as it is in it self most comely a singular piece of the Beauty of Holiness the Souls best dress and most graceful deportment so likewise it is an effectual instrument and one of the most compendious means to the obtaining of greater Favours and Blessings Thus Daniel out of a due sense of Gods Goodness in revealing to him that Secret and Mystery of Nebuchadnezzar's Vision repeats and doubles his affectionate Praises in Chap. 2. 20 22 23. And he that was thus becomingly thankful for this First Favour had many other Mysteries imparted to him Mysteries of the greatest magnitude and importance as that of the LXX Weeks Chap. 9. containing besides other Secrets of Providence relating the Iewish State the highest Mysteries of the Gospel the Coming of Messiah into the World his Death the Time and the End or Intent thereof his Anointing Inauguration and being instated in his Sovereign Dignity and Regal Power over all and also that in Chap. 7. of the Second Coming of Christ in the Clouds of Heaven together with the Description of the Great Day of Iudgement and the Kingdom of Christ which should not pass away nor be destroyed as were those Four Kingdoms represented in this Chapter by the Four Beasts diverse one from another verse 3. and to name no more that Mystery of the Reign of Antichrist for so the Ancients understood it both in Chapter 7. 8 20. and Chapter 11. 36 c. together with the Time of his Discovery Chapter 12. 11 12. Nor was Mr. Mede's Practice less observable in this than in the foregoing Particular of which it were easie to produce many Instances This for one out of that above-mentioned Letter to Mr. W. to whom he had sent the First Draught of his Notions upon part of the Apocalyps As for me saith he I am conscious of my weakness and unworthiness being when these kind of thoughts first possess'd me looking another way with a prejudice incompatible with this But if it be found the least means of farther light to the Father of Lights be the Glory His Epistles are full of the like thankful acknowledgements When some admiring his rare Sagacity in the Mysteries of the Apocalyps and other Prophecies wrote to him in a strain full of respect and praise he was not forward to take Glory to himself but gave it as he ought to God telling them if there were any thing in his Meditations worthy of approbation he must ascribe it to Gods goodness towards him that had in any sort enabled him to endeavour ought whereby he might not live in the world altogether unprofitably and withal adds concerning his Clavis If this one thing be my Talent though but a single one I have sufficient wherefore continually to thank the Almighty and to beseech him that my husbanding thereof may be by his gracious instinct such as may be some occasion of farther light to others Agreeable to which expressions is that most Grateful acknowledgment with which he concludes his Clavis Apocal. Id extremum te volo Lector ut si mihi assidenti quid forte revelatum esse perspexeris aut tibi ipsi aut aliis ad haec mysteria profuturum id tot um Dei in me misericordiae acceptum referas cui ego ob tantillum Sapientiae ejus radiolum grates persolvere nunquam desinam The like humble and hearty praises for that portion of knowledge God had given him in these Mysteries and the Opportunity he had vouchsafed him to make it known to others so far as he had done either of which Favours he professes he deserved not the Reader may observe elsewhere in his Epistles And indeed a Soul so Humble and Meek and Thankful as his was is in the fittest disposition and has the fairest advantages for Divine light So true is that of Siracides Mysteries are revealed unto the meek He with whom God spake face to face as a man speaketh to his friend was the meekest man upon earth one whom that rare conjunction and Constellation of so great Accomplishments and Excellencies as his being learned in all the wisedom of the Egyptians his being mighty in words and deeds his forty days converse with God in the Mount his Greatness Power and Dignity together with the incomparable goodliness of his person did not swell into an haughty arrogant and imperious humour as it would have been apt to have made some the proudest men upon earth To conclude To return all Thankful
by the Prophets for so Prophets are here to be understood and not of predictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to fulfil them that is to supply accomplish or perfect those Rules and Doctrines of Iust and Unjust contained in them by a more ample interpretation and other improvement befitting the state of the Gospel For surely this must be the meaning of this speech of our Saviour if we be more willing as we should to take a sense from Scripture than to bring one to it Doth not the whole context following evince it Indeed the Law that is the Legal Covenant or Covenant of works as Law is oft taken in the New Testament together with all the Rites depending thereon is dissolved by the coming of Christ and a better Covenant with new Rites established in stead thereof but the Law that is the Doctrine and Rule of life given by God contradistinct from those ordinances which were only appendages of that Covenant though these were also in some sense perfected by bringing the truth and substance in stead of the figure and shadow thereof is not disannulled but confirmed and perfected by him in such manner as became the condition of the Covenant of the Gospel For that this confirmation is not to be restrained to the Decalogue only is manifest because our Saviour in the following words insists upon other Precepts besides it If it be said they are reducible thereto this will not serve the turn for so are all the rest of God's Commandments Unless therefore it can be shewn that to honour God by an oblation of his creature is no part of the Law here confirmed by our Saviour let no man be so daringly bold as to exempt himself and others from the obligation thereof unless he means to be one of them of whom our Saviour speaks immediately saying Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so to do mark it he shall be called i. he shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is loose or dis-bind as he doth both that abrogates and that observes it not much more he that affirmeth it unlawful to be observed Nay how dare we dis-bind or loose our selves from the tye of that way of agnizing and honouring God which the Christian Church from her first beginnings durst not do Irenaeus witness of that age which next succeeded the Apostles is plain Lib. 4. c. 34. Offerre oportet Deo saith he primitias creaturae ejus sicut Moses ait Non apparebis vacuus ante conspectum Domini Dei tui Et non genus Oblationum reprobatum est oblationes enim illic sc. in V.T. oblationes autem hîc sacrificia in populo sacrificia in Ecclesia sed species immutata est tantùm quippe cum jam non à servis sed à liberis offeratur Vnus enim idem Dominus proprium autem character servilis oblationis proprium liberorum uti per oblationes ostendatur indicium libertatis It behoveth us saith he to offer unto God a present of his creature as also Moses saith Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God emptie For offerings in the general are not reprobated there were Offerings there viz. in the Old Test. there are also offerings here in the Church but the specification only is changed forasmuch as offerings now are not made by bond but free-men For there is one and the same Lord still but there is a proper character of a bond or servile offering and a proper character of free-mens that so even the offerings may shew forth the tokens of freedom Now where in Scripture he believed this doctrin and practice to be grounded he lets us know in the 27. chap. of the same Book Et quia Dominus naturalia Legis per quae homo justificatur quae etiam ante legisdationem custodiebant qui side justificabantur placebant Deo non dissolvit sed extendit sed implevit ex sermonibus ejus ostenditur That is That our Lord dissolved not but enlarged and perfected the natural precepts of the Law whereby a man is just which also before the Law was given they observed who were justified by faith and pleased God is evident by his words Then he cites some of the passages of that his Sermon upon the Mount Mat. 5. 20. And a little after addes Necesse fuit auferre quidem vincula servitutis quibus jam homo assueverat sine vinculis sequi Deum superextendi verò decreta libertatis augeri subjectionem quae est ad Regem ut non retrorsus quis renitens indignus appareat ei qui se liberavit Et propter hoc Dominus pro eo quod est Non moechaberis nec concupiscere praecepit pro eo quod est Non occîdes neque irasci quidem et pro eo quod est Decimare omnia quae sunt pauperibus dividere That is It was needful that those bonds of servitude which man had before been inured to should be taken off that so he might without Gyves follow God but that the laws and ordinances of freedom should be extended and his subjection to the King encreased lest that drawing backward he might appear unworthy of him that freed him And for this reason our Lord in stead of Thou shalt not commit adultery commands not so much as to lust in stead of Thou shalt not kill not so much as to be angry in stead of To Tithe to distribute all we have to the poor c. All which saith he in the same place are not solventis Legem sed adimplentis extendentis dilatantis not of one that dissolves the Law but fulfils extends and enlarges it alluding still to that in our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount Besides those who are acquainted with Antiquity can tell that the Primitive Christians understood the holy Eucharist to be A commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ's death upon the Cross in an oblation of Bread and Wine 'T is witnessed by the Fathers of those first Ages generally Whereupon the same Irenaeus also affirmeth that our Saviour by the institution of the Eucharist had confirmed Oblations in the New Testament Namely to thanks give or bless a thing in way to a sacred use he took to be an offering of it unto God And was not David's Benediction and thanksgiving at the preparation for the Temple and Offertory Where note well That as he upon that occasion blessed the Lord saying Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory all that is in heaven and earth is thine thine is the Kindgom Both riches and honour come of thee Ergo because all things come of theâ— of thine own have we given thee so do Christ's redeemed in their Evangelical Sâ—â—â— Apoc. 5. ascribe no less unto him saying v. 12. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and
votes are tendered Secondly He praies for Grace and Peace from them not as Authors but as the Instruments of God in the dispensation thereof Are they not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation And if it be no Idolatry to pray unto God to give Grace and Peace from the outward Ministery of his Word no more is it to pray unto him for it from the invisible Ministery For certainly it is lawful to pray unto God for a blessing from an Instrument which he is wont to give us by an Instrument Secondly It may be said it being a Salutation that the words Grace and Peace need not be taken in that special and strict sense but in the large and general wherein Grace sounds favour at large and Peace all manner of prosperity In which sense no man will deny but the blessed Angels have an interest in the dispensation of the favours and blessings of God to his Church and so God may be prayed to to give them as he is wont by their Ministery Grace and Peace from him which is which was and is to come as the Author and Giver and from the Seven Spirits as the Instruments and from Iesus Christ as the Mediator There is yet one place more in the Apocalyps to confirm this Tradition Chap. 8. 2. I saw saith S. Iohn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seven Angels which stood before God Is not this as plain as Tobit Why should then the one be accounted Magical rather than the other I add moreover that these Angels are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principes primarii or chief Princes mentioned in the 10. of Daniel 13. Michael one of the chief Princes saith the Angel there came to help me Now Michael we know is one of the Arch-angels and why therefore may not these chief Princes be those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof S. Paul speaks in his adjuration to Timothy I charge thee saith he before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the Elect Angels not the good Angels at large but those Angeli eximii the Seven Arch-angels which stand before the Throne of God And it may not without reason be conjectured that those Seven chief Princes famed in the Persian Monarchie took their beginning from hence namely that Daniel who in respect of his account for wisdom and of his power under Darius the Mede had a main stroke in the moulding and framing the Government of that State caused the Persian Court to resemble that of Heaven ordaining Seven chief Princes to stand before the King Of which we find twice mention in Scripture as in the Book of Esther where they are recorded by name and styled the seven Princes of Media and Persia who saw the King's face and sate first in the kingdom and in the Commission granted to Ezra by Artaxerxes Ezra 7. 14. they are called the King's seven Counsellors Forasmuch as thou art sent by the King and his seven Counsellors c. And it may be the Church of Ierusalem when they chose Seven Deacons to minister unto their Bishop had an eye the same way HITHERTO of the Number of these Arch-angels now a word or two of their Office And that is First to be the universal Inspectors of the whole world and the Rulers and Princes of the whole Angelical host which appears in that they are called Principes primarii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chief Princes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archangels i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chief of the Angels their universal jurisdiction is meant by the words sent forth into the whole world whereas the rest are limited to certain places Secondly to have the peculiar Charge and Guardianship of the Church and affairs thereof whilst the rest of the world with their Polities Kingdoms and Governments is committed to the care of subordinate Angels who according to their several charges may seem to carry those names of Thrones Principalities Powers and Dominions That the charge of the Church quà talis belongs thus peculiarly and immediately to the Seven Arch-angels may appear by S. Iohn's saluting the Churches with a Benediction of Grace and Peace from their ministery and the typing of them by the Seven Eyes and Horns of the Lamb as Powers which the Father since he exalted Him to be Head of his Church hath annexed to his Iurisdiction Hence it comes to pass that we find these Angels peculiarly both before and in the Gospel to have been employed about the Church-affairs In the Old Testament the Angiel Gabriel one of the Seven revealed to Daniel the time of the restauration of the Iewish State and coming of Messiah and the Angel Michael one of the chief Princes was his assistant when he strengthened Darius the Mede who founded the Monarchy which should restore them and is in special termed Dan. 12. 1. the Prince that stood for Daniel 's people In the Gospel we find the same Angel Gabriel imployed both to Zachary and the Blessed Virgin with the Evangelical Tidings and that Zachary might take notice that he was one of the Seven he says unto him I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God Likewise in the Churches combate with the Dragon Apocal. 12. 7 c. Michael and his Angels are said to be her Champions and in her quarrel to have cast the Dragon and his Angels down to the Earth And in this Prophecy of Zachary it is said that these Seven eyes of the Lord took care of one stone which Zorobabel laid for the foundation of the Temple and therefore the work could not be disappointed but should certainly at length be finished So as by this time we may guess the meaning of that which Hanani the Seer told King Asa 2 Chron. 16. 9. The Eyes of the Lord that is these Seven Eyes run to and fro through the whole Earth to shew themselves strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards him DISCOURSE XI S. MARK 11. 17. Is it not written My House shall be called a House of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the Nations THEY are the words of our Blessed Saviour when he cast the Buyers and Sellers and Money-changers out of the Temple and forbad to carry any vessels through it Concerning which story it is worth observâ—â—â—on that our Saviour whilst he was upon earth never exercised any Kingly or coactive Iurisdiction but in vindicating his Father's House from prophanation And this he did two several times Once at the first Passeover after he began his Prophesie whereof you may read Iohn 2. 14 c. and now again at his last Passeover when he came to give his soul a sacrifice for sin This is that which S. Mark relates in this place as do also two other of the Evangelists S. Matthew and S. Luke The vindication of God's House from Prophanation how little account soever we are wont to
our Works are the Subject of Reward and the same Merit of Christ makes differing works capable of a different Reward Their other Objection hath a little more likelihood and seems therefore somewhat more difficult to answer It is taken from the Parable Matt. 20. where the Kingdome of Heaven is compared to a Vineyard the Master whereof went out in the morning to hire labourers and agreed with them for a peny a day Three hours after or at the third hour he went out and hired more and so again at the sixth and ninth hours yea at the eleventh but an hour before Sun went down he did likewise And when they came all to receive their wages he gave the last hired as much as he had agreed for with the first to wit every one a peny neither more not less Whence it seems to follow that the reward to come signified by this peny shall not be proportioned according to the difference of works but be one and the same to all I answer First The Parable proves no more but this That the sooner or later coming of men into the Vineyard of the Church for all were not to be called at one time nor in one age shall not make their reward greater or lesser not that the reward shall not be different according to the diversity of our works Secondly I add That this Parable hath respect to the Churches of the Iews and Gentiles not called nor to be called at the same time For the Iews were hired into the Vineyard betimes in the morning the Gentiles not till the day was far spent yet shall they by the goodness of their heavenly Master receive the same reward of eternal life which was promised to the Iew with whom the Covenant was first made and who bare the heat of the day whilst the other stood idle Besides in the new Vineyard of the Gospel the turn is changed for into it because the Iews would not the Gentiles have first been hired though at several hours the Iew being not to come in until the eleventh hour yet when Christ comes to give us wages shall receive his peny that is eternal life as well as we This to be the genuine scope of the Parable may be gathered by that which is presently subjoyned by our Saviour as it were to be the Key thereof So the last saith he shall be first and the first last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for many are called but few are chosen which I understand thus The last that is the Gentiles who came in last shall be the first partakers of Christ's Kingdom The Iews who were first in Covenant and had wrought so long before us in God's Vineyard shall be last in the Covenant of Christ and not converted till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in For though many of them were invited at the first coming of Christ yet few or none obeyed and to the Nation became not of his peculium but stands yet rejected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the like purpose is the same speech used by our Saviour Luk. 13. 29 30. They shall come saith he from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God And behold there are last which shall be first and there are first which shall be last What means this Out of S. Matthew 8. 11 12. where the same passage is related we shall hear it expounded for there the words run thus Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of heaven But the children of the Kingdom that is the whole generation of Israel who received not the Gospel at the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles and all the generations since who have continued in unbelief shall be cast out into outer darkness And here by the way because the Parable useth the notion of a Day to signifie a time of many Ages it will not be altogether unseasonable to note that the Metaphor may appear the easier how that the Scripture often elsewhere calls the whole time of man's pilgrimage in this world by the name of a Day As To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts And Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day whilest it is called to Day Where we see Day to include every day And I believe we are thus to understand Day in the Lord's Prayer in that Petition Give us this day our daily Bread that is the whole time we live in this world For in stead of S. Matthew's This Day spoken after the Hebrew notion S. Luke hath in the same Petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is every day Therefore S. Matthew's This day must comprehend S. Luke's Every day if the sense of the Petition in both of them be the same as I believe it is Nay more than this The world to come even Seculum aeternitatis or Eternity it self is likewise termed a Day by S. Peter 2 Ep. 3. 18. our Lord saith he and Saviour Iesus Christ to whom be glory both now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the Day of Eternity A long Day indeed But this obiter Thus having cleared my Proposition in thest or in general That there shall be differing degrees of glory in the Reward to come it remains that I make it good in the hypothesis concerning a Prophet namely That to them who instruct others in the ways and will of God which is the Office of a Prophet there belongs a preeminence of Reward above and besides that which is common to all Saints This preeminence of glory the School-men term Aurâ—ola that is an Additament of felicity to that essential glory in the Vision of God which they term Aurea This Aureola or Coronet to be added to the Crown of glory they ascribe to three sorts of persons to Virgins to Martyrs and to Doctors of Prophets The two first are out of my scope The third of Prophets let us see how it is proved out of Scripture First therefore it is apparent from my Text He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward Ergo there is some special or peculiar Reward belonging to a Prophet and that to an eminent one otherwise our Saviour's speech will have no enforcement in it as he that considers thereof may easily see The second is Dan. 12. 3. where the Angel prophesying of the Resurrection to be at the end of Time and saying That many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt he addes And those that be wise that is have learned the true wisdom which consists in the fear of God shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament but those that turn many unto righteousness that is the Teachers and Instructers as the Stars for ever and ever
unto the Lamb for ever and ever In which we may observe the whole Glorification to consist in the acknowledgement of these Three soveraign prerogatives of the Divine Majesty his Power his Wisdom his Goodness The two first Power and Wisdom are express and Riches and Strength belong to Power the third is contained in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessing or Thanksgiving which is nothing else but the Confession of the Divine Goodness Hence it is that the Septuagint and Vulgar Latine commonly render the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to praise and glorifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confiteor Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus quoniam in seculum misericordia ejus Confess unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy is for ever Psal. 106. 1. 107. 1. 136. 1. Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo quoniam audisti verba oris mei I will confess unto thee O Lord with my whole heart for thou hast heard the words of my mouth So the Vulgar Latin in Psal. 137. Confitemini Domino invocate nomen ejus Confess unto the Lord and call upon his name Psal. 105. 1. and the like And in the 148. Psal. 13. Confessio ejus super coelum terram that is His glory is above the heaven and the earth The Holy Ghost in the New Testament useth the same language Matth. 11. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes where we have I thank thee O Father Beza and Erasmus read â—loriam tibi tribuo I give glory unto thee which I think is the better So Luke 2. 38. it is said of Anna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she confessed to the Lord or she gave praise and thanks unto the Lord. So Heb. 13. 15. By him therefore that is by Christ let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fruit of our lips confessing to his Name By all which it is evident That to Praise and give Glory unto God whether by Praise at large or Prayer and Thanksgiving in special is nothing else as I have said but to confess and acknowledge his peerless Majesty over all and in all which the Scripture calls his Glory And if ever there were a Work of God wherein all these peerless Prerogatives of Power Wisdom and Goodness all together appeared in the highest degree it was undoubtedly in this wonderful Work of the Incarnation of the Son of God for man's redemption well therefore might the heavenly Host sing Gloria in excelsis Deo Glory be to God on High The Power the Wisdom and Goodness of the Glorious God be acknowledged by the holy Angels and all the Host of heaven for ever and ever This is the meaning of the Doxology COME we now to the Gratulation which contains the cause thereof Glory be to God on high for ô factum bene O happy news there is peace on earth good-will towards men One and the same thing two ways expressed for it is an Apposition or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter words declaring the meaning of the former Peace on earth that is Good will towards men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit in imitation of the Hebrew construction where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbs which signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Noun signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are construed with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek and accordingly both the Septuagint and New Testament express the same But the Vulgar Interpreter reads here Pax in terris hominibus bonae voluntatis Peace on earth to men of good-will as if the Greek were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as now all our Copies constantly read and I believe ever did Yet Beza seems here to favour the Vulgar Latin expounding Homines bonae voluntatis Men of good-will of those whom God wills well to to wit of the Elect to whom this Peace by Christ belongeth and from the conveniency of this sense inclines to believe that the Greek anciently read so quoting to this end Irenaeus Origen and Chrysostome as he saith in divers places But he trusted too much the Latin Translation of Chrysostome for the Greek Chrysostome hath no such matter but both in those places Beza points to and in divers others reads constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Copies do And so I make no question Irenaeus and Origen did too in the Greek Originals if we had them to look into But the Latin Translators thought not fit to alter the words of the Hymn so ordinarily sung in the Liturgy and so expressed it in Latin as the Latin Church used And for the meaning I believe the Vulgar Latin aim'd at no other sense than what the Greek implies namely That this Peace was no earthly Peace but the Peace of God's good-will to man referring the Genitive Case voluntatis not to hominibus but to Pax. Pax in terris what Pax Pax bonae voluntatis hominibus That which makes me think so is because Origen or his Translator in the place Beza quotes for this reading expresly expounds it so And so there will not be a pin to chuse save that the Greek expresseth this sense by way of Apposition more naturally the Latin by way of Rection somewhat harshly and yet perhaps the Translator thought less ambiguously Well then This Peace on earth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's good-will or favour to men and God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good-will to men is the Peace on earth the Angels gratulate namely the Reconciliation of God to men in Christ. For by reason of sin Heaven and Earth God and Man were till now at enmity but by Christ this enmity is taken away and man by the forgiveness of his sin restored unto peace and favour with God And as by this Nativity God and Man became one Person so by this conjunction Heaven and Earth Angels and Men become one Fellowship one City and Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Satan that Prince of the powers of the Air who by reason of sin had captivated and brought under his service the whole Earth and thereby held the same at open war and enmity with Heaven being now by degrees to be destroyed and rooted out And this is that admirable Mystery of our Redemption by Christ which the Angelical Host here gratulates by the name of Peace on earth and Good-will towards men And that we may not doubt but we have hit the meaning That this Peace on earth is God's Good-will to men and therefore expounded by it besides that in the Old Testament Peace is often taken for God's favour and mercy to men as in that of Esay 54. 10. The mounâ—ains shall
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
God in him which is a Faith whereof there is no Gospel A true Faith is to believe Salvation to be attained through obedience to God in Iesus Christ who by his merits and satisfaction for sin makes our selves and our works acceptable to his Father A saving and justifying Faith is to believe this so as to embrace and lay hold upon Christ for that end to apply our selves unto him and rely upon him that we may through him perform those works of obedience which God hath promised to reward with eternal life For a justifying Faith stays not only in the Brain but stirs up the Will to receive and enjoy the good believed according as it is promised This motion or election of the Will is that which maketh the difference between a saving Faith which joyns us to Christ and that which is true indeed but not saving but dogmatical and opinionative only And this motion or applying of the Will to Christ this embracing of Christ and the Promises of the Gospel through him is that which the Scripture when it speaks of this Faith calleth coming unto Christ or the receiving of him Come unto me all ye that are heavy-laden and I will ease you Matth. 11. 28. See Iohn 5. 40. and chap. 6. 37 44 45. So for receiving Iohn 1. 12. As many as received him to them he gave power or priviledge to be the sons of God even to them that believe on his Name where receiving and believing one expounds another Now if this be the Faith which is saving and unites us unto Christ and none other then it is plain that a saving Faith cannot be severed from good works because no man can embrace Christ as he is promised but he must apply himself to do them Would we then know whether our Faith be true and saving and not counterfeit This is the only sign and note whereby we may know it if we find these fruits thereof in our lives and conversations For 1 Iohn 1. 6. If we say we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth Ch. 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him namely to be our Advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins if we keep his Commandments And ch 3. 7. Little children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is righteous even as Christ is righteous For if every one that believes in Christ truly and savingly believes that Salvation is to be attained by obeying God in him and so embraces and lays hold on him for that end how can such a ones Faith be fruitless DISCOURSE XXVII Acts 5. 3 4 5. But Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy Ghost and to purloin of the price of the land Whiles it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in thy power why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost IN the 110. Psalm where our Saviour is Prophetically described in the Person of a King advanced to the Throne of Divine Majesty glorious and victorious The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool c. amongst other Kingly Attributes and Graces it is said if it be translated as it should be That his people in the day of his power should offer him Free-will-offerings that is bring him Presents at the day of his Inauguration or Investment as a sign of their Homage For so was the manner of the East to do unto their Kings and therefore when Saul was anointed King by Samuel it is said of those sons of Deâ—ial which despised and acknowledged him not that they brought him no presents But of Messiah's people it is said Thy people in the day of thy power that is the day when thou shalt enter upon thy power or the day of thy Investment shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people of free presents or shall bring thee Free-will-offerings It is an Elliptical speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rightly expressed in the Translation of our Service-Book Thy people shall offer or bring the Free-will-offerings This we see fulfilled in the Story of the foregoing Chapter when after our Saviour's ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of God which was the day of his power or Inauguration in his Kingdom assoon as this his Investment was published by sending of the Holy Ghost presently such as believed in him that is submitted themselves to his power and acknowledged him to be their King dedicated their goods and possessions to his service selling their lands and houses and laying down the money at the Apostles feet namely to be distributed as were the sacred Offerings of the Law partly to the maintenance and furnishing of the Apostles for the work whereabout they were sent and partly for the relief of the poor Believers which belonged to Christ's provision According to this Example one Ananias with Sapphira his wife consecrated also a possession of theirs unto God and sold the same to that purpose but having so done covetousness tickling them they purloined from the price and brought but a part of the summe and laid it down at the Apostles feet Then said Peter according to the words I have read Why hath Satan filled thine heart that is made thee so daring to lie unto the Holy Ghost and to purloin from the price of the field c The words I have read contain two things Ananias his Sin and his Punishment therefore His Sin in the third and fourth verses his Punishment in the fifth Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost Concerning his Sin as appears by the relation I have already made it was Sacriledge namely the purloining of what was become holy and consecrate unto God not by actual performance but by vow and inward purpose of the Heart For as it is well observed by Ainsworth on Levit. 7. 16. out of Maimonid in his Treatise of offering the Sacrifice Chap. 14. Sect. 4 5. c. In vows and voluntaries it is not necessary that a man pronounce ought with his lips but if he shall be fully determined in his heart though he hath uttered nothing with his lips he is indebted And this is no private Opinion of mine the Fathers so determine it S. Augustine that Ananias was condemned of Sacriledge quòd Deum in pollicitatione fesellisset because he had deceived God had been false to him in what he had promised him And in another Sermon Ananiam detraxisse de pecunia quam voverat Deo Ananias purloined and kept back part of the money he had devoted to God S. Chrysostome in his 12. Homily upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The
once brought to steal he should not stay there but be carried farther even to forswear and take God's Name in vain Lest I steal saith he and take the Name of my God in vain Peter first denied Christ but the Devil would not let him stay there but made him curse and forswear him David having once committed adultery with the wife of Vriah the Devil took the advantage to make him commit murther too Sin is like a Serpent if it can but once get in the head it will draw the whole train after While there is no rist in a block it is hard for the wedge or axe to enter but if a rift be once made it will enter all with a little driving So will sin The reason is Because he that commits a sin puts himself thereby more or less into the Devil's power who is not so negligent as to lose or not to ply his advantage The Devil is the Prince of death Heb. 2. 14. Now death comes by sin therefore sin gives the Devil a title and first brought and still bringeth man into the Devil's jurisdiction Hence those who are converted to God and acquitted of their sins are said To be delivered from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. But sin makes them again obnoxious to his power it reaches him a new hold of us which though perhaps it be not so much as he may quite pull us from God yet will it serve him to pull us into many a transgression and cost us much work and a great deal of sorrow before we get free again DISCOURSE XXIX ISAIAH 2. 2 3 4. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established or prepared in the top of the Mountains and exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it c. HILLS or Mountains are States Kingdoms or Societies of men which consisting of degrees rising unto a height one above another are compared unto Mountains raised above the ordinary Plain and Level of the Earth The mountain of the Lord's House is that State and Society of men which is called the Church and People of God Regnum Coelorum the Kingdom of Heaven that is a Kingdom whose both King and King's Throne have their residence and place in the Heavens These words therefore are a Prophesie or prophetical Promise of the glorious exaltation wonderful inlargement and unheard-of prosperity of this Society of men called the Church above all other States or Societies of men whatsoever The glory and exaltation is expressed in the words The Mountain of the Lord's House shall be one day exalted yea mounted not only above the lesser Hills but the highest Mountains though at this time it were depressed and trampled under foot by the proud enemies thereof The inlargement and ampleness thereof in the words All Nations shall flow unto it that is Though at the time of this Prophecy it were reduced to a small remnant yet the time was to come when it should not only consist of the one Nation of the Iews as then it did but of all Nations under the whole heaven The prosperity thereof begins to be described from these words in the 4 th verse They shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks c. that is Although the greatest part of Iacob were already captive and Iudah and Ierusalem in a continual fear and no less danger of the arms and invasion of the King of Babel yet the time should one day come that the People or Church of God should not only be the most exalted State upon the earth and the most ample and universal Dominion that ever was in the world but the most peaceable quiet and flourishing State that ever was since man was first created This is the Prophecy But now comes the Question Whether this as we have described it be and hath already been fulfilled or whether the time thereof be yet to come or if already any ways fulfilled whether it be not in part only performed and the full accomplishment reserved for the time to come Our Adversaries would fain find here the constant and perpetual Visibility of the Church And I must needs grant them that it is meant of a time when the Gentiles shall be called for the words of the Text viz. All Nations tell us so But without doubt he that will have this place for his purpose must shew us not only â—â—â—aked and single Visibility but more than that a glorious Visibility yea the most glorious among the sons of men For a Visibility is one thing and a glorious Visibility is another for many things are visible which are not glorious to look upon and oftentimes good and rich mettal may be within when the outside glisters not We must therefore when we talk of the Churche's Visibility distinguish between these two and not confound them The Church might be Visible though it were but a Hill much more if it be a Mountain but here it is to be established on the tops of Mountains and exalted above the Hills so that no other State shall overtop or overlook it much less trample it under feet Now whether there were ever yet such a time when this was compleatly fulfilled though all be granted our Adversaries they can ask yea and that the Romish Church be that Church here spoken of I leave it to any mans indifferent judgment who can compare the Description of the Prophet with the Stories of forepast and present Times But suppose it were to be fulfilled and fully accomplished in the times which have already been and I will not deny but in part it hath been so yet how doth it follow from this Prophesie that this glorious Visibility should be constant and continual and never interrupted or eclipsed Is not the Prophesie true and hath not God made his Promise good if he hath at any time performed the thing here spoken of though it neither were done all at once and though this exaltation and glory did not alway continue If one skilful in Divination or Astrology should meet with a private man for the present in great want distress contempt and misery and should tell him that it was his fortune to rise to the greatest honours and to become the greatest man that was in the Kingdom If this fell out so at any time of his life according as it was foretold him though perhaps it proved not long durable as such exaltations use not to be had he any reason to say that the Astrologer had lied unto him in that he had foretold him I think any man in reason will think him unjustly charged Why then may not the like be said and thought of the Chruch and as I may so speak with reverence of the prediction of the Churche's fortune But if the time of the full performance of this Prediction be yet to be expected as perhaps it is then it will serve our
kingdoms of the countries Vulg. Vt sciant distantiam servitutis meae servitutis regni Terrarum That they may know the difference between my service and the service of the kingdoms of the lands And certainly if we look into the condition of the Church since Christ's time we shall find the way of God's dealing in this case to have been the same The Saracens who spoiled and subdued so great a part of Christ's Church were never heard of till six hundred years after Christ even at the time when Christians began generally to fall to Idolatry and to worship Images Saints and Angels Then God first gave us over to serve other Nations when we began to serve other Gods besides the Lord our God The Turkish fury could never be stayed from casting more and more this yoke of bondage upon our necks until Iudah I mean the now Reformed Churches began to put away her Idols some one hundred years since From that time unto this that God which would have spared Sodom for ten righteous sakes hath spared the remnant of Christendom for their sakes who have turned again to the Lord their God to serve him as he would be worshipped But to go on Solomon when he divided that worship which was due unto the Lord alone between him and the Idols of Zidon Moab and Ammon the Lord to give him the same measure divided his kingdom and that allegeance which was only due to him and his posterity between himself and his servant Ieroboam Because he served God with an imperfect heart God left him an imperfect kingdom Because he bestowed divine honour upon the vassals of the Lord of heaven the Lord also bestowed his honour upon his vassal Ieroboam Nebuchadnezzar who had lived like a Beast in his Palace God made him to eat grass like an Oxe in the field till he knew the most High ruled in the kingdoms of men Dan. 4. 25 32 34. Otho Bishop of Mentz in a time of famine shut up a great number of poor people in a Barn promising to give them some relief But when he had them fast he set the Barn on fire and hearing then the most lamentable and piteous cries and shreekings of the poor in the midst of the flames he scoffingly said Hear ye how the mice cry in the Barn But the Lord the just revenger of cruelty sent a whole Army of Mice upon him which haunted him a great deal worse than the Frogs did King Pharaoh not only coming into his bed-chamber and upon his bed but following him into a Tower which he had built for his last refuge in the midst of the River Rhene never leaving him till they had quite devoured him Soâ—rates hath a memorable story of one Cyricius Bishop of Chalcedon who in a meeting of many Bishops inveighed very bitterly against good S. Chrysostom and amongst other spiteful language called him often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kneeless fellow because in a good cause he would never be gotten to bow and crouch to obtain the favour of men which Cyricius accounted a stubborn and obstinate disposition But when he had thus uttered his malice Marathas another Bishop by chance trod upon his toe which being at the first esteemed as it was indeed a very small hurt yet afterwards so ranckled that for the safety of the rest of the body his leg was fain to be cut off which done the other leg also was in like manner affected and that so that being otherwise incurable it was fain to feel the same remedy the other had done Thus he who called the holy man a kneeless fellow in one sense God made him a kneeless Bishop in another By which and the former Examples we see how God in punishing requites men with that which hath some resemblance with their Sin And so much for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I come now to the third kind which is Conformitas subjecti The Conformity of subject When though we suffer not the same nor perhaps like unto that we have done unto others yet are we punished in that subject wherein and whereabout we have sinned Thus Adam our first Parent sinned in eating the fruits of the earth and he and all his posterity are punished in the curse of the same in that now in sorrow we eat of them all the days of our life Touching God's dealing with Israel in this kind see Wisdom chap. 11. verse 7 13. Korah and his company sinned in offering strange fire unto the Lord and were punished by a strange destruction The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up quick and there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the men that offered incense Numb 16. verse 32 and verse 35. The Levites wise in Iudges sinned in the Commission of Fornication and therefore died by the same being forced to death by the men of Gibeah Eli by too much indulgence towards his sons sinned against God and was punished in them being slain by the Philistines and the Ark of God taken which they had carried with them David gloried in the number of his people and was punished in the Consumption of seventy thousand of them by the pestilence 2 Sam. 24. 1 15. Hezekiah who sinned in shewing by way of ostentation his treasures and riches unto the Ambassadors of the King of Babylon had his punishment threatned by the same things that all he had thus gloriously shown should one day be carried unto Babylon 2 Kings 20. 13 17. Lastly The Iews who crucified our Saviour by the hands of the Romans had their City and Temple rased by the same hands Now I come unto the last kind of Conformity which I call Conformity of circumstance When the Time and Place of Punishment agrees with the Time and Place of the Sin Of the agreement of Place I find these Examples The first of Ahab and Iezebel in the place where the dogs licked the bloud of Naboth they licked the bloud of Ahab and Iezebel 1 Kings 21. 19. and 2 Kings 9. 36. In the place where Baal's Priests had committed Idolatry were their bones being dead and the bodies of those who were alive flain and burnt by Iosiah upon the Altar of Bethel 2 Kings 23. 16. Examples of concurrence of Time I find these At the same time of the year wherein the Iews crucified Christ hapned that fatal and final siege by the Romans when that heavy curse fell upon them His bloud be upon us and our children The Spies which brought an evil report upon the land had spent forty days in searching it and therefore God for this sin that Time might agree with Time made them wander up and down forty years in the wilderness They are the words of God himself According unto the number of days saith he in which ye searched the land even forty days each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities Last of all because I will not be tedious
proper end to maintain the publick good of the Universe the Water ascends upward the Aire downward against nature to maintain the connexion and indivulsion of the parts of the world So should every good member of a Commonwealth or Society pass by his private profit and private pleasure to further the common good of the weal publick Every natural body will rend and break in pieces rather than the Order of the world should be violated by a penetration of dimensions So should every good member hazard yea lose both his life and estate for the common behoof of that body whereof he is a member All things of inferior nature give place without reluctancy to those which have a sublimity of nature above them the Water willingly submitteth unto the Air the Air unto the Fire c. yea the one doth further as far as it can the ascent of the other above it The like should we express in the subordination of degrees and conditions amongst men All things which grow upon the earth turn their heads and faces upward toward that by whose influence they grow and are preserved So should we unto him in whom we live and move and have our being These are only general Instances for a taste drawn from the general rule of the Creatures to admonish us of general duties If I should from hence take a view of every several creature in his kind I might shew you in clay all Ethical and Oeconomical vertues sampled in one kind or other of them Go to the pismire thou sluggard saith Solomon Be wise as serpents saith a wiser than Solomon The Oxe knoweth his owner and the ass his masters crib but Israel hath not known me saith the Lord by the â—rophet Esay The Stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming saith our Prophet Ieremy Go to the lilies of the field and learn of them saith our Saviour To say no more There is no creature in the world but upbraids us with sin in daily and continually breaking the Law of our creation which they so inviolably observe We should therefore hence learn to use these Creatures not for our bodies only to array them and feed them and such like but for the spiritual good of the inward man that so in them and with them we may glorifie our Creator God made all the Creation for the service of man but not for the service of his Body alone as most conceive it but also for the service of his Better part the Soul and Understanding We should never therefore use behold or look upon any one of our fellow-creatures but we should be raised by them unto God invited to devotion and spurred to conform our Wills and Affections to the pattern of that Eternal Will which they any way express I doubt not but the Philosophy of Solomon was of this strain when he spake of herbs and trees and of living creatures the fragments which here and there remain in the Proverbs may give us some taste thereof If we would do thus it would abate our Pride and make us know our selves better Lord what is man but the most unreasonable creature upon the face of the earth the most unjust lawless irregular creature that walks under the Sun Consider the marches of that Royal host of Heaven look upon the fowls of the Air and fishes of the Sea survey all that springeth all that moveth and creepeth upon the Earth and tell me from the circumference above unto the centre below what one creature what worst creature of God's making what silly worm doth so transgress the Law of his creation as Man doth And yet Man hath Reason given him whereby he knoweth the Law and Rule he is to follow Man hath also a liberty of Will But what doth he with them His Reason he abuseth to most unreasonable actions his Will to most licencious and abominable liberty It is a wonder the Earth can endure to bear him so vile a burthen or the Sun to shine upon him the most unworthy creature in the world Thus much concerning The description of the false Gods in the words The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth It remains I should speak of their Doom in the last words They shall perish from the Earth c. Wherein I shall observe two things 1. Their destiny it self which is perishing They shall perish and 2. The circumstances of this perishing from the Earth and from under these Heavens I make them two because they will yield different Observations and Instructions To begin therefore with the first The Doom or Destiny it self which is perishing They shall perish These words you see were a Prophecy of what was to come upon the Gods of the Heathen in after-times for at the time and age wherein they were spoken things in the world were far otherwise than here is foretold they should be For the dominion and jurisdiction of Iehovah the God of Heaven seemed exceeding small his Name being only known in Iacob and his Greatness and Throne amongst the Sons of Israel whereas Idols false gods and false worship overwhelmed as it were the face of the whole earth The kingdom of God was but a small parcel whereas Devils and Idols commanded and swayed all the Nations of the earth besides The dew of grace lay only upon the fleece of Gideon but all the earth besides was dry This was the state of the times when this Prophecy was uttered nay worse at that time than ever it had been before For even that small portion of men which acknowledged the Lord God of heaven was now almost quite extinguished and devoured by the vassals of the Gods of the Nations Israel being carried away captive into a strange land with much unlikelihood of return and the most High God as it were mastered by the Gods of the Nations Ye have heard the state of the times wherein this Prophecy is commanded Now let us consider of the Event and this we shall find partly already accomplished and partly yet to come For the first We have seen with our eyes we have heard with our ears and our fathers have told us the wondrous works of the Lord. We have heard and daily read of the admired Oracles of the Gentiles of Apollo at Delphus of Iupiter Ammon in Egypt and many moe too long to be named but all of them are long since perished from the earth and from under these heavens We have heard of the names of many Gods in former times of great renown in these Islands of the Gentiles Iupiter Mars Apollo Neptune Iuno Vesta Venus Minerva Diana c. all Europe Italy Greece and the lesâ—er Asia swarming with their Temples and Ceremonies and yet now are they perished from the earth and from under these heavens Where is now Bel the God of Babylon Nisroch the God of Assyria Baal and
of Psal. 8. 6. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet and then adds For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him But now mark it we see not yet all things put under him If any say that the Apostle speaks here of the Kingdom of Glory in heaven and not of the Kingdom of Grace on earth I reply 1. out of the former place That he speaks of such a subjection whereof the rising of the dead shall be the last act of all and which shall be before he yields up the Kingdom to his Father But neither of these can be affirmed of the Kingdom of Glory but the contrary viz. The rising of the dead is at the beginning and not at the end of the Kingdom of Glory and so is also the yielding up of his kingdom unto his Father 2. I reply out of this place That the Apostle speaks of that Kingdom and subjection of the Earth or state of the Earth which was to come For so he speaks ver 5. Vnto the Angels he hath not put in subjection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth or state of the Earth which shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which we speak Here he affirms that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that of whose subjection he meaneth If then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie only the Earth and the Earth's inhabitants and is no where in the whole Scripture otherwise used I cannot see how this place can well bear any other exposition First then to confirm this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Septuagint render it whose use of speaking I doubt not but the Apostle follows But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most constantly signifies the habitable earth or the earth with the things that live and dwell thereon whence the Septuagint though they commonly render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet sometimes they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The earth sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is under heaven Therefore with the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The earth and That which is under the heavens If this suffice not we may yet consider That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Participle of the feminine gender and therefore understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earth which is inhabited Lastly Wheresoever elsewhere this word is found in the New Testament it is most expresly used of the earth and inhabitants thereof In the beginning of this Epistle we read Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the heavens are the works of thine hands Matth. 24. 14. This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over all the earth and then shall the end come Luke 2. 1. Then went a decree from Augustus that all the world should be taxed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rest behind are far more express but I leave them to your own leisure and will only add this one thing That our English rendring in this place of the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world to come makes it not only ambiguous but seeming to mean The Kingdom of Glory But we shall find that The world in that sense is always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but no where in all the Bible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so I leave this with submission to the judgement of others My next Reason shall be from that we read in the Revelation where the Church by the conquest of Michael set free from the Dragon's fury is said to escape into the wilderness that is into a state though of safety peace and security yet of hardship misery and scarcity For it seems to be an allusion to the Israelites escaping the tyranny of Pharaoh by going into the wilderness In this wilderness or place of hardship scarcity misery and much affliction the Church must remain saith S. Iohn a time times and half a time or as he elsewhere speaketh a thousand two hundred and threescore days that is a year years and half a year and when this time shall be expired that is as learned Divines think when so many years shall be ended as those days are taking the beginning of our reckoning from Michael's Trophee then saith our Apostle shall the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 11. 15. Whereby it should seem that the Church is yet in the Wilderness and that the promised happiness of the ample and flourishing glory thereof before the end of the world is yet to come My last Reason shall be from Rom. 11. where S. Paul speaking of the future restoring and calling of the Iews saith it shall be when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in I would not saith he that ye should be ignorant of this mystery c. v. 25. Now because the Iews are not yet called it followeth that the fulness of the Gentiles is yet to come and what should then this Fulness be but the Fulness of the Gospel's extent over all the nations of the world which our Apostle ver 15. of the same chapter calls life from the dead For if the casting away of the Iews be the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead As if the Church of the Gentiles were as yet half dead if it be compared with that glorious vigour and accession which shall come unto it when the Iews shall be again received into favour In brief The Fulness here spoken of is either a Fulness of grace a Fulness of extent or a Fulness of time A Fulness of time only it cannot be because our Apostle saith this Fulness shall enter in namely shall enter into the Church of Christ but this I see not how it can be spoken of a period of time As for a Fulness of grace and spiritual gifts that was greater when S. Paul spake than ever it was since and therefore if it be meant it must be yet to come And for the Fulness of extent it was as large for the number of Nations in the Apostles times as it is now in ours For as for the American Christians they are only so in name being forced only to seem so by the Spaniards Whatsoever Fulness then the Apostle here meaneth is yet to come I will add only one thing more and so end this point Some think that S. Paul in this place hath reference unto that speech of Christ Luke 21. 24. where he foretells That the Iews should fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all nations and Ierusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be
fulfilled or accomplished But it seems to me that the Fulness of the Gentiles and the Fulfilling or Accomplishment of their times should not be the same howsoever they may be coincident It should rather seem that our Saviour hath reference as to a thing known unto the Prophecy of Daniel where the Times of the Gentiles or the times wherein the Gentiles should have dominion with the misery and subjection of the Iewish Nation are set forth in the Vision of a fourfold Image and four Beasts which are the four Monarchies the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman The first began with the first captivity of the Iewish Nation and through the times of all the rest they should be in subjection or in a worser estate under them But when their times should be accomplished then saith Daniel The Saints of the most High God shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever and ever that is there shall be no more kingdoms after it but it shall continue as long as the world shall endure Three of these Monarchies were past when our Saviour spake and the fourth was well entred If then by Saints there are meant the Iews which we know are called the holy People in that sense their country is still called the holy Land and their city in the Scripture the holy City viz. relatively then is it plain enough what Daniel's and our Saviour's words import namely a glorious revocation and kingdom of the Iews when the time of the fourth Monarchy which then remained should be expired and accomplished But if here by the Saints of the most High are in general meant the Church yet by coincidence of time the same will fall out on the Iews behalf because S. Paul saith that at the time when the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in the Iew shall be again restored For a conclusion The last limb of the fourth Monarchy is in Daniel The Horn with eyes which spake proud things against the most High which should continue a time times and half a time that is a year years and half a year In the Revelation it is The Beast with so many heads and horns full of names of blasphemy which was to continue forty two months the same period with the former which was expressed by times or years and the same time with a thousand two hundred and sixty days of the Churche's remaining in the wilderness When these Times whatsoever they be shall be ended then is the period of the Times of the Gentiles and of the Iews misery whereto our Saviour seems to refer in the Gospel then by S. Paul shall the Fulness of the Gentiles enter in then saith S. Iohn shall the kingdoms of the earth be the Lord's and his Christ's then saith Daniel in the former place Chap. 7. 27. shall the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him The Use we are to make upon this long Discourse is Hope and comfortable Expectation Experience saith S. Paul Rom. 5. 4. worketh hope Let therefore our experience of God's Power and Truth in that which is past be as a pledge and pawn unto us of the future We have seen a great part of this Doom of false Gods fulfilled already what though we see not the means of the full accomplishment If thou shalt say in thy heart saith Moses Deut. 7. 17 18. These nations are more than I how can I dispossess them Thou shalt not be afraid of them but shalt remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt So if any of us shall say How can this be let us remember what the Lord hath done already in subduing so great a part of the world unto himself which once sate in darkness and in the shadow of death DISCOURSE XXXVII PROVERBS 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all keeping For out of it are the issues of life EVERY way of man saith the same mouth which uttered this is right in his own eyes but the Lord pondereth the hearts Prov. 21. 2. And chap. 16. 2. All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirits Which words have this Discretive sense that Although the eyes of men judge of the rightness of the ways of men by that which appeareth to the eye yet God he is not as man nor judgeth like him but he pondereth the heart and spirit Therefore in Scripture he is styled A God that searcheth the heart and reins Ier. 17. 10. I the Lord search the heart I trie the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Which words our Saviour useth Rev. 2. 23. in his Epistle to Thyatira I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works that is Men esteem of works as they see but I judge and reward them as I see Men punish and reward according to the outside only which comes under the view and stands in awe of men but God judges and rewards according to the Heart or inward man which he only sees and which therefore stands in awe and fear of none but him For as for the outward act it may as well be done for the praise and awe of men as for love and fear of God and therefore by it cannot be discerned whether our obedience be to God or man But the Heart is that divine Touch-stone as that which hath none to fear none to please none to approve it self unto but him who alone sees it and is only able to try and examine it If therefore any Precept any Admonition in the whole Book of God deserve the best of our attention to hear and greatest care to put in practice this of my Text is worthy to be accounted of that number Keep thy heart above all keeping For out of it are the issues of life The words divide themselves into two parts An Admonition and A Motive The Admonition Keep thy heart above all keeping The Motive For out of it are the issues of life that is Even as in the life of nature the Heart is the fountain of living and the well-spring of all operations of life so in the life of grace we live to God through it In the Admonition consider 1. The Act Keep 2. The Object what we are to keep our Heart 3. The Manner and Means how it must be kept with all diligence or above all keeping Of the Act Keep I shall not need say much it is an easie word and we shall not forget it in that which follows but ever and anon have occasion to repeat it Only here observe in general That our Hearts are untrusty
the Serpent and what the Heel of the Woman's seed Those who understand The seed of the woman singularly of the person of Christ only make his Head to be the Godhead against which the Serpent could prevail nothing but his heel to be the Manhood which the Serpent so bruised at his Passion that the grave became his bed for three days together This indeed is true and no marvel for the Head is as it were the whole Bodie 's Epitome But we who have expounded The seed of the woman collectively of Christ and his Members must also in this mystical Body find a mystical Head and a mystical Heel and so in like manner for the Serpent and his seed The Head therefore or if you had rather Headship is nothing else but Soveraignty The Serpent's head is the Devil's Soveraignty which is called Principatus mortis the Soveraignty of death namely both objectivè and effectivè that is such a Soveraignty as under which are only such as are liable to Death both temporal and eternal and such a Soveraignty whose power consists not in saving and giving of life but in destroying and bringing unto Death both of body and soul. Under the name also of Death understand as the Scripture doth all other miseries of mankind which are the companions of this double Death I speak of This is that damnable Head of the Serpent the Devillish Soveraignty of Satan Now the Sword whereby this Soveraignty was obtained the Sceptre whereby it is maintained or as S. Paul speaks the Sting of this Serpent's head is Sin This is that which got him this Kingdom at the first and this is still the right whereby he holds the greatest part thereof Imperium iisdem artibus conservaâ—ur quibus acquiritur By the same arts and methods is an Empire conserved by the which it was at first obtained This Soveraignty of the Devil which once overwhelmed â—igh all the world the Woman's seed should break in pieces and destroy which according to this Prophecy we see already performed in a great measure and the grounds laid long ago for the destruction of all that remaineth As saith S. Iohn Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 8. The Son of God was manifested for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the Devil And Christ himself said that the time was come that the Prince of this world should be cast out and bade his Disciples be of good chear for he had overcome the world If you would see what a wonderful victory he hath long ago gotten of the Serpent when after a terrible battel he overcame and destroyed the Soveraignty of the Serpent in the Roman Empire see it described in the 12. of the Revelation v. 7 8. where Michael that is Christ and his Angels fought against the great Dragon and his Angels till the Dragon with all his Army was discomfited and their place found no more in heaven that is he utterly lost his Soveraignty in that state whence there was a voice in heaven v. 10. Now is come salvation strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. And what he will at the length do with the remainder yet of the Devil's Soveraignty you may find in the 19. and 20. chapters of the Revelation For he must reign as S. Paul saith until he hath put all his enemies under his feet until he hath destroyed all power rule and authority adverse unto him And then last of all destroying Death by giving immortality to our raised bodies shall surrender up his Kingdom unto his Father as it is 1 Cor. 15. 25 c. But Satan saith my Text shall prevail something against him for the Serpent shall bruise his heel What is this Heel Those who understood the seed of the woman singularly as I told you made it Christ's Manhood But now we expound the seed Christ's Mystical Body what shall we make the Heel thereof I could say that by it were only meant a light wound or the Devil 's assaulting the Body of Christ ex insidiis at unawares for that is his fashion since the great overthrow which our Michael gave him to work his feats underhand and to undermine our Lord in his members But this though true is not full enough It may seem therefore the fittest to make hypocritical Christians who profess Christ outwardly but inwardly are not his to make these the heel of his Mystical Body for against such the Devil we know prevaileth somewhat and by them annoyeth the rest of the Body with his venome though he be far enough yet from impeaching our Lord's Headship and Soveraignty But will you give me leave to utter another conceit If the Blessed souls in heaven be the upper part of Christ's mystical Body the Saints on earth the lower part of the same may not the Bodies of the Saints deceased which lye in the earth be accounted for the heel For I cannot believe but they have relation to this mystical Body though their Souls be severed from them and yet must that relation be as of the lowest and most postick members of all If you will admit this then it will appear presently what was this hurt upon the heel when Christ had once mauled the Devil's head for the Text seems to intimate that the Devil should give this wound after his head was broken I will hold you in suspence no longer Read the 13. of the Revelation and see what follows upon Michael's Victory over the Dragon what the Devil did when he was down He forms a new Instrument of the wounded Roman Empire by whose means under a pretence of the Honour given to the precious Reliques of the Saints and Martyrs he conveyed the poyson of Saint-worship and Saint-invocation into the Kingdom of Christ with which wound of the heel the Devil coming on the blind side the true Church had been long annoyed and limpeth still DISCOURSE XLIII 2 PETER 2. 1. But there were false Prophets also among the people even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction MANY are the Prophesies in Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost forewarns us of a great and solemn Defection and Corruption of Faith which should one day overspread the visible Face of the Catholick Church of Christ and eclipse the light of Christian Verity and Belief S. Paul 2 Thes. 2. 3. foretels us that there should be an Apostasie or Falling away of Christians and the Man of sin be revealed before the coming of the day of the Lord. The same Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 1. tells us that though the great Mystery of Godliness spoken of chap. 3. 16. were then preached among the Gentiles and believed on in the world yet the Spirit spake expresly that in the latter times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils or Daemons S. Iohn tells
need of Beasts for Types but Meats and Drinks for godly works are as it were Meat and Drink to preserve that life which is according to Godliness This Corban we turn the Meat-and-Drink-offerings others Munus the Gentiles called it Libum But I said This Offering was commonly adjoyned to the Zebach or Bloudy Sacrifice for sometimes it is separate from it For to this Mincha I refer the holy Incense which was within the Temple which figured that continual sweet favour and Incense of the Merits and Obedience which Christ presents unto his Father in a Temple not made with hands that is in Heaven Again both Zebach and Mincha the Bloudy Sacrifice with its Meat-and-Drink-Offering were of differing kinds and for differing Ends. For either kind was Simple or Diverse Simple I call that which all of it was most holy and the whole was to shadow out the Satisfaction of Christ. And this was either for Internal sins or for External For Internal sins that is the sins of our Hearts Thoughts and Affections was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holocaust or Burnt-offering For External sins or evil deeds were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin-offering and the Trespass-offering as we call them the one if I am not deceived for Sins against the First Table to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Trespass-offering the other for sins of the Second Table But because our Internal sins or sins of Infirmity are peccata jugia continual and daily sins therefore the Holocaust or Burnt-offering was continual and daily offered the Sin-offering and Trespass-offering were not so and yet whensoever they were offered they were offered with a Burnt-offering to shew that our Evil works cannot be expiated and made pure unless the Heart the fountain whence they spring be also purged A Diverse Sacrifice or Varium Sacrificium I call that which was not wholy most Holy neither was all of it to figure the Offering of Christ to come So that it was partly holy and partly most holy Such a one was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Peace-offering which I define A Corban part whereof was burnt upon the Altar as in other Sacrifices but the remainder and greater part was eaten by the faithful people who brought it that so their Sacrifice by being turned into their bodies nourishment might be a Sign of their incorporation into Christ to come who was the true Sacrifice for sin Here that which was eaten by the People was not most Holy for then had it belonged only to the Priest but it was a Sacrament and a Communion of that Sacrifice which was offered and signified Christ whose Bloud was to be shed and Body broken for their atonement Rightly therefore was it called a Sacrifice of Peace as being a Ceremony or Sacrament of Peace and Communion with Christ Iesus and by him with God the Father The Greeks commonly call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eucharistical sacrifice it being to be celebrated with both oral and real Thanksgiving to God as for the same reason our Sacrament of Peace is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eucharist which our Saviour Christ hath ordained in stead of that Eucharistical Sacrifice under the Law And of this kind were the ordinary Sacrifices of the Gentiles of which the Christians were forbidden to eat because they who in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper had communion with Christ already come as the Iews in the Peach-offerings had communion with Christ who was to come might have no peace and communion with Devils as the Greeks had in their sacrifice as S. Paul after he had compared these three together concludes 1 Cor. 10. 21. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table and of the Table of Devils Out of which place and the Epistle to the Hebrews you may gather all that I have said hitherto of the Vse and Ends of the Corbanim or most Holy Offerings This affinity of the Eucharistical sacrifice with the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper moved the ancient Christians to frame the Office of the Lord's Supper as near as could be unto the Office of the Eucharistical Sacrifice as might be easily shewn in most particulars BUT now will I leave The most holy Offerings and come to Those which had but a single holiness which I said before were called Terumoth or Heave-offerings more seldom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenuphoth or Wave-offerings both from the manner of offering them which was not by Fire as in the most Holy but by holding up or shaking them before the Lord. A Terumah therefore or Heave-offering I define thus An Offering made unto God of that we have received in way of thankfulness or acknowledgement of his dominion over the whole earth or thus more shortly An Offering made only unto the praise and honour of God and therefore it is Levit. 19. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctum laudationum an holy thing of praise or an offering of praise And to this purpose are those words of David unto God 1 Chron. 29. 11 12 13 14. whenas himself and the Princes of Israel had offered an huge Terumah of Gold and Silver for the building of the Temple Thine O Lord saith he is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all Now therefore our God we thank and praise namely by this Heave-offering thy glorious Name For all things come of thee and of thine own hand we have given thee Now the Terumah or Heave-offering was either Definite or Indefinite A Definite Heave-offering was the Tenth of all increase and this alone was certain both in regard of the things to be offered and the measure according to which they were to be offered The Indefinite Terumah was either Commanded or Free That which was Commanded was either General as the First-fruits or Special as the Heave-offering of the breast and shoulder of the Peace-offerings and of one loaf of the Meat-offering of the same and these the Greeks call fitly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Freewill-offering or voluntary Heave-offering was either more or less solemn The most solemn and usual was that which the Hebrews call Terumah-gedola which indeed was ordinary but I think no where absolutely commanded Voluntary Heave-offerings less usual were the Offerings of Gold Silver Land and whatsoever else they might give unto the use of the Lord his Temple and Ministers AND thus have we seen all the Kinds of the Offerings in the Law both holy and most holy and I think there is no Offering to be found but it belongs to some of these I have named either
man be a faithful man or how can he have Faith who knoweth not the things of Faith Here is a Lesson to be learned of those that think it needless for a man to busie his head in the knowledge of the things belonging to his Salvation that think it is enough if they have a good meaning though they know nothing else They are proud of their Ignorance and will say they have as good Souls as the best of them all but alas they know not that Light and Darkness cannot agree together they know not that to walk in darkness is to walk in the shadow of death they remember not that Light is come into the world and that those that love darkness rather than light should be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gâ—ashing of teeth What will you answer at the great day of hearing when Christ will not know you because ye knew him no better Will you say as some do That you were not Book-learned and therefore could not read Will you say you had no Learning and therefore hope to be excused These Fig-leaves will not serve to cover your nakedness withal I confess there are many things which the Learned know which you are not bound to know Those who are expert in the Scriptures know many things both concerning God and his Works which others may be ignorant of without endangering their Souls safety yea matters of high Controversie those who are simple are forbidden to meddle withal for so saith S. Paul Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations But things which concern our Faith things which are needful to our Salvation things which concern our Obedience unto God these things no man must be ignorant of that regards the safety of his Soul these things God will require at the hands of every one who shall be saved whether they be learned or unlearned whether they be of the wise or of the simple whosoever knows not Christ and the means to come to Christ whosoever knows not what it is to have a Redeemer to have God to be his Father what it is to be reconciled to God to have Christ to be his Advocate and Mediatour whosoever knows not such things as these must hear that heavy doom of Go ye cursed into everlasting fire For want of this knowledge of things needful to be known God had a controversy with his people Israel Hos. 4. 1. The Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For want of this knowledge it was that God saith Esay 5. 13. My people are gone into captivity because they wanted knowledge And our Saviour in Luke 19. 42. wept over Ierusalem and said O that thou hadst known the things which belong unto thy peace c. As it befel the Iews so will it fall out with every one of us that knows not the things which belong unto our peace that is unto our reconciliation with God in Iesus Christ God will have a controversie with us he will send us into everlasting captivity from whence we shall never return again Let me therefore beseech you Brethren in the bowels of Iesus Christ If there be any among you that have not yet gotten this needful knowledge that do not yet know the things belonging to their peace that they would now look unto themselves and use the means which God hath appointed If you may have the best means use the best if not yet make use of those which God hath given you despise not the least and weakest means despise not the bare reading of the Scriptures for they are the Oracles of God and God's Spirit may be in the mouth of the reader Pray therefore unto the Lord that he would give you hearts to understand that his Word may dwell in you plentifully in all wisdom that he would open unto you the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that you may relish the heavenly Manna and that you may long after the sincere milk of the Gospel that by this means your ways may prosper your sorrows may be easie and your comforts may your lives holy and your deaths comfortable And thus much I have spoken to those who are ignorant and please themselves therein Now let me speak a word or two also to those who covet and desire knowledge and take delight in the understanding of rare and excellent things Surely it is a commendable thing to be desirous of knowledge in any thing which may lawfully be known and this desire in Solomon pleased God so well that because he asked wisdom and knowledge God gave him riches also and such honour that there was no King like unto him among the Kings that were before him neither after him ever came the like Art thou then desirous of knowledge wouldst thou know rare and excellent things wouldst thou know things secret and foreknow things which are to come Lo here is a Knowledge the best of all knowledges the knowledge of Faith to know Christ to be thy Redeemer What more secret thing wouldst thou know than to know the Mystery which was hidden from the beginning of the world What higher knowledge than to know thy name to be written in heaven What more gainful knowledge than that knowledge that will bring thee a Kingdom whose glory shall never have end What better knowledge of things to come than to know that thou shalt live in the life to come If thou knewest the tongues of Men and Angels if thou knewest all Arts and Sciences if thou were wiser than Solomon and couldst discourse of Trees and Herbs of Beasts of Fowl and of Fishes and yet wantest this Knowledge of Faith all thy wisdom is folly and thou art not worthy to wipe the shoes of those who are truly wise indeed Nevertherefore count thy self wise before thou art wise in the Lord never think thou knowest any thing before thou knowest thou hast a part in Christ Iesus For Faith is the Wisdom of wisdoms he that knows Christ knows all though he knows nothing else So that we may say with Solomon Prov. 3. 13 c. Blessed is the man that findeth this wisdom and getteth this understanding For the merchandise thereof is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her There is yet a third sort of men to whom this which hath been spoken may give profitable instruction I mean the nice and dainty hearers of the Word who grow almost weary of hearing because the Ministers sing nothing but this old song of Knowing and Believing in Christ they always beat upon this one point How men
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
follows after them That all the tribes of the Earth or Land should mourn Now I cannot understand how these two Prophetical passages should not have the same meaning when our Saviour and his Apostle alledge them joyned which they have in their own Authors expressed apart or being expressed together as one should not be fulfilled at once By such a miraculous apparition of Christ from Heaven was S. Paul converted And I hope it is no Heresie to think That the whole Nation of the Iews those Zelots against Christ may be converted by as strange a means as was that one Zelot of their Nation 4. Those who shall be Partakers of this Kingdom are described to be of two sorts 1. The deceased Martyrs who as far as I can yet understand it shall resume their Bodies and reign in Heaven 2. Such of the Living as have not worshipped the Beast nor his Image neither have received his mark c. these shall reign on Earth For so I construe the words I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the Word of God and subaudi I saw those which had not worshipped the Beast nor his Image nor had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived that is the Martyrs and reigned that is both of them with Christ a thousand years 5. Under the Second sort of those Reigners together with the Virgin-Christians of the Gentiles who are the Surrogate Israel I would in a particular respect understand the Nation of the Iews then converted to the Faith of Christ who coming in toward the end of the day may above all others be said to be Those who had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image nor had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands which most of the Christian Gentiles had done and therefore at the time of their cleansing Chap. 15. ver 2. are rather described Those that had gotten the victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his mark and over the number of his Name 6. The Rising of the Martyrs is that which is called the First Resurrection being as it seems a prerogative to their sufferings above the rest of the Dead who as they suffered with Christ in the time of his patience so should they be glorified with him in the Reign of his Victory before the Vniversal Resurrection of all Blessed and Holy are they who have part in the First Resurrection for on them the Second death hath no power namely because they are not in Via but in Patria being a prerogative as I understand it of this First sort of Reigners only and not of the Second Thus I yet admit the First Resurrection to be Corporal as well as the Second though I confess I have much striven against it and if the Text would admit another sense less free of Paradox I had yet rather listen unto it but I find it not Howsoever to grant a Particular Resurrection before the General is against no Article of Faith For the Gospel tells us Matth. 27. v. 52 53. that at our Saviour's Resurrection The graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Neither was the number of them a small number if we may credit the Fathers or the most ancient Records of Christian Tradition For of this was that famous saying That Christ descended alone but ascended with a multitude which is found in the heads of the Sermon of Thaddeus as they are reported by Eusebius out of the Syriack Records of the City of Edessa Lib. 1. cap. ult in Ignatius's Epistle to the Trallians and in the Disputation of Macarius Bishop of Ierusalem in the first General Council of Nice also in Cyrill's Catechism Nay this Cyrill of Ierusalem Chrysostome and others suppose this Resurrection to have been common to all the Saints that died before our Saviour See the Bishop of Meath De Limbo Patrum Howsoever it be it holds no unfit proportion with this supposed of the Martyrs And how it doth more impeach any Article of our Faith to think that may be of the Martyrs which we believe of the Patriarchs I yet see not 7. The Second Resurrection to be after the End of the 1000 years Iustin Martyr by way of distinction calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal and Vniversal Resurrection of all together namely in respect of the former which was Particular and but of some And that it is common both to the Godly and to the Wicked and not of the Wicked only may appear in that there are two Books opened for the Dead ver 12. whereof one is the Book of Life which argues two sorts of Dead to be judged Nor can I imagine how it can be otherwise unless all the Iust which live during the 1000 years be supposed to be immortal which is a Paradox I dare not admit understanding not that all the Individuals but that the Body of the Church here on Earth should successively Reign with Christ her Lord 1000 years Besides the attempt of the Nations after the Devil 's loosing argues a State subject to mutability As for those words of v. 14. which seem to intimate no other Dead then judged but the Wicked because it 's said That Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire which is the Second Death I suppose nothing else is meant thereby but that Death was now quite vanquished and that there should be no more Death of Body or Separation of Soul but only the Second Death As if it had been said Death and Hades are now confined only to the Lake of Fire which is the Second Death but the former Death of Bodies in the Grave and the State of separate Souls in Hades was no more 8. For Gog and Magog who after Satan's loosing and before the last Resurrection shall gather together against the Camp of the Saints and the Beloved City it cannot be literally understood of the Nations so called in the Old Testament For there Gog the Prince with the People of Magog come out of the North-parts where the posterity of Magog was seated But Gog and Magog here are said to be Nations which are in the four quarters of the Earth As therefore the Apocalyptical Babylon is not Babylon in Chaldaea but a Counter-type thereof most like for Vniversal Ambition and Metropolitanship of Spiritual Fornication so this Apocalyptical Gog and Magog is not the Gog and Magog of the North but a Counter-type of them which should after the same manner attempt against the Beloved City then which the Scythian Gog and Magog I mean the Turk doth against the Church of the Gentiles now and should before his last Ruine attempt against Israel at their return And if there ever be an Antichrist such as the Fathers describe now will be the most likely time for him when
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
must premise some General grounds which are as followeth First That as God is most One and without all Multiplicity so must the Honour and Service which is given unto him have no Communicability Isa. 42. 8. I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give unto another nor my praise to graven Images For the One-most God must have an One-most service Therefore in that Action whereof God is the Object nothing must be an Object but God Or in the Scripture phrase thus In those actions which look towards the Face of God nothing may come between whose Face such Actions may look upon besides him whether by way of Subordination to him or Representation of him For I am the Lord thy God saith he Thou shalt have no other Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before my face Secondly This Face of God is not only the Object of his Person but also the Place of his presence where his Glory is revealed in the Heavens where we shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Revel 22. 4. and where the Angels in heaven behold the Face of the Father which is in Heaven Matth. 18. 10. No Action therefore directed thitherward that is to this Face of his revealed presence and glory may so much as look asquint upon any other Object or behold any other Face but the Face of God alone For we must have no other Gods before his Face I say not that a man may not turn his Face upon the Face of any other thing when he turns his Face towards the Face of God for how then should we worship him at all seeing which way soever we turn us something will always be before us But it is not the Face of our Bodies or their posture but the Face and posture of the Act we do which must not have the Face turned upon any thing else when it is directed at the Face of God namely That Action in which God is faced must face nothing else but God that is Where God is the Object whether in regard of his Person when we pray unto him or of his Throne of presence when we would approach it or direct our supplications towards it there nothing is to have any respect of an Object but God alone So although when we pray unto God we turn the face of our Bodies towards Heaven the Sun the Moon and Stars yet do we not therefore worship the host of heaven because our Action hath no relation to them as to an Object but to God alone and howsoever they are between God and us in place yet as an Object of our devotion neither they nor any thing in them come any way between us and him Now for the reason if you ask it of this Incommunicableness of all Action and Service directed to God-ward you shall have it Exod. 34. 14. Because the Lord whose name is Iealous is a Iealous God Iealous not only lest he should not be honoured and served as God but Iealous lest he should not be honoured as One God For as by honouring him we acknowledge him God so by the Incommunicableness of honour we acknowledge him One God For this cause God being to give us a Mediator by whom we should have access unto his presence and whom without his Iealousie we might interpose in our devotions and supplications unto himself or offered at the Throne of his Majesty and Glory in the heavens provided that admirable Mystery of communicating to the nature of a man born of a woman the Hypostatical union of the second Person of the Deity and him after he had vanquished death to exalt to sit at his right hand of Glory and Power in the Heavens there in his own Presence and Throne to receive our Requests and to deal as an Agent between us and him Thus at length I am arrived at that Port which all this while I made for viz. to shew That this Glory of Christ which is styled His sitting at the Right hand of God is that Incommunicable Royalty to which of right belongeth in the Presence of God to receive and present our devotions to the Divine Majesty as in that which now followeth shall appear Sessio ad Dextram Dei To sit at the Right hand of God is to be installed in God's Throne or to have a God-like Royalty which is defined in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Majesty of Christ in heaven whence it is said Heb. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sate down on the Right hand of Majesty on high and Heb. 8. 1. it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens It is called also by Christ himself Mark 14. 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22. 69. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Right hand of Power and the Right hand of the Power of God For as to the Right hand belongs both dignity and strength so doth this Glory of Christ include both a God-like Sublimity and a God-like Power the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The proper place where the Majestical Glory is revealed is the Heavens as may appear almost wheresoever this sitting at the right hand of God is mentioned Eph. 1. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coloss. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Heaven Heavenly places High places and the like being alwayes thereto annexed and every where appeareth to be a consequent of his Ascension into Heaven as we say in our Creed He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the Right hand of God and therefore in the words whereon my Text depends is expressed by Assumed or Taken up into Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as God himself is styled Pater in Coelis not because not elsewhere but because his Glory is there revealed so Christ sits ad dextram in Coelis because there the beams of the Majesty given him by his Father are revealed whence it comes that his Kingdom is called the Kingdom of Heaven that is a Kingdom whose King 's residence and Kingly Throne are both in Heaven This glorious Throne of Majesty this Sitting at the Right hand of the Power of the Almighty is a Name incommunicable an Exaltation whereof no creature in heaven or earth is capable which is that the Apostle means to tell us when he saith Eph. 1. 21. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and Phil. 2. 9 10. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that is created name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Revel 3. 21. He
one step nearer laying this for a second ground of our discovery That these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times whereof S. Paul speaks and means were Times not then present but afterward to come For the words of the Text are not a Narration of things present but a Prediction as I have already admonished of what should beside the Christian Faith in after-times Yet notwithstanding were the Times wherein S. Paul lived and all the Times of Christianity the Last times and so styled in Scripture even by our Apostle himself as by some of the forecited examples evidently appeareth Wherefore it must needs follow that the Times here meant and mentioned in my Text are not the Last times in general and simply but the Last times in special and comparatively that is the Latter times of the Last times That as the Last times in general were the times wherein CHRIST the Sun of Righteousness was to be revealed and his Kingdom founded in the World so the Latter times of these Last times should be the times wherein the Apostasie of the Christian Faith should prevail and that Wicked one usurp the Throne of Christ. Before therefore that we can know what are the Last times comparatively that is the Latter times or the Last of the last we must first understand what are the Last times simply and in general why so called whence reckoned and how limited For then will these Latter times in my Text which are the Last part of them be easily found and in a manner demonstrated As for the Last times therefore in general most use to describe them only thus To be the times of the Kingdom of CHRIST which began at his Passion to continue unto the end of the World which in respect that it succeds the Legal worship and no other shall succeed it is therefore the Last time In like manner the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allotted to the Man of sin are as I take it usually no otherwise described than to be the Times wherein the Apostasie should appear which in that it should immediately precede the Second coming of CHRIST is therefore to be esteemed the Last times of all But these descriptions are obscurum per magis obscurum they declare an obscure thing by that which is or was more obscure than it and therefore come short of making good the intent of the Holy Ghost in his so often mention of the Last times especially in the New Testament For the Last times or fulness of time were both a ground of the Iews expectation of CHRIST when he came and are without doubt so often propounded and alledged by the Apostles for a confirmation of the truth of his coming But if the Last times could not be known but by his coming how should his coming be known by them So also the Holy Ghost in my Text mentions these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times for an argument or sign of the Apostasie to fall out therein or for a note and mark of time wherein we should look for and therefore as fore-warned beware of being carried away in that Defection But if these Times cannot be known nor described any other way than by the Defection to fall out in them we should be never a whit the nearer and this mark of time which the Holy Ghost gives us would stand us in no stead at all Let us therefore now take this as a Truth to be supposed That the Times are set out unto us to be as Marks to inform us when that should come to pass which was to fall out in them and not the Things which were to befall intended for Signs to know the Times by And therefore we are not to doubt but that the Holy Ghost hath somewhere else by some other mark and ground of Computation made known unto us when to reckon both the Last times wherein was foretold that Christ should be anointed and these Latter times of them when the Christian Apostasie should be revealed that so we might have a sure belief in the one and a certain and sufficient mark when to beware of the other The Prophanation of the Legal Sanctuary and trampling down the holy people by Antiochus Epiphanes was marked out in Daniel's prophecy by the like circumstance and determination of time as is this Apostasie here in our Apostle's prediction Dan. 8. 23. In the latter time or latter end of the Kingdom of Graecia a King of a fierce countenance shall stand up viz. He who should magnifie himself against the Prince of the Host of Heaven and take away the daily Sacrifice c. as it is in the Vision which was foreshewed of him Verse 10 11. Where it would be preposterous to think that this Latter time or End of the Greek Kingdom could not be defined otherwise than by the Event to fall out therein and not rather conceive that this determination of time being such as might otherwise well enough be known was therefore intended for a Character to observe the Event by For when was this Latter end of the Greeks Kingdom to be taken notice of but then when they should see that Kingdom begin to be given unto another people when the Fourth Kingdom the Roman State should once begin to incroach upon the Third especially when they should see the Head-Province thereof Greece it self to come under their obedience when they should see this then were they to prepare themselves for the abomination of desolation was now at the door And surely the Event was most punctual For this Roman incroachment having been some 28 years together manifestly attempting and advancing was at length accomplished when AEmilius the Consul having quite vanquished Perseus the King of Maccdon all Greece came under the Roman obedience 166 years before the Birth of Christ which no sooner was come to pass but the very self-same year within less than three months after Antiochus sets up the abomination of desolation in the Temple of Ierusalem Why should we not then believe that the Holy Ghost intendeth here to give us as sure a Watch-word when to beware of the Man of sin by this circumstance of Latter times in my Text as we see he gave the Iews to look for the Persecution and Prophanation by Antiochus CHAP. XII A more particular account of the Last Times in general and of the Latter Times of the Last Times That the Four Kingdoms of Daniel are the Great Kalendar as the LXX weeks the lesser Kalendar of Times That the Times of the Fourth or Last Kingdom that is the Roman are the Last Times meant in Scripture That the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Latter Times of the Fourth Kingdom wherein the Great Apostasie should prevail THEREFORE without any more preambles I come now directly to resolve what was before propounded viz. First What is meant by LAST TIMES in general Whence and How we are to reckon them And then in the Second place What are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LATTER TIMES in my Text which must be as I said before a Latter part of that general For the true Account therefore of Times in Scripture we must have recourse to that SACRED KALENDAR and GREAT ALMANACK of PROPHECY The Four Kingdoms of Daniel which are A Prophetical Chronology of Times measured by the succession of Four principal Kingdoms from the beginning of the Captivity of Israel until the Mystery of God should be finished A course of Time during which the Church and Nation of the Iews together with those whom by occasion of their unbelief in Christ God should surrogate in their rooms was to remain under the bondage of the Gentiles and oppression of Gentilism But these Times once finished all the Kingdoms of this World should become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his CHRIST And to this Great Kalendar of Times together with that other but lesser Kalendar of LXX weeks all mention of Times in Scripture seems to have reference Now these Four Kingdoms according to the truth infallibly to be demonstrated◠if need were and agreeable both to the ancient opinion of the Iewish Church whom they most concerned and to the most ancient and universal opinion of Christians derived from the times of the Apostles until now of late time some have questioned it are 1. The Babylonian 2. that of the Medes and Persians 3. the Greek 4. the Roman In which Quaternary of Kingdoms as the Roman being the Last of the Four is the Last Kingdom so are the Times thereof those Last Times we seek for during which times saith Daniel chap. 2. v. 44. The God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor left unto another people but it shall break in pieces and consume all those Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever which is figured by a Stone hewen out of the mountain without hands before the times of the Image were yet spent which Stone at length smote the Image upon his Feet of Iron and Clay and so utterly destroyed it that done the Stone that smote the Image upon the feet became a great Mountain and filled the whole earth The meaning of all which is That in the Last times or under the Times of the Last Kingdom the Roman should the Kingdom of CHRIST appear in the World as we see it hath done And this is that which the Apostle saith Hebrews 1. 2. God in these Last days or Last times hath spoken to us by his Son and S. Peter 1 Epist. 1. 20. that he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these Last times This is that Fulness of time whereof the Apostle speaks Galat. 4. 4. When the Fulness of time was come God sentsorth his Son made of a woman and Ephes. chap. 1. v. 9 10. Having made known to us the mystery of his will That in the dispensation of the Fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ. Agreeable unto all which is that Hebrews 9. 26. Christ hath once appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of times or ages to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Where these Last times Fulness of time and Conclusion of ages are nothing else but the Times of the Fourth Kingdom whose Times are the Last period of Daniel's Four the Fulness of the Prophetical Chronology and Conclusion of the Sacred Kalendar During these Times Christ was looked for and accordingly came and reigned whose Kingdom shall at length abolish the brittle remainder of this Romish State according to the other part of the Prophecy when the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in and our Lord subdue all his enemies under his feet and at the last even Death it self HAVING thus found What Times are termed the Last times in general let us now see if we can discover which are the Latter Times of these Last times or the Latter times in special which are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter Times in my Text which will not be hard to do For if the Last Times in general are all the Times of the Fourth Kingdom then must our Latter times as a part thereof needs be the Latter times of that Kingdom Let us therefore again to our Prophetical Kalendar and survey Daniel's description of the Fourth or Roman Kingdom as it is Chapter 7. from verse 19. where we shall soon find the Latter times thereof to be that Period of a Time Times and half a Time during which that prodigious Horn with eyes like a man and a mouth speaking great things should make war with the Saints prevail against them and wear them out and think to change times and laws until the Iudgment should sit and his dominion be taken away and in him that long-lived Beast finally be destroyed and his body given to the burning flame verse 11. For this Hornish Sovereignty is the Last Scene of that long Tragedy and the Conclusion of the Fourth Beast and therefore the times thereof are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times whereof the Spirit spake expresly that in them there should be an Apostasie from the Christian Faith CHAP. XIII Two Enquiries concerning the Latter Times I. What durance they are to be of Answ. That the Times of the Antichristian State are to last 42 months or 1260 days That hereby cannot be meant three single years and an half proved by several particulars Enquiry II. When they begin Answ. That they take their beginning from the mortal wound of the Imperial Sovereignty of Rome or the ruine of the Roman Empire This proved from the Apocalypse and 2 Thessal 2. where by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fathers generally understand the Roman Empire The same further proved from Dan. 7. That by the little Horn is meant Antichrist or The man of sin and not Antiochus Epiphanes was the judgment of the most ancient Fathers COncerning these Times thus found we will now further enquire First What durance they may be of Secondly When they take beginning and by what mark their beginning may be known For the First we will make no question but these are the self-same Times whereof S. Iohn speaks telling us That the Church should be in the wilderness a Time Times and half a Time the same with those XLII moneths wherein S. Iohn's restored Beast should domineer and play the self-same reeks which Daniel's Hornish Tyrant doth the same time with those XLII moneths during which the Church is trodden down of the Gentiles lastly the same time with 1260 days during which the Witnesses of Christ prophesie in sackcloth For a Time Times and half a Time or a Year two Years and a half are XLII moneths and XLII moneths make 1260 days If therefore we can find the continuance and beginning of any of these we have found the continuance and beginning of them all For the Duration and Length of them they
passage Chap. 2. verse 2. CHRIST IESUS is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world that is not for the sins of us only who are Iews but for the sins of the Gentiles also And doth not the name of General or Catholick Epistle given unto this as well as to those of S. Iames and Peter imply thus much For it cannot be thus called because written to all Christians indefinitely and generally since the contrary expresly appears in the former but because this as well as the rest was written to those of the Circumcision who were not a people confined to any one certain City or Region but dispersed through every Nation as we read in the Acts Chap. 2. verse 5 c. that at the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles There were sojourning at Ierusalem Iews devout men out of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia Iudaea and Cappadocia Pontes and Asia and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselytes that is Iews by race and Iews by Religion c. For we must not mistake those here numbred to be Gentiles but Israelites both of the Ten Tribes captivated by Shalmaneser and the other Two some of whom never returned from Babylon but lived still in Mesopotamia but of those who returned great multitudes were dispersed afterwards in Egypt Libya and many other Provinces before the time of our Saviour's appearing in the flesh So that the Apostles of the Circumcision had their Province for largeness not much inferiour to those of the Gentiles But I come to note the places I spake of And first out of the forenamed Epistle of S. Iohn where from that prediction of our Saviour's in the Gospel that the arising of false Prophets should Be one of the near signs of the nigh-approaching End of the Iewish State the Apostle thus refers unto it Chap. 2. verse 18. Little children this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last hour and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the Last time Here by the Last time I suppose no other thing to be meant but the near expiring of Daniel's 70 weeks and with it the approaching End of the Iewish Commonwealth and why might not this Epistle be written in the Last week at the beginning whereof Iesus Ananiae began that woful cry Wo unto Ierusalem and the Temple Ioseph l. 7. Belli Iudaici By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Antichrists are meant no other but false Prophets or Counter-prophets to the Great Prophet pretending an Unction and Commission from Heaven as he had to teach the world some new revelation and doctrine For the name Christ implies the Unction of Prophecy as well as the Unction of a Kingdom and accordingly the name Antichrist and therefore the Syriack here turns it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 False Christs that is such as should falsely pretend some extraordinary Unction of Prophecy like unto him And the coming of such as these our Saviour in S. Matthew's Gospel a Gospel for the Hebrews makes one of the Last signs ushering the destruction of Ierusalem And if the harmony of this Prophecy in the three Evangelists be well considered there was no more to come but the compassing Ierusalem with armies Well therefore might S. Iohn when he saw so many Anti-prophets spring up say Hereby we know that it is the last time Again because the Desolation of the Iewish State and Temple would be a great confirmation of the Christian Faith therefore the believing Iews whom nothing could so much stagger as the standing glory of that Temple and Religion are encouraged by the nearness of that time of expectation when so great a confirmation of their Faith of the Messias already come should appear Hebrews 10. 23 25 Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching namely that day when you shall be sufficiently confirmed So I take the 35 and 37 Verses of the same Chapter â—asi not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry What He is this but even He whom Daniel says The people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary Dan. 9. 26. For even as the destruction of Papal Rome would be a great confirmation of the Reformed Christian who hath forsaken the Communion of that Religion the continuance and supposed stability of the glory thereof being that wherewith their Proctors endeavour most to shake and stagger us So was the destruction of the Iewish State and Temple to be unto those Iews who had withdrawn themselves from that Body and Religion whereof they once had been to embrace the new Faith of the Messiah preached by the Apostles For if at the end of the 70 weeks approaching the Legal Sanctuary were rased and the Iewish State dissolved then would it be apparent indeed That Messiah was already come and slain for sin because this was infallibly to come to pass within the compass and before the expiration of those 70 weeks or 490 years allotted for the last continuance of that City and Sanctuary when it should be restored after the captivity of Babylon Not without cause therefore doth S. Peter in his second Epistle say to the Christian Iews We have a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Yea and besides Because Iesus as well as Daniel had prophesied of the approaching desolation of that City and Temple mentioning all the Sign that were to usher it if the Event when time came should fall out accordingly then must Iesus of Nazareth who foretold the foregoing Signs thereof be approved as a true Prophet by whom of a truth the Lord had spoken Now for the last place that I mean to alledge Because the fall and shock of that State might shake the whole Nation wheresoever dispersed unless God spared the Christians and made them alone happy in that woful day or rather because Christ had foretold that one of the next fore-runners thereof should be a general persecution of Christians as it happened under Nero therefore the remembrance of the End of these 70 weeks so near the expiring was a good caution to all the Christian Iews to watch and pray To this sense therefore I take that of Peter 1 Pet. 4. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End of all approacheth be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer that is The End of all your Commonwealth Legal worship Temple and Service is now within a few years Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer that ye may
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
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
Octob. 8. 1629. from Christ's Hospital London THE ground of the expectation of the coming of Christ and his Kingdom was say you the near expiration of Daniel's Seventy weeks The expectation of Simeon Anna and others of the Magi and them of the East was seventy years before the end of Daniel's Seventy weeks according to your opinion For you hold that the Seventy weeks end at Ierusalem's overthrow which was after Christ's Birth seventy years Therefore it could not be any mark for the looking for of Christ. 2. At the end of the Seventy weeks according to your judgment the City and Sanctuary was to be destroyed sacrifice ended and desolation brought on the Iews Therefore the Seventy weeks according to your Tenet is a mark of other matters not of Christ's or the Saints Kingdom but rather of Vespasian's as Iosephus saith which ensued just upon the end of the Seventy weeks But in truth Daniel's Seventy weeks end at Christ's death and seeing Christ was expected to be King of the Iews all that truly kept account of the Seventy weeks might rightly conceive that Christ about thirty years before the expiration of the Seventy weeks should be born and so about thirty years old which are years fit for publick charge should enter upon that Kingdom Of this reason I forbore to write formerly because I saw that we should differ about the beginning and end of Daniel's Seventy weeks which would bring on a new controversie between us That Christ's Kingdom was as you affirm to be revealed in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Fourth Kingdom I see no Text that proves it nor that Christ's Kingdom should be consummated at the end of the Roman Kingdom At the end of the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel it was to begin Chap. 7. And that it was perfected in Christ Iesus is evident for he overcame the Devil Death Hell and all and teaches that all power is given him in heaven and earth that all things bow to him and that he led captivity captive Further I have good ground for to say that the extirpation of the Fourth Kingdom was one sâ—re mark of Christ's coming and his Kingdom for that only is the mark of the same Chap. 2. and 7. where that Kingdom is mentioned You will not admit the Greeks any Rule after Antiochus Epiph. death because the Holy Ghost ends their Kingdom in him I say the Holy Ghost ends the domineering violence and persecution of the Saints in him but there were to be clayie feet after him Stories shew that many Kings of the Greeks ruled after him and in the end Cleopatra a woman as Iosephus saith of chief Nobility in those times even Caesar at first umpired between her and her brother in matters of difference between them She had the revenue of Iericho and Arabia and other parts she killed all her kindred that might stand in her wayâ— and desired Antonie to do the like by them of chief bleâ—d in Syria that she in right of the Greeks might have all She with the rest after Epiphanes were sufficient to express the clayie legs And that Rule is sufficient and all that I stand for Besides the Stone as cut out not as growing to a Mountain is to fall on the toes So that if by the legs the Romans be understood Christ was not to come in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but at their fall Evident it is that Christ's Kingdom took place as frequent mention of it in the New Testament shews at his first coming and so began at the beginning of the Roman persecutions not at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them they were abundant and manifold afterward The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Empire hath nothing to do here You hold still that the Roman Kingdom was revealed to Daniel but not according to the distinct Fates and Times as to Iohn I shewed that the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel was revealed to him most distinctly for the original proceeding strength acts persecution sufferings fall All the 〈◊〉 are revealed to Iohn about the Roman Kingdom Now if they should both speak of the Roman Kingdom but in these points 〈…〉 it be true in Iohn that this Book was opened by none as you limit it according 〈…〉 distinct Fates before by Christ Therefore the limitation propounded by you cannot hold I say not that the Iews after the Apostles times brought in or invented the opinion That the Romans were Daniel's Fourth Kingdom but that they endeavoured to perswade it whoever were the brochers of it Ionathan Ben Uziel or any other surely some of their stamp And the rather they then did and now do perswade to it because some Christians by assenting to them give them advantage therein If Porphyrie an enemy to Christians overcome by the evidence of truth confessed it that is a greater confirmation of the truth The Devil confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God though the Devil be a liar commonly yet now he spake that which was most true Besides in S. Ierome it appears that Porphyrie was not alone in that opinion but that divers others held the same And in the eleventh chapter S. Ierome goes along with Porphyrie in most things but addeth this That Antichrist and his doings were there typed And in points in which S. Ierome crosseth Porphyrie his arguments are sometimes but his own bare assertion sometimes weak If you please to set the best edge on them that may be we will try them And Porphyrie had Suctorius his Author To the writing in a different hand You hold Christ's Kingdom to be double First Regnum Lapidis while the times of the Four Kingdoms lasted I say it cannot be in the time of the three former Kingdoms for it was preached by Christ and the Apostles to be at hand in the time of the Romans Antiochus Epiphanes his time whom you make the last of the Greeks being past well-near or full hundreds of years before Besides I object That if Christ's Kingdom be set up in the Fourth Kingdom 's time it must be set up in the three formers time also For it confounded the gold silver brass iron as well as fell on the clayie legs Again if you make the Sâ—one to continue a Stone from Christ's time till ours and some years after God knows how long to smite the feet of the Image you will make the legs and feet of the Image above 1600 years long three times and more as long as all the body The Second Kingdom of Christ you hold to be Regnum montis that shall fill the whole earth to arise when the Image shall be utterly destroyed 1. I say This division of Christ's Kingdom is no where in Scripture plainly expressed though this Kingdom be most frequently handled If such a thing had been it would in one place or other in the various handling of it have been plainly taught 2. The Stone spreads it self over the whole earth presently
Their sound is gone into all lands There were at Pentecost devout men of all nations under heaven who the Spirit enabling them extraordinarily might carry the Gospel into all parts The Mysterie you speak of I conceive not I am sure of this That the Stone Ch. 2. which became a Mountain is the same with Christ and his Kingdom Ch. 7. Nor do I conceive how Nebuchadnezzar is a Type of the Gentiles or Daniel of the Iews But I am sure that the Iews in good measure had part in Regno Lapidis as you call it For the Apostles and many other Christians were Iews and Paul is told that not many Thousands only as some Translations have it but many myriads of Iews believed Act. 21. 20. Therefore you hold amiss that the Iews had not part in Regno Lapidis The Vniversal Kingdom of Christ say you is the same in Daniel and the Apocalyps This is most true Further I say this was begun by Christ when he saith All power is given to me c. go teach and baptize all nations and so Christ wills that out of all nations subjects should be gathered to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if in nations where the Gospel was preached many assented not Christ told us that also Many be called few chosen So then that which you hold will follow doth not follow seeing that the ground-work of it is not sound especially seeing the Vniversal Kingdom of a Thousand years by Iustin Martyr held but then contradicted as he saith and had he seen what the length of time since hath given us to see he would I am perswaded have been of another mind and the Arguments for it though brought in scores will prove but light if they come to examination To the Appendix The First coming of Christ say you was while the Fourth Kingdom in Daniel was yet in being because the Stone was hewen out of the mountain before it smote the Image on the feet But I say the whole Image was standing in the Vision while the Stone was cut out So by the same reason the first coming of Christ and the raising of his Kingdom should be during the times of the Kingdoms of the whole Image for the Stone as it fell on the feet so it brake all to pieces the iron brass clay silver gold The truth is that Christ's coming and Kingdom was at the end of the Image and ruin of the four Beasts yet did the Stone that is Christ so Iust. Mart. and others take it as he was God destroy them all by his Instruments that is Babel by the Medes and Persians and those by the Greeks the Greeks by their own discords and by judgment given to the Saints in the Maccabees times and the Romans interposing as friends and associates not as chief parties And for any sound reason that I know we have to the contrary we may say that the Stone was cut out of the mountain after the ruine of the whole Image in the fulfilling of the Vision though not in Daniel's sight of it For you will grant that it was cut out after the fall of the three former kingdoms and yet did break the gold silver and brass by his instruments and so might also break the iron and clay though it rose after the fall of the Fourth Kingdom The reason is alike of both for as it is said to fall on the toes of the one so also it is said to break the rest In the days of those kings or kingdoms Dan. 2. This is the great argument against me To it I answer That if the words be taken in their strict force they intimate the days of Babel Persians and Greeks also and not of the Fourth Kingdom only which you will not grant And if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie after the daies of some of those Kingdoms as you cannot but grant why not of the rest also Besides you know the Hebrew particles be exceeding various in their signification and hardly any particle more than this Again the force of it must be sometimes after See Exod. 2. 11. and v. 23. especially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after many days or in process of time But in many daies the king died cannot stand good Let it not then seem strange that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie after The Iews expected aright in the time of Christ's preaching the Kingdom promised in Daniel because the 70 weeks were within two or three years at an end and the Greeks ruinated but their error was that they expected that Christ should have a Terrene kingdom And if any conceived that Christ in his own person should overthrow outwardly the Fourth Kingdom therein they erred For Christ tells them plainly that his Kingdom is not of this world which Solomon found a map of vanity that the Kingdom of God is within them A Kingdom far beyond all Promises in phrases of an outward Kingdom If they had known as much as we thanks be to God doubtless they would have thought the time long that Christ should then be come and 1629. years after tâ—e Beast not yet destroyed nor the Kingdom restored and that the Fourth Beast should have thrice as much time as the other three Beasts according to your Tenet Not the Pharisees only Luke 17. 20. but the Apostles Acts 1. 6. enquire about the restoring of the Kingdom to Israel This was because they saw the fourth Beast slain and destroyed namely the Greeks for the Romans now flourished It may be that the not conceiving how the Saints could have a kingdom and the Romans not be subdued might make some of them stagger and be in doubt whether the Romans were not the Fourth Christ's answers laid together might have made them see the Spiritual Kingdom and lay hold of that and not expect a Terrene Octob. 8. 1629. EPISTLE X. Mr. Mede's Answer to Mr. Hayn's Third Letter about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation SIR I Received yours not till yesterday whereby I perceive you have more confidence to convince me by this kind of discoursing than I have you For I confess freely I find you so well setled in your opinion that I have no hope to alter you and yet nevertheless am as strongly perswaded of the truth of my own Tenet notwithstanding all you have said as ever I was before we began and for all this am as willing to embrace Truth where I see evidence for it as most men so far as I can judge of my self by experience of my alteration in some points formerly embraced Thus much I answer to the close of your Letter where you say you hope that by the perusal of your Reply I will be more inclinable to a different judgment from my former Tenets Mr. Hayn though I can reasonably well perswade my self of many things I believe yet had I never so much confidence in me as to be able to perswade another of a contrary judgment if he
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
Meditations I will add this more than I meant to have done the rather because I discovered by your last somewhat more of your Opinion in one principal particular than I knew before and also because I find you presume of another piece as solid and well-grounded because in my last I made no Answer to it though I intimated I had sufficient if need were to say against it My end is that you might see I maintain not an Opinion out of mere pertinacy but that I have Reasons sufficient to perswade my self though you never met with a man whatsoever you supposed of me of less confidence to perswade others than when you met with me I have a conceit that some opinions be in a sort Fatal to some men and therefore I can with much patience endure a man to be contrary-minded and have little or no edge to contend with one I think perswaded unless it were in something that merely concerned him in state of salvation But I come to the matter 1. You seem to grant me That the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven c. mentioned in Daniel and that coming of his in the Clouds of heaven in the Gospel Matth. 24. 30. ch 26. 64. Mark 13. 26. ch 14. 62. Luke 21. 27. and in the Apocalyps chap. 1. 7. are one and the same But you apply them all to Christ's coming to the destruction of Ierusalem because our Saviour saith in that Prophecy of his That that generation should not pass till all things then prophesied should be fulfilled I answer first While you endeavour in this manner to establish a ground for the First coming of Christ you bereave the Church of those principal passages of Scripture whereon she hath always grounded her faith of the Second coming Secondly You ground all this upon the ambiguity of the word Generation whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not only aetas but gens natio progenies and so ought to be here taken viz. Gens Iudaeorum non inâ—eribit usque dum omnia haec implentur The nation of the Iews should not perish till all these things were fulfilled For so signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew notion as you may see even in the verse following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By virtue of which Amen verse 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily I say unto you the Iewish Nation even to the wonder and astonishment of all who consider it remains a distinct people in so long and tedious a Captivity and after so many wonderful changes as have befallen the Nations where they live According to that of Ieremy Chap. 31. 35 36. whither this passage seems to have reference Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night which divideth the Sea when the waves thereof roar If those ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever S. Chrysostome among the ancients and Flacius Illyricus a man well skill'd in the style of Scripture among the moderns and those who follow them might have admonished others to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this acception rather than by turning it aetas or seculum to put this Prophecy in little ease and the whole harmony of Scripture out of frame by I know not what confused interpretation S. Chrysostome applies it to Gens Christiana or fidelium which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generatio quaerentium Dominum Others have other accommodations but still under this notion I speak of I prefer as I said Gens Iudaeorum for what Reasons nihil nunc attinet dicere No man can deny but this is one of the native notions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and so taken in the Gospels as in the foregoing Chapter Matth. 23. 36. Verily I say unto you all these things shall come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this nation So Beza renders it twice in the parallel place Luke 11. 50 51. and seven times in this Gospel Again Luke 17. 25. The Son of man must be first rejected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza à gente ista The LXX renders by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 familia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 progenies patria See Gen. 25. 13. ch 43. 7. Num. 10. 30 c. I suppose here is enough â—or the signification of a word So then your Argument thence is nothing 3. Besides to interpret this coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven and his kingdom then of his coming to the destruction of Ierusalem is contrary to the context of our Saviour's Prophecy For the coming of Christ to destroy Ierusalem was the beginning and cause of that great and long Tribulation of that people but the coming and appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven is expresly said should be after it Immediately after the days of that Tribulation c. Matth. 24. 29. Mark 13. 24. For this great Tribulation such as never Nation suffered is not to be confined to their calamity at the destruction of Ierusalem but extends to the whole time of their captivity and dispersion from that time unto this present not yet ended wherefore S. Luke who is wont to be an Expositor of our Saviour's words puts in stead of those words of great tribulation these of parallel sense to them There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people Luke 21. 23. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and Ierusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled v. 24. And as the other Evangelists say After that tribulation ended so he After or when these times of the Gentiles are fulfilled then shall be signs in the Sun and Moon and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud c. For the Copulative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is to be taken after the Hebrew manner ordinativè for tum deinde which you know is frequent in Scripture Then shall be signs And I make no question but these Times of the Gentiles with which the Iews Tribulation shall end are either the Times of the Four Monarchies in general that is the Times of that prophesied Dominion of the Gentiles or which is all one in event those last Times of the Fourth Kingdom of A Time Times and half a Time at the fulfilling whereof Daniel prophesies of the same appearing and coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven which S. Luke doth here For if the immediate consequent be the same how can the Times which immediately precede but be the same Times also This is my opinion which I intimated once before but you
rejected it as groundless then and I know your Tenet cannot admit it now Quisque abundet suo sensu therefore I 'le contend no more about it 2. But let the Kingdom of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven whereof Daniel speaks be as you would have it That Kingdom of his first coming whether beginning at his Ascension or manifesting it self at the Destruction of Ierusalem for one of them it must be but let it be which it will I say for all this there is yet sufficient left to overthrow your Tenet of the Fourth Kingdom For that Kingdom at the Son of mans coming in the clouds of heaven shewn to Daniel is expounded by Daniel in his repetition to be the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High If this be not evident by the context I utterly despair ever to understand prophecy by any light of the letter I must take it therefore for granted whether you grant it me or not That that Kingdom at the Son of mans coming in the clouds of heaven in the Vision is that which Daniel in his repetition and the Angel calls the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High in his interpretation and therefore being the same must begin at the same time which you say was at our Saviour's first coming namely from the time of his Ascension This therefore forelaid I argue thus The ruffling Horn persecutes the Saints until the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom Chap. 7. v. 22. But Antiochus Epiphanes persecuted not until the Saints possessed the Kingdom which was at the Son of mans coming in the clouds of heaven Ergo. For if he persecuted till then he with his Time Times and half a Time must continue till Christ's Ascension at the nearest but he was dead two hundred years before It will not serve your turn here to fly to the Kingdom of Christ as he is God for the Kingdom here spoken of is the Kingdom of the Son of man and a Kingdom which begins in time Nor mattereth it how the Greek Kingdom after Antiochus may seem to befit the Clayie legs unless you make the little Horn to be those Clayie legs But you must shew how the little Horn if it be Epiphanes lived and persecuted until the time came that the Saints possessed the kingdom Will you expound until the time came until some two hundred years before the time came I know not how you can evade here unless as Porphyrie did you will make the Kingdom of the Saints here mentioned to be the Kingdom of the Maccabees and so the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven whereof it is an exposition to be Iudas Maccabaeus or Ioannes Hircanus or some other of those Hasmoneans If you answer thus you must not think it strange if I am loth to be perswaded to your opinion who reading that Prophecy cannot be perswaded but the little Horn is the last limme of the Fourth Beast whose part once acted the Beast's glass is run and his time of destruction come Or who can believe but he is to be destroyed at that time of Iudgment when the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of heaven Though you say you see no evidence for it yet I cannot be perswaded but this Scripture was it out of which S. Paul learned to consute the Thessalonians causeless fear of the day of Christ's coming to Iudgment to be near at hand when he tells them that that day should not come until the man of sin were first revealed and had acted his part forasmuch as Christ was to abolish him by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his coming For so Daniel had taught him that the wicked Horn's reign should conclude the Fourth Kingdom and the Son of man should abolish him at his coming in the clouds of heaven and therefore could not that coming of his be until the wicked Horn should be revealed and reign the time appointed him This I am sure that this Prophecy of Daniel was the Womb whence the Iewish Doctors derived that Term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dies judicii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magnus dies judicii because that coming of Messiah is thrice so described in this place of Daniel verse 10 22 26. whence even at this day they look not for Messiah until Magnus dies judicii the great day of Iudgment Our Saviour and his Apostles received this term of Dies Iudicii from them and approve it by using it But it is far more frequent in the Chaldee Paraphrase and other writings of theirs than in the New Testament Nor can I believe but our Saviour and his Apostles using this phrase meant to approve the ground of Scripture whence they deduced it Especially our Saviour so often expressing his Second coming by these words of Daniel coming in the clouds of heaven which the Elders and Priests hearing our Saviour apply to himself when they arraigned him they rent their cloaths as at Blasphemy whence it appears they took it for no small and ordinary Character of power not appliable to Iudas Maccabaeus or his successors I know the same Phrases may be used to express like matters of diverse and sundry times but here is not only Identity of phrases but together with the same phrases the same frame of things with their circumstances and those such as are not appliable to many times And though I am not of the same mind with Theocritus Iustus his name is Daniel Lawenus to draw all the Apocalyps to the Iews upon no other ground but communion of phrases yet I know nevertheless that to compare Scripture with Scripture is none of the least helps to understand Scripture 3. I have dwelt all this while upon the Second Vision of Kingdoms I come now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say somewhat of the First Dan. 2. v. 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the days of these Kings or Kingdoms that is say I during the days of those Kingdoms while the days of this Dominion of the Gentiles yet lasted before these days of their dominion ended I lay the Emphasis upon days But here you stumble and make inference as if I had said or the Prophet either In or during all the days of those Kingdoms or during the days of all those Kingdoms Babylonian Persian and Greek as well as Roman I cannot but marvel to see you make so strange of an expression not only frequent in Scripture but common and usual in every language If I should say such or such a thing was done in the days of the Saxon or in the days of the British Kings would you infer or understand me as if I meant in all the days of those Kings or in the days of all those Kings or some of them only If I should say such a thing was done in the days of Popery must I needs mean all the days of Popery or some part of them only and so no more but while
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
like miraculous favour be shewed to them as well as to S. Paul their obstinacy being greater and sealed with greater blasphemies than his was May it not be said that therefore this Apparition was made to S. Paul that he might have Apostolical authority independent on men as well as the rest of the Apostles And cannot the spirit of illumination clear all and that from Moses as well as it did in the heart of the Gentiles who had not so much as Moses to direct them As for Provocation how can Salvation on the Gentiles part be it unto the Iews seeing the Iews such is their blindness cannot acknowledge any such condition of the Gentiles Yet I confess the judgment of flesh and bloud may teach them that the Gentiles becoming Christians are turned to the worship of the God of Abraham as appears by their embracing of the Old Testament as the Word of God yet this hitherunto hath nothing moved them yet a time may come it may and the Prosperity of our Church also And it is said that they shall obtain mercy by the mercy shewed unto us Rom. 11. 31. As for the black time to be expected if so it seems to be wondrous great if not greater than all that went before For the time hath been the strong man hath so far possessed the House of God in peace that scarce here and there a Witness hath been found openly to contest against him in this or that particular And the days of the persecution of the Waldenâ—es were wonderfull heavy times And we have seen many black days for many years And if it be so as I doubt it is too probable and most congruous to God's course indeed in the exaltation of his Church I doubt it will concern our England most yet God grant we may be of the number of those that suffer that within three days and a half we may be raised and reign with Christ at his coming But will you not make us acquainted with that Sin you intimate that cries for vengeance we are loth to adventure our conjectures but we dare promise to joyn in mourning for it But I heartily thank you for all and particularly for that Speculation of the untimely advancing of the Martyrs to a Reign derogatory to the Mediation of our Lord a bitter fruit of too irregular animosity against the Chiliasts and of very ponderous consideration in this case I have done with some sorrow for putting out of your mind better thoughts I assure you the place you are pleased to afford me in your good affections I esteem as a part of the best happiness I enjoy in friends and heartily wish I may not be unworthy of it I heartily commend your self and your precious studies to the Blessing of God and rest Yours in all true Affection Will. Twisse Newbury Nov. 16. 1629. EPISTLE XVII Mr. Mede's Answer to Doctor Twisse his Second Letter concerning the two Wars of the Beast against the Witnesses as also of the manner of the Iews Conversion SIR I Owe an answer to your Letter though I can scarce find time to attend it Some I have now gotten and therefore desire you to vouchsafe to read and accept these few lines The Apocalyps mentions two Wars of the Beast one to be in medio Testium luctu during the time of the Witnesses mourning-prophecy another when the Witnesses began to make an end of mourning The first while the Court of the Temple was wholly troden down and prophaned by the Gentiles the latter when it began to be purged and so the cause of the Witnesses mourning to be removed In these two Wars we may observe in the description these differences First The intermedium bellum is said to be against the whole Body of the Saints Chap. 13. ver 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the Saints and overcome them But the Bellum novissimum or last War is against the Prophets or Witnesses only The Beast which ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war with the Witnesses and overcome and kill them Chap. 11. v. 7. This difference is remarkable and to be considered for the better understanding of this last War and how it differs from that formerly against the Waldenses c. Secondly In the former his prevailing and success is absolute so that all kindreds tongues and nations submit unto him and worship him Ch. 13. v. 7 8. But in the latter some of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c and of the kindreds and tongues and nations shall be an obstacle to the perfecting and securing his victory as not suffering him when he shall have slain the Witnesses to bury them and make them sure in hope to recover them Thirdly The first prevailed many ages this latter but three days and an half Adde if you well though it be included in the former the first advanced his Dominion to that height it came to this latter shall occasion his utter ruine and downfal These differences I thought good to propound to your consideration to intimate that the seantling of this last War cannot be well taken from that against the Waldenses and Albegenses c. as being to be of another kind namely an extermination of the Reformed Pastors out of their places and Churches and not a general extermination of the Body of the Reformed people which are too many to be dealt with according to former violence and shall remain to terrifie the Beast and revenge the Clades of their Prophets before almost they shall have done rejoycing over them FOR my conceit of the manner of the Iews Conversion though it often solicits me to give credence to it as best becoming the greatest work that ever God yet did for that people for whom in former times he shewed so many wonders yet I will ingeniously confess the grounds I have hitherto found seem not to my self sufficient to build a firm assent upon but only by a kind of concinnity induce to a pleasing but a wavering conjecture And therefore it were to little purpose to contend much for that wherein my self have no sufficient confidence I use to object to my self That the appearing of Christ in heaven belongs to the time of his Second coming But the Iews must be converted before then lest they all should perish amongst the enemies of his Kingdom whereof they would be the principal I salve it with a supposition of some latitude in that appearance as being first to be ushered with some preparation or praeludium towards the Iewish Nation before his great and universal Appearing to the whole world to judgement So Cestius Gallus the President of Syria compassed Ierusalem with an Army by way of anticipation three years before the final and fatal siege by Vespasian to be for a warning to the believing Iews to flee into the mountains of Arabia according to our Saviour's sign given them Luk 21. ver 20. For strengthening of such a supposition methinks I
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
and their Lord should reign for ever See the place and consider it This opinion is here and there also dispersed in the Chaldee Paraphrase and in the Talmud as of ancient Tradition and is the opinion of the Iews at this day who as they look not for the Kingdom of their Messiah until Dies Iudicii magni so they expect that their forefathers at least such as were just and holy should rise at the beginning of the same and reign in the land of Israel with their off-spring under Messiah I can hardly believe that all this smoke of Tradition could arise but from some fire of Truth anciently made known unto them Besides why should the holy Ghost in this point speak so like them unless he would induce us mutatis mutandis to mean with them In fine the Second and Universal Resurrection with the State of the Saints after it now so clearly revealed in Christianity seems to have been less known to the ancient Church of the Iews than the First and the State to accompany it Lastly This was the Opinion of the whole Orthodox Christian Church in the Age immediately following the death of S. Iohn when yet Polycarp and many of the Apostles Disciples were living as Iustin Martyr expresly affirmeth whose passage to that purpose when I return again to Cambridge I will send you illustrated with some Notes and the reading in one place restored from a corruption crept thereinto by fraud or otherwise A testimony absolute without all comparison to perswade such as rely upon Authority and Antiquity It is to be admired that an Opinion once so generally received in the Church should ever have been cried down and buried But those Times which extinguished this brought other Alterations into the Church besides this Et quidem sic fieri oportuit I will say something more observed perhaps by few of those which have knowledge enough of the rest namely That this Opinion of the First Resurrection was the true ground and mother of prayers for the dead so anciently received in the Church which were then conceived after this manner Vt partem haberent in Resurrectione prima See Tertullian who first mentions them The reason was because this having part in Resurrectione prima was not to be common to all but to be a priviledge of some namely of Martyrs and Confessors equipollent to them if God so would accept them Moreover the belief of this Prerogative of Martyrs in Resurrectione prima was that which made the Christians of those times so joyously desirous of Martyrdom These things will perhaps seem strange but they will be found true if duly examined Thus I have discovered my opinion of the thing which I suppose the Scripture hath revealed shall be But de modo how it shall be I would willingly abstain from determining We must be content to be ignorant of the manner of things which for the matter we are bound to believe Too much adventuring here without a sure guide may be dangerous and breed intolerable fancies as it did among some in those ancient times which occasioned as may seem the death and burial of the main Opinion it self so generally at first believed Yet thus much I conceive the Text seems to imply That these Saints of the First Resurrection should reign here on earth in the New Ierusalem in a state of beatitude and glory partaking of Divine presence and Vision of Christ their King as it were in an Heaven upon earth or new Paradise immutable unchangeable c. Secondly That for the better understanding of this Mysterie we must distinguish between the State of the New Ierusalem and State of the Nations which shall walk in the light thereof they shall not be both one but much differing Therefore what is spoken particularly of the New Ierusalem must not be applied to the whole Church which then shall be New Ierusalem is not the whole Church but the Metropolis thereof and of the New world The State of the Nations which shall walk in her light though happy and glorious yet shall be changeable as appears by the commotio◠of the Nations seduced at the end of the Thousand years But the State of those wh◠dwell in the New Ierusalem shall be extra omnem mutationis aleam Blessed are thos◠who have part in the First Resurrection for on them the Second Death hath no power I differ therefore from Piscator and agree with Alstedius That the Saints of th◠First Resurrection should reign on Earth during the Millennium and not in Heaven I differ from both in that I make this State of the Church to belong to Secundus Adventus Christi or Dies Iudicii Magni when Christ shall appear in the clouds of Heaven to destroy all the professed enemies of his Church and Kingdom and deliver the creature from that bondage of corruption brought upon it for the sin of man Whereas they make it to precede the Day of Iudgment and Second coming Though this Notion may seem to make but little alteration of the thing believed yet it is of no small moment to facilitate the understanding of Scripture and puts upon the thing it self another nature than is conceived by those who apprehend it otherwise In a word Ours conceive this State to be ante Diem Iudicii Others though wrongfully suppose the ancient Chiliasts to have held it to be post Diem Iudicii But the truth is it is neither before nor after but ipsa Dies Iudicii ipsum tempus Secundae apparitionis Christi And it is to be remembred here that the Iews who gave this time the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of Iudgment and from whom our Saviour and his Apostles took it never understood thereby but a Time of many years continuance yea some mirabile dictu of a thousand years and the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of Iudgment is more frequent in their Writings than in the New Testament it self It is mentioned I know not how many times in the Chaldee Paraphrase of that little Book of Ecclesiastes The word Day is in the Hebrew notion used ordinarily for tempus yea longissimum as in the Prophets for the seventy years Captivity for the time of their great and long Captivity for the time of their pilgrimage in the wilderness Psal. 95. according to the LXX and S. Pauls translation Hebr. 3. The day of temptation in the wilderness when your Fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my works forty years See the thirteenth verse of that chapter where a Day includes every Day So should Day be taken in the Lord's Prayer for the time of this our life Compare it with S. Luke whose words are Give us every day our daily bread See the longest day of all days in the last words of S. Peter's last Epistle in the Greek and Latin for our English obscures it with a general expression It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dies
be to be absent from the Lord and to dwell in the body will be to be present with the Lord. Ans. 1. Though death will not then be comfortable in this respect yet it may in other respects as it brings freedom from seducing which afterwards shall be incident to Gog and Magog Ans. 2. As Methuselah lived above 900 years a little before the Floud so in the Restauration of the world why may not men live a 1000 years I speak not of the Saints raised but of those that shall walk in the light of new Ierusalem Quaere 4. Christ's Kingdom shall have no end Luk. 1. 33. Dan. 7. 14. But this Kingdom of Christ shall last but a 1000 years and then Gog and Magog shall prevail so far as not only to invade all the Nations that walk in the light of new Ierusalem but even to besiege the beloved City that is new Ierusalem it self Rev. 20. Ans. 1. But not prevail over new Ierusalem but be forthwith consumed with fire and then Christ's Kingdom continuing still shall be translated from earth to Heaven Ans. 2. Christ's Kingdom shall succeed other kingdoms but no kingdom shall succeed this and in that respect it is said to be everlasting But Christ must resign his Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all 1. Cor. 15. Quaere 5. Christ's coming is not till the restoring of all things Acts 3. 21. But the restoring of all things followeth after the consumption of Gog and Magog Rev. 20. 11. and Rev. 21. 1. Ergò Christ's coming shall not be till after Gog and Magog's ruine Ergò not a 1000 years before Ans. It is said that before his face that sate upon the throne heaven and earth fled away c. But it is not said that then it began to fly away to wit after the destruction of Gog and Magog Quaere 6. 'T is very strange that Gog and Magog should adventure to besiege new Ierusalem the Devil and his Angels might as well adventure to besiege Heaven Answ. True if Gog and Magog knew the condition of new Ierusalem so well as the Devil and his Angels know the condition of Heaven Quaere 7. Shall all that oppose Christ's truth be consumed with fire at that day Consider Paul opposed the Gospel for a while yet was a chosen vessel of God and many that do not oppose may yet be reprobates Ans. 1. Yet at that day all such to whom the Lord coming in a flaming fire shall render vengeance for not obeying the Gospel of Christ Iesus 2 Thess. 1. 8. shall be none of God's Elect. Ans. 2. But some of God's Elect perhaps may be converted that very day Quaere 8. What shall become of Infants found alive at that day not only of God's children but of others also Ans. 1. If consumed in the same fire with their ungodly parents this will be no more strange than that which fell out in the conflagration of Sodom and Gomorrah Ans. 2. Yet they may be of the number of those that escape if so it please God and hereunto to wit that it should so please God I should rather incline Quaere 9. From heaven we look for a Saviour that shall transform our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorius body Phil. 3. ult Ergò at Christ's coming all the Saints that remain alive shall be so transformed Ans. So they shall before that Day of Iudgment ends for it continueth a 1000 years Quaere 10. They that then are found alive shall be caught up in the air and ever be with the Lord I mean the godly But if there shall be a 1000 years reign on earth what need they be caught up in the air and how ever be with the Lord from thenceforth if they and their posterity after them continue for the space of a 1000 years subject to mortality These were his Ten Quaere's and Answers unto Nine of them with which Contemplations he wrote his heart serv'd him not to acquaint you or to intreat your judgment in the way of correction or confirmation and addition but left it unto me The Father of lights illuminate our hearts with all saving light to his Glory the good of his people and our own comforts in Christ Iesus So I rest 6. Ian. 1629. Yours ever Sam. Meddus EPISTLE XXII Mr. Mede's Answer to the Tenth Quaere about the 1000 years Regnum Sanctorum SIR BY reason of this late indisposition I was not fit for any matter of study till yesterday howsoever I considered than Dr. T. his Answers to the Objections and applaud them finding through them all a right and dexterous apprehension of the thing questioned which many are very uncapable to conceive But because he leaves the last unanswered I suppose it was tacitely reserved to me for Tithe himself having answered Nine I will therefore as well as I can propound what I had before conceived might be answered to such an Objection wherein you shall also perceive in part wherein I differ from the Lutheran 1. Therefore It is not needful that the Resurrection of those which slept in Christ and the Rapture of those which shall be left alive together with them into the Aire should be at one and the same time For the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first and then or afterwards may admit a great distance of time as 1 Cor. 15. 23. Every one or all mankind shall rise in their order Christ the first-fruits that is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming Here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterwards notes a distance of time of above a thousand and a half of years as we find by experience Suppose therefore this Rapture of the Saints into the Aire be to translate them to Heaven yet it might be construed thus The dead in Christ that is for Christ namely the Martyrs shall rise first afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. a thousand years after we which are alive and remain shall together with them be caught up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the Aire and so from thenceforth we shall ever be with the Lord. Thus Tertullian seems to understand it who interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Martyrs namely such as die propter Christum for Christ by means of Christ through Christ for Christ's sake taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as noting the cause or means of their death So Piscator expounds the like speech Apoc. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est propter Dominum for the Lord Beza qui Domini causâ moriuntur which die for the Lord's sake 2. If thus to restrain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem not so fully to answer the Apostle's scope and intention which seems to be a general consolation to all that die in the faith a fruition
illis Hine constat Legem testificari Resurrectionem mortuorum Note therefore that when in a two or three of these places it is added and to thy seed or their seed after them the word after is not to be referred to give as if it were I will give it to thy seed after I have given it to thee but to seed as Thy seed after thee that is to thy posterity their seed after them that is to their posterity which should come out of their loyns For that the off-spring is in beginning after to the beginning of the Parent To perswade this conceit by stronger testimonies than of Rabbins I pray compare with that which hath been said the 8 9 and 10 verses of Hebrews 11. adding to them the 13 14 15 and 16 verses of the same Chapter In the last of which you need not stumble at the Epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavenly because it notes not only that which is in heaven but that which is from heaven de Coelo as it is said verse 10. They looked for a City whose builder and maker is God And consider well the latter part of this 16. verse with our Saviour's Argument Compare besides and consider that of Zachary's Benedictus Luc. 1. 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we for fear of Limbus patrum translate To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers c. But there is no such word as promised in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is directly To shew mercy or kindness to our Fathers For that is the Scripture phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To shew benignity unto or deal kindly with one The Fathers then themselves are the Object of this benignity and favour which is to be by Christ it is to be shewn to them But what is this favour and mercy the words following will tell us and to remember his holy Covenant What was that To give unto them even to them in their own persons the Land wherein they were strangers and that by and with that seed of theirs wherein all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed Add lastly and consider what may be the meaning of that Matth. 8. 11. Many shall come from the East and the West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of heaven when the children of the Kingdom that is the Iews many of them shall be cast out into outer darkness c. Now I have done I am afraid I have not expressed my mind so clearly and evidently as I would But the Summe of what I would say is this God covenanted to give to Abraham Isaac and Iacob in their own persons as well as to their seed the Land wherein they were strangers that is the Land of Canaan for an inheritance But this was not performed to them while they lived therefore must they one day live again that they may be partakers of this Promise and consequently the Saints shall live on earth after their Resurrection To your Postscriptâ— Objection That if the Saints come not all together with Christ those which are left behind shall be in worse case than they were before The assoiling thereof depends upon the exact knowledge of the State of the Saints in bliss and the degrees they are in which we know not Who can affirm whether all the Saints now in bliss have the Vision of Christ in his Humanity or some of them only And as for the presence of his Godhead they may enjoy it in an illustrious manner though his Humanity be on earth We must be content in so great a Mystery to be ignorant of something Deus providebit For the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not contend for the sense I used them in They may be understood the other way so may they be in mine Quisque fruatur suo judicio But what say you to that in the end of Daniel Go thy way Daniel till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand up in thy Lot at the end of days What is this in thy Lot Is it not In thy course or In thy turn See the Courses or Turns of the Priests and Levites so called 1 Chron. 24. For my full interpretation of that part of the 11. of Daniel I have it in a Treatise upon 1 Tim. 4. which I preached in certain Sermons at S. Marie's before I was so well versed in the Apocalyps or understood the Mystery of the Millennium and therefore it hath some things in it not so consentaneous to my present opinion either in that or some other things there discoursed I could mend the foundation thereof Notwithstanding these defects I could be willing to let you have a sight of it if I could send it by a certain hand but the hand of a Carrier is too contingent to adventure it in And this to save the labour of writing out that which concerns that Prophecy of Daniel which would be a little tedious to me Mr. B. at his sending me your last desired to know my opinion of Gog and Magog in the Apocalyps whether they were not Hypocrites on the one side within the Church and open Enemies without on the other Whereby I gather he is not acquainted with my conceit of the Millennium and wants the Praecognita Wherefore it would be a tedious business to go about to inform him by writing I answered him My Opinion required many Praecognita and what it was you could inform him but I thought it concerned not these times Thus with my best respect and commending your self and all yours to the Blessing of the Almighty I rest Christ's Colledge March 23. 1634 5. Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede EPISTLE XLIV Mr. Hartlib's Letter to Mr. Mede intimating a Learned man of Leiden his judgment of his Book on the Apocalyps Worthy Sir IVst now I received a Letter from a Learned man of Leiden to whom also I sent your Clavis who writes thus Doctissimum Commentarium Apocalyp coepi legere Gratulor mihi de talibus scriptis quorum etsi fides non potest esse nimis certa in omnibus sunt tamen quorum nomine maximi aestimari debent Nam 1. Non parùm valent contra Atheos quorum perversiâ—as priùs concinnis ejusmodi delectanda quà m convincentibus expugnanda 2. Nec minùs ad erigendos eos qui certitudinis de Religione deliquium patiuntur aliquando qualis nemo non est 3. Nec non ad solatium in adversis Nihil enim fortiùs solatur quà m quod certitudinem de Religione Christiana ex habitu in vivum vegetum actum excitat At hoc potest Apocalypseos consideratio talis 4. Quantum in eo situm sit ut evincatur Papam esse Antichristum nemo non novit At hoc longè fortiùs persuadetur tali modo quà m per disputationes saltem disputationes confirmat 5. Nè dicam quòd multa Scripturae dicta in hoc Commenâ—ario egregiè explicantur
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
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.
the Ancients 383. the same with Holy Table 389. the Altar of the true God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an Idol or false God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 391. anciently but one Altar in a Church and in one Diocess 326. whether it may be called Sulium Christi 824. anciently it was the place where the Prayers of the Church were offered to God 844 363 819 America The first Gentile inhabitants and the late Christian plantations there 800 Ananias his Sin was Sacriledge 116. how this Sacriledge is described 117. the aggravations of it 118 119 Angels The conceit of Dionys. Areopag of 9 orders groundless 40. Angels present in the Iewish Temple and our Churches 344 c. their presence an argument for a reverent behaviour there 346. where they keep their station there is Gods Shechinah or special Presence 343 c. Angels are in Scripture put for those over whom they preside 459 471 495 514 527. Good Angels not envious at the advancement of mans nature by Christ 90. nor grieve at the good of others 91 See more in Archangels Antiochus Epiphanes not meant by the Little Horn in Daniel 733 753. the Calamity under him for 2300 evenings and mornings Dan. 8. 14. whence it is to be reckoned 659 Antichrist meant by the Little Horn in Dan. 8. 10. 714. how he is a Counter-Christ and his Coming a counter-resemblance of Christs Coming 647. The Saracen and Turk not the Great Anâ—ichrist 644 c. who primarily meant by the Antichrist and the many Antichrists in S. Iohn's Epist. 664 900 Apocalyps is Daniel explicate as Daniel is Apocalypsis Contracta 787. the subject matter of it 756. it contains the Fares of the Church till Christs second Coming 440 917 918. it is properly the Prophecy of the Church of the Gentiles 575 880. a particular argument for the Divinity of the Apocalyps 853. the authority of it doubted of by whom 602. the admirablâ—â— prophecy in Scripture 582 Apostasie implies a Revolt from God and Christ by Idolatry 625. where it was expresly foretold in the Old Testament 666. it was to be a general one 648. but not such an absolute one as wholly to renounce Christ 645 c. 651. the two man Apostasies of Israel in Ieroboam's and Ahab's days describâ— d 242 The Apostles age when â—ended 360 To appear before the Lord what 260. all the Males of the Iews to appear bâ—fore the Lord thrice a year but the Women were exempted and why 261 Ara and Altare how they differ 392 Archangels their number Seven proved from Scripture and Tradition 40 c. 908. represented by the seven Lamps in the Temple 833 c. their Office twofold 43 Assurance not a Cause or Instrument but a Consequent of Iustification 309 310. Obedience is the way to Assurance 310 Astrology the Authors judgment of it 601 B BAalim what and whence so called 630 Babel's Tower the confusion and number of the Languages there 275 c. Babylon in the Apocalyps is Rome Pseudo-Christian 523 c. not New Rome or Constantinople 922. why called the Great City 484 912. and the Great Whore 523 643. what 's meant by her Golden Cup and the Name in her forehead 525. the twofold ruine of Babylon 489 Baptism called by the Ancients Signaculum Gods Seal or Mark 511. from what Analogy Water was used in Baptism to be a sign of Regeneration or the New birth 63. that by Water in Baptism is figured the H. Spirit not the Bloud of Christ. 62. 63 Bâ—ptisteries were anciently without the Church 330 Bath Kol Gods Oracle and Answer from Heaven accompanied with Thunder 458 c. Beasts in the Prophetick style signifie States and Kingdoms 780. the seven Heads of the Beast have a double signification 524 922. the Beast with Ten Horns what 498 499. the Beast with Two Horns what 505 Blasphemy is put for Idolatry 502 503 To Bless hath a threefold notion in Scripture 83 Blessing sometimes in Scripture signifieth a Gift or Present ibid. Body when a dead Body begins to corrupt 52 Bread signifies sometimes in Scripture all necessaries of life 689 Breaking of Bread put for the Communion of the Eucharist 322 Breast-place of judgment why so called 184 The Bride 's making her self ready for the marriage of the Lamb. 912 Burnt-offering what and why offered daily 287. it had annexed to it a Meat-offering and Drink-offering and was accompanied with Peace-offerings 371 C TO be Called is To be 445 465 Calling of the Gentiles See Gentiles Canaan or Palestine divided into three Provinces 100. its Husbandry and Harvests 297. its Breed of Cattel in the Spring and at Autumn ibid. this Land was promised to be given for an inheritance to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and not to their Seed only 801 c. a figure of Heaven 249 c. the Iews cast out of their own Land by the Romans who yet used not to carry other Nations captive what implied thereby 250 Captivity The three chief Captivities or Dispersions of the Iews 75 76. Three steps or degrees of the Babylonish Captivity 659 Catholick Epistles See General Ep. Cerriâ—i why mad-men were so called 29 30 Changing of Times and Laws what it implies in SS 737 Cherub and Cherubim whence so called 567. their form 917. why the Curtains of the Tabernacle and Walls of the Temple were filled with pictures of Cherubims 345 Chiliasme See Millennium Christ his solemn Preaching began not till Iohn Baptist had done his and why 97. his Death and Resurrection foretold in the Law Prophets and Psalms 50. 51. his Vniversal Kingdom and the Glorious state of his Church is yet to come 196 c. He is to be received whole not only as Priest but as King 308. He is given to us for an Example of life 157. How he is to be imitated 158 The Christian Sacrifice See Sacrifice The true Church of Christ never wholly extinguished 649. in what sense it was either Visible or Invisible under Antichrist 136 137 649 c. Churches or Places for worship in the first Century 323. in the second Century 326 in the third 329. Reasons to prove this 333. Objections answered from p. 334 to 339. at first the sacred meetings were in some Vpper-rooms set apart for Religious uses 321 322. Salute the Church at his House how to be understood 324. That Christians had such Places for Sacred worship was known to the Gentiles 332. To erect and set apart Places for Divine worship is from the instinct of Nature 340 c. A Land without such Places for Religion was counted Vnclean 341. Churches are to be magnificent and decently adorned 406 407 408 Circumcision the Verba solennia used therein 53 54 Clean Heart See Heart Clergy Clerus why so called 15 182. Their obligation to a special demeanour and differing kind of conversation from the Laâ—ety 15 181 182 Clouds Christ's Coming in the Clouds whence the phrase is borrowâ—d 754 764 788 Coenaculum Sion or Church of Sion
the Events in Scripture 889. Iehoiakim not carried captive into Babylon Pag. 890 Ieremy's Prophesies not digested in order 834 Iews had a Second tender of Christ and upon their refusing it were cast off 164 though some of them believed yet the Body or Nation of the Iews rejected Christ and was therefore rejected 750. the manner and external means of their Conversion to be by Vision and Voice from Heaven 761. This argued from the manner of S. Paul's Conversion 761 891. and from the story of a miraculous conversion of many Iews as a Praeludium to their General Conversion 767. why God gave the Iews peculiar Rites and Observations 181 Ignatius his Epistles 327 Images were at first made for Daemoâ—s to dwell in c. 632 Image-worship brought in and promoted by lying stories 687. the great Opposition in the Greek and Eastern Churches against it for the space of 120 years 683 c. Impotency pretended doth not excuse us from our duty 308 Iohn Baptist a forerunner of Christ in his Nativity Preaching and Suffering 97 Isaac a Type of Christ. 50 51 Islands not taken always in Scripture for Countries encompassed by the Sea 272. Countries divided from the Iews by Sea were called Islands ibid. c. what they signifie in the Apocalyps according to the Prophetick style 450 Iudgment The description of the Great Iudgment when Christ shall sit on his Throne 841. a farther description of the Great Day of Iudgment 762 c. whence Christ and his Apostles received that term 754. the precise time thereof not to be known 895. K. KEri and Kerif See Hebrew Text King or Kingdom sometimes in Scripture put for any State or Polity 667 711 911. Kings of the East in Apocal. 16. 12. who are meant thereby 529 Kingdom of God or Heaven sometimes in Scripture signifies the Kingdom of Messiah 103. why it is so called 104. whence the Iews gave this term to the Kingdom of Messiah 103. a twofold state of Christ's Kingdom 104 the first state thereof called Regnum Lapidis the second Regnum Montis 743. the Time designed and prefixed for the coming and beginning of Christs Kingdom 104. it was to be set up in the Times of the Fourth Kingdom 745 754 c. That the Kingdom of Christ and the Saints in Dan. 7. is the same with that of 1000 years in Apocal. 20. 763. a twofold Kingdom one whereby Christ reigns in his Saints the other whereby they reign with him 573 Kingdoms 4 Kingdoms represented by Nebuchaduezzars Image of 4 sundry metals Dan. 2. and by 4 Beasts Dan. 7. the purport of them 743 c. why these 4 are singled out 712 713. That the Fourth is the Roman proved by 3 Arguments from p. 712 to 716. That these 4 Kingdoms are a Prophetical Chronology and the Great Kalendar of Times 654 The Kiss of Peace why so called 96 Kissing of the Pax whatâ— ibid. L. LActantius vindicated from the Antichiliasts 812 836 Lake of Fire and Brimstone why Hell so described 33 Lamps That the 7 Lamps in the Temple signified the 7 Archangels 833 Larvati why Mad-men so called 29 Last hour or time the End of all are meant of the End of the Iewish State and Service and not of the End of the World 664 Last times a twofold acception of them in Scripture 652. That the times of the Fourth Beast or Roman Kingdom are the Last times 654 c. their Epocha or beginning 656. their duration and length 655 Latter times of the Last times are the times of the Apostasie under Antichrist 653 655 Law may be considered either 1 as a Rule or 2 as a Covenant of works how Believers are not under the Law 114 In what respects the Law is dissolved or not dissolved by Christ 12 How Gods Law alone binds the conscience 208 209 Lawenus his Stricturâ— in Clavem Apocal. 541. the occasion of his writing them 783. his way of interpreting the Apocalyps 754 782. a full answer to his Stricturâ— 550 Law-giver why Christ so called in Genes 49. and what is meant by that phrase Law-giver from between his feet 35 Lay-Elders See Elders Legends Fabulous Legends their grosseness and the design of them 678 681 c. Levi what the name signifies 178. why Levi was chosen for the Priesthood 179 180. why called Gods Holy one 180 181. his Favoured one 181 Locusts what they signifie in the Prophetick style 467 c. Lords-day why observed by Christians 57. a Testimony for it out of Euseâ—ius 851 Lords-prayer twice delivered by Christ 2. intended not only for a Pattern but a Form of Prayer ibid. Lords-supper See Christian Sacrifice Lying unto the Holy Ghost what is meant thereby 118 M. MAgog See Gog. Mahuzzim in Dan. 11. the word signifies Fortresses Bulwarks Protectors Guardians c. That Saints and their Reliques were so called at the beginning of Saint-worship 673 c. Manna why so called 245. how it differed from the Apothecaries or the Arabian Manna 245 246. how it was Spiritual meat and a Type of Christ. 247 Mark To have the Mark of the Beast in the right hand or in the forehead Apocal. 〈◊〉 what it means 509 511 Marriage the Roman laws for it discountenanced by Constantine 672. Prohibition of Marriage a character of Monastick profession 688 Martyrs their privilege to riâ—e first 604 771 775. their Reign misinterpreted to an Idolatrous sense 759 why Christians anciently kept their assemblies at their Monuments 679. Martyrium Omeritarum 768 Mass Reasons against the lurching Sacrifice of the Mass wherein the Priest receives alone 253 254. In the Mass the ancient Offering of Praise is turned into an Offering of Expiation 293. How the Oblation of the ancient Church differed from that in the Mass 295. The Blasphemous Oblation in the Mass justly taken away 376. That the ancient Church never intended any Hypostatical oblation of Christ. 376 c. Meat put in Scripture for all necessaries of life 689. Abstinence from meats a character of Monastick profession 688 Meekness in the Scripture-use is of a larger signification than in Ethicks 161 Melancholia and Mania how they differ 29 Memorial why that which was burned upon the Altar was so called 342 Memorial of Gods Name what 341 Merit the word abused and in what sense tolerable 176 Messiah the Prince in Dan. 9 meant only of Christ. 700 Methodius Bishop of Tyre a passage out of him touching the Millennium 843 Michael in Apocal. 12. who 495 Middle estate or a Competency the best and safest condition 129 Millennium or the 1000 years Reign of Christ not to be understood in any gross carnal sense 603 836 837. to be asserted modestly and warily so as not to clash with any Catholick Tenet of the Christian Faith 603. to be propounded generally not particulatim seu modatim 571. a General description of it 603. no necessity of asserting Christs visible converse upon Earth Ibid. this Opinion of Regnum Christi Sanctorum was universally held by the